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the smell of coffee, and sauted onions

a few lemons uncut in a 300* oven for 30 min. with the door open a little. then turn oven off and leave door open with the lemons inside. over nite if possible will get rid of all stinky smells. works almost instantly. really. trust me. really.

Favorites would have to be: roasted potatoes or chocolate chip cookies.

Least favorites: anything that smells like fish!

Hillary
Chew on That

If I don't like it, I don't cook it.

My least favorite smell in the universe is the fake floral aroma from room fresheners or fabric softeners or similar products. Keep that stuff out of my kitchen.

The one that drives me nearly mad while it's cooking is sauerbraten. Haven't made it for years, but every time I have, the smell makes me all drooly in anticipation. Hmmm...maybe I should put that on the list of things I should cook soon.

@perky~ one of those canned hams that fell behind the storage shelves in the hallway. the seal cracked just enough for it to fester for who know's how long. flies like you have never seen before. they were so well fed they slapped you on the ass and said thanks when they were done.

Favorites--baking bread, cookies, cakes, etc. ; also anything having to do with lemons or citrus; and certainly chocolate! I also like the smell of tea brewing, something about it takes me back to my childhood when my mom made brewed tea a lot.

Least Favs--coffee brewing (I know, I must be in the minority, but to me it smells like a cat box); cabbage & broccoli; boiled eggs; beer. Oh and certainly bad meats . . . ugh! Last night I had bought some shrimp for a stir fry I was making and when I unwrapped the package they were REALLY STINKY! They looked good (must've been treated with sulfites or something), but were obviously spoiled, it just reeked. So I had to bag them up and run them out to the trash container. I don't mind the smell of fresh good seafood or fish, but spoiled is nauseating. Okay, it's (hopefully) not a kitchen smell, but cigarettes smell gross too!

A steak being grilled outside, and the smell drifts into the house.

Believe it or not, when I'm hungry, the old oil smell behind a Chinese restaurant drives me nuts with happiness.

My dad used to grind his own wheat to make homemade wheat bread. I would love to smell that again.

Love- brewing coffee, beer, garlic sauteed in olive oil, waking up from a nap to the smell of a pot roast cooking away

Hate- bread toasting!!

Best - gingersnaps in the oven

Worst - rotting onion lost in the cupboard - rotting potato is close!

@dbcurrie: I agree about the air freshener floral scents. They are awful!

@gourmetgal: I agree that fresh homegrown tomatoes are some of the best smells. Oh I can't wait for tomato season!

My favorite smells coming from the kitchen are onions and garlic sauteing, bacon cooking and a pot of spaghetti and meatballs simmering on the stove.

Now I mentioned that bacon cooking is my favorite smell but the lingering smell of bacon that just kind of hangs around all day after you cook bacon is probably one of my least favorites.

The smell of my Mom's homemade-from-scratch, slow baked beans - pungent from salt pork, molasses, brown sugar and onions. This is accompanied by big loaves of Nova Scotia molasses bread and butter - it is one of those smells that has you sitting at the kitchen table long before the beans are ready!

Childhood memories: #1. The rotisserie chicken being basted with butter for what seemed like hours, and my parents made that often. Ok, near the kitchen, but it's still the scent that I loved best. #2. Baking - especially if it also included the scent of apples and cinnamon or chocolate. #3. Onions, garlic and beef. Not only did it smell great, but it meant some amazingly good food was going to hit the table. #4. Bacon, lemons, coffee, casseroles, Sunday gravy, stews, pot roast, sauerbraten & roast/broiled chicken or turkey #5. Any other food cooking. If it's cooked/baked right it all smells good to me. If it's burned, the terrible smell lasts for days on end. Cabbage cooked quickly doesn't smell at all. Ok, maybe sauerkraut, but it tastes so good, I don't care. Same with liver and onions.

Bad: Not fresh - veggies, meat, fish. Any food burned. My daughter used to burn popcorn (on the stovetop and microwaved) regularly. I had to air the house. As a child, the smell of liver and onions made me long for a clothes pin on my nose, but it's ok now.

I've always heard that putting out a bowl of vinegar was supposed to neutralize odors. I agree with @kimberlymac. It usually smells worse than the odor it's supposed to be masking/removing.

Best is just about anything being well made esp. if I am hungry.

Worst is whatever my neighbors are nuking at midnight every night that smells like burned garlic, hobo feet and cheap pepperoni. It pervades the entire house (duplex) and reeks for hours. No amount of door-crack stuffing or candles or even open windows in the cold can get rid of the stench...it is awful.
I cannot even imagine what it is...though I am guessing some processed junk food they over-nuke while gaming into the wee hours. It is horrible and invades my dreams.

Fresh,and I mean picked out your own garden fresh basil.

Fresh baked bread is up there, as are fresh cookies (and I don't even like cookies that much...I just like their smell). Cinnamon apples smell good too, as do carmelized onions. Mmm...

I think cabbage is one of the gnarliest smells in the world. Also, my mom makes THE BEST homemade stuffing ever, and it tastes divine, but for some reason, I don't like how it smells while it's being made. I couldn't tell you why, and it smells fine and tastes great once it's done, but before then...ew. Nobody else in my family seems to mind the smell though.

And this isn't really in the kitchen, but whenever I walk by a Long John Silver's, I just want to stand there and inhale the greasy fried seafood smell. I get totally sick if I actually eat it, but I love the smell. Really weird, I know, but it's a guilty pleasure of mine.

The smell of eggs cooking makes me gag. Just plain and simple. I hate them. My favorite smell, by far, is the smell of chocolate baking, whether it's a cake, brownies, or something else. When I smell chocolate, I know something good is here. I guess the same could be said of roasting turkey.

@dearie WENCH I just read this thread and fell off the chair! dang girl!! I second Perky's nomination!!!

Likes: fresh baked mango bread (certain baked goods smell offensive to me); Thai or Japanese curry at the finishing stages (gets old after day 2 tho); Thai basil; ginger leaves from the yard my mother used to bake mochi (childhood memory).

Dislikes: fish sauce from the bottle was the first thing I thought of as well renoles; oven turned on (smell of it still makes me nauseous since the pregnancy years ago); onions; garlic; bacon/pork grease. Can't disagree on the rotten potato smell.

The work kitchen...ugh. The fumes that waft out of the microwave oven when I open it brings tears to my eyes; that suffocating, moist, warm, curdled, unearthly stench. If it's not the layers of fish, meat, and popcorn butter splatter, it's the bleach used to clean it in addition to all those smells. It is the major reason I haven't walked into the work kitchen, let alone to use the microwave oven to nuke my food from home, for years. OH, and I also hate the smell of soda machines. Rotting syrup is another gagger.

Likes: Roasting garlic or garlic in the pan, frying turkey sausage, butter pie dough just as it reaches perfect golden brown perfection, the sweet, soft smell of freshly steaming rice, the aroma of a fresh cup of jasmine green tea

Dislikes: Fish being descaled or gutted. They don't seem to smell that bad just sitting there and cooking fish just smells like dinner to me.
Old damp sponge smell - EEYUCK!
Microwave popcorn. Thank goodness we don't eat that stuff in the house, but people sometimes make it at work and I can smell that a mile away.

I just remembered one hated smell--mayonaise. I hate everything about it. The smell, the taste, and the texture. The worst was when my mom wanted to save the jar for later use, so it had to be washed. **gag**

Most Favorite:

Bread baking
Onions sauteing
Garlic sauteing
Tomato sauce simmering

Least Favorite:

Broccoli cooking
Cabbage cooking

and worst:

Vinegar cooking - like during pickling. OMG, wretch.