摘要To investigate the effects of thyme(Thymus vulgaris L.)addition on the flavor modification of mutton broth during boiling,three mutton-broth samples with various thyme contents 0.06％(S1),0.30％(S2),and 1.50％(S3)were analyzed and compared,without thyme as control(0.00％,S0).The meaty,fatty,pastoral flavor and spicy were chosen as sensory attributes to evaluate the flavor of the mutton-broth samples.Sensory results were significantly different(P＜0.001),with S2 having the optimum overall acceptability.A total of 99 volatile compounds were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry,among which 19 compounds were considered as the odor-active compounds according to their odor activity values.Significant changes(P＜0.05)appeared in most volatiles in S0 with thyme addition,especially aldehydes.Free fatty acids(FFAs)were also identified,and all of them significantly increased with increased thyme(P＜0.05).Correlation analysis of odor-active compounds,FFAs,and sensory attributes through partial least squares regression indicated the important volatiles and FFAs remarkably contributed to the mutton broth samples,and further confirmed that the 0.30％of thyme may be a desirable addition amount for the sensory characteristics of mutton broth.