From the article: Speaking as one of those with particularly strong olfactory memory (I'm kind of a wine aroma geek), I've never been "enticed" by the artificial cinnamon, vanilla, or butter...
From the article:
If you’re familiar with the pretzel chain Auntie Anne’s, chances are that you know what its stores smell like. The distinctive, powerful fragrance of freshly-baked, buttery pretzels wafts across food courts in shopping centers, airports, and train stations around the world. Each sniff takes us back to the last time we found ourselves inhaling the delectable aroma. Even if you don’t eat Auntie Anne’s pretzels, their scent is hard to miss wherever the company’s 1,200 locations can be found. And Auntie Anne’s knows it.
“There are few scents more recognizable than the aroma of Auntie Anne’s,” the company’s chief brand officer declared in a press release announcing this signature scent would be bottled and sold as a perfume called “Knead.” Described as “a wearable scent infused with notes of buttery dough, salt and a hint of sweetness,” the fragrance sold out online within 10 minutes of its launch.
The pretzel fragrance is just one of many novelty perfumes and scented candles released by food chains like KFC and Pizza Hut. It’s become a common-enough marketing gimmick that a 2024 Japanese McDonald’s ad that fancifully depicted french-fry flavors as perfume bottles sparked a rumor that the company would actually sell them. (They did not, although McDonald’s did recently unveil the world’s first scented billboard in the Netherlands.)
Speaking as one of those with particularly strong olfactory memory (I'm kind of a wine aroma geek), I've never been "enticed" by the artificial cinnamon, vanilla, or butter aromas of mall outlets, the burned, over-roasted coffee scent of Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. But a homespun bakery's fresh-from-the-oven sourdough scent will get me salivating, a waft of soy sauce/garlic/hot peanut oil has me instantly craving Chinese food, and don't get me started on wine...
What food scents plug into memory or appetite for you?
Do you think that an appetizing smell changes your emotional tone or physiological responses?
Do you shop for ingredients by smell - e.g. ripeness of fruits and vegetables, aromatic components of spices to determine freshness?
When cooking, do you find yourself adjusting seasonings or ingredients to improve the scent?
Are there cuisines whose aromas you find particularly attractive or repellent? [For myself, I don't love foods that are heavily spiced with cumin - Mexican and some Middle Eastern recipes aren't favorites. Anything with star anise, limes, chillies, garlic, fresh tomatoes, chocolate, or peppercorns makes me happy.]
I am someone who generally is bad at smelling. Like 80-90% of the time I just don't smell anything. If I take big wifs or get super close I can generally smell everything, but only if I actively...
I am someone who generally is bad at smelling. Like 80-90% of the time I just don't smell anything. If I take big wifs or get super close I can generally smell everything, but only if I actively try. I think that has given me particularly strong feelings to things that are particularly aromatic.
Funnily enough Auntie Anne's does do it for me. I do start salivating smelling it, but that may also be because I more regularly go to an Amish pretzel shop that has fantastic food.
More generally the smell of bread browning is what I think I smell the most readily, and have developed the most affinity for. Other than that onion/garlic really gets me going, and while I usually include them, I barely smell carrot and celery cooking.
I can smell cumin well, and I think that may be why I do have an affinity for Mexican and Indian more so than for like Chinese. I am curious, does the cumin overwhelm the other smells for you, and make it just one note? My thought is perhaps because I was already missing those subtleties I end up just prefering something with a strong core scent.
When shopping for produce the only thing I have ever smelled for ripeness is pineapple. Are there other things I should be trying?
I actually went to the spice drawer, sniffed the cumin, and nibbled a few seeds just now to get a better handle on why I don't love it... There are plenty of dishes that contain cumin which I like...
I actually went to the spice drawer, sniffed the cumin, and nibbled a few seeds just now to get a better handle on why I don't love it... There are plenty of dishes that contain cumin which I like - curries with cumin as one spice component among many are great. But I've found Mexican dishes where cumin is the dominant flavor/aroma aren't as pleasing. There's a bitter undernote that's not quite right. Cumin plus coriander is even more displeasing, and I quite like coriander. But there's literally no accounting for taste/smell. Those are the human senses for which there's the greatest genetic variation, and they're quite fragile to physiological impairments from illness, allergy, and aging, as well as aversive memories (the smell of cherry cough syrup is not friendly, as far as I'm concerned).
As far as produce shopping, for my nose, there's a huge difference in aroma between garden-ripe fruits (including tomatoes) and those ripened in storage or unripe. You can judge most melons' ripeness by smell, color at the stem end, and a hollow sound when rapped with your knuckles.
I don't buy cilantro if it doesn't have that characteristic soapy aroma, and other fresh herbs should smell strongly of what they taste like. Even corn ears should have that fresh, vibrant corn silk smell, and the silk strands inside the husk should still be a little green. Fresh green beans should have a green bean smell, but they usually look limp by the time the aroma is gone. Same thing for mushrooms - by the time the fresh smell is gone, they usually look a little withered or spotty.
So much product is sold in plastic packaging now that's it's hard for me to do my best shopping anywhere other than the farmer's market. And if you're curious about how restaurants get better results than home cooking, that's part of it. Chefs buy at wholesale produce and farm markets where they can get the freshest, ripest, highest sensory-appeal ingredients.
Ugh, the Subway smell has to be the longest lasting, right? I used to work at Subway for maybe two weeks when I was in high school and ever since then, the smell of their bread is stuck in my...
Ugh, the Subway smell has to be the longest lasting, right? I used to work at Subway for maybe two weeks when I was in high school and ever since then, the smell of their bread is stuck in my nose.
Years later after high school and college and many jobs, I was working another job. There was a Subway near my work in the same shopping center as a Chinese restaurant my manager liked at the time. Once a month or so, my manager would order us all food from this Chinese restaurant for a team lunch. I'd always pick it up because I was the youngest on the team.
Every time I picked up this food, I swear, the moment I'd pull up to the shopping center and open my car's door, I'd smell Subway. I wasn't even going to Subway but because it was in the same shopping center as the restaurant I was going to, Subway's smell overpowered all the other smells in the area. And I know you all may think I'm exaggerating to be funny, but no, this is seriously how powerful the smell of their bread was and it probably still is. I'm just glad I don't find myself near a Subway nowadays.
subway does have a unique smell and it's gotta be more than their natural food processes right? It's something they bake into their plastic signs or spray every hour or something like that right?
subway does have a unique smell and it's gotta be more than their natural food processes right? It's something they bake into their plastic signs or spray every hour or something like that right?
So I just went to the farmer's market and was ambushed by the smell of an enormous bunch of fresh basil (like too big to fit in a shopping bag). [Temperatures have dropped into the 40's (°F) at...
So I just went to the farmer's market and was ambushed by the smell of an enormous bunch of fresh basil (like too big to fit in a shopping bag). [Temperatures have dropped into the 40's (°F) at night and it's all being harvested now.] Wasn't planning on cooking today, but it's apparently pesto o'clock once I get the last of my garden in.
From the article:
Speaking as one of those with particularly strong olfactory memory (I'm kind of a wine aroma geek), I've never been "enticed" by the artificial cinnamon, vanilla, or butter aromas of mall outlets, the burned, over-roasted coffee scent of Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. But a homespun bakery's fresh-from-the-oven sourdough scent will get me salivating, a waft of soy sauce/garlic/hot peanut oil has me instantly craving Chinese food, and don't get me started on wine...
What food scents plug into memory or appetite for you?
Do you think that an appetizing smell changes your emotional tone or physiological responses?
Do you shop for ingredients by smell - e.g. ripeness of fruits and vegetables, aromatic components of spices to determine freshness?
When cooking, do you find yourself adjusting seasonings or ingredients to improve the scent?
Are there cuisines whose aromas you find particularly attractive or repellent? [For myself, I don't love foods that are heavily spiced with cumin - Mexican and some Middle Eastern recipes aren't favorites. Anything with star anise, limes, chillies, garlic, fresh tomatoes, chocolate, or peppercorns makes me happy.]
I am someone who generally is bad at smelling. Like 80-90% of the time I just don't smell anything. If I take big wifs or get super close I can generally smell everything, but only if I actively try. I think that has given me particularly strong feelings to things that are particularly aromatic.
Funnily enough Auntie Anne's does do it for me. I do start salivating smelling it, but that may also be because I more regularly go to an Amish pretzel shop that has fantastic food.
More generally the smell of bread browning is what I think I smell the most readily, and have developed the most affinity for. Other than that onion/garlic really gets me going, and while I usually include them, I barely smell carrot and celery cooking.
I can smell cumin well, and I think that may be why I do have an affinity for Mexican and Indian more so than for like Chinese. I am curious, does the cumin overwhelm the other smells for you, and make it just one note? My thought is perhaps because I was already missing those subtleties I end up just prefering something with a strong core scent.
When shopping for produce the only thing I have ever smelled for ripeness is pineapple. Are there other things I should be trying?
I actually went to the spice drawer, sniffed the cumin, and nibbled a few seeds just now to get a better handle on why I don't love it... There are plenty of dishes that contain cumin which I like - curries with cumin as one spice component among many are great. But I've found Mexican dishes where cumin is the dominant flavor/aroma aren't as pleasing. There's a bitter undernote that's not quite right. Cumin plus coriander is even more displeasing, and I quite like coriander. But there's literally no accounting for taste/smell. Those are the human senses for which there's the greatest genetic variation, and they're quite fragile to physiological impairments from illness, allergy, and aging, as well as aversive memories (the smell of cherry cough syrup is not friendly, as far as I'm concerned).
As far as produce shopping, for my nose, there's a huge difference in aroma between garden-ripe fruits (including tomatoes) and those ripened in storage or unripe. You can judge most melons' ripeness by smell, color at the stem end, and a hollow sound when rapped with your knuckles.
I don't buy cilantro if it doesn't have that characteristic soapy aroma, and other fresh herbs should smell strongly of what they taste like. Even corn ears should have that fresh, vibrant corn silk smell, and the silk strands inside the husk should still be a little green. Fresh green beans should have a green bean smell, but they usually look limp by the time the aroma is gone. Same thing for mushrooms - by the time the fresh smell is gone, they usually look a little withered or spotty.
So much product is sold in plastic packaging now that's it's hard for me to do my best shopping anywhere other than the farmer's market. And if you're curious about how restaurants get better results than home cooking, that's part of it. Chefs buy at wholesale produce and farm markets where they can get the freshest, ripest, highest sensory-appeal ingredients.
Ugh, the Subway smell has to be the longest lasting, right? I used to work at Subway for maybe two weeks when I was in high school and ever since then, the smell of their bread is stuck in my nose.
Years later after high school and college and many jobs, I was working another job. There was a Subway near my work in the same shopping center as a Chinese restaurant my manager liked at the time. Once a month or so, my manager would order us all food from this Chinese restaurant for a team lunch. I'd always pick it up because I was the youngest on the team.
Every time I picked up this food, I swear, the moment I'd pull up to the shopping center and open my car's door, I'd smell Subway. I wasn't even going to Subway but because it was in the same shopping center as the restaurant I was going to, Subway's smell overpowered all the other smells in the area. And I know you all may think I'm exaggerating to be funny, but no, this is seriously how powerful the smell of their bread was and it probably still is. I'm just glad I don't find myself near a Subway nowadays.
subway does have a unique smell and it's gotta be more than their natural food processes right? It's something they bake into their plastic signs or spray every hour or something like that right?
So I just went to the farmer's market and was ambushed by the smell of an enormous bunch of fresh basil (like too big to fit in a shopping bag). [Temperatures have dropped into the 40's (°F) at night and it's all being harvested now.] Wasn't planning on cooking today, but it's apparently pesto o'clock once I get the last of my garden in.