I wouldn’t say that I necessarily enjoy cooking, but I do and I’m told by those who love me that I’m a fairly decent cook. And as you can imagine, cooking without a sense of smell presents the occasional difficulty. Mistakes will be made; things will burn. But I’ve got to say the most frustrating thing for an anosmic to encounter while in the kitchen is a recipe instruction that relies entirely on one’s sense of smell.
For example, I have a recipe for barley tea. It’s not a complicated recipe for anyone to follow really; it requires a grand total of two ingredients: barley and water. What I find frustrating is the instruction for roasting the barley:
“To roast the barley, heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add barley. Stirring constantly, cook until barley becomes pleasingly fragrant.”
What the heck does pleasingly fragrant mean?! How long does it take for something to become pleasingly fragrant?
After much trial and error, I settled on cooking the barley for five minutes (medium heat) on the thought that it takes me five minutes to wash the necessary parts of myself in order to become “pleasingly fragrant” in the shower. It should be the same for barley, right? :-)
- Dec 4, 06:14 PM
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1 · Monica Bratt · Dec 20, 05:42 AM
I found your article very interesting. Do you think that a cookery book for people without a sense of smell, containing flavoursome recipes and clear explanations, would be useful?
If so, what sort of ingredients (for flavour and texture) and basic instructions you believe that should be included.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Monica