The smell of raw eggs, milk, and chicken

[miladyinsanity]

Hmmmnnnn... is the aversion just to raw eggs, milk, and chicken/turkey, or does it include other animal protein?

In 19th and early 20th century Japan, there was the phenomenon of bata-kusai ("butter stink"), a term used to describe the foul odor of Westerners -- which the Japanese attributed to their eating butter and other animal proteins. Article

Even today, vegetarians claim that non-vegetarians have a stronger body odor. I haven't read any particular references to whether vegetarians, as a class, are more sensitive to the odors of raw animal protein sources than non-vegetarians.

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What you eat does change the way you smell. It's a fact.

[Verjuice]

Wow... I've never thought that raw eggs had any kind of smell.  What does it smell like?  Can you fit it into any particular category of smells?  I know there are sulfur compounds in there, so are they sulfurous?  Or metallic?  Or rubbery? 

How do you find the smell of hard boiled eggs? 

Similar questions on the raw chicken... I can't recall ever noticing a particular odor associated with it.  I wonder if it is there in my consciousness and I'm not attuned to it, or if I just can't detect it.

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I tried to describe the smell upthread but I did a lousy job. I'll give it another shot.

Hard boiled eggs smell like hard boiled eggs. Actually, to me if they are overcooked the smell of sulfur can be too much. Hard boiled eggs are one of the only foods I am picky about but I suspect that is just a matter of personal taste as opposed to the subject at hand.

Raw eggs, milk and chicken smell different from one another, however they all share kind of a... hm... a cold weather kind of metallic, tight, organic, dog-saliva-like odor. That odor is compounded with a funky smell like a damp barnyard. Just the merest waft of it can feel overwhelmingly revolting, as in, I'll need to turn around and grip the edge of a table or something because it just stuns me.

Not like body odor, or sweat, just this damp smell, like the breath of someone who is sick with a cold. A cold, bacterial smell, but not quite to the point of smelling like decay.

In my clinical work, I have found that some practitioners are able to walk into a room and immediately be able to detect the smell of certain diseases. Some are very subtle. Certain medications can make a person smell metallic... or sweet...

or off topic...

Homework:

Dip you finger in a beaten raw egg. Wait three seconds. Sniff. Report back.

Edited July 1, 2006 by Verjuice (log)

[srhcb]

RE: "they all share kind of a... hm... a cold weather kind of metallic, tight, organic, dog-saliva-like odor. That odor is compounded with a funky smell like a damp barnyard."

That's a very accurate description. I know what you mean, although I don't have the severe reaction to it that you do.

SB (It also reminds me of the smell they try to cover up in a hospital, or mortuary)

[cdh]

I don't have any raw eggs handy right now, but I did just pour a glass of milk... I can detect no odor from it at all. If it is the same class of odor from all of the things that bother you, I'm just incapable of detecting it.

[miladyinsanity]

I don't have any raw eggs handy right now, but I did just pour a glass of milk...  I can detect no odor from it at all.  If it is the same class of odor from all of the things that bother you, I'm just incapable of detecting it.

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It's like cyanide. Only a certain percentage of the population will detect something like that, and then it's probably hereditary.

Both my mom and I will say the same thing after tasting something, for instance.

[petite tête de chou]

RE:  "they all share kind of a... hm... a cold weather kind of metallic, tight, organic, dog-saliva-like odor. That odor is compounded with a funky smell like a damp barnyard."

That's a very accurate description.  I know what you mean, although I don't have the severe reaction to it that you do.

SB (It also reminds me of the smell they try to cover up in a hospital, or mortuary)

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I agree about the description. I had been thinking of ways to describe the smell and came up with nada. Also, "Not like body odor, or sweat, just this damp smell, like the breath of someone who is sick with a cold. A cold, bacterial smell, but not quite to the point of smelling like decay." Perfect. Not rotten, but not well.

[srhcb]

RE:  "they all share kind of a... hm... a cold weather kind of metallic, tight, organic, dog-saliva-like odor. That odor is compounded with a funky smell like a damp barnyard."

That's a very accurate description.  I know what you mean, although I don't have the severe reaction to it that you do.

SB (It also reminds me of the smell they try to cover up in a hospital, or mortuary)

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I agree about the description. I had been thinking of ways to describe the smell and came up with nada. Also, "Not like body odor, or sweat, just this damp smell, like the breath of someone who is sick with a cold. A cold, bacterial smell, but not quite to the point of smelling like decay." Perfect. Not rotten, but not well.

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"Bacterial" may be the operative word here?

Bacteria is a very complicated subject, but it seems like all the examples cited here would have bacterial odors. Some people can detect them, others don't.

SB

[Live It Up]

Wow... I've never thought that raw eggs had any kind of smell.  What does it smell like?  Can you fit it into any particular category of smells?  I know there are sulfur compounds in there, so are they sulfurous?  Or metallic?  Or rubbery? 

How do you find the smell of hard boiled eggs? 

Similar questions on the raw chicken... I can't recall ever noticing a particular odor associated with it.  I wonder if it is there in my consciousness and I'm not attuned to it, or if I just can't detect it.

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Raw eggs, milk and chicken smell different from one another, however they all share kind of a... hm... a cold weather kind of metallic, tight, organic, dog-saliva-like odor. That odor is compounded with a funky smell like a damp barnyard. Just the merest waft of it can feel overwhelmingly revolting, as in, I'll need to turn around and grip the edge of a table or something because it just stuns me.

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When I read the orginal post I wasn't sure that I knew the sensation, but upon further thought, I do understand this revulsion. I have never like the smell of milk, and I can't stand the smell of cooked eggs, although I can eat them in certain forms (scrambled or fried sans yolk). I cannot even be in the room with hardboiled eggs as it's instant gag relex for me. I've always been disgusted by the smell of raw chicken, but last week I was getting ready to cook some chicken breast and the smell made me so sick I had to go into the other room to sit down. It wasn't spoiled and after I recovered I cooked it anyway and it was delicious. But the dog-saliva smell really brought it home for me. I have exactly the reaction described above to the smell of actual dog saliva. And after that image, I realized that egg shells actually have that odor. Of course, now I'm going to become obsessive about this odor on dishes. Thanks

[Becca Porter]

I do not think it is the same as yours, but I cannot stand the smell of milk or raw meat. I have learned not to smell meat in particular because I will have serious trouble eating it.

I have never noticed a smell with eggs nor do I have the tendency to wash egg covered things in really hot water. Then again I wash everything in the dishwasher. I find your ability to pick up the smell on silverware at plates fascinating.

My bil works offshore for an oil company. He has been working overseas for years. They work with a local crew. In the primarily lamb eating countries he says there is a definate lamb-eating smell with some cultures. Its interesting that we probably have this butter odor that we can't detect.

Very interesting.

[Ondine]

I know the smell you mean - the smell of globulin proteins, of tissue fluid.

I find a horror in the smell of raw chicken from the supermarket, but not in the chicken from my butcher (who has much higher turnover). Or that damp sticky smell of a discount meat fridgecase.

Perhaps its an instinctive cringe at the smell of materials just far too prone to very quick spoilage....an ability to spot the very initial stages of bacterial colonisation?

Normally that sort of thing doesn't bother me, although I find the smell of milk (whole or skim) offputting, personally. It's not the dairy odour I don't like, it's the smell of the lactose - I don't like sweet or sugary smells.

No, you're not nuts.

You're just far more perceptive nosewise than the vast majority of people.

[Reefpimp]

I kind of like the smell of unpasteruized milk, it brings back memories of my boyhood in Wisconsin (America's Dairyland ). But I can smell a hydrogenated oil a mile away and my joints ache just thinking about it. Margarine is far and away the worst culprit in this regard; if I were lactose-intolerant and had to revert to margarine, I would seriously consider ending it all.

[SethG]

Can you eat:

chocolate mousse (often made with uncooked egg whites)?

classic Caesar salad (raw egg)?

Pasta Carbonara (made by mixing cooked pasta with raw eggs)?

Not doubting, just curious. I don't associate any smell with eggs or with fresh chicken. If raw chicken has an odor to my nose, it's been sitting around too long.

[nessa]

I have that reaction to uncured pork. Ham is ok, bacon is ok, but there is this...smell to most raw pork that just makes me want to hurl. Sometimes it remains after its cooked, and its ruined. I know a lot of chinese friends who feel the same way I do. Theres something special about the way it has to be prepped, or when its slaughtered maybe to keep that revolting slaughterhouse smell from infiltrating the meat.

Raw lamb is almost as bad to me, but its a different stench. I love lamb, but pork.... eh, only for carnitas, thanks!

[FistFullaRoux]

I can smell all of those aromas, but they're no big deal to me. Warm milk gives me the gibblies, but raw egg and any meat/poultry are fine.

I also grew up on a dairy farm, maybe the warm milk thing isn't so much a disagreeable odor as the memory of 4:30 am in February. I strangely found myself smiling a few days ago as I was trailing behind a semi full of cows. The smell, believe it or not, was quite agreeable. Call me weird...