Olfactory foods

[fresco]

What are the most applauded cooking smells that emanate from your kitchen? And are there foods that you never, ever prepare at home because their scent is lingering and off-putting?

[fifi]

Everyone salivates at sauteing onion and garlic. Roasting pork is another favorite.

Don'ts? Brussel sprouts. (But I do them anyway when nobody is around and not likely to be for a couple of days.) Frying chicken or fish. (Better to do that outside on the propane burner.) I am looking forward to that big sucker of an exhaust hood.

[Sandra Levine]

A citrus-scented candle allowed to burn for about 20 minutes after the fish is done takes care of the smell.

[Nick]

Everyone salivates at sauteing onion and garlic. Roasting pork is another favorite.

Yep. There's nothing like the smell of onion and garlic being sauted in a good aromatic olive oil.

And the roast pork too - slivers of garlic poked in, followed by a liberal coating of rosemary and flour. And salt and fresh ground pepper. When that aroma starts wafting out of the oven on a cold winter Sunday, I start thinking about how good the gravy's going to be.

[fresco]

Everyone salivates at sauteing onion and garlic. Roasting pork is another favorite.

Yep. There's nothing like the smell of onion and garlic being sauted in a good aromatic olive oil.

And the roast pork too - slivers of garlic poked in, followed by a liberal coating of rosemary and flour. And salt and fresh ground pepper. When that aroma starts wafting out of the oven on a cold winter Sunday, I start thinking about how good the gravy's going to be.

It smells pretty good grilled outside on a wet summer Sunday too--or will in just a few hours.

[KateW]

What are the most applauded cooking smells that emanate from your kitchen? And are there foods that you  never, ever prepare at home because their scent is lingering and off-putting?

I never buy or use cilantro because of it's smell. It usually doesn't make it to my mouth if I can smell it, so I can't comment on the taste.

Almost everything I make tends to smell good, but doesn't necessarily taste good. I think because some smells are stronger than the taste.

There are also things I like the smell of but don't eat often--grilled food, sauteed onions and garlic, and roasts in particular.

My boyfriend thinks everything I make smells good It's a real ego booster. And he usually likes the taste, too.

[Katherine]

It doesn't matter what I'm cooking, my daughter will come in the kitchen and say it smell really good. I've had her say it when the only thing on the stove is a hot pan with a pat of butter in it.

Of course, last week she came into the kitchen from outside and said it smelled really good. I wasn't cooking anything at the time. What she was smelling was the remains of a rotten watermelon that I had just finished cleaning up.

I thought it smelled gross.

[elyse]

Yeah, in the convent where I'm baking, the nuns come into the kitchen and say "Oh it smells wonderful! What are you baking today?." Often I have to say well, nothing yet, I just got here. Maybe I should lie to these poor women?

[Foam Pants]

I really like the smell a roasting chicken makes. The last time I made one it even smelled good out on the street. One of the smells I like the least is when my dad processes beef fat scraps to make suet for the birds. The best thing you can say about this process is the seasoning on his cast iron pans is to die for.

[Jason Perlow]

Cooking anything in bacon grease. Oh my god.

[Jinmyo]

Few things put off such a stench as a rabiit being skinned.

[fifi]

Few things put off such a stench as a rabiit being skinned.

EEEEEWWWW!!!

[Katherine]

One the other hand, I used to go to pick up my daughter at her babysitter close to their dinnertime. Sometimes I would walk in and say that it smelled great, and she would be embarrassed that there were "cooking odors" in her home. She hated the smell of food cooking, thought it was a sign the exhaust fan wasn't being properly used.

[Foam Pants]

One the other hand, I used to go to pick up my daughter at her babysitter close to their dinnertime. Sometimes I would walk in and say that it smelled great, and she would be embarrassed that there were "cooking odors" in her home. She hated the smell of food cooking, thought it was a sign the exhaust fan wasn't being properly used.

My mom has the same weird affliction. She often burns one of those scented candles in the kitchen so you then have wisteria three cheese lasagna. BLECH!

I forgot to add the smell of seal fat being melted and the smell of a salmon cannery. Two smells I could go a lifetime without smelling again.

[bloviatrix]

A citrus-scented candle allowed to burn for about 20 minutes after the fish is done takes care of the smell.

Another trick for getting rid of the fish smell is to place several tablespoons of ground cinnamon on a tray in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes.

[guajolote]

Cooking anything in bacon grease. Oh my god.

Yes, bacon. I made my wife a BLT today and the house smelled awesome.

Also, If you roast your own coffee, it makes the house smell great.

[bloviatrix]

The worst smell that ever came out of my kitchen was my experimental white bean soup. I started with merguez sausages and rendered off their fat to sautee the onion and garlic in. Well, according to my husband the smell was like rotting flesh (how he knows what rotting flesh smells like, I don't know). And the smell never improved. Not even once the soup was done. If smelled so awful that I refused to eat it. My husband, who will eat just about anything, ate it and said the taste was much better then smell.

I don't love the smell of lamb and fatty fish can leave a nasty lingering odor (we went through a period where my husband would inevitably make fish the day we had the cleaning lady. I would come home expecting that wonderful chemically-lemon scent and be greeted by the salmon smell). But other than the soup, almost everything else that comes out of the kitchen smells good. Quite frequently we'll get envious comments from our neighbors.

[guajolote]

Thai food smells the worst. When you fry the shrimp paste in oil - yuck. When everything is complete the taste is wonderful, though.

[larrymorman]

THE SMELL OF A WELL PREPARED POT ROAST SIMMERING FOR HOURS.OR THE SMELL OF A SIMMERING TOMATOE GRAVY WITH SAUSAGE AND MEATBALLSAND OF COURSE BROILING STEAKS SMOTHERED IN GARLIC

[maggiethecat]

I can't bear the smell of scallops cooking. Due to, probably, a bad childhood experience, even a whiff of scallop actually nauseates me. It is the only cooking smell that produces the gag effect, but I'll eat them.

Larry: Smells good.

[browniebaker]

BEST:

pork shoulder braising in a Chinese five-spice sauce

cream-cheese-and-butter pie crust baking in the oven

any spice cake, cookie, quickbread, or yeast bread baking in the oven (e.g. gingerbread, cinnamon rolls, carrot cake, molasses cookie, oatmeal-raisin cookie, apple muffins, fruitcake)

the pizza stone being pre-heated in the oven (it smells so good, my children say, "it smells like pizza already!")

WORST:

the lingering smell after deep-frying fish, or deep-frying anything, really

[inventolux]

Braising pig feet. Searing foie gras. Warming black truffles. Slicing white truffles. Frying bread in butter. Wood grilling veal tongue. Carmelizing ginger sugar.

Edited August 4, 2003 by inventolux (log)

[=Mark]

The smell of bone in/skin on chicken parts being grilled, from a distance...

[NeroW]

Thai food smells the worst. When you fry the shrimp paste in oil - yuck. When everything is complete the taste is wonderful, though.

Word.

And nam pla/fish sauce. The first time I ever used fish sauce was to make fried rice for some friends after the bars closed. The smell almost knocked me off my feet, and one of my friends took a whiff, turned rather pale, and disappeared for the rest of the night.

Now that I'm used to it, it isn't so bad.

I like the smell of rice cooking.

[Jinmyo]

Yes. The smell of gohan cooking is one of my favourites.

As well as bacon, steak, onions and garlic etc etc etc

But the fragrance of rice is just so...