In the past week I’ve had microwave meals that, when the film was removed, smelled variously of sick, poo, and male-BO.
But each one tasted fine. It’s disconcerting. Maybe there’s something wrong with my nose.
Chicken madrass - poo.
Chicken Balti - sick.
Chille Con Carne - BO.
The cumin in the chili is what does the B.O. thing. I can’t stand the smell of that stuff!
I also read “chicken madass,” and thought, well, no wonder it smells like poo!
You’re either the most reckless or the bravest man I know. I’ll grant you bravest until you prove otherwise (which in this thread would be the easiest of tasks).
You’re like the poster boy for single guys everywhere. And did you eat those meals standing up over the counter or sink? (To be honest, I sometimes do the same thing.) 
What brands are these frozen meals? (And what the heck is Chicken Balti? Does it have a lot of cabbage in it? Cabbage stinks…) The next time you have one of these, you could try removing the food to a plate first to avoid heating up the plastic. (And/or empty out the tray and heat up that, to see if it outgasses that odor.)
FWIW, I deodorize my microwave oven by keeping a small dish with a heap of baking soda in it between uses. No, doing so won’t keep your frozen dinners from smelling like puke/poo/B.O., but at least it will keep those odors from tainting your oven and/or kitchen.
Final tip: when the baking soda gets old, you can dump it down your sink drains and flush it down with some vinegar, to deodorize the pipes.
If the chicken balti has parmesan in it – that explains the “sick” smell. The acid that gives parmesan it’s distinctive flavour is the same acid that gives puke it’s distinctive smell. But I have to wonder if you didn’t realise this (and the cumin/bo thing) but thought your food smelled like poo/puke/bo why the hell did you still eat it???
Because he’s tired of marmite toast?
I find that any meat heated in the microwave has a smell that just…puts me off. I can do chili or soups that have meat in them, but not just meat.
All three dishes listed have cumin as a prominent ingredient in them, so that could possibly be the source. Cumin does have a distinctive smell, but I never thought of it as BO. It just smells like cumin.
People eat Parmesan, which smells a bit like sick. It tastes good.
#s 1 and 2 also contain turmeric, which is even stronger-smelling than cumin, IMHO.
Most microwave or oven dinners are not appetizing to me at all any more. I’d rather eat a bowl of cereal if it comes down to it.
The first two, Chicken Madrass and Chicken Balti are East Indian dishes. And no, cabbage is not an ingredient.
The ‘smell’ is because of the various Indian spices used in the cooking. The spices smell real nice when the dish is being cooked and have a good appetizing effect if the food is served soon after.
Once the dish is allowed to cool down though, the same spices can start smelling obnoxious.
IMO, the best you can do is to heat up the dish to a really high temperature and then allow it to cool to whatever level of hot you are comfortable it.
Nonvegetarian dishes of East Indian origin and preservatives are not the best combinations.
To me it’s the texture. I zap any solid piece of meat at 50% or less - it seems much more palatable if heated slowly (30% or 20% is even better).
Which is why it’s pecorino romano or nothing at my place.
This is why I absolutely hate the whole idea of hot meals on an airplane. The “roasted chicken” and assorted vegetables they heat up for 200+ people smells like concentrated beer farts mixed with a piquant hint of bile. Every time they fire up the nuker I feel like adding my barf smell to the miasma of bad microwave meals heated in an enclosed space.
I would imagine that they’d actually save money if they served cold meals like sandwiches and other finger-foods rather than hot meals anyway. If nothing else, they’d have slightly less weight without the industrial microwaves and the heaters for the metal plates in the trays they use to keep the things warm while they’re parceling them out. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to choke down more than a couple of bites of whatever it is when they get it to me anyway, though I’ve often eaten the rolls, salad, and snacks.
This is exactly what US airlines are doing these days. They don’t have hot meals, but you can buy sandwiches, salads, and the like on board. Almost all of them stopped serving free hot meals on domestic flights (at least in coach) a few years ago to save money. Some budget airlines, like Jet Blue and Southwest, never did serve hot meals.
Hot meals on airplines, along with free booze, are one of the few things I actually forward to on a flight. Don’t ask me why, but at that point, any hot food you put in front of me is greatly appreciated. I never thought airplane food tastes as bad as popular opionion makes it out to be.
Frozen? Cook-chilled meals are the preferred bachelor grub over here. We are not barbarians. That said, Patak’s frozen Chicken Korma etc. is pretty good. Anyway, I’m guessing that maybe Lobsang is partaking of Tesco’s delightful range of Indian cuisine, since I can find no mention of other major supermarket chains on the Isle of Man. Let’s just hope he’s not subsisting on Co-op curry.
What happened to M&S’ wide range of ultra-bland frozen Indian food? I grew up thinking chicken tikka masala was supposed to taste like that - and I’m Indian.
Don’t ask me, I can’t afford to food shop at M&S. Chicken T.M. might indeed be the epitome of bland pseudo-Indian food. It is after all supposed to be a British invention, our equivalent of Chop Suey.