Scent: Oven dinners. Question for you: What has the all time best cooking aroma in your house?

[SamuelAt]

I am making Eggplant Parmesan and it smells absolutely amazing in my home. I'll even go so far as to say I am proud! It made me consider: is this the best cooking smell coming from my oven ever? Hard to say. Roast Chicken is high on the list. My mom made a beef stew that my cat would sit in front of the stove just to savor the smell of. Obviously, desserts fit the list too, but I was thinking of dinner items. But whatever. Right now the Eggplant is wonderful, but I think if I had to pick an ALL TIME favorite I would say a roast chicken and yams. What is your favorite oven cooking aroma?

[sebetti]

I made apple butter this weekend from homemade applesauce - it was pretty incredible smelling.

[jcattles]

For me it's a combination of onions, mushrooms, pancetta or bacon, & thyme sauteeing together.

[CreativeFoodie42]

A few nights ago I made pork chops with roasted apples and butternut squash. It was an amazing aroma of the pork with the sweet apples and squash in the oven. Hello Fall!

[iluvcookies]

According to DH: Roast Turkey, pecan pie, or chocolate chip cookies.
According to me: sweet potatoes and banana bread.
According to my FIL: anything I put on the plate in front of him :)

[middydd]

Apple pie!!

[iluvcookies]

Apple is one pie that I never make myself, but the scent is heavenly.

[Popkin]

Garlic soup. Sautee'd garlic and parsley in simmering beef broth. Elliot always gets a little lilt in his step when he opens the door and gets that wave of aromatic love :)

For sweets, it would be chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. They are done as soon as you can smell them. I don't know what's better, the smell, or the fact that the smell means they're ready to eat :D

[1stmakearoux]

Bacon, onions, garlic....separately or in any combination

[tonina_mdc]

Savory...Pork roast w/garlic cloves tucked inside slits. Aromatic and delicious.

Baked...I can't pick one. There are so many lovely things that smell so good.

[Val]

True about the baked goods, tonina...especially anything with spices as one poster mentioned the gingersnap cookies. I finally FOUND some canned pumpkin at Wal-mart here in SWFL...made pumpkin bread the other night and my son came inside and said "Whatever you baked, I can smell the aroma out in the garage!" Fresh homecooked bread, too, of course, drives everyone wild.

[CreativeFoodie42]

I made my first pumpkin bread the other night and that definitely made my boyfriend very happy to come home to!

[tonina_mdc]

I have never actually made my own bread (I've only had the option and opportunity to do any sort of normal baking for about a year), but I have hear it's one of the best smells in the world. But I'm with you on the pumpkin bread. I made two loaves of pumpkin gingerbread for my husband to take to work last week and the whole house smelled heavenly. Cinnamon sour cream coffee cake this week...mmmmmm.

Fruit-based baked goods can smell wonderful too, like blueberry zucchini bread ; it just smells so fresh and summery and blueberry-ish! I'm going to be thinking of that all winter, even while I revel in harvest and holiday treats for the next few months.

[CreativeFoodie42]

Yes, smelling my first pumpkin bread of the season in the oven is a sure sign of fall in my house!

[tonina_mdc]

Isn't it funny how much we associate certain times of year with certain food scents? For me, summer is marinated chicken or brats on the grill, blueberry zucchini bread, the smell of fresh herbs in my garden, and my mother's strawberry bread. Autumn is my first hearty pasta sauce, with lots of fresh herbs and home-grown tomatoes, green peppers, and sometimes onions, all simmering away on the stove. It's also things like pumpkin bread, pumpkin rolls, and all kinds of baked goods that use apples. I love this time of year! So many good scents, so little time....

[CreativeFoodie42]

Absolutely! The scents of roasted chicken or turkey, hearty soups, and apple/pumpkin baked goods are sure signs of fall. In fact, I'm off apple picking today and the apple cake I'm making tomorrow will probably add to that! :-)

[shaogo]

Roast Chicken, particularly if I have onions, carrots and celery cooking in the pan (for stock/gravy).

My very favorite's not from the oven: Hot mulled apple cider with cinnamon, allspice and cloves (and a little brown sugar). I make this by the gallon in the fall at our restaurant -- spiked with one's favorite spirit the cider beats a plain old hot toddy any day.

[Rick]

Fresh bread for me.

[mitchell25418]

Hands down - Roasted Garlic!

[meatn3]

Roast lamb.

Turkey a very close second!

[Gio]

For me it's roasting turkey, baking bread, and pumpkin pie. Although I could add gingerbread baking in the oven also. Oh... and maybe a really spicy vegetable stir-fry with all the usual ingredients. Then there's the huge pot of meat laden tomato sauce on a slow burner simmering away for hours. Haven't done that since forever, though, but the memory lingers on.

[tzurriz]

I think it is baking bread, but my husband would swear that it is gumbo, each stage of gumbo in fact.

First the nutty smell of the roux, then the onions, celery, and peppers cooking, then the sausage sauteeing in the roux, and then finally everything together with the stock, garlic, spices, okra, etc.

Whenever I make gumbo, he talks about how wonderful the house smells the entire time, and if I know he's had a bad day, I'll make it so that when he gets home he's hit with the smell. He says he can smell it 1/2 way down the block! :)

[soypower]

Bacon

[CreativeFoodie42]

While eggplant parm or lasagna or any other yummy red sauce dish was going to be my initial answer, I'd have to agree....there is nothing better than waking up to the smell of bacon cooking in the oven!

[Harters]

Roast chicken

[phantomdoc]

Any bird that mom would roast, Chicken , duck and especially Turkey with her 4 hour to prepare bread stuffing. Now for me, Kasha with lots of onions slow cooked in butter. Last time I made some kasha and gave some to my sister, she told me a story. She had just eaten some and her BF came to visit, He said you smell delicious. I think onions cooking in butter as a start for Lox , eggs and onions, or garlic cooking in olive oil as a start for almost anything are sublime. Aroma of steaming corned beef for a few hours makes me woozy.
Freshly baking bread or cake is hard to resist. I guess that's the start of the attraction of Pizza, especially with garlic and basil. I think the cinnabon phenomenon is mostly smell. Popcorn is great too.

[LaLa]

of corse roast chicken but also roasted pork butt...yum

[bayoucook]

Roast chicken and holiday meals: glazed ham, turkey and dressing.

[Paula76]

For me, it's the smell of curry or a tagine. The slow cooking process and the combination of spices pervades the house with mesmerising aromas for hours. I also love the smell of onions and garlic being sautéed.

[slewfoot]

Easy. The smell of roasting peppers.

[Chefpaulo]

For pure nostalgia, definitely Christmas Day. Mom made Madeleine Kamman's French onion soup that was served early afternoon so we had that aroma to start the festivities. For the remainder of the afternoon, the turkey aroma took over, embellished by the spice of baking brandied peaches.

While no longer eating pork, mom's pork and sauerkraut ( with mashed potatoes and applesauce) would have us writhing in famished agony until dinner.
CP

[shaebones]

Pot Roast! No doubt about it.

[cuccubear]

Pot Roast indeed is at the top for me, along with Corn Beef and Cabbage.

[Janet]

Turkey roasting with dressing cooking with it. Thanksgiving tops all wonderful aromas coming from the kitchen. Putting the turkey in and waking up to the smell of it is wonderful. Of course now turkeys don't have to cooks so long. So we don't need to cook it all night. I miss that.

[Emme]

Roast Chicken, as others have mentioned.

Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread... I don't like to eat it, but it always makes the house smell like holidays.

Chocolate Chip Cookies or Oatmeal Cookies or Brownies

Caramelized Onions and garlic

Baked Roasted Soy Nuts - pre-soaked, then sprinkled with salt, onion powder and baked til golden and crunchy

[justalex]

Wow! It's too hard to choose just one. Cinnamon rolls, brownies and chocolate chip cookies always smell great on the sweet side of things. I'm with a lot of people on Thanksgiving turkey. The anticipation is almost unbearable when I open the oven to baste the bird. Lately, my favorite is carnitas. The scent of all that fatty, porky goodness cooking down with onions and garlic is so fantastic.

[AussieBeth]

Most popular in my house is my sausage rolls - people go crazy over the smell (and the anticipation of eating them - I have been known to burn my tongue from eating them straight out of the oven!)

[adamshoe]

@ AussieBeth, Your answer had me so intrigued I had to google sausage rolls. You make the traditional Aussie type; aka Toad in the Hole? They sound mighty good....got a recipe you'd care to share? adam

[CookieWeasel]

It's a tie between a well-buttered roasting turkey and baking bread. How does anyone pick just one favorite?

[Vetter]

Is it cheating if I say the smell of french onion soup just finishing under the broiler? Oh, how I loved the smell of the kitchen on french onion soup days. I have got to figure out how to do that one gluten free so I can eat it again.

[SamuelAt]

No cheat at all! That sounds amazing and I can "picture" it!

[adamshoe]

Nach Waxman's Beef Brisket! Makes my whole house and entire neighborhood (!) smell like Jewish Heaven (even tho' there's no such thing...). Second on Sam's roast chicken. Third on baking anything-bread, cinnamon rolls, or choco-chip cookies; which I'm about to pop in the oven in an hour or two. adam

[SamuelAt]

I hear you. Roast chicken wins for me - when you bake a yam with it the scent is incredible!

[roro1831]

Sweet potato in the oven, the smell is just wonderful

[SamuelAt]

I agree! For me, because I grew up with that - especially in cold months, that aroma spells comfort. I think I will be making that Sunday.

[Val]

Would HAVE to be roast turkey, hands down, in our little family. Sons can barely contain themselves before I pull it out of the oven.

[cycloneillini]

The roast turkey on Thanksgiving Day. Either that or my MIL's lasagne.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Simple roast chicken always seems to get the most attention.