Why do baking potatoes smell like chocolate?

[Dave the Cook]

I thought it was a personal olfactory malfunction, until my son asked the same question.

Any ideas?

[NulloModo]

Are you sure there is no chocolate stuck on the inside of your oven?

That is odd, I have never smelled that myself, and I am quite familiar with the smell of potatoes baking... My friends would always joke that anytime they came over to my house while I lived with my parents, that there would always be potatoes in the oven after dinner, and at least 6 out of the 7 days a week, that would be true. (of course, sometimes the same potatoes would sit in the oven for a couple days after we would forget to take them out and eat them during the meal for which they were intended).

[Gifted Gourmet]

I thought it was a personal olfactory malfunction, until my son asked the same question.

Any ideas?

Certainly only Shirley Corriher would have the best answer to this .. but I think it has to do with the heated starches turning into sugars .. Nestles or Hershey?

[gingerly]

yup-i get that too-a mellow ,sweet,faintly chocolately whiff.same thing with boiling sweet corn too.just a hint.the most unlikely chocolate smell and taste alike i can recall is some 'beetroot fudge' i ate years ago-made by a friends grandmother.she couldn't convince me it didn't have bournvita(malted chocolate drink)in it!

[Dave the Cook]

Are you sure there is no chocolate stuck on the inside of your oven?

I laugh, because you have no idea how unlikely this is!

I am quite familiar, however, with Abandoned Tater Syndrome.

. . . I think it has to do with the heated starches turning into sugars .. Nestles or Hershey?

I think it must have something to do with this. It's an earthy aroma that I associate with dark chocolate, maybe a little brown sugar (molasses?), or even toasted ancho chiles.

. . . same thing with boiling sweet corn too . . .

I'll have to check this. Fresh corn is abundant these days around here, but I've been grilling rather than boiling it.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Not only am I going to be up all night on this chocolate smelling baked potato thing, tomorrow I will do the experiment in my own oven, and then run up a long distance phone bill locating Shirley Corriher ... actually, I am sending her an email ... but she'll say "buy the book" ...

[maggiethecat]

OK, Archie, in the cause of science, I'll bake a potato sometime today.

I've never picked up the chocolate aroma, but I have to say that baked potatoes in general seem to taste sweeter than they did in the past, not just Yukes, but even the standard russet.

[edsel]

Potato peels contain vanillin*, the stuff that makes vanilla smell and taste like, well, vanilla. There's only a trace of it, but maybe enough that it could contribute to the "chocolate" impression. Isn't vanilla a common ingredient in prepared chocolates?

So does oak. Might explain how wines can pick up a vanilla nose.

[naguere]

I bet, when you eat that chocolate purfumed spud, you will find the texture not quite right, not fluffy at all. There will be a sweetness to the body of the tuber and something that isn't pleasing.

Perhaps the potato has not been stored correctly at some point.

Thats my two-pennorth anyway.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Perhaps the potato has not been stored correctly at some point.

I recall reading that one should not store potatoes in a cold place, like the refrigerator, because it alters the starches .. this what you are referring to here?

But then Dave knows that quite well if I know his abilities ...

Edited June 29, 2004 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[JAZ]

Potato peels contain vanillin*, the stuff that makes vanilla smell and taste like, well, vanilla. There's only a trace of it, but maybe enough that it could contribute to the "chocolate" impression. Isn't vanilla a common ingredient in prepared chocolates?

This sounds like a promising avenue of experimentation to me. I read somewhere (man, if I had a dollar for every time I used that phrase!) that one of the most common errors in "smelling tests" is to mistake chocolate for vanilla and vice versa. Perhaps some potatoes have an unusually high level of vanillin in the skin?