[By the way, I have a guest post up The Medical Student’s Wife. In it, I talk about what it’s like to have a doctor at your disposal. Check it out!]
I mentioned before in my post about Magic Sauce that my husband finds it deeply offensive, smell-wise.
That’s not the only food that is pretty much Banned from our food repertoire because of nostril offense.
My husband has also recently banned hamburgers. Because however we cook them – whether on our griddler or in a pan on the stovetop (our complex doesn’t allow outdoor grills) – they end up covering the entire apartment in a film of Burger Scented Grease.
This is quite honestly fine with me, as I rarely leave the apartment. And my nose gets accustomed to the scent after a while until it seems like nothing. But I’m sure to my husband, who not only has to exit the premises but enter a place of work where his patients expect him to exude confidence and diagnostic excellence rather than Eau de Last Night’s Burger, I am sure it is less than ideal.
Listen. This is understandable. We have a teeny apartment. Our kitchen is open to the entire rest of the living space. So I get it – some scents are just not okay.
But I am afraid that my husband will carry over his Aroma Sensitivity into any space we inhabit. I base this on the fact that his father has banned broccoli from his own home. A home which, I might add, is about 20 times bigger than our apartment.
I don’t remember my mom banning any smells from our home when I was growing up. Sure, when I’ve been home since I moved out post-high school, I have noticed that she prefers not to deep fry anything in the kitchen. (We spent some lovely evenings giggling together as we ran out onto the deck to drop crab wontons into the deep fryer in -20 degree weather and ran back in to blow on our hands for the requisite three minutes, only to find that the crab wontons hadn’t quite cooked in the boiling oil because it was too cold for the boiling oil to cook them.) But deep frying is really kind of a once-every-10-years kind of event anyway, so I’m not too worried about that.
I am, however, worried about never eating a home-cooked burger again. Or making my Magic Sauce. Some things are worth the smell.
Do you have any Aroma Sensitivities? Does your significant other?
I love pancakes, and I love salmon (not together). But making either one means that the house smells for days. Not that it stops me, but I do think two days later “yeesh, will the pancake/salmon smell ever go away??”
Isn’t it sad to have to a) rule out a food before making it because of the lingering smell or b) make a food you love KNOWING it will make the house reek for days? So sad.
I refuse to let my husband fry things in the house because he ALWAYS burns the oil! I also don’t like him to cook indian food because the smell lingers for like, a week afterwards! So, um, I guess I’m the one with the aroma sensitivity in our house!
My husband hates the smell of bacon. He doesn’t really like to eat bacon either. This was almost a deal breaker for me, but now I get by alright without it. =/
How can someone hate the smell of bacon? Wow!
I have banned salmon from the house. Matt doesn’t actually ban things, but I have a LOT of things that I have to be extremely careful with. Basically any leftover must be sealed tightly enough to not make the fridge smell. He could smell my Chinese food the other day and I thought he was going to die. Nothing must be old or overly ripe. (I get a lot of complaints about fruit that is too ripe and starting to smell- even if it doesn’t smell bad. He doesn’t like things like the smell of strawberries.) Bananas almost kill him. I used to clean with vinegar but I had to stop that or I think he would have moved out. (He hasn’t yet figured out that I rinse my hair with vinegar, but that is because I am SUPER careful about doing it when he is either downstairs or out of the house completely.) Oh, there are lots of things. It’s mostly the fridge. But he is not a smell person. I am only able to use vanilla, cinnamon, peppermint, or citrus in my oil warmer. (I had this pomegranate that smelled SO good and he hated it.)
And often he will take different paths through the mall so that he doesn’t have to walk past the candle store.
Poor Matt – he sounds like he has a really powerful sense of smell.
My husband does not like the smell of bleach, but I’ve somehow won that battle despite his objections.
My roommate frequently cooks fish and I. HATE. IT. Is there a way to cook fish without making your house smell for days upon end? It doesn’t help that we only have windows on one side of our apartment, so there’s no cross breeze to air things out.
My dad is deathly allergic to peanut butter. If I wanted a PB&J in my lunch, I’d have to go outside to make the sandwich and then wash the knife as soon as I came back in. He could always tell when someone had put a peanut butter knife in the dishwasher without washing it.
So I, uh, have a lot of Aroma Sensitivities. I cannot STAND the smell of cooking celery (like at Thanksgiving, when my mother is cooking it for the stuffing, UGH.) I also hate the smell of cooking cauliflower, but I think MOST people hate that smell. I cannot deal with anise/licorice smells and one of the absolute worst is lavender. Lavender gives me the WORST headache. I have this theory that people with Aroma Sensitivities are the ones who hate cilantro.
I have Aroma Sensitivity to non-food things… And lavender is one of the worst ones for me too. Unfortunately, it’s my mom’s favorite scent.
Speaking of non-food scents – that Bath and Body Works lotion, Plumeria? That activates my gag reflex. Not good.
And we have this stupid candle in the guest bathroom that smells like firewood that gives me the WORST headache.
hmm…I don’t think we have any smell aversions at my house. Overly fishy fish — but then we will get rid of it as it is not good to eat at that point. I like the smell of bacon because I like being reminded of eating a great breakfast — and isn’t bacon a happy smell? I think so. Same goes for popcorn or many of the other lingering smells…
Yes! I totally associate some of these smells with happiness. Like bacon. And hamburgers, honestly. Too bad they are so CLOYING.
I am commenting on my own post about my biggest food-related Aroma Sensitivity, which is liver.
My mom made liver once when I was a kid, and it filled the house with this horrendous sickly-sweet smell. Yuck. I don’t remember actually eating the liver, but you can be sure I will NEVER cook it.
This is SO interesting to me! I had no idea someone could not like the smell of strawberries or bacon. Although I can’t stand the smell of pickles – which I am sure a lot of people woud think is strange!
Liver?! Oye. never had it. Never plan on having it – it really scares me.
We don’t have any obvious aroma sensitivities…at least that we’ve encountered yet. I will say mine are more non-food…and allergy based. Like fresh cut grass? I love the smell, but I know I’ll die if I inhale it too much. Same goes with certain flowers.
One smell that is slightly ironic (since we have Miley) is wet dog. I.HATE.THE.SMELL. Can’t stand it. It gets STUCK in my nasal passages. So whenever Miley gets a bath? It’s outside or yes, even blow drier, until she’s dry.
OH! Sorry just thought of another one – STINK BUGS. I don’t know if you all have those in your neck of the woods, but they are TAKING OVER here in Pittsburgh and NOTHING will get rid of them – we tried many toxic chemicals this weekend. So now whenever I see Miley chasing one down I’m on the hunt so she doesn’t eat (GROSS) or squish them so I can flush them. Which still weirds me out because I’m afraid they’ll come back up the toilet when I’m using it.
Oh goodness, my apologize about this rant :/
My 600 square foot apartment REEKED of chicken fried steak for literally at least 4 days. It was the first–and only–time I’ve made chicken fried steak.
One of my roommates from college sauteed fajita-style peppers and onions several times a week to top everything from tacos to salads and sandwiches, whatever. My room was around the corner from the kitchen and my closet door didn’t shut, so it was an unhappy day when I sat in class and smelled something reminiscent of BO and realized it was the shirt I was wearing. I was wearing an onion shirt. I raced home from class and found that EVERYTHING I OWNED was completely contaminated by the onion smell. I washed every single piece of clothing and washable linens, took my bedding to be dry cleaned and tossed my plastic shower curtain liner. Those shower liners absorb food smells like you would not believe!
There will be no MEAT cooking in our house until I’ve been awake for hours. End of story. No morning bacon, sausage, or steak in our house unless you want me to be in the bathroom all morning. Frankly, I find the smell of just about every pork product disgusting (bacon, pork chops, ham), but I can handle it if I’ve been given advance warning and have been awake for a while. (Okay, fine. We stopped going to my inlaws for Easter because I couldn’t take another entire day of Easter ham cooking.
OMG. I have that problem too. My mom always fried potatoes and cooked ham in the mornings on Sundays. Without fail, it made my stomach turn and I would end up in the bathroom feeling miserable. 🙁 I like some pork products, but that ham – just did me in. YUCK!
My husband has issues when I burn things. And when I eat onions/garlic. But cooking aromas? I don’t think he has any of those sensitivities, thank goodness.
No aroma sensitivity here. Although I bet people who come by my house might take issue with the pungent garlic and onion smells. But since the hubs and I both just ADORE those, we have no issues. I was scared that I would develop sensitivity to the smells when I was pregnant, but, lucky for us all, i did not!
Non-food wise, I can’t handle strong candles or incense without getting a headache. And ugh, baby powder!
I would ban roast beef – but thankfully he doesn’t make it. He can’t stand PB or ketchup. I barely eat ketchup, and I try to eat PB when he’s not home (or brush my teeth before getting a kiss)! So we’re all good. 🙂
i hate the smell of hamburger cooking like the first 5 minutes. I walk in the kitchen and gag. Once its mostly cooked then its fine. its just the first few minutes that gets me evey t ime.