Food Aversions

Yes…almost like they’re undercooked yet.I do occasionally like over easy /sunny side up eggs…just not often and with the right things(like corned beef hash).

Hey, the nose ‘knows’!

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Funny you mention smoked stuff.

I made a risotto the other day where I wanted to try a heavy smoked paprika in the risotto.

I went overboard and I even though the risotto in every way was perfect, except the smoked paprika, I had to throw it out because the smoked paprika in it ruined the risotto.

However used in moderation I can appreciate smoked type of foods.
I don’t know how American bacon tastes, but I do enjoy smoked ham and lightly smoked Danish bacon.

I do in fact enjoy curries, but of course one can go overboard.

Besides my cooking & cookware hobby, my other hobby is traditional wet shaving (DE razors, blades, shaving soaps, shaving brushes etc.) and fragrances/perfumes.

I started my interest in fragrances & perfumes when I was 12-13 years and already had a collection of 50+ fragrances when I was 15.
Normally a guy would use fragrances to get the girls attention, but I soon realised wearing a great scent gave me a cozy relaxing feeling throughout the day.

Scents have always meant a lot to me.
I have a very delicate sense of smell.

In fact I work for a fragrance association and help them select notes and oil for fragrances - mostly mens fragrances.

So I guess that’s why scents in cooking plays such an important role to me.

If something smells off or the least bit rotten I immediately react and have to avoid using it.

I actually started my interest in cooking, because I got tired of paying too high prices for rather mediocre food at restaurants and I felt I could do a better job at home.

My mother was heavily into cooking too, so I knew I had some talent in me for home cooking.

I also know a bunch of professional chefs, and know how many of them handle the ingredients for the food they make, and I wanted to have more control over how the ingredients in the food I eat are handled.

For instance some restaurants will leave whole packs of butter out in the open kitchen for days. For days.
And this is a near the top level restaurant. I’ve seen other things, that I won’t mention here.

But let’s just say not all restaurants handle vegetables, herbs and raw meat the way they should.

Cheers, Claus

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Many years ago, we used to visit a lakeside resort. The microwave in the kitchen had a big sign plastered on the door stating 'NO CURRY! We didn’t know if they were referring to cooking a curry dish in there or reheating a take home from the local Thai restaurant. We didn’t mind the sweet smell of curry that obviously came from the the previous occupant, but when the resort tried to ding us for cooking curry in their microwave we politely reminded them of the written statement we gave when we rented the place that the microwave was splattered with food matter scented of curry spice . It took months for them to remove the surcharge. Wirh that much fuss they could have just replaced the itty bitty microwave. You live, you learn, adding yet another item to tic on your accomodation inspection. Jeez!

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I don’t think it’s within your control, but sometimes tastes change.

I’m still waiting for my sense of smell to change, so I can tolerate seafood, strong cheese and all kinds of oily fish :laughing:

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This is how I know some things are outside our control.

I still dislike mackerel.

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No sweat on calling me Greg. I’m not picky about my name; just don’t call me late for dinner. :wink:

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Agreed. There are so many foods in the world that we can’t possible taste, or even like, them all.
I think trying something once or twice, and even revisiting it later in life is good. If you like it then great! If not, there are sooooo many other things are out there to enjoy.

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Ug.


I know that for sure. At my final military duty station I had to inspect the restaurant contracted to feed breakfast and lunch to the young people who were there for physical exam to join the military or ready to ship out to basic training. The local authorities inspected routinely (I think 1/year), but at that time the feds required more frequent and unannounced inspections. The forms I used were essentially the same as the locals, and were very clear about which items were most important.

The guy who had my job before me was a very sloppy character. The medical lab was in complete disarray when I got there. I just zipped my lip and sent him packing back to the local base hospital he’d been on loan from, despite his superiors offering a handover period of several weeks to a month. He was similarly sloppy in his restaurant inspections. I nearly failed them on my first inspection. They got the major issues fixed by that evening, and most else fixed within a day or two, and thereafter scored 95-100% on all of my visits.

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I leave butter and bacon fat out on the counter, sometimes for weeks. But I don’t have to follow any health standards that apply to professional kitchens :relaxed:

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I don’t disagree. I know several people for whom the taste of cilantro has changed and they’re able to eat it now. And I know others who have also had the same experience as me - the soapy taste doesn’t go away. It is what it is. :slight_smile:

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Also, I wasn’t trying to make my aversion go away. I suddenly liked it.

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This is making me wonder about culantro. Have any of you cilantro-tastes-soapy folks tried it?

Common names include culantro (/kuːˈlɑːntroʊ/ or /kuːˈlæntroʊ/), recao, chadon beni (pronounced shadow benny), Mexican coriander, bhandhania, long coriander, sawtooth coriander, and ngò gai.

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Well in the old days butter was kept outside. You can’t get food poisoning from eating butter, which has turned bad - but it sure does affect the taste.

Restaurant kitchens normally will use butter in a rate so it shouldn’t be a problem storing it in a hot kitchen, but here they literally had dozen’s of pounds of butter sitting outside in a hot kitchen.
This will at some point pretty surely affect the taste of the butter and butter that has turned rancid tastes like sh*t to my taste pallet.

A profession kitchen should follow the guidelines from the authorities, especially a high end fancy restaurant kitchen.
And butter stays fresh for a longer time, when kept in the fridge.

My taste pallet reacts to butter, that has stayed out of the fridge for a long period. Yours obviously doesn’t.

But this is just one of the reasons why I prefer to handle my own ingredients and make my own food instead of paying high prices at quite often very overpriced mediocre restaurants, which are labelled as top restaurants.

Butter that has gone rancid tastes rancid to everyone :rofl:

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Ahhhh……you’re generalising here.

A really rancid pack of butter will cause most people to stay clear of it.

But there are many levels of rancid - and some people will notice the early stages of rancid before others.

I can for instance sense a milk going slightly rancid while my wife will not notice anything.

Same with a red wine.
I have time after time managed to taste red wines going over while both my brother and father have not been able to notice it. The day after, they both agreed that it was now undrinkable.

@maccrogenoff Ellen.

Ok, spoke with my 3rd daughter and we have very different memories, except we both agree the candy-cooking portion follows Alton Brown’s marshmallow recipe.

She says first time we used the water/liquid off of a can of canned chick peas (not CP boiling water as I said above). She said we concentrated that liquid by about a 1/4 reduction then whipped it with potato agar like you’d do egg whites. She says this made good texture marshmallows that tasted really bad - too much like chick peas.

She said the next time we skipped the chick pea water, instead whipped water, agar and xanthan gum and she says that one tasted good but was very wet when set and was almost impossible to cut into squares.

The third time (which I don’t recall at all) she said wasn’t actually vegan - apparently we used agar, xanthan gum, and watered egg whites and it turned out ok as to flavor and texture. But obvs not vegan.

Nothing like having a kid with good memory showing you up, I guess. Sorry. Until she got home tonight, I thought this was one of our great triumphs.

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Isn’t a small crock of bacon fat next to the stove a requirement in a Texan kitchen?

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Dunno… I’ve never been to TX.