apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Fish.

Cabbage.

Beets.

I can't think of one that I truly dislike.

If beans bother you, don't do them on the stove. A crock pot works well and doesn't take anywhere near the monitoring the stove does. And if you don't have a crock pot, an oven with an all metal or ceramic pot works wonders - set it at 200 or 250 degrees F and leave it alone.

Apologies to those who love it, but for me there is no food smell on this earth that is more foul than a Durian. I can only imagine cooking with it . More like shudder in horror.

If that doesn't count as cooking then I'd have to go with stinky tofu, which is essentially tied with Durian.

It would have to be cured meats being heated on the stovetop... they tend to smell of wet dog.

My mother used to make tuna croquettes. Everyone loved them, everyone but me--it was the smell. She used to wait until I went away to camp before she would make them for my dad and herself. Then it just became a thing, everytime I was out of the house they were having tuna croquettes for dinner. To this day, I can't be in their house when she's making them.

Burnt water.
Have you ever put a pot of water on to boil, gone upstairs, started reading and totaly forgot about it? Well I have, and maybe it's becuase I have well water which has more minerals in it than city water, but when I finally rememebred what I'd done all teh water had evaporated away adn what was left was one of the worst smells ever. The piot had brown crust in it little bubble shapes and this burt smell like i've never experinced before. Also really bad kitchen smells, burnt onions and bad shell fish.

Living in an apartment building, the food smells that bother me most are those from other people's kitchens. The people who lived below us used to start cooking dinner foods on Sunday mornings, and our whole house would smell like pot roast or fish at 10 in the morning. They also grilled every night in the summer, and so we could never use our porch just to hang out on in the evening because we'd be smoked out. Yuck! I am really glad they moved out, to be replaced by a single woman who never cooks! Yeah!

Broccoli. I like to eat it; I just don't like to smell it. On the days when we ordered Chinese food for lunch at the office, we had to ban broccoli, because the smell lingered for the rest of the day (and it bothered other people besides me).

boiling chicken. it smells so awful - heavy and greasy - and the smell lingers forever. (come to think of it, most things don't smell great when they're boiling. wonder why that is?)

Cauliflower

eggs.

eggs as well.

Cabbage cooking.

Microwaved eggs.

Cauliflower cooking.

Greens cooking.

Canned mushrooms.

A Filipino dish called paksiw--boiled pickled fish. Foods cooked in or with vinegar in general make me shudder a bit, at least at first. Also, sea anemones that my parents would collect at a local rock beast and cook up.

Bacon. I can't stand the smell, and I can't stand the way it lingers. (I realize this puts me in a distinct minority.)

Beer battered anything. Smells Rancid. And anything that lingers for a few days, like frying things in peanut oil.

Seafood of any kind. Yuck!

Used coffee grounds...at any age over about 10 minutes.

Hard-cooked eggs -- nasty.

My roommate hates when i cook with a cumin or garlic.

My co-worker makes daily concoctions of canned chicken mixed with frozen meals (South Beach Diet, Lean Cuisine). I don't know which smell it is exactly, but when he's microwaving them together, I feel queasy.

Old bacon. Husband cooked some up once...never again.

Fish sauce! Especially when you put it in a nearly-empty hot pan. Eeeeeccch.

the smell of boiled kidney or liver, not a fav

microwave popcorn

Ditto on stewing chicken and beans, too.

Lamb. Blech. (Love eating it though).

When I add fish sauce to something. I don't mind the end result, but when that sauce hits the hot wok, I have to turn my head.

hamburgers. Every time I say I'm not going to cook them inside ever again, and I end up doing it anyways. I can cook steak inside and not smoke up or stink up the whole house, but for some reason...hamburgers. doesn't matter if the windows are open or fans are on, it just leaves this heavy, greasy, hamburger smell that lasts long after the delicious burger dinner has been consumed. Some fish, like salmon, do the same thing, but its the burgers that really get to me.

Its not the smell of the food, its that the smell won't go away, and I don't want to still smell it hours later while I'm having tea and a cookie before bed!

BACON. bleh, ew, gross. hate hate hate it.

Wesaturtle: I agree. Oh dear, if it's just the slightest bit beyond it's date, there's no worse smell. And on those mornings when you just want it so bad, and then can't eat it. Heartbreaking.

Worse, perhaps, than that?
The lingering stench of fondue oil. We hermetically seal all of our fabrics before hosting a fondue party, otherwise smell of peanut oil for weeks.

microwave popcorn and ground beed right when it's just turning grey. Once the meat has been browned, it's dandy.

I like most smells now.

When I was a kid the smell of green peppers baking made me gag. Now I love them, but at the time...ooh, it almost made me pass out. My mother was wonderful about food likes/dislikes. She never expected us to eat something we didn't like. She always offered one alternative--it was Campbells Tomato Soup (well, two, peanut butter & jelly). Oddly enough I now eat almost everything. BUT...

My dad would occasionally cook brains when I was a kid. They had a particular smell I didn't like. I remember coming home,wondering what the smell was, lifting a pot lid on the stove and seeing a little brain in there and I screamed and threw the lid across the kitchen and RAN from the room. That is the one food I don't think i could ever try.

brussel sprouts.... there's this strange 'after-smell'....ew

boiled red cabbage!

eggs, boiled chicken/kidney, brocolli (love it but it lingers too long), fish, popcorn, burnt flour tortillas -my dad always burns them

Sometimes, like at 7:00am my roommate will start is day off with bacon and eggs. The smell lingers into my bedroom while I'm sleeping, wakes me up, and makes me want to puke!

Meat. I'm a vegetarian because of the smell and texture of meat. I could care less about little animals. They should all be made into boots. (And nothing smells worse than tanning hides, but that's not a kitchen task.) My husband is not veg, but luckily, he can't cook, so aside from the occasional bacon I'm pretty safe at home.

Charlotte - very funny story.

English muffins. As a kid they made me gag, as an adult they make me wrinkle my nose. I can eat them as long as the scent is masked my something else.

Oh, you're right, I forgot about fish sauce. There are a bunch of people at work who all eat stuff cooked in it for lunch, and you can't go into the cafeteria for at least an hour afterwards.

Another vote for microwave popcorn. The darn smells lingers for hours!

cabbage a close second!

oh god - poaching chicken. b-a-r-f. but it tastes good!

one of my favorite indian dishes calls for asafedita powder. i always brave it but getting it into the pan is a rough moment.

Eggs cooked in a cast iron pan. They don't bother me too much when they're cooking, but I can never seem to get the wet-dog smell off of the pan. Gross!