Food smells: Favorites? Least favored?

[dawnie2u]

Good: The smell left of your hands after you peel any citrus fruit, but especially tangerines or oranges. The smell of pears still on the branch at a Farmer's Market when place in a bag. I have to keep sticking my head in the bag and breathing it in. Any fresh herb. Freshly brewed coffee. Strawberry jam simmering in my jelly pot.

Bad: Fried hamburgers in the house. It stays around for days. On the grill is great, but in the house, nope.

Evil: Bananas

[=Mark]

Chicken parts grilling over open coals. Outdoors. When you catch that first whiff while rounding the house into the back yard.

And I mean whole chicken parts with skin and bones. None of that dry tasteless boneless, skinless crap.

[bottomlesspit]

Melissa, you should write a coffee table book of some sort - you sure have a gift for getting people talking...

Favorite:

- fresh chopped mint, cilantro and basil

- freshly brewed coffee (other than Starbucks)

- vanilla, butter and chocolate baking (in any combination)

- pure chicken or beef stock (no savories or herbs thrown in)

- hot green tea

- onions and garlic sauteing

- korean barbecue over coals

- pho broth

Least favorite:

- raw egg or chicken

- nato

I could go on...

Edited January 7, 2005 by bottomlesspit (log)

[judiu]

I made a potato kugel earlier in the day and the wonderful smell reminded me of this thread.  Actually, it smelled so good it had to sneak a taste.

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Potato kugel always fills the house with marvelous aromas! Noshtalgic really!

You did FedEx me the crusty edges, no??

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I dearly hope that you intentionally invented a new word here, oh Gifted one! If it's a typo, it's one of the most fortuitious I've ever seen!

A few of my favorites: any meat baking in the oven, particularly a good garlic-y roast pork butt; fresh raspberries, perfectly ripe; peach cobbler, nutmeg on top; more others than I could possibly remember.

Worst: The rancid curry smell in the lobby of small motels owned by people who cook curry EVERY night. YUCK!

[Gifted Gourmet]

Melissa, you should write a coffee table book of some sort - you sure have a gift for getting people talking...

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But always within the limits permitted by the Geneva Convention! No torture permitted!

I dearly hope that you intentionally invented a new word here, oh Gifted one! If it's a typo, it's one of the most fortuitious I've ever seen!

Nope, not a typo at all .. I have used and abused that word so many times that I have to pay myself royalties!

[Bernaise]

BAD STUFF: Can someone please help me with this one? 

It's about CILANTRO .  For as far back as I can remember, I have had an unbelievably strong aversion to Cilantro.  I have tried and tried and tried to like it, or at least get used to it... but my sensitivity is so acute that I can detect a speck of it in a big bowl of soup.  The smell of it makes me cringe and waves of nausea overtake my body. 

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I agree. In fact I think it tasts like licking an ironing board-all metalic and strange-wrong-yuck! it brings out my inner finicky 8 year old!

But that aside: sasparilla root, especially when used in herbal tea concoctions. It's supposed to make a brown tea style drink. revolting!

[Raquel]

Thank you Bernaise... fellow cilatro-hater. Somehow, I don't feel as lonely as I did 5 minutes ago.

BAD STUFF: Can someone please help me with this one? 

It's about CILANTRO .  For as far back as I can remember, I have had an unbelievably strong aversion to Cilantro.  I have tried and tried and tried to like it, or at least get used to it... but my sensitivity is so acute that I can detect a speck of it in a big bowl of soup.  The smell of it makes me cringe and waves of nausea overtake my body. 

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I agree. In fact I think it tasts like licking an ironing board-all metalic and strange-wrong-yuck! it brings out my inner finicky 8 year old!

But that aside: sasparilla root, especially when used in herbal tea concoctions. It's supposed to make a brown tea style drink. revolting!

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[Chris Amirault]

Perhaps there's something very screwed up with my head, but I honestly cannot think of a single food-related smell that I loathe, detest, or find nauseating. I've read everyone's and not one bothers me; many I like a lot (cilantro at the top of the list) or find interesting (durian, say).

So I'm thinking that's weird, isn't it?

[joiei]

fresh grated ginger

and

pot roast

but not together

[HungryChris]

My faves include:

Freshly baked sourdough

The area immediatly surrounding the press at the cider mill

Coffee beans just dumped from the roaster

My least faves include:

Clove

Sardines (fresh ones, not canned)

The first time I bought fresh sardines, I was preparing them for the grill and just couldn't go through with it. I wrapped the bunch up took it outside to the trash and scrubbed my hands at the sink for some time. I just don't get how they can smell so awful, but taste so wonderful after just a minute or two on the grill! I have learned to see the job through since.

Cheers,

HC

[howard88]

Onions and garlic on the saute.

It's just a fine comfort fragrance.

[Pan]

fresh grated ginger

and

pot roast

but not together

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My mother used to cook a tasty Chinese beef stew with whole, not grated ginger. It also had carrots, potatoes, and star anise, but I forget what else.

[pam claughton]

I love many of the usual suspects,

onions slowly melting in butter,

chicken roasting in the oven with lemon and rosemary,

just about any cookies or cakes as they bake,

fresh ground and brewed rich coffee

The only smell I literally cannot stomach is egg salad. I cannot even be in the same room if someone is eating it. The reaction is physical, my stomach starts to heave.

Odd, because I like eggs otherwise, just can't handle them hardboiled and chopped up.

Pam

[Gifted Gourmet]

ah, the demon sulphur ... try cooking the hard boiled eggs a little less .. see if that helps ...

[Puck Confit]

Vanilla.

Roasting tomatoes.

Smoked Pork.

Garlic.

Basil.

Perfectly ripened banana.

[katiaANDronald]

aubergines - while they are frying...

[Human Bean]

Good: kimchi (made a batch last week that's almost done.) I'm sure many people would put it on their 'awful' list though.

[Raquel]

fresh grated ginger

and

pot roast

but not together

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My mother used to cook a tasty Chinese beef stew with whole, not grated ginger. It also had carrots, potatoes, and star anise, but I forget what else.

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My dad still makes that same Chinese Beef Stew (sans potato). Whole ginger, beef, carrots, lots of star anise, black soy sauce, sherry wine, rock sugar. The beef is tender and luscious... a very comforting and homey dish.

[Octaveman]

Barbequed beef using mesquite charcoal.

Garlic as it's being cooked for shrimp scampi or calamari. Actually, anything involving garlic is good for me. Get's me horny. Maybe that's why I use a lot of garlic in my dishes.

Baking bread

Chocolate chip cookies

Chicago deep dish pizza with everything

[Octaveman]

Not sure if anyone already mentioned this but one of my favorite smells is BBQ sauce as it's caramelizing.  Right after you take that chicken off the grill and the sauce as been cooked a bit is the best smell.

I don't like the smell of ketchup.  Or vinegar. 

-james

Strange, that's the two main ingredients in bbq sauce that you so love. I too love bbq sauce on the grill.

[Apicio]

The following smells are like Proust’s madeleines dunked in tisane for me:

1. Baking cake, may it be fruitcake, chocolate cake or pineapple upside down cake;

2. Brewing coffee;

3. The aroma of jasmine rice (or any newly harvested rice) cooking;

4. Anything cooked with lemongrass.

5. Barbecuing meat that has been marinated with garlic.

Although I can survive on Korean food alone, I find the whiff of a lot of their panchan disagreeable, worst is anything with daikon.

[petite tête de chou]

Any member of the rose family is a friend to my nose.

Fuzzy, blushing peaches.

Shining, swinging cherries.

Plump, mysterious plums.

and almonds. Especially the fragrance wealthy amaretto.

Least favorites? Hm. Can't really think of any.

Edited January 20, 2005 by petite tête de chou (log)

[Pam R]

Loves:

Honeydew Melon

Strawberries

my father's garlic brisket

cottonseed oil (when I cook with it, the kitchen smells like Israel to me - good memories)

latkes - but only if you're making a couple of dozen .... when I make over 10 dz, the smell becomes nauseating

Vanilla

Hates:

Liver broiling

any and all canned fish

roasting peppers (love the taste, hate the smell)

Love and Hate:

Chocolate - it's good in small doses, but serve samples of Chocolate Log Torte all day and see if it doesn't make you sick!

[mmmichele]

I love love love Vinegar! (must be a Filipino thing?)

Brewing coffee,

onions and garlic,

toast,

pasta,

baked anything,

seared steak,

toasted sesame seeds,

and CUMIN (delish!)

but not all mixed together

I dislike dislike dislike the smell of cheese, ESPECIALLY fake cheese (but i love eating it, the real stuff anyway),

boiled vegetables like peas and broccoli,

coconut milk with meat,

un-seasoned scrambled eggs,

and Russian Salad!! I don't know the proper name for it, but its pink with apples and weirdo stuff in it.

nasty.

[chefseanbrock]

searing foie gras with vanilla bean skewer>>>>>>>>