Big Bill’s List of Foods That Smell Bad While Cooking

I have a weird sense of smell. I actually like the odor of hot tar. I don't mind the scent of a disturbed skunk. Fresh turned dirt doesn't turn my stomach BUT there are some cooking food smells that will make me worship the ceramic god every time. How do you feel about these?...

Stewing Chicken

Do people actually stew chicken anymore? My mom did and I usually looked forward to it, until a bizarre high school science experiment ruined it forever for me. We had a weird biology teacher whose cat had died. He thought it would be interesting to boil the meat off the kitty carcass and then re-construct the bones like the dinosaurs at the Smithsonian. Using our school science lab, he began his experiment using a Bunsen burner and a huge pot of water. The smell was horrible. Students started to get sick from the smell that made its way to every room in the school. After a few days the school principal called a halt to the undertaking, but the damage was done. The day the research experiment ended, I came home from school to find mother stewing chicken which is exactly like cooking a cat but with a chicken. It certainly smelled the same. It's been 60 years since the cat incident, and I still get ill when I smell anything close to chicken stewing. You can fry, grill, bake, roast and broast the bird but once it hits boiling water---I'm gonna puke.

Cabbage

Yeah --- those things. In their raw form cabbages are wonderful. Get out your Clean Cutter, shred a batch of cabbage and mix in sugar, vinegar and mayo; and I could make a meal out of coleslaw.   BUT when you boil cabbage, your whole house smells like mother nature had a BM in the kitchen.

Brussels sprouts

Those little devils are like tiny cabbages. They're not too bad grilled, but don't try cooking them in the house especially in boiling water. They are nature's little tiny BMs.

Burned popcorn

This is just nasty. The worst is burned popcorn in microwave cooking bags. That odor will eat up Glade, Airwick, Febreze, incense or anything else. If you, unfortunately, do screw up and burn a bag, just go ahead and burn down the rest of the house.

Hot dog water

Yeah, I known the wiener mobile is cute and hot dogs are tasty, but I cook them on the outside grill or in the air fryer. Hot dog water is gross and should not be tolerated in a civilized society.

Many years ago right here at WKDQ I made my smoked sausage/sauerkraut lunch in the break room microwave. The smell found its way all over the building including the upstairs offices. I have lasted over 25 years employed at WKDQ after that incident; but it was touch and go for a few days.

Boiled eggs

Many years ago I worked at a radio station with a sports reporter who insisted on eating boiled eggs with me in the control room after his sportscast. Boiled eggs opened in a small enclosed space with no windows smell so bad that the odor could have been used by the Germans in WWI. The smell is worse if it's someone else's eggs.

Parmesan cheese

This is some tasty stuff if it's grated on spaghetti or pizza, but have you ever just smelled a little piece at room temp? When I played football in high school it was a badge of honor to not wash your practice uniform from the first fall practice through the last game. The smell was the same as parmesan cheese. If you didn't play football---sniff the bottom of your closet.

Sushi

This is raw fish. It's not food---it's bait.  Eat it without breathing.

So, there's my list of favorites--what's yours?