BamaVol

What are the smells that make your mouth water?

Garlic - the smell of cooking garlic sets me off like nothing else. I love walking into an Italian restaurant.
Bread - a loaf baking in the oven is heavenly. I think bakeries use exhaust fans to attract business.
Grilled meat - I love it when my neighbors are grilling. Steak, chicken, pork, it doesn’t matter.

How about you?

Jaimito Cartero

Bread and grilling meats are some of my favorites!

fastflyer

Coffee -- I actually like the smell of dark coffee being brewed more than the taste of it.
Roasted root vegetables
Black pepper
Herbs in vinaigrette -- particularly tarragon or dill, and arugula
Tomato sauce cooked slowly
Meringue -- just as it browns. Similar to a marshmallow roasting

A smell that I have grown to dislike over time is eggs of any sort. Used to like them, now I have trouble eating them regardless of preparation

braslvr

That's tough. I like the smell of almost all food cooking. Grilling or BBQing/smoking meat would probably be at the top. I also really like the smell of most fast food especially the deep fryer. Chinese stir frying in a super hot wok... I even like the smell of cabbage cooking. Only common smell I really dislike is coffee.

corky

All of the above plus BACON!
I love the smell of coffee but hate the taste. Cinnamon is a yummy aroma too.

BuildingMyBento

The three that immediately come to mind are unaju, croissants, and pandan.

YVR Cockroach

Toasted dried fish, fermented tofu, toasted belacan.

Duke787

All of the above (especially coffee and fresh bread smells). Additions to the list: Homemade pasta sauce cooking on the stove (both marina and bolognese), chili and pulled pork cooking in the slow cooker, caramelizing onions

Finkface

Same. Love the smell of coffee and bacon. The taste, not so much.

corky

I didn't say that I didn't like the taste of bacon....I love bacon!!
When I was a kid I loved the smell of gasoline & used to stick my head out & inhale when my dad would stop for gas.

trooper

Bacon.
Coffee (even though I do NOT drink it!) I'd buy a spray can of "fresh brewed coffee smell" for my house....
Bread!!! Oh yes. In the Persian Gulf in 90/91 my Cooks baked bread onboard (shore supplied ran out too quickly anyway) .What a heavenly smell to wake up to!

LapLap

Fresh lemon - from the zest or the juice

That particular “tang” that emerges whilst baking something made from fermented ingredients (like a sourdough starter or two day old milk yudane/tangzhong). The smell of regular bread cooking is fine, but when it has this extra element I find it intoxicating and wind up spending half the time its baking on my haunches by the oven inhaling this airborne elixir.

Love the smell of cooked mushrooms (particularly when made with garlic) but some mushroom aromas are transcendental. Matsutake so much so that I consider it an aphrodisiac

Again - the scent of rice as it cooks is lovely, but some kinds of rice release exceptionally agreeable and mouthwatering smells into the kitchen.

The smell of capsicum peppers frying in a decent extra virgin olive oil, or sliced potatoes and onions in olive oil waiting for their egg overlord to enrobe them, make my home feel deliciously Spanish.

Using dashi (kelp kombu and bonito flake stock) along with shoyu/soy sauce, sake and mirin as an immersion bath for nabe or oden or any other innumerable dishes reasserts my house as unmistakably Japanese territory.

The heady combination of roast meat, potatoes and carrots and a ballooning Yorkshire pudding in the oven, simmering green beans and the craft of gravy making reminds me I’m in England.

And then there is the elegance and beauty of good green tea.

work2fly

Freshly ground coffee
Sauteed garlic, like when making aglio e olio
Pretty much anything braised in stock and wine

BamaVol

Well, I've been reminded of a few. Bacon, of course. Frying peppers and onions. Ogles on the Parkway in Gatlinburg fries peppers and onions to be served on sausage in a bun in front of open windows year round. The smell can reach you from blocks away. Bakery smells are heavenly but I also love the smell of yeast working on dough. Coffee, yes but the Keurig doesn't produce enough aroma. A pot is necessary. Look forward to warmer weather when I make a pot every other day for iced coffee. The herbs from the garden: rosemary and basil especially. Roasting nuts, popcorn. The list grows.

teddybear99

Outside of food aromas, I love the smell of wood burning from fireplaces, only really smelling it when it gets cold here in SFLA..