For about 6 months in 1985, I stayed with a family of 5 in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The wife was the husband’s 2nd wife and was pregnant with their first child. In lieu of paying rent, I took care of the housework and cooking for the family because certain smells gave the wife terrible morning sickness. One of the absolute worst smells for her was rice cooking (coffee brewing…even making instant coffee was hard for her. Because the smell of cooking rice was so bad for her, we had to keep the rice cooker on the balcony. Once her morning sickness went away, I moved out.
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Pork souvlaki
Apple crisp
Roast duck
Porchetta
Pumpkin pie
- fried potatoes and onions
- rice
- pepperoni and mushroom pizza
- chili (not Texas style or that stuff called chili from Ohio)
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Roasting chestnuts
Anything baked, especially of the sweet variety
Zongzi
Steamed corn
Dorayaki
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Any kind of cooking tells me that someone cares enough about me to cook for me (even if its me).
I love all of the above. .but the smell of coffee and cigarettes puts me sitting on my grandma’s lap in the mornings, dunking buttered toast in her coffee while my grandpa read the paper. It’s the only time I dont mind the smell of cigarettes.
Onions, garlic in butter or, even better, schmaltz
Bacon
Basil
Rib roast in oven
Turkey in oven
Anything baking
I’m sure there are more
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In that vein (not a rice person at all), the starchy scent of pasta boiling.
The OP question divides for me–favorite VS comforting. And there’s also “come hither”, most inviting.
Fresh baked bread or patisserie is close to a trifecta for me.
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agree with many of these
but if I had to pick one . . . .
onions in butter, every time for me.
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It’s the first thing that came to mind for me, too.
I wonder what that’s all about.
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Costco is your friend! (As long as you don’t mind buying it in 50lb bags, that is.)
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Oh man. I don’t eat much rice, but maybe. How can you tell it’s the new crop?
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Chicken broth when fresh lovage is in it.
Baking bread, cookies, cakes…
Meats on the smoker
Not favourite, but comforting because I know i’ll really enjoy it later: coffee roasting
Freshly cut citrus
I’m also in the onions cooking camp. +1 if there’s also smoky bacon involved.
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garlic sauteing in EVOO
bread baking
meat or chicken braising in tomato sauce
pancakes frying in butter
stock simmering
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I’ll add chicken roasting in the oven with garlic and herbs such as sage and rosemary…
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The first bags of the new harvest have that yellow circle on them. Years ago, they used to be stickers, IIRC, but now it’s just printed on the bag. I’ve seen other brands that have a ‘new crop’ designation, too, but since I pretty much only buy 40 or 50 lbs at a time, I don’t know if smaller bags bear the marker or not.
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I can’t think of anything that smells better than bread baking in the oven (maybe the smell of gin as it passes under my nose on the way to my mouth, but that isn’t cooking). It evokes childhood memories of a slice of warm bread, butter, brown sugar and clotted cream. Butter and cream from Bossy, our cow.
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I think my DNA is half onion (I know, I know). I could eat an entire pan of onions in butter. Aldo, the smell — ground or roasted — of coffee. Soup. Roasting poultry. Brisket — but only for a short time. I def. Don’t like lingering smells after I’m done and the food has been eaten. Especially later on or the next day. On with the fans!
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No one’s mentioned fried chicken yet…
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Yes, the pre-meal smell is usually far more welcome than the lingering post-meal smell. That’s where open windows and incense come in 
Also, you love onions? Have you tried Ottolenghi’s miso butter onions yet? If not, you must!!!
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