Question of the Day: I love the smell of...
...cookies baking in the oven & freshly ground coffee beans. On the flip side, I get nauseous when I remember those weekly fried beef liver & onion dinners my mother would cook each week. What food aroma makes you smile? Frown?
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
Start Talking!
Need a question answered? Have advice to share? Start a Talk topic now!
Sign up to get your questions answered and share advice.
34 Comments:
Whole wheat desem 25 minutes into the bake, fig anise bread during first slice & pork butt being shredded.....good stuff
nasty......green bell peppers ......reduction of balsamic simmering away
Kim Nyland at 8:15PM on 06/20/07
Garlic roasting. Chicken roasting. Bread baking. Yeah, fresh ground coffee is good. Can't think of anything that makes me frown right now.
ride&cook at 8:20PM on 06/20/07
A good, hot breakfast, with bacon or sausage, and fresh-baked biscuits.
LunaPierCook at 8:54PM on 06/20/07
freshly baked cookies
vanilla-scented coffee and fresh coffee beans
boiled broccoli (weird i know)
watermelon
french fries
pancakes
jasmine rice
Dreamzoxo at 8:57PM on 06/20/07
Black-hole-dark coffee brewing and bread toasting.
rbryants at 9:23PM on 06/20/07
bacon.
DaveFaris at 11:06PM on 06/20/07
pasta sauce, meatballs frying, cinnamon rolls baking, beef roasting
JerzeeTomato at 12:10AM on 06/21/07
Freshly-plucked coriander leaves simmering in a light chicken broth.
turkiyaki at 12:31AM on 06/21/07
Chicken roasting, onions frying, bread baking, cookies fresh out of the oven, apple pie with the cinnomon permeating the air, basil being cut to add to fresh tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.
I hate smells the next day of food usually fried with the remains now in the garbage.
lpennin104 at 12:48AM on 06/21/07
About the worst smell there is is the smell of shrimp shells in the trash the next morning. I always put them outside in the trash before I even continue with the next step in cooking the shrimp.
DaveFaris at 8:22AM on 06/21/07
fresh ground coffee and then the brewing of it
pumpkin pie baking
roasting garlic
apple cider with a stick of cinnamon warming on the stove
Alm25 at 8:24AM on 06/21/07
ditto on bacon.
onions and garlic with butter and olive oil saute-ing away.
least favorite smell ever: when i was a kid, my mom would occasionally buy a piece of andouillette from the butcher in her small hometown. when she was cooking it, you could seriously smell it all the way down the street. it was awful. strangely, it tastes much much better than it smells.
french tart at 8:26AM on 06/21/07
in case anyone is wondering what andouillette smells like, see the last paragraph of this article.
french tart at 8:31AM on 06/21/07
Smile: onions and garlic frying, fresh-ground coffee beans, bread baking, the cloud of chocolate aroma that wafts out of a pound bag of M&Ms.
Frown: wet peanut butter (you know, when you're washing the knife afterwards - I hate that smell!)
K at 8:35AM on 06/21/07
yum - cookie baking, as well as bread. Bacon. my mom's roast beef dinner.
yuck - liver and onions
Lilartist at 8:36AM on 06/21/07
I love the smell of fresh dill as you're chopping it, and brewing coffee.
I hate the smell of flæskesteg in the oven - it's like roast pork with crackling on top, but I don't know what it's actually called in English. It's the sort of aroma that stays in the soft furnishings for weeks. I also hate the smell of hot liver pate.
caley at 8:55AM on 06/21/07
I love most food smells that come out of my kitchen, I think...and my downstairs neighbor's kitchen, even though they're often meat smells (I'm a vegetarian but have no problem with meat-cooking aromas - though my folks never were into organ meats like liver except giblet gravy at Thanksgiving). If I had to choose a #1, it might be shallots sauteeing in butter, which doesn't happen extremely often, but when it does...mmm. The smell in my personal kitchen that I dislike the most is easy - my cats' canned cat food.
producestories at 9:12AM on 06/21/07
I love the smell fresh basil !! also garlic and onions sauteing. Fresh bread baking and anything that perfumes the whole house, promising a leisurely dinner with loved ones. I hate the smell of scorched chocolate when i get distracted.
huney_bumper at 10:32AM on 06/21/07
I love the smell that engulfs you when you walk into a neighborhood Italian restaurant.
1stmakearoux at 11:06AM on 06/21/07
My heart sings to the aroma of:
chicken curry simmering on the stove
garlic and oil being sauteed
fresh rosemary and thyme being snipped
apple pies cooling.
I don't care for the initial pungent odor of large vats of stock being made.
flakevanille at 11:21AM on 06/21/07
Last week, I baked lemon, apricot and coconut cookies that just made the house smell fantastic. One of my favorite scents is almonds toasting -- just at the 6 minute mark.
The worst smell is poultry packaging in the garbage overnight -- much like the reader above who wrote about shrimp shells. Both are awful!
hereandthe at 12:37PM on 06/21/07
The great smell of sauteing bacon and onions for the start of a braise. The terrible sulfur smell of overcooked cabbage.
Colorado Jim at 12:41PM on 06/21/07
Love: garlic, bacon, bread baking in the oven, and coffee - brewing, grinding, drinking...
Hate: burned popcorn.
Diz at 1:02PM on 06/21/07
I can't believe nobody's said it!:
Napalm in the morning...
But seriously: bacon; garlic & onions sauteeing; vanilla, coffee (grinding even more than brewing )
Hate: okra; the smell of fried anything the next day
Lilla at 1:33PM on 06/21/07
About the worst smell there is is the smell of shrimp shells in the trash the next morning. I always put them outside in the trash before I even continue with the next step in cooking the shrimp.
Hey DaveFaris, about the shrimp shells, my mom's trick is to pour boiling water over them to "cook" them before she throws them out. It does seems like it makes a difference, it won't buy you a week or anything but it seems to help with the overnight stink. Living in an apartment with no outside garbage receptacle, I've learned to make seafood on garbage days.
My favorite smell has gotta be bacon!
mayam at 2:46PM on 06/21/07
Cinnamon bread, fresh from the oven. I make it a lot during the winter.
PhotoKirk at 3:15PM on 06/21/07
Nice tip mayam!
Love: rosemary (with roasting chickens of course), watermelon, chocolate tea (oh yes)
Hate: canned tuna, argh!
Recipe4Living at 3:58PM on 06/21/07
Fresh curry leaves hitting hot oil.
Cathy at 4:30PM on 06/21/07
K- oh my goodness, I have never heard anyone else express hatred for the smell of wet peanut butter, I thought I was the only one! It is revolting, I have to hold my breath when i wash off the knife!!!
Best: coffee, bread baking, onions sauteeing in butter, bacon, and rosemary. The standards.
MML at 7:10PM on 06/21/07
Love- Mulling spices on the stove during the fall and winter. Fresh basil, dill & rosemary (I've put this in my car before), apples, especially Honeycrisp. I want to roll around in the bin with them. Bacon, of course. Any bakery item.
Hate- Cooked broccoli that was forgotten about in the walk-in and then unwrapped. WORSE Smell EVER!
The milky water scallops come in, bones roasting for stock, boiled sweetbreads, the cheese shop across from my hotel in Switzerland. I love cheese, but there was something in that store that was just NOT pleasent to wake up to every morning.
Erinay77 at 7:18PM on 06/21/07
The smell of a wood smoked fire slowly working it's magic on a piece of brisket turkey breast is hard to beat, too.
DaveFaris at 11:03PM on 06/21/07
Hey DaveFaris, about the shrimp shells, my mom's trick is to pour boiling water over them to "cook" them before she throws them out
Indeed...
Apart from coffee, (dear god, I'll marry a guy who smells like that), I absolutely love the smell of my hands after cupcake baking. Butter and vanilla.. My eyes are rolling in pleasure just at the thought of it.
Coffee buns. For you Southeast asians, you'd know what I'm talking about. The most heady smell ever. I wouldn't be surprised if the smell alone drives one drunk.
Cinnamon buns smell good too. Ah heck, let's just say I love the smell of baked goods and leave it at that.
Wait, honeydew melons! Sweet and enticing. Love it!
Least favorite smell; fishy smell, leftover seafood, and whiskey. The last one is probably caused more by the memory it is associated than the smell itself.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Durian. I had no problem with it myself.
winny at 7:44AM on 06/22/07
Pesto. Banana bread baking. Anything with cinnamon. Apple pie. Roast turkey. Latkes (except for the aftermath). Fresh-squeezed orange juice.
emily20008 at 11:00AM on 06/22/07
@ Lilla: you beat me to it! When I first saw this question that was the first thing that popped into my head. Gotta love Robert Duvall
Love: onions and garlic sauteing in olive oil
Hate: organ meats
AuntJone at 2:16PM on 06/22/07