I have 2 friends who are very fussy what they will cook because it might smell up the house. Here are a few items they refuse to cook but love to eat it out somewhere else.
bacon, cabbage, brocolli, cauliflower, fish, garlic. Even fish on the bbq is out because the smell may waft in the house.
Do you cook what you like regardless of the odour it can cause ?
Maybe they need some suggestions for odour control. :laugh:
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I cook broccoli but not for company, at least not until they've arrived and can acclimatize to the odour.
The one thing I can't be around is flavoured popcorn - turns my stomach. I can't even walk down the aisle with the packages in the grocery store without holding my breath.
I have a friend that shrieks if she finds an onion piece in her food. Relax...pick it out and move it aside we, you don't have to eat it.
As for cooking scents, food is food. Some smell, some don't ...it's just food....relax! I cook whatever I like when people come over, never have complaints from the "smell" If they did, I wouldn't care.
I'm sure a lot of it has to do with associations with smells/foods. Baking seems welcome to most noses. I have had an aversion to fish most of my life (such is life when forced as a child to eat something I considered awful) and can't take the smell of it at all. Life in hell for me is having to go somewhere like Red Lobster. Meanwhile my dog's favourite meal is salmon and believe me I have a plastic bag ready before I open the tin and as soon as the food is in the dish, the can is in the bag and sealed.
Meanwhile, as my mother the clean freak always did, opening a window, turning on a fan (aimed strategically to get the air moving across the stove and directly to the window), getting the hood fan going all help get rid of smells. I am such a window opener, I haven't cooked much since moving into this sealed house (fingers crossed, new windows arrive in the next 2 weeks and one of them will be the kitchen). I have also heard that leaving a dish of plain white vinegar out absorb odours.
There are also tricks like cooking bacon in the oven. Much less smell and mess and it actually cooks better in there anyway.
Other things just seem to smell too good to worry about.
I use my BBQ for things that have strong smells ie. fish and bacon. I do this because I get headaches from strong smells and I don't want to trust that it won't bother me. I always use the overhead fan when cooking and that helps keep it cleared out some.
especially in the cooler weather -- it's nice to come in from outside and smell ribs baking or an apple pie...my mother used to cook cabbage in soups and even that smelled wonderful...
I have a friend who is very picky about cooking smells too...when she and her DH come over, I just make sure the doors are closed between the kitchen and the living room and dining room.
The other day one of the municipal candidates for council dropped by to ask for our vote, and the first thing he said when he came into the family room was "What smells so wonderful?" It was chutney, so I gave him some biscuits with cheese and the chutney and he couldn't stop talking about how good it was..he never did say much about his platform -- ya think he was relying on flattery instead :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
yea i don't care...i'll cook anything...but i have been known to boil a few cinnamon sticks in a lil water with some vanilla on the stove top...i bought this cute lil wax candle burner thing from work...but it doesn't hold a votive candle...it has a lil light bulb in it...and you turn it on and on top there's a lil ceramic carafe looking thingy...and you put a piece of scented wax wafers in it and the heat from the light bulb melts the wax and it smells so nice...i bought ..sugar cookie...oatmeal raisin...apple pie...butter pecan...lol...the kids thought it was fudge...lol...the only problem i find with it is that after a while i have to change the wax cuz it just starts to smell like .....well burnt wax of course...lol
Wow that is uptight... LOL
I cook everything and anything, I love the smells of cooking in my house its what helps to make it a home. And if it gets to be to much, open the door and turn on the over range fan.. LOL
Generally I'm not bothered by cooking smells. I cook what I want to, and sometimes when I don't feel like having the aroma go through the entire house I just close off the 2 pocket doors of my kitchen. (one that opens to the DR and the other that opens to the LR, stairs, hall) These doors are very handy for that, and one xmas my MIL (who does not LOVE turkey but will eat it) even commented on how my whole house was not filled with the smell of the turkey.
Two smells I have to say I don't love are pancakes and beef that is either on the BBQ or smoking on the stove over high heat. I really find it is too heady. Never bothered me until after my first pregnancy, when I went through a scent-sensitivity thing along with an explosive problem with allergies i never knew I had. It's better now, but at that time either of those two cooking smells made me feel quite ill. Because of that experience I try my best to accomodate those who seem troubled by specific cooking odours, if I am aware of it.