05/31/2017 01:28 EDT | Updated 05/31/2017 01:28 EDT

Foods That Make Your Home Smell So&nbsp;Good


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Freshly baked loaf of banana bread

Every home has a smell. If you spend a lot of time inside your home you probably don't notice it since your nostrils are used to it. But people that visit your home know whether it's a good or bad smell. No one wants to hang out in a home that carries an odour of stinky tofu, which is the exact translation of the notorious Chinese dish chòudòufu.

I still remember when I lived in Shanghai over a decade ago, my roommate brought home this stinky tofu dish and that strong offending smell lingered on for three solid days! Even matches couldn't mask the smell and matches mask everything! For some reason, my roommate wasn't bothered by it. Was it because his nose had grown accustomed to a food that smelled of aged sewage? I think so.



You know what doesn't cause diarrhea and earaches? Tempting scents of food. Foods that leave wafting smells of goodness that move beyond the kitchen.


Most of what we taste we also smell. "Eighty percent of what we perceive of the flavour of food is due to smell, 20% is down to just taste." Dr. Carl Philpott, Smell and Taste Clinic specialist, BBC Food

What are these tempting scented foods?

Here's a few that come to mind:

• Banana bread

• Fudgy brownies

• Sizzling bacon

• Anything with cinnamon

• Grandma's apple pie

• Sautéed garlic

• Roasting chicken

• Fresh bread

• Coffee

Why do we love the smell of baking?

"The smell of baked goods was the number one odour that made people nostalgic for their childhood ... In times of difficulty or distress, targeting our sense of smell is the quickest way to alter our emotional state," says  Hannah Briggs, BBC Foods.

Don Brushett from LifeHacker says, "The smell of baking bread is from compounds produced when a sugar reacts with a protein in what is called a Maillard reaction."

Here's the simplified, comical version of the Maillard reaction breakdown from Serious Eats:





Why do we love the smell of bacon?

Meaty, salty, delicious and decadent  --  that's why. It's almost arousing. Everybody loves the smell of bacon, even vegetarians and vegans because a good smell is a good smell, regardless of your personal values. 


Why do we love the smell of garlic?

Garlic contains naturally occurring compounds that are released when crushed, giving it a dominant smell and taste. With the smell of sauteed garlic we automatically think of delicious dishes. It's a flavour enhancer that works in every savoury dish. The smell of cooking with garlic might even make you think you're somewhat of a Massimo Bottura  -- don't all Italian chefs use generous amounts of garlic in their cooking? Or is that a stereotype?


Why do we love the smell of coffee?

"According to science, it's because coffee contains molecules for almost every attractive scent, including sweet, spicy, fruity, floral, smoky and apparently even rotten cabbage (for those who are into that)." NextShark

There are well over 900 compounds that are created during the roasting process of coffee, which is how so many scents are developed, making coffee a universally appealing smell. A particular friend of mine that doesn't drink coffee describes the smell of it as making her feel less stressed in life. 


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