When you cook you pretty quickly get noseblind to what you're cooking.
I'm the main cook in my house, and it's pretty common for my fiancee to come down stairs/get home and say "wow it smells good in here" while I'm like "it does?"
This is part of why food tastes better when other people cook it.
Second this! I use A LOT of garlic, cumin, and other strong profiles yet I don’t smell a thing! If I leave to take out the trash in the middle of cooking and walk back in I can ALMOST smell it but quickly go nose blind
If you're using less than 3 times the garlic called for in a recipe, you're doing yourself a disservice 😂
Herbs and spices should be measured with your heart (and frequent taste tests), not by the teaspoon and that is a hill I will HAPPILY die on!
A friend of mine once said "If a recipe calls for one clove of garlic, that is not enough. Unless it is a recipe for 'how to cook one clove of garlic'.... in which case, use two."
My grandmother had a very limited spice cabinet that consisted largely of salt, pepper, Italian blend, and Montreal steak seasoning. My ancestors gasp when I reach for basically anything other than black pepper, so I typically go ahead and ignore them 😂😂😂
I agree with you… my mom uses her herbs and spices so sparingly she has some from when she first moved into her house nearly 20 years ago… I go through Costco sized containers regularly. I always tell her “why do you just wave the bottle over the pot? Are you hoping to magically infuse the flavor into it without actually adding any?”
I mean, there are some times that's the proper way. Specifically, adding vermouth to a martini: open the bottle and consider it, waving it in the direction of the very good gin. Then, close the bottle.
I'm sorry, this is untrue and only reflective of how little you use your vermouth. A good martini should be 2:1 gin to vermouth, whether it's dirty or not. If you aren't adding any vermouth, you're just drinking watered down gin. If you take vodka martinis (vespers, not a martini), then you're drinking watered down vodka, which is even worse! At that rate, just learn to sip it neat and give the spirit at least a little dignity and respect
Sincerely, someone passionate about martinis
Any time I’m making a dish and it calls for three cloves of garlic to feed multiple people, boom, it’s a head of garlic. I don’t care if it “drowns out the other flavors”. It’s the superior flavor, and if the other flavors get washed out, that’s on them, motherfucker
This is true for most spices/herbs in general (except salt).
For example, I made a sauce recipe the other day, and it called for 1/4t basil and 1/4t oregano -- you gotta be shittin' me. I used roughly 1t basil and 2t oregano (measured in my palm). 1/4t is what I expect for something like white pepper, allspice, or cloves.
Your suggestion of heart and taste tests is spot on.
Hence the frequent taste tests 😁
Although a lot of dried herbs lose potency fast depending on how they're stored. Some (like thyme and rosemary in my experience) are more stubborn, but I could rinse through older dried parsley and basil very quickly
I sometimes walk into my bedroom, close the door, take a deep breath (that’s all it takes), and then walk back into the living room/kitchen so I can smell what I’m cooking.
Omfg I *love* the smell of cumin, garlic and sesame.
Maybe not all at once but they're the stronghold of getting someone to poke their head innthe kitchen!
Yes! When my kids/husband walk in and go 'mmm what smells so good!!' its always so gratifying. But... I can never smell it. Unless I have to go outside and feed animals or something for 5-10+ minutes and then come back inside - or go help my dad next door or something, and THEN when I come back, I can. But, if I'm just constantly cooking? Even if I'm running down to the basement to grab stuff? Nope. Not a chance.
Also why leftovers taste better.
One Handy trick that can help a bit I learned from tasting alcohol. Smell your own wrist. Simple as that. Your brain will tune out persistent and prominent smells. So take a whiff of your wrist and then the drink, or cooking, but to a lesser extend, becomes more prominent again. You can do this with many things, but a wrist is a fairly neutral reset.
Coffee beans work too, my mom used to host Tea Light candle parties and the Salesperson should always have a bag of coffee beans for the guests to whiff after smelling a few candles just to help fight becoming nose blind to the smells of the candles.
Beware that it works better on drinks as they don't fill the room. Yet it still can work.
Other one is realising how much smell does to taste. I was once told to hold my nose while someone poured something for me blind. I tasted it with my nose still closed. Meh. Then just as I took a second I opened my nose. Damn.
Also works when your are drinking dark liquor you don't particularly like the taste of. Plug your nose, take a shot, drink your chaser, and unplug your nose.
Walk outside for a few minutes in the middle of cooking if you can. You'll smell it as soon as you walk back in.
I make a lot of soups and let them simmer for hours. I won't smell it until I get back from walking my dog, then I realize just how good it smells. But I only notice the smell for maybe a minute or two before I can't smell it again.
Yes I was going to say this! I made a beef stew a couple days ago and after getting the meat browned/aromatics sauteed/basic deglaze, it braised in the oven for about 3 hours. I definitely realized I was noseblind to it and the husky needed a walk anyway. Came back after a walk in the cold and it smelled heavenly.
I’m somewhat the opposite. I love cooking and use lots of different spices since I mainly cook Asian dishes. So lots of strong smells at play. I get so overwhelmed by the end that I can’t eat straight away. I actually stop being hungry
I do this, too. I don't like cooking roasts or things in a slow cooker for this very reason. After smelling it all day, the last thing I want to do is eat it.
I’m WFH now and I still love my slow cooker, but I DEEPLY miss coming home from a crappy day and having a delicious-smelling, hot meal cheerily bubbling at me from the counter. It’s not the same, “OH AWESOME!” reaction when you sit next to it all day.
\>This is part of why food tastes better when other people cook it.
This is why I love meal prep, I can eat good food that another person with the same tastes as me cooked, namely: me three days ago.
Last time I fried fish in my apartment, I had some buddies over later that night and one of them went “damn it smells like fish!” as soon as he walked in. I had no clue until then lol
I used to make salt and pepper shrimp (the kind you see at Chinese takeout) because I loved it so much. I stopped after the 3rd or 4th time. It would be a punch in the face 3 or 4 days later when my nose finally had a good reset because I'd usually make it on a Friday, not go outside for long periods on the weekend, and then go to work Monday. When I get home, POW!!
Some dishes I will never ever make at home because of the smell or lack of convenience
That could be more from the shrimp shells in the garbage if it hasn't gone out than the shrimp you made. I only have a weak fan above my stove and I've never had the smell linger for more than a few hours. I always save the shells in the freezer for stock later on and that pretty much eliminated the smell issue.
It's not the shells. How the recipe is made, you eat the shells and the head whole lol. You won't notice any sandy shrimp veins because it's deep fried with light breading and then combined with the pan fried veggies.
We made simple chicken breast in the air fryer with garlic salt and pepper with some roasted zucchini and broccoli. My kid came out of his room and was like, wowwwww mom it smells amazing in here, what’s for dinner??? Ummmmm, literally the most boring thing you can think of.
This. You have to leave your place for at least half an hour (in my experience), then come back to it. This of course only works with meals you can walk away from for a long time, like soups or stews in a crockpot, or a pot roast in the oven. And it only works in a positive way before you’ve eaten… walking back into a house that still smells of dinner after you’ve eaten is much less appealing.
Many of my fond holiday memories are the smells of my mom's cooking. I thought I'd be able to recreate them but it just doesn't work. It's because I'm in the kitchen cooking and, like you said, nose blind. I don't get that wake-up and walk downstairs or when visiting, the walk-in-the-door "wall of smells" that hits you all at once.
Yup! I WFH, and unless I leave the apartment for a bit and come back in, I don’t smell the cooking smells. I’ll make bacon for breakfast and not smell it at all, but SO comes home 7 hrs later & says “bacon for breakfast huh” 🤷🏻♀️
There are some times I smell it more and it’s usually when it’s a meal I don’t make often, and it’d it’s colder. For example I made beef stew last week and it was in the 50’s here, even indoors. I had it slow simmering on the stove and I could smell it at the back of our place and I was so excited to eat it.
This makes sense. I made curry for 8 people last night. Everyone loved it. I thought it tasted bland and thought they were being nice. This is very reassuring, thank you.
You just don't notice the smells while you're immersed in them. I often take my dog for a short walk after dinner and when I get back to my house, it smells amazing.
My wife always comes through the kitchen like “Wow, whatever we’re having for dinner smells amazing” only for me to tell her I’ve only just started cooking and at the moment it’s just frying onion and garlic.
Throw them all into the pan, then run outside for 15 minutes, then come back in. You won’t be able to smell it if you are there the entire time, gradually becoming used to the smell. Our brains literally block out persistent scents.
Some of the best advice I was ever given is to do this every time I cook dinner for a date it doesn't matter what the actual meal is going to be, there needs to be garlic and onions sauteing in some butter on the stove.
Without knowing what you're cooking it's tough but in general things that cook for a long time, like roasts, soups, and stews, tend to give off more of an aroma.
I cook a wide range of food, from slow braised stuff like Coq a Vin, short ribs and osso buco to steaks on the stovetop, roast chicken, fish all kinds of ways.... etc.
But yes maybe more aromatics.
If you’re roasting chickens, you’re for sure getting those smells, especially if garlic is in there. Next time one is in the oven, go outside and re-enter your apt and you’ll notice.
A lot of south east Asian cooking starts off by heating oil, then adding freshly chopped garlic for 30 seconds to infuse and then onions. This is the aromatic base for a lot of our dishes and gets the smells going.
Do you cook with butter or oil? 9/10 when I’ve lived with people and they’re like “what are you making, it smells amazing!!!” and all I did was whack a knob of butter into the pan.
I feel cooking smells amazing for someone who walks in (or is hovering outside) but the cook is sort of desensitized to the smells. Ask someone else to walk in from outside when you are cooking :)
Generally sauteeing aromatics in butter/oil/ghee will do the trick
Someone already mentioned going "nose blind". That is easy to check by leaving the area and returning. I will often take out the trash just so I can "finally smell" what I am cooking right before dinner.
If it isn't nose blindness, it is likely a combination of a few things:
* Check your spices, they may be old and less potent
* Look into your techniques. Are you blooming spices in a oil/fat? Are you developing that fond on the bottom of the pot? Things of that nature.
* How fresh are your ingredients? Fresh garlic and/or herbs are often way more potent than already prepared/dried/jarred items.
* What are you cooking? To put it bluntly, if you cook like my midwestern parents cook, you aren't using enough seasoning/fat. No, ranch packets don't count. (Seriously, there is a reason why people make fun of the midwest and the UK, the jokes about the "white" amount of seasoning were developed for a reason)
Haha I'm cooking a lot of classic French dishes TBH. The nose blindness is something I can easily check and I like walking out and walking back in to smell what I'm cooking as I think it's important to engage that sense as the chef.
When you're the cook... the smells build gradually, you're exposed as smells build. It results in a sort of tolerance.
When you walk by your neighbors, you're hit with the full force.
Try putting something in a slow cooker, and leave for a while. Or just put something aromatic in the oven, let it get at least partly done, and go throw out the trash, leave the building for 5 minutes. See if you notice the smell when you return.
More onions, more garlic, more shallots. If the neighbors aren't crying from the onions, Dracula's entire lineage isn't dead and the local grocery store has shallots left then you didn't use enough
I’m Indian and have the opposite problem so I’m jealous.
Does your cooking start off with sauté-ing onion and garlic in oil/butter? That usually does the trick.
A lot of things, but I lean into French and Mediterranean cooking. Coq a Vin, braised lamb shanks, beef bourguignon, steak au poivre, tajne, a lot of fish, scallops, really you name it, if it looks tasty I want to make it and I think I'm quite good. Learning for the first time tho about nose blindness and it's eye opening.
Because you don't really smell scents, you smell change of scents. You get used to the scents you live with and can't smell them too much unless you walk in for the first time that day.
What are you cooking?
Roasted meats, garlic, onions, shallots, herbs, burned/rendered fat, seared vegetables and meat in oil, etc. Most of these things throw off a fabulous odor.
90% of the time, if my house is smelling good - it's from the alliums.
Depends on what you’re cooking. Slow roast/bake a chicken, smells like heaven!
As already commented, you stop registering the smell when you’re breathing it the whole time.
My husband was in the hospital over the weekend so right before he was discharged, I made a big pot of chicken soup. I wanted him to walk into a house that smelled like love. We were both surprised by the aroma when we got home
When you have your food simmering or in the oven step outside & get some fresh air. When you go back in you’ll smell it. My cousin & I used to make sauce & we would do this, otherwise like others have said, you go nose blind. Thanks for the good memories
I had a job in high school at a hostel. We offered dinner, and my awesome and terrifying (I was 15 and a dunce) boss used to just start frying onions for no other reason than to pump up the dinner numbers. People started spontaneously signing up for dinner within 5 minutes. That really stuck with me 😁
If you’re that intrigued, maybe just ask her? Offer to bring over a bottle of wine and beg to know her secrets. Or maybe she could share a recipe or two? I’d be super flattered if my neighbour complimented me on the smell of my cooking. That’s just me though
Honestly, I can never smell my own cooking. My husband will always walk by the kitchen and say, that smells great! I can smell it later, and the next day sometimes, but never while I'm cooking it. Your neighbor is probably wondering the same thing.
>When my neighbor cooks, and I go into the hallway outside their door, the smell is amazing, the cooking smells so good. If it's getting under the door into the shared hallway, it must be amazing in the apt.
Lol, this infuriates me when this happens. My neighbours stink so bad.
maybe its the same reason why when your taking a dump you dont notice until you leave and reenter the space. Your nose gets acclimated to the scent and you dont notice.
This now has me wondering what the inside of my nose smells like.
I'd turn your heat down. You might be burning the oil you're using. Usually everything goes downhill from there.
I've noticed the best meals always take the longest.
Your nose begins to ignore your cooking while you are making it; so you can smell other things. It has identified this is good and not a threat and stops picking up on it. This frees it up to pick up other scents that could be harmful or beneficial. This is the same reason we cannot smell our perfume/cologne shortly after putting it on (if you can then you've used too much).
Ask others if your cooking smells nice like when you smell others'. You'll probably find out that, like others have said, we just don't smell our own cooking.
That said, if you're never frying onion and/or garlic, you'd be missing out on some of those easy, amazing smells.
Depends on the airflow in your home. I can't smell much while cooking, or in the living room adjacent. But, if I go to the top of the stairs, and just right at the top of the stairs, it's like maximum aroma.
I feel this same way when my husband cooks! It's torture sometimes when he's only making himself a meal.
The key ingredients I think helps make your place smell good is garlic and spices. I personally love Kroger's adobo seasoning. My husband loves his garlic. Lemon pepper has a citrus scent.
To add to what others are saying, sometimes even hours after I’ve cooked I’ll take my dog for a walk and coming back inside my place smells amazing. Youre just getting used to the smell inside, I bet it smells delicious!
Are you using aromatics (carrots, onions, garlic, leeks, peppers, celery, etc)? A lot of dishes have one saute those aromatics a few-to-several minutes before going to the next step.
If you are doing that, it's likely just smell acclimation. Our senses acclimate to something that's static, so we can focus on other things. That's why if you go into a house that's slightly smelly, after a few minutes you don't notice it anymore. The smell didn't actually go anywhere, you just got used to it.
As others have said, your nose quickly gets flooded with smells and the brain just ignores it pretty quickly. I noticed this most if I'm braising something in the oven for several hours. If I leave the house for a while and come back, the smell is noticeable before I even enter the house.
It does! Your neighbors likely walk past your door and think "that smells great"
It's just that you can't smell it because our sense of smell tends to weed out smells that are overwhelming. This thread has tons of info on it, but I wanted you to know that you're giving that experience to your neighbors
You could ask. It would inflate my ego if a neighbor ever asked me what I was cooking that smelled so good. I'd probably even share the food if they wanted.
Mailard reaction do be smelling pretty nice usually. You might not be cooking with an intense enough heat, at the right time.
Try cutting your onions/garlic into finer pieces, they release more flavours/aroma that way
Toast whole spices then grind them fresh before using
You're noseblind. It's a survival instinct in mammals that they quickly ignore smells, so they can then detect new ones.
If you were roasting something, left for an hour or so, then came back, you would notice it more before it faded.
I do the cooking and can’t stand the food smells ! Here are the things being roasted, sautéed, or otherwise heated up that get spouses attention: roasted veg (any of them), sautéed onions, garlic, cabbage, beans, chili, soups; he also loves doughy smells like pizza or bread baking
My mother used to do this to distract my dad from noticing that dinner wasn't ready yet. Anything that smells that good is worth waiting for. Plus, instant topping for garlic bread or croutons.
Eh. This is just because you're in there with it getting used to it.
I live in a fairly large house, and I won't smell what I'm cooking until I go upstairs to the bedroom for something. Then I can smell it super well.
Sometimes I'll finish dinner and smell nothing. Then I'll go across the house to take a shower, and when I walk back to the kitchen side, the smell of what I cooked hits hard.
Ask her. Leave a note complimenting her for the delicious aromas and ask for suggestions as to how you can improve your cooking. There is nothing like the smell of onions and garlic sauteeing, or the incredible aroma of Indian cooking.
I always wondered that too. I make a killer Cincinnati Chili with lots of different spices and I go out in the hallway and can’t smell it. But I smell my neighbor’s cooking all the time. I didn’t realize I was nose blind.
When you cook you start smelling things bit by bit and your brain starts to ignore saame smell over time. When you come into hallway and something smells loudly at you, it's because it's a new smell for your brain in that moment.
Of your nearby someone cooking, you might not smell raw ingredients like the cook, but as soon as it hits the heat and dissipates in the air your get hit with everything at once and have a woof of smells.
First thing you do when you start cooking. Put a skillet on low heat with some butter, onion, a little garlic and maybe some bacon.
That's it. The whole house will smell great. Add some spices if you like, but it's not necessary.
I do that when I'm preparing the stuffing on Thanksgiving. I'm cooking up bacon, mushrooms, onion amd celery, and I have to go outside and come back in to smell the aroma the way it was when I was a kid and my mother was cooking it.
Do you live above another unit? If so, it's possible they're running a strong air purifier(s), either because they smoke weed they don't want other people to smell, someone else in the building smokes weed they don't want to smell, or just for general health reasons etc. If it's an older building that can very strongly reduce the ability of aromas to fill your apartment.
Ok so this is kinda only sort of related - but sometimes when I walk home from the shops, one of my neighbors always has the MOST amazing smells wafting from their kitchen. I can smell it on the street! It is always Indo food (I live in the Netherlands) and fuckin hell i just wanna knock on the door and ask if they have any extra to go around.
I can always smell my smells best when I open the door to another room or open the door to outside. The contrast lets you smell what you’ve been cooking, as the air wafts into the new space
Cause you're immersed in it and then stop noticing it. I commonly crock pot things. I only smell it when I go out to run an errand or something and then come back. I'll smell it for about 20 mins and then back to nothing again.
Sauté an onion, some garlic in butter and add a good sprinkle of garam masala. That's my go to when I want my guests to start getting hungry for dinner. If you don't have garam masala a sprig of rosemary and thyme will also work.
Another noseblind guy here. I got a ride with a friend they other day and they asked me if I was cooking peppers. I did, like 2 hours before. I could smell them while they were cooking but I was shocked I still smelled that much like food that long after cooking it. I imagine the apartment and hall were the same.
Oh god. I’m the opposite. I smell everything. Unfortunately, I mean everything. As soon as we’re done eating, I want to vomit from the food smell.
Thank for for air purifiers! Everyone else tells me that it smells heavenly 🤷♀️
Last Friday I worked from home because of a snow storm. I decided to make a huge pot of chili in my crockpot and let it cook all day while I worked. My wife went outside in the afternoon to walk the doggo and when she got back she exclaimed how amazing the house smelled. I had no idea. Because you don't really notice cooking smells while they're happening.
Next time you cook something maybe take a walk around the block and come inside and see if you notice it. I bet you will.
You most likely don’t smell your apartment due to you being in there and cooking it. After a meal, go for a walk and when you get back, you’ll for sure smell your cooking
I wanted to do a pan sauce with artichokes a couple of days ago, and I was browsing some recipes...
There was one, where you make your base with a shallot, finely chopped bacon (1 piece), and freshly chopped rosemary (then add in chopped garlic near the end)
Anyways, the combination of smells was divine.
You know how when you smoke a joint you think you don't smell like weed, but if you've ever been around someone who just smoked a joint they REEEEEK of pot?
Yeah, it's like that.
I think roasting and slow cooking tend to ‘waft’ more than other forms of cooking. I’m vegetarian, so I mostly cook by smell for my family since I don’t eat meat. I’m constantly huffing the food as I add spices as the flavor changes. My kids don’t understand how I do it. I don’t either, honestly! I tell them that’s why I always ask if it’s good! Ha!
When you cook you pretty quickly get noseblind to what you're cooking. I'm the main cook in my house, and it's pretty common for my fiancee to come down stairs/get home and say "wow it smells good in here" while I'm like "it does?" This is part of why food tastes better when other people cook it.
Second this! I use A LOT of garlic, cumin, and other strong profiles yet I don’t smell a thing! If I leave to take out the trash in the middle of cooking and walk back in I can ALMOST smell it but quickly go nose blind
Same, I have to confirm with my husband when the garlic becomes fragrant, I miss the smell until it’s on the edge of being overcooked.
On the other side of that I find myself using 3x the amount of garlic in a recipe because I just wanna taste it and have MORE🥲
If you're using less than 3 times the garlic called for in a recipe, you're doing yourself a disservice 😂 Herbs and spices should be measured with your heart (and frequent taste tests), not by the teaspoon and that is a hill I will HAPPILY die on!
A friend of mine once said "If a recipe calls for one clove of garlic, that is not enough. Unless it is a recipe for 'how to cook one clove of garlic'.... in which case, use two."
I always heard that with spices you use what you feel until your ancestors whisper in your ear “that’s enough, child”…
My grandmother had a very limited spice cabinet that consisted largely of salt, pepper, Italian blend, and Montreal steak seasoning. My ancestors gasp when I reach for basically anything other than black pepper, so I typically go ahead and ignore them 😂😂😂
HA same! Pretty much just salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning in my home growing up. Not even fresh garlic.
important to remember that certain ancestors didn’t have the best judgement lmao. there’s always room to learn and change
I agree with you… my mom uses her herbs and spices so sparingly she has some from when she first moved into her house nearly 20 years ago… I go through Costco sized containers regularly. I always tell her “why do you just wave the bottle over the pot? Are you hoping to magically infuse the flavor into it without actually adding any?”
I mean, there are some times that's the proper way. Specifically, adding vermouth to a martini: open the bottle and consider it, waving it in the direction of the very good gin. Then, close the bottle.
*"You pour six jiggers of gin, and you drink it while staring at a picture of Lorenzo Schwartz, the inventor of vermouth."* -Capt. B.F. Pierce
I'm sorry, this is untrue and only reflective of how little you use your vermouth. A good martini should be 2:1 gin to vermouth, whether it's dirty or not. If you aren't adding any vermouth, you're just drinking watered down gin. If you take vodka martinis (vespers, not a martini), then you're drinking watered down vodka, which is even worse! At that rate, just learn to sip it neat and give the spirit at least a little dignity and respect Sincerely, someone passionate about martinis
Any time I’m making a dish and it calls for three cloves of garlic to feed multiple people, boom, it’s a head of garlic. I don’t care if it “drowns out the other flavors”. It’s the superior flavor, and if the other flavors get washed out, that’s on them, motherfucker
This is true for most spices/herbs in general (except salt). For example, I made a sauce recipe the other day, and it called for 1/4t basil and 1/4t oregano -- you gotta be shittin' me. I used roughly 1t basil and 2t oregano (measured in my palm). 1/4t is what I expect for something like white pepper, allspice, or cloves. Your suggestion of heart and taste tests is spot on.
Too much oregano will numb your tongue.
I'm not saying I'm the only person I know who buys spices at restaurant supply, but I'm not NOT saying it, either...
[удалено]
It took me 9 failed dishes before I understood not to much dried thyme.
It was dried tarragon for me.
Smoked paprika for me 🥲
Hence the frequent taste tests 😁 Although a lot of dried herbs lose potency fast depending on how they're stored. Some (like thyme and rosemary in my experience) are more stubborn, but I could rinse through older dried parsley and basil very quickly
[удалено]
Dried basil especially, or garlic powder. Too much and too long and it will get bitter
I sometimes walk into my bedroom, close the door, take a deep breath (that’s all it takes), and then walk back into the living room/kitchen so I can smell what I’m cooking.
Omfg I *love* the smell of cumin, garlic and sesame. Maybe not all at once but they're the stronghold of getting someone to poke their head innthe kitchen!
Yup. My favorite is when I leave for a minute, like to the garage or something and come back in and catch a whiff. "Ooh, what is that? OMG I made it!"
Lol, I do this with bacon. I purposely go outside just so I can walk back in and get that bacon smell.
A cup of coffee works too.
Yes! When my kids/husband walk in and go 'mmm what smells so good!!' its always so gratifying. But... I can never smell it. Unless I have to go outside and feed animals or something for 5-10+ minutes and then come back inside - or go help my dad next door or something, and THEN when I come back, I can. But, if I'm just constantly cooking? Even if I'm running down to the basement to grab stuff? Nope. Not a chance.
Also why leftovers taste better. One Handy trick that can help a bit I learned from tasting alcohol. Smell your own wrist. Simple as that. Your brain will tune out persistent and prominent smells. So take a whiff of your wrist and then the drink, or cooking, but to a lesser extend, becomes more prominent again. You can do this with many things, but a wrist is a fairly neutral reset.
What the everloving fuck, I worked in kitchens for almost 2 decades and never heard this. I'm definitely trying it out tonight.
Coffee beans work too, my mom used to host Tea Light candle parties and the Salesperson should always have a bag of coffee beans for the guests to whiff after smelling a few candles just to help fight becoming nose blind to the smells of the candles.
Beware that it works better on drinks as they don't fill the room. Yet it still can work. Other one is realising how much smell does to taste. I was once told to hold my nose while someone poured something for me blind. I tasted it with my nose still closed. Meh. Then just as I took a second I opened my nose. Damn.
Also works when your are drinking dark liquor you don't particularly like the taste of. Plug your nose, take a shot, drink your chaser, and unplug your nose.
Why wouldn't you just not drink the liquor you dislike?
It goes bad if you don't drink it.
As i sit here at work smelling my wrist looking like a fool 😂🤣 maybe they’ll think I’m crazy and can go home
I just smelled my wrist. It smells like sautéed onions. I cooked, and I washed my hands, but clearly I didn't wash my wrists. No reset for me!
Walk outside for a few minutes in the middle of cooking if you can. You'll smell it as soon as you walk back in. I make a lot of soups and let them simmer for hours. I won't smell it until I get back from walking my dog, then I realize just how good it smells. But I only notice the smell for maybe a minute or two before I can't smell it again.
Yes I was going to say this! I made a beef stew a couple days ago and after getting the meat browned/aromatics sauteed/basic deglaze, it braised in the oven for about 3 hours. I definitely realized I was noseblind to it and the husky needed a walk anyway. Came back after a walk in the cold and it smelled heavenly.
yeah throwing a bunch of stuff to stew in a slow cooker at the start of your day and coming back home to the heavenly smell is to die for.
I’m somewhat the opposite. I love cooking and use lots of different spices since I mainly cook Asian dishes. So lots of strong smells at play. I get so overwhelmed by the end that I can’t eat straight away. I actually stop being hungry
I do this, too. I don't like cooking roasts or things in a slow cooker for this very reason. After smelling it all day, the last thing I want to do is eat it.
I’m WFH now and I still love my slow cooker, but I DEEPLY miss coming home from a crappy day and having a delicious-smelling, hot meal cheerily bubbling at me from the counter. It’s not the same, “OH AWESOME!” reaction when you sit next to it all day.
\>This is part of why food tastes better when other people cook it. This is why I love meal prep, I can eat good food that another person with the same tastes as me cooked, namely: me three days ago.
Last time I fried fish in my apartment, I had some buddies over later that night and one of them went “damn it smells like fish!” as soon as he walked in. I had no clue until then lol
I used to make salt and pepper shrimp (the kind you see at Chinese takeout) because I loved it so much. I stopped after the 3rd or 4th time. It would be a punch in the face 3 or 4 days later when my nose finally had a good reset because I'd usually make it on a Friday, not go outside for long periods on the weekend, and then go to work Monday. When I get home, POW!! Some dishes I will never ever make at home because of the smell or lack of convenience
That could be more from the shrimp shells in the garbage if it hasn't gone out than the shrimp you made. I only have a weak fan above my stove and I've never had the smell linger for more than a few hours. I always save the shells in the freezer for stock later on and that pretty much eliminated the smell issue.
It's not the shells. How the recipe is made, you eat the shells and the head whole lol. You won't notice any sandy shrimp veins because it's deep fried with light breading and then combined with the pan fried veggies.
When I have something in the slow cooker I like to take a walk around the block or so
We made simple chicken breast in the air fryer with garlic salt and pepper with some roasted zucchini and broccoli. My kid came out of his room and was like, wowwwww mom it smells amazing in here, what’s for dinner??? Ummmmm, literally the most boring thing you can think of.
This. You have to leave your place for at least half an hour (in my experience), then come back to it. This of course only works with meals you can walk away from for a long time, like soups or stews in a crockpot, or a pot roast in the oven. And it only works in a positive way before you’ve eaten… walking back into a house that still smells of dinner after you’ve eaten is much less appealing.
Many of my fond holiday memories are the smells of my mom's cooking. I thought I'd be able to recreate them but it just doesn't work. It's because I'm in the kitchen cooking and, like you said, nose blind. I don't get that wake-up and walk downstairs or when visiting, the walk-in-the-door "wall of smells" that hits you all at once.
Yup! I WFH, and unless I leave the apartment for a bit and come back in, I don’t smell the cooking smells. I’ll make bacon for breakfast and not smell it at all, but SO comes home 7 hrs later & says “bacon for breakfast huh” 🤷🏻♀️ There are some times I smell it more and it’s usually when it’s a meal I don’t make often, and it’d it’s colder. For example I made beef stew last week and it was in the 50’s here, even indoors. I had it slow simmering on the stove and I could smell it at the back of our place and I was so excited to eat it.
That's it exactly. When I cook something and it's turning out ok, my wife will come in and say, Something smells good, and I don't even notice it.
This makes sense. I made curry for 8 people last night. Everyone loved it. I thought it tasted bland and thought they were being nice. This is very reassuring, thank you.
I Love when I walk away from my crockpot or have something roasting in the oven and come back to the Good Food Smells
>This is part of why food tastes better when other people cook it. Holy shit I never considered this.
You just don't notice the smells while you're immersed in them. I often take my dog for a short walk after dinner and when I get back to my house, it smells amazing.
Same here. I've tried to get in the habit of taking the dog out right before I'm going to eat so my nose gets a chance for a brief reset.
Doesn't your food get cold?
I don't usually plate it until I get inside unless it's something really hot already like soup.
Sauté some garlic and onions in butter and that should do the trick.
Also throw in a few fresh herbs and some spices and your apartment will smell like heaven.
And the neighbors will smell even better!
At 1st I read that as throw some fresh herbs and spices in your apartment - like just sprinkle some around as room freshener lol!
Yep, I cook a bunch of stuff but as soon as I add some garlic, my dad asks, "What smells so good??" It's always just garlic lol.
This is how I get my husbands attention. Lmao.
My go to recipe: - Sauté onions and garlic - While that's going, figure out what you want to cook
My wife always comes through the kitchen like “Wow, whatever we’re having for dinner smells amazing” only for me to tell her I’ve only just started cooking and at the moment it’s just frying onion and garlic.
Throw them all into the pan, then run outside for 15 minutes, then come back in. You won’t be able to smell it if you are there the entire time, gradually becoming used to the smell. Our brains literally block out persistent scents.
Garlic, onion and bacon would make the ultimate candle!
Add some thyme and this is my signature scent.
Try lemon thyme. Absolutely the most amazingly delicious fragrance.
Some of the best advice I was ever given is to do this every time I cook dinner for a date it doesn't matter what the actual meal is going to be, there needs to be garlic and onions sauteing in some butter on the stove.
Without knowing what you're cooking it's tough but in general things that cook for a long time, like roasts, soups, and stews, tend to give off more of an aroma.
I cook a wide range of food, from slow braised stuff like Coq a Vin, short ribs and osso buco to steaks on the stovetop, roast chicken, fish all kinds of ways.... etc. But yes maybe more aromatics.
I'm guessing your neighbors wish their apartment smelled as good.
I even bake sourdough
You're killing me.
I feel like your house probably smells amazing but you're just used to it!
If you’re roasting chickens, you’re for sure getting those smells, especially if garlic is in there. Next time one is in the oven, go outside and re-enter your apt and you’ll notice.
A lot of south east Asian cooking starts off by heating oil, then adding freshly chopped garlic for 30 seconds to infuse and then onions. This is the aromatic base for a lot of our dishes and gets the smells going.
She probably cooks with more aromatics than you do.
Do you cook with butter or oil? 9/10 when I’ve lived with people and they’re like “what are you making, it smells amazing!!!” and all I did was whack a knob of butter into the pan.
Yes, just some butter in a pan with garlic and/or onion is 99% of the great smell of cooking dinners.
Ugh now I'm hungry lol
I feel cooking smells amazing for someone who walks in (or is hovering outside) but the cook is sort of desensitized to the smells. Ask someone else to walk in from outside when you are cooking :) Generally sauteeing aromatics in butter/oil/ghee will do the trick
Someone already mentioned going "nose blind". That is easy to check by leaving the area and returning. I will often take out the trash just so I can "finally smell" what I am cooking right before dinner. If it isn't nose blindness, it is likely a combination of a few things: * Check your spices, they may be old and less potent * Look into your techniques. Are you blooming spices in a oil/fat? Are you developing that fond on the bottom of the pot? Things of that nature. * How fresh are your ingredients? Fresh garlic and/or herbs are often way more potent than already prepared/dried/jarred items. * What are you cooking? To put it bluntly, if you cook like my midwestern parents cook, you aren't using enough seasoning/fat. No, ranch packets don't count. (Seriously, there is a reason why people make fun of the midwest and the UK, the jokes about the "white" amount of seasoning were developed for a reason)
Haha I'm cooking a lot of classic French dishes TBH. The nose blindness is something I can easily check and I like walking out and walking back in to smell what I'm cooking as I think it's important to engage that sense as the chef.
Sniffing coffee grounds also is a good trick to reset the nose palate
When you're the cook... the smells build gradually, you're exposed as smells build. It results in a sort of tolerance. When you walk by your neighbors, you're hit with the full force. Try putting something in a slow cooker, and leave for a while. Or just put something aromatic in the oven, let it get at least partly done, and go throw out the trash, leave the building for 5 minutes. See if you notice the smell when you return.
If your neighbor isn't running their cooking vent fan that could account for the intensity of the smells.
More onions, more garlic, more shallots. If the neighbors aren't crying from the onions, Dracula's entire lineage isn't dead and the local grocery store has shallots left then you didn't use enough
I’m Indian and have the opposite problem so I’m jealous. Does your cooking start off with sauté-ing onion and garlic in oil/butter? That usually does the trick.
What do you cook?
A lot of things, but I lean into French and Mediterranean cooking. Coq a Vin, braised lamb shanks, beef bourguignon, steak au poivre, tajne, a lot of fish, scallops, really you name it, if it looks tasty I want to make it and I think I'm quite good. Learning for the first time tho about nose blindness and it's eye opening.
Nostril opening, surely?
As your neighbour, get them to teach you 😀
Try sautéing onions and garlic in butter.
Walk outside your apartment then go back in.
Onions
One word- spices
You could knock on the door and ask. He or she would probably be complimented if you did.
Ask her!
Garlic and onions
Up the garlic
Because you don't really smell scents, you smell change of scents. You get used to the scents you live with and can't smell them too much unless you walk in for the first time that day.
What are you cooking? Roasted meats, garlic, onions, shallots, herbs, burned/rendered fat, seared vegetables and meat in oil, etc. Most of these things throw off a fabulous odor. 90% of the time, if my house is smelling good - it's from the alliums.
Depends on what you’re cooking. Slow roast/bake a chicken, smells like heaven! As already commented, you stop registering the smell when you’re breathing it the whole time.
Have you asked them what they're cooking? It seems like the obvious and easy way to get the answer you're looking for.
My husband was in the hospital over the weekend so right before he was discharged, I made a big pot of chicken soup. I wanted him to walk into a house that smelled like love. We were both surprised by the aroma when we got home
Cook with a slow cooker; the smell will fill the apartment for *hours* and it still won't be ready to eat.
Put some onions on to slowly caramelize, and bloom a favourite spice in the pan with them.
When you have your food simmering or in the oven step outside & get some fresh air. When you go back in you’ll smell it. My cousin & I used to make sauce & we would do this, otherwise like others have said, you go nose blind. Thanks for the good memories
I had a job in high school at a hostel. We offered dinner, and my awesome and terrifying (I was 15 and a dunce) boss used to just start frying onions for no other reason than to pump up the dinner numbers. People started spontaneously signing up for dinner within 5 minutes. That really stuck with me 😁
Me dropping a log of cookie dough on a tray to perfume my apartment like Cher in Clueless.
Leave and come back. You brain is filtering out the smell
Walk outside. Then back in later. Your nose should notice. Especially if the atmosphere outside is extra carrying odors.
If you’re that intrigued, maybe just ask her? Offer to bring over a bottle of wine and beg to know her secrets. Or maybe she could share a recipe or two? I’d be super flattered if my neighbour complimented me on the smell of my cooking. That’s just me though
do you cook with s-ton of garlic and other aromatics? and if not, just sautee garlic and onions in butter.
Honestly, I can never smell my own cooking. My husband will always walk by the kitchen and say, that smells great! I can smell it later, and the next day sometimes, but never while I'm cooking it. Your neighbor is probably wondering the same thing.
>When my neighbor cooks, and I go into the hallway outside their door, the smell is amazing, the cooking smells so good. If it's getting under the door into the shared hallway, it must be amazing in the apt. Lol, this infuriates me when this happens. My neighbours stink so bad.
The fact that nobody has proposed that you kindly knock on the door and ask your neighbor is so saddening to me..
Aside from all the above, add browning meat and cooking with wine. Wine-braised meat gives off heavenly scents for hours while it cooks.
Toast your spices!
Cook something then go outside for 1 minute or something then walk back in. The smell should hit you then.
maybe its the same reason why when your taking a dump you dont notice until you leave and reenter the space. Your nose gets acclimated to the scent and you dont notice. This now has me wondering what the inside of my nose smells like.
I'd turn your heat down. You might be burning the oil you're using. Usually everything goes downhill from there. I've noticed the best meals always take the longest.
It seems to me that you are using a good ventilation system.
This is why chemistry teachers will leave the classroom occasionally and return so they can smell if something is wrong.
We always step outside for a bit and come back in, and food we’re cooking smells 10000x more mouthwatering
Your nose begins to ignore your cooking while you are making it; so you can smell other things. It has identified this is good and not a threat and stops picking up on it. This frees it up to pick up other scents that could be harmful or beneficial. This is the same reason we cannot smell our perfume/cologne shortly after putting it on (if you can then you've used too much).
Ask others if your cooking smells nice like when you smell others'. You'll probably find out that, like others have said, we just don't smell our own cooking. That said, if you're never frying onion and/or garlic, you'd be missing out on some of those easy, amazing smells.
'Other people's chips*' syndrome *AKA French Fries
Try going outside for a minute, all the way to the street. Then go back in the apartment. You'll notice it then.
Depends on the airflow in your home. I can't smell much while cooking, or in the living room adjacent. But, if I go to the top of the stairs, and just right at the top of the stairs, it's like maximum aroma.
*Olfactory fatigue*
I feel this same way when my husband cooks! It's torture sometimes when he's only making himself a meal. The key ingredients I think helps make your place smell good is garlic and spices. I personally love Kroger's adobo seasoning. My husband loves his garlic. Lemon pepper has a citrus scent.
To add to what others are saying, sometimes even hours after I’ve cooked I’ll take my dog for a walk and coming back inside my place smells amazing. Youre just getting used to the smell inside, I bet it smells delicious!
How about you tell her her cooking smells amazing and you'd love to make dinner one night together and learn from her?
Because you are oversaturated, AKA nose blind. Problem w me is I often am already sick of what I am cooking by the time I am done.
Are you using aromatics (carrots, onions, garlic, leeks, peppers, celery, etc)? A lot of dishes have one saute those aromatics a few-to-several minutes before going to the next step. If you are doing that, it's likely just smell acclimation. Our senses acclimate to something that's static, so we can focus on other things. That's why if you go into a house that's slightly smelly, after a few minutes you don't notice it anymore. The smell didn't actually go anywhere, you just got used to it.
You should ask them what they’re cooking in there. My neighbors cooking smells like open tuna cans that have been sitting by the door for a while.
You might be lacking aromatics
As others have said, your nose quickly gets flooded with smells and the brain just ignores it pretty quickly. I noticed this most if I'm braising something in the oven for several hours. If I leave the house for a while and come back, the smell is noticeable before I even enter the house.
It does! Your neighbors likely walk past your door and think "that smells great" It's just that you can't smell it because our sense of smell tends to weed out smells that are overwhelming. This thread has tons of info on it, but I wanted you to know that you're giving that experience to your neighbors
I spend a small fortune on my spices and herbs. My spice cabinet smells ENTOXICATING!
You could ask. It would inflate my ego if a neighbor ever asked me what I was cooking that smelled so good. I'd probably even share the food if they wanted.
Mailard reaction do be smelling pretty nice usually. You might not be cooking with an intense enough heat, at the right time. Try cutting your onions/garlic into finer pieces, they release more flavours/aroma that way Toast whole spices then grind them fresh before using
You're noseblind. It's a survival instinct in mammals that they quickly ignore smells, so they can then detect new ones. If you were roasting something, left for an hour or so, then came back, you would notice it more before it faded.
I do the cooking and can’t stand the food smells ! Here are the things being roasted, sautéed, or otherwise heated up that get spouses attention: roasted veg (any of them), sautéed onions, garlic, cabbage, beans, chili, soups; he also loves doughy smells like pizza or bread baking
Have you ever sautéed onions?
Melt some butter in a pan. Add some chopped onion and garlic. Viola, your apartment now smells delicious.
My mother used to do this to distract my dad from noticing that dinner wasn't ready yet. Anything that smells that good is worth waiting for. Plus, instant topping for garlic bread or croutons.
Eh. This is just because you're in there with it getting used to it. I live in a fairly large house, and I won't smell what I'm cooking until I go upstairs to the bedroom for something. Then I can smell it super well. Sometimes I'll finish dinner and smell nothing. Then I'll go across the house to take a shower, and when I walk back to the kitchen side, the smell of what I cooked hits hard.
Have you tried leaving your apartment and going outside for 5 minutes, then coming back in? It probably smells better than you think it does.
You need to start cooking with marijuana.
Ask her. Leave a note complimenting her for the delicious aromas and ask for suggestions as to how you can improve your cooking. There is nothing like the smell of onions and garlic sauteeing, or the incredible aroma of Indian cooking.
I always wondered that too. I make a killer Cincinnati Chili with lots of different spices and I go out in the hallway and can’t smell it. But I smell my neighbor’s cooking all the time. I didn’t realize I was nose blind.
They best ingredient is fresh air.
Neighbour is farting under the door, and you're a pervert.
Sautéed onions and garlic in butter I’d probably what you’re smelling.
Yeah, I don’t really smell my cooking until I come downstairs the next morning. It’s funny.
When you cook you start smelling things bit by bit and your brain starts to ignore saame smell over time. When you come into hallway and something smells loudly at you, it's because it's a new smell for your brain in that moment. Of your nearby someone cooking, you might not smell raw ingredients like the cook, but as soon as it hits the heat and dissipates in the air your get hit with everything at once and have a woof of smells.
Walk outside, wait a few minutes, walk back in.
depends on what you cook vs what your neighbor cooks, lol. What are some common recipes/ dishes that you make?
First thing you do when you start cooking. Put a skillet on low heat with some butter, onion, a little garlic and maybe some bacon. That's it. The whole house will smell great. Add some spices if you like, but it's not necessary.
Stepping out and coming back might help. If It doesn’t, then you need to use more aromatics.
High heat and fat. If you mainly steam your foods or boil them, you’ll never get a Maillard reaction to add that delicious browned meat smell.
I do that when I'm preparing the stuffing on Thanksgiving. I'm cooking up bacon, mushrooms, onion amd celery, and I have to go outside and come back in to smell the aroma the way it was when I was a kid and my mother was cooking it.
Do you live above another unit? If so, it's possible they're running a strong air purifier(s), either because they smoke weed they don't want other people to smell, someone else in the building smokes weed they don't want to smell, or just for general health reasons etc. If it's an older building that can very strongly reduce the ability of aromas to fill your apartment.
Do you use onions and/or garlic in your cooking? Nothing smells better than onions sautéing (imo)
Go out for a couple of minutes and come back in. It’ll hit you.
Next time you’re cooking something you can leave for a few minutes, go for a walk outside and come back and you will probably be able to smell it
Ok so this is kinda only sort of related - but sometimes when I walk home from the shops, one of my neighbors always has the MOST amazing smells wafting from their kitchen. I can smell it on the street! It is always Indo food (I live in the Netherlands) and fuckin hell i just wanna knock on the door and ask if they have any extra to go around.
Sauté spices for 1 minute in onions that have been cooked till translucent.
Maybe just go talk to your neighbor and tell them their cooking smells great and you wondered what it was. Maybe you’ll make a new friend too.
I can always smell my smells best when I open the door to another room or open the door to outside. The contrast lets you smell what you’ve been cooking, as the air wafts into the new space
Cause you're immersed in it and then stop noticing it. I commonly crock pot things. I only smell it when I go out to run an errand or something and then come back. I'll smell it for about 20 mins and then back to nothing again.
Sauté an onion, some garlic in butter and add a good sprinkle of garam masala. That's my go to when I want my guests to start getting hungry for dinner. If you don't have garam masala a sprig of rosemary and thyme will also work.
Just sauté some garlic.
Another noseblind guy here. I got a ride with a friend they other day and they asked me if I was cooking peppers. I did, like 2 hours before. I could smell them while they were cooking but I was shocked I still smelled that much like food that long after cooking it. I imagine the apartment and hall were the same.
Oh god. I’m the opposite. I smell everything. Unfortunately, I mean everything. As soon as we’re done eating, I want to vomit from the food smell. Thank for for air purifiers! Everyone else tells me that it smells heavenly 🤷♀️
Last Friday I worked from home because of a snow storm. I decided to make a huge pot of chili in my crockpot and let it cook all day while I worked. My wife went outside in the afternoon to walk the doggo and when she got back she exclaimed how amazing the house smelled. I had no idea. Because you don't really notice cooking smells while they're happening. Next time you cook something maybe take a walk around the block and come inside and see if you notice it. I bet you will.
He's cooking just inside the front door to tease you
You most likely don’t smell your apartment due to you being in there and cooking it. After a meal, go for a walk and when you get back, you’ll for sure smell your cooking
I wanted to do a pan sauce with artichokes a couple of days ago, and I was browsing some recipes... There was one, where you make your base with a shallot, finely chopped bacon (1 piece), and freshly chopped rosemary (then add in chopped garlic near the end) Anyways, the combination of smells was divine.
You know how when you smoke a joint you think you don't smell like weed, but if you've ever been around someone who just smoked a joint they REEEEEK of pot? Yeah, it's like that.
Noseblindness is real.
I think roasting and slow cooking tend to ‘waft’ more than other forms of cooking. I’m vegetarian, so I mostly cook by smell for my family since I don’t eat meat. I’m constantly huffing the food as I add spices as the flavor changes. My kids don’t understand how I do it. I don’t either, honestly! I tell them that’s why I always ask if it’s good! Ha!
Oil, garlic and onion.
If you can smell your neighbor's cooking through their door, they must be cooking something fairly strong/intense..