Your favorite smell

[brianormond]

-Lean bacon cooked to a cardboard-like state
-Herb bread baking
-Fresh dill
-anything warm & flavorful when hungry
-Cinnamon
-Nutmeg
-Coffee

[jkrazy52]

Hard to pick just a few ....

*Oranges
*Lilacs
*Home-made bread
*Fresh pine/spruce
.... a favorite sound & smell - rain on a metal roof.

Judy

[Flyingcursor]

It depends on my mood. Most of my favorites have been mentioned but leather is probably my favorite.

More importantly, what is the allure of different odors?

When I smell freshly cut lumber I think of my Grandfather on my mom's side.

When I smell the dank smell of a bar I think of the local Eagle's lodge where my family squandered a lot of time and money when I was a young lad.

When very young I saw a man in a wheelchair who'd had an amputated leg. There was blood on the bandage. It freaked me out. We were outside a dive restaraunt and at the same time I caught the whiff of old grease. Ever since when I smell old grease I think of that bloody bandage and the guy in the wheelchair.

[Henke]

It depends on my mood. Most of my favorites have been mentioned but leather is probably my favorite.

More importantly, what is the allure of different odors?

When I smell freshly cut lumber I think of my Grandfather on my mom's side.

When I smell the dank smell of a bar I think of the local Eagle's lodge where my family squandered a lot of time and money when I was a young lad.

When very young I saw a man in a wheelchair who'd had an amputated leg. There was blood on the bandage. It freaked me out. We were outside a dive restaraunt and at the same time I caught the whiff of old grease. Ever since when I smell old grease I think of that bloody bandage and the guy in the wheelchair.

This is all very interesting. Most smells give you a certain feeling, and they are all very individual.
It can be hilarious to read tasting notes on whisky's, because it's often encouraged that you write down exactly what you feel yourself when tasting a whisky. Comments like "Granpa's old leather boots" and stuff like that occur quite frequently.

[missy]

actually - the comment Flydood made are exactly what manufacturer's go on when creating food and fragrances. A lot of "sensory panel" time is spent getting descriptions from people about what thoughts and memories things invoke.

You'd be surprised at the number of chemicals that are found when you break a food down to it's individual odor components. There have been over 500 identified in coffee - but of those, 30 (some say as little as 15) are really all that's needed to have someone say "coffee" when presented with the mixture.
Many of the odor compounds have "thresh holds" that we can or can't smell them at. Unfortunately, the really bad ones have very low thresh holds! Since these compounds also have different boiling points, that's why something smells one way "at first" then changes as you continue to be exposed to it.
And some individuals are particularly sensitive to smelling a compound, while others can't smell it at ANY concentration (that has a name, called asmonic).

[Flyingcursor]

actually - the comment Flydood made are exactly what manufacturer's go on when creating food and fragrances. A lot of "sensory panel" time is spent getting descriptions from people about what thoughts and memories things invoke.

You'd be surprised at the number of chemicals that are found when you break a food down to it's individual odor components. There have been over 500 identified in coffee - but of those, 30 (some say as little as 15) are really all that's needed to have someone say "coffee" when presented with the mixture.
Many of the odor compounds have "thresh holds" that we can or can't smell them at. Unfortunately, the really bad ones have very low thresh holds! Since these compounds also have different boiling points, that's why something smells one way "at first" then changes as you continue to be exposed to it.
And some individuals are particularly sensitive to smelling a compound, while others can't smell it at ANY concentration (that has a name, called asmonic).

Is that the technique used to make Every Flavored Beans?

[dwinterfield]

My sense of smell has always been the weakest of my senses. Still, Italian cooking, fresh cut wood and the ocean are at the top of my list.

A while back, I read a realy strange novel called Perfume.

Here's a blurb from Amazon. It was a very compelling read!

From Library Journal
Upon its publication last year in Germany Susskind's first novel Perfume immediately became an international best seller. Set in 18th-century France, Perfume relates the fascinating and horrifying tale of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a person as gifted as he was abominable. Born without a smell of his own but endowed with an extraordinary sense of smell, Grenouille becomes obsessed with procuring the perfect scent that will make him fully human. With brilliant narrative skill Susskind exposes the dark underside of the society through which Grenouille moves and explores the disquieting inner universe of this singularly possessed man. The translation is superb. Essential for literature collections. Ulrike S. Rettig, German Dept., Wellesley Coll., Wellesley, Mass.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

[Scott McCallister]

Press a clove of garlic in to a dab of butter and spread liberally on a French baguette. Toast until the butter is melted and the garlic has just started to brown.

Unbelievable

[dubhlinn]

My sense of smell has always been the weakest of my senses. Still, Italian cooking, fresh cut wood and the ocean are at the top of my list.

A while back, I read a realy strange novel called Perfume.

Here's a blurb from Amazon. It was a very compelling read!

From Library Journal
Upon its publication last year in Germany Susskind's first novel Perfume immediately became an international best seller. Set in 18th-century France, Perfume relates the fascinating and horrifying tale of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a person as gifted as he was abominable. Born without a smell of his own but endowed with an extraordinary sense of smell, Grenouille becomes obsessed with procuring the perfect scent that will make him fully human. With brilliant narrative skill Susskind exposes the dark underside of the society through which Grenouille moves and explores the disquieting inner universe of this singularly possessed man. The translation is superb. Essential for literature collections. Ulrike S. Rettig, German Dept., Wellesley Coll., Wellesley, Mass.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

I would highly recommend this book to anybody who loves a good book.

Brilliant read .

Slan,
D.

[Wombat]

The smell of melting bitumen on a hot dry summer's day.
The smell of any good forest after a shower.
Roses.
Magnolia.
The smell of swimming pool which goes easy on the chlorine.

I'd mention foods and drinks but taste is just so much more important here that I wouldn't trust my judgments of smell.

[fyffer]

Oh, and one more:

Burning Peat
(Sounds like a good name for a band ...)

It reminds me of my one and only trip to the Emerald Isle ...
<sigh>

[amar]

the smell of my home-made pizza, that's in the oven, right now!

[Tyler]

the smell of amar's homemade pizza that I can smell half a world away

[amar]

I even made pictures with my cell phone, for you all to drool, can I send them to anybody and they post it here?

STEVE!

[flanum]

*Fresh meat(i.e a butchers shop!).

Especially freshly slaughtered spring LAMB