Was just outside and caught a whiff of charcoal and lighter fluid from a neighbors grill - two smells that you really wouldn’t think you’d find appetizing. Even though a) I haven’t cooked with charcoal in decades and b) wasn’t even hungry, I found my mouth watering a bit and my mind immediately thinking of well-cooked animal flesh…
What aromas do you encounter that trigger that response? Is it typically just the smell of cooking meat, or are there others? In my case, I find that strong citrus smells, for example, will have a similar effect.
Absolutely, grilling steak does it. To a lesser degree fresh baking bread as well. Not so much cookies or cakes, but an apple pie, with a fair amount of cinnamon and nutmeg will do it. Pizza sometimes, depending on which pizza place it is from. Roasting chicken, or turkey and stuffing trip my happy childhood memory drools.
Yup, grilling steak. We may as well close the thread now since it has been answered.
Ok, a good wood fire and I’ll maybe settle for burgers grilling or even hot dogs., but steaks (especially a nice porterhouse) makes me drool from a mile away.
Ok, and my mom’s beef stew… simmering for hours and filling the whole house with the aroma.
Definitely turkey roasting, the way my mother used to do it back in the 50s: in a paper bag, so the entire house is filled with delicious turkey smoke.
If I start frying onions in butter, especially if I have mushrooms in there as well, my husband will appear in the kitchen as if by magic, and he will remark that SOMETHING sure smells good, and is dinner gonna be ready soon? I like the smell of frying onions too, but it’s a real trigger with him.
And yes to grilled steak, or grilled pork. Roasted poultry, too. I frequently roast a chicken or half chicken with onions, celery, carrots, and potatoes, and if I leave the house and come back inside after a while, the aroma hits me and I’m suddenly starving.
I swear I typed this, but I must have hit backed instead of submit.
Not a smell, but the thought of (or someone talking about) Sweet Tarts or Nerds will have my mouth watering almost to the point of drooling, literally. It’s the only food that’ll do that. In fact, my mouth is watering right now just typing this.
My sister took a psych class in either high school or college where the prof actually did the test. They made one of the students put a little bit of lemonade powder on her tongue every time he said some trigger word. From what I heard, after the class was over, the ‘training’ took about a year to wear off.
Ok, let’s add something else to the mix, kinda related to my OP - since it wasn’t the smell of the meat cooking, but rather the charcoal and lighter fluid - are there any “not the food itself cooking” smells that trigger your taste buds? It’s easy enough to connect the dots for my first example (charcoal and lighter fluid smoke means SOMETHING is getting cooked), but what else is out there that does the trick?
Also, yes, frying onions does the trick for sure, as does just about ANY baked good in progress.
The electrical ozone-y smell, if anyone knows what I’m talking about, usually just before it rains. I can almost taste it and I practically gleak at the aroma, and no, I don’t know why.
Hmm, looks like mine is the only one that has nothing to do with food.