274. Preliminary experiments on the vapour pressure of dairy products

Abstract

1. Methods for measuring the vapour pressure of cheese and milk are discussed, and vapour pressure/moisture curves are given for a number of different varieties of cheese. The progressive artificial damping and drying of cheese produces no appreciable hysteresis in these curves.2. The vapour pressure curve is much influenced by the amount of salt in the cheese, but differences between varieties cannot be accounted for entirely in terms of differences in NaCl content.3. A preliminary experiment on the relationship between vapour pressure of Stilton cheese and amount of blueing indicated that such a relationship does in fact exist but that a much larger experiment is required before the connexion is fully understood.4. Preliminary experiments on the measurement of the vapour pressure of milk, although interrupted at rather an early stage, showed that, even so, additions of 2–3% of water in milk can be satisfactorily detected.