Scent Advent Calendar
- juliesmithaawl
- Dec 20, 2022
- 18 min read
December 1
Day one of the scent advent calendar is star anise. It’s the star of the smell I voted best of all market smells - Pho. Even vegans cannot resist its exotic olfactory allure. It must be the star anise.
Said to be best in spicy Chinese food, star anise is also used to infuse sweet things with a licorice flovour. Ian Hemphill recommends spiced chocolate brownies. I once made an exceptional tonic water from scratch using a Matt Moran recipe and the star anise floated on the top like a pretty decoration.
The last photo here is from the book The Art and Science of FoodPairing and they have more suggestions on how to use the very Xmas looking spice.
Even if you just put some on the table to smell how and then as you are organising your festivities you will have made good use of smell number one from the scent advent calendar #olfaction #spices #flavour #xmas #adventcalendar #smellallthethings #braintraining
December 2
Day 2 in the scent advent calendar is orange blossom water. Popular with royalty who scented their sheets with it, it is the distilled perfume from the flowers of the bitter orange tree. The essential oil is neroli. Orange blossom water is probably one of the things you will not make yourself, unless you have access to very large quantities of orange blossoms and big distillation equipment, so you buy what someone else very far from you has slaved to produce because they believe in it and its beauty. Partly because of these people and because the real thing also tastes better you should try to find a natural one. An Australian Xmas isn’t complete without some middle eastern treats, and for that you need orange blossom water.
The recipes here are from the books Suqar by Greg and Lucy Malouf, Floral Libations by Cassie Winslow and the chart is again from The Art and Science of Food Pairing, which of course has more suggestions for orange blossoms #scent #adveventcalender #smellallthethings #itsbeginningtosmellalotlikexmas #braintraining #spices #perfume #olfaction
December 3
Day 3 in the scent advent calendar is curry leaf. Look at how very Christmas it is! Really the best living thing to decorate your festive table with and the best part is it smells incredible. And no, it smells nothing like Keens curry powder which is a smell I love and one that always reminds me of the curried sausages my mother made when I was a kid. Of course I would never eat that now. My curries are made with all the individual spices that make up a curry, even the galangal which moderates the spices when I prefer things to be very intense. And I’m not going to explain what curry leave does smell like to me because my brain does not smell things in the same way your brain does and to explain that further I would need to get out all the intricate science which is not the tone of Christmas. Just go out and buy curry leaf and smell it and you will know what it smells like. But let me say this, curry leaf is one of my favourite smells and it has crept into my perfect life fantasy where you have all the delightful things and a curry tree on your property. #scent#adventcalendar#xmas#xmastable#olfaction#smellallthethings#braintraining#curryleaf
December 4
Why is is the Empire State Building in Day 4 of the scent advent calendar I hear you ask. It’s relevant and it explains how good nutmeg really is. The Dutch once swapped their group of islands in Indonesia where nutmeg grew with the British for Manhattan New York. Yes that’s right, people were that crazy for nutmeg. So why aren’t they now? Part of it might be that people don’t grate their own nutmeg because if you did you might start to understand why you would trade one of the best cities in the world for it. It is also partly a story about fads, that things go in and out of style but not for the people who really love the thing because they will just keep doing it regardless of the money or parties or wars or whatever. So you should grate some whole nutmeg today to get into the Xmas mood because everyone knows from watching American tv shows that eggnog is what you have at Xmas and nutmeg is they key ingredient in eggnog. In the batter section of Niki SEGNIT’S amazing book Lateral Cooking she suggests an eggnog French toast. If you are vegan you can hunt for a vegan French toast recipe to get the vegan food science- what to swap with what to get a similar result - and then go back to Gourmet Traveller for the actual recipe because, apart from raw vegan chefs, vegan cooking is 70s cookbook terrible, especially at Xmas. The last photo is from@the current Gourmet Traveller #gourmettraveller #nutmeg #scent #adventcalendar #xmas #eggnog #smellallthethings #braintraining #olfaction
December 5
We are smoking on day 5 of the scent advent calendar. At least we are smoking the way I do it, in a small apartment after a long period of raw veganism. To smoke we use liquid smoke which has no added nasties and makes anything you add it to taste right off the barbie. My favourite things to use liquid smoke in is tahini sauce, which is just water, tahini paste and lemon juice but so so creamy, and with a little liquid smoke it tastes like a proper babaganoush made by an Israeli holding her eggplants over the naked gas stove flame.
Liquid smoke is essential when making coconut bacon too which a raw vegan chef once described to me as being basically crack. It is very good and makes a very festive salad.
I’ve added a recipe from a German cookbook I love here as an example of something begging to be smoked. With liquid smoke you have the power and you should use it at Xmas.
Humans love smelling food on the fire because the smell lets us know the food is safe to eat, that the nasty stuff has been killed by the flames. We humans cooked with fire for so long that our ancient brains don’t need any more information than a hint of smoke and we know we are celebrating with food. When Australia was on fire for a year I wondered if that would change but some programming can’t be undone. Australians in particular love a bbq.
The last pages here are from the unbelievably excellent book Nosedive with some interesting science about smoke.
December 6
Day 6 of the scent advent calendar is coffee. If you don’t like drinking coffee maybe the smell won’t do much for you except make you more alert. Science says that just a sniff of coffee can wake you up and there are times we all need that. But if you love coffee you have super-smelling ability when it comes to locating your next cup, but science didn’t really need to pay for the research to know that. The researchers also tell us that you can sell more things if the smell of coffee is in the air so if you are trying to move product before Xmas day 6 of the advent calendar has what you need.
Being an Olfactionist (yes it’s a word and now post-covid a legitimate career choice) I make my own specialty coffees. One is tonka bean coffee with tonka beans I grind with a mortar and pestle and I call it billionaire’s coffee because it tastes that good. My other perfumed coffee is a Moroccan coffee with 11 special spices including the very difficult to find mastic tears that only form on the lentisque trees in Chios. So romantic.
Buying presents for people who love coffee is pretty easy. You can buy them specialty coffees, coffee equipment like the latest Alessi, coffee books etc and they will always love it.
There are pages here from The World Atlas of Coffee, which shows the coffee tree flowers which apparently smell like jasmine but how would we know? The book also tells you how to smell coffee like a person who is not just addicted to the caffeine and actually has an interest in the aroma compounds.
And we also have in the photos a recipe for a coffee cinnamon sauce from Matthew Kenney’s book Everyday Raw Gourmet. Matthew Kenney has restaurants everywhere and there aren’t many people who would turn their nose up at one of his plant based dishes. He’s such a thing I’ve written him into my vegan horror comedy screenplay. Boring vegans who try to ruin Xmas with the bloodbath talk over the roast should just make some Matthew Kenney dishes and put the animal products to shame. #coffee
December 7
We’ve hit red gold on day 7 of the scent advent calendar, which is the very precious saffron.
Saffron is expensive but there’s a reason for that. It needs a very specific climate to grow and then it needs to be hand picked and then an actual human person needs to takes the red threads from the pretty purple flower to set aside for more preparation before it gets to you local convenience store. Saffron growers are having a hard time because of climate change and there is now an Israeli company making it the lab so it won’t disappear altogether but the saffron growers from Kashmir and Iran and Morocco have been doing this for a long time and their knowledge and tradition is held in each fragrant saffron thread.
Saffron smells incredible and it could easily be given as a gift in a nice little box. Leaving a box of it on the table to smell before a dinner course would be a fun way to force your guests to appreciate the incredible ingredients you use in the things you prepare for them.
Saffron is also a very Xmas colour, at least until you cook it.
Pages here are from the book My Aromatic Kitchen, a book I love from Kille Enna who really knows her aromas, and the saffron gin recipe is from Heidi Swanson’s book Near & Far #saffron #scent #adventcalendar #kashmir #spice #perfume #smellallthethings #braintraining
December 8
A sharp reminder that it’s not Xmas yet, day 8 of the scent advent calendar smells like vinegar. Maybe you have kidney disease or diabetes? Science says your sweat can smell like vinegar if you’re sick with these things so check it out if you smell it outside the kitchen.
Ok, this isn’t sounding very festive but that’s vinegar for you. The smell of vinegar kind of embosses the sweet things though, to put it in design terms. Sweet is pretty good but it becomes exceptional after vinegar.
And anyway you need acid for food science. The best thing I learned being raw vegan is that vinegar or lemon juice can completely change a thing. It makes cashews into cream and with that you can make all the cheese. Cheese is amazing and even better if it doesn’t stop your heart which is where raw vegan cheese comes in.
The book Nosedive (two pages here) tells us that vinegar helps keep mustard hot. Making mustard is so great because it tastes amazing and you can feel self righteous about making your own condiments. But don’t give homemade mustard as a gift because it’s just too school fete. Tracklements does the best Dijon mustard and they have sets that are great gifts.
Pages here from Harvard online educate us on vinegar and its uses and there’s a also a recipe from one of my favourite cookbooks that you should definitely own called Raw by Omid Jaffari #scent #adventcalendar #vinegar #acid #xmasiscoming #olfaction #smellallthethings December 9
On day 9 of the scent advent calendar is salt to have with the vinegar from day 8. But this is the caviar of salts, called the flower of salts, and it smells to me like somewhere between coconut, rice and vanilla on the way to the sea. It smells really good actually and I’ve never been that convinced reading perfume reviews that salt was a scent, unless we are talking about black salt which is sulphuric and all the terrible, but fluer de sel proves me wrong.
Salt brings out the flavour of food and most people know that a tomato is not really a tomato without salt. Salt also makes sweet things sweeter and I found some science about that but it was too confusing - something about the salt taking the glucose to where it needs to go faster. But we have so much time at Xmas so no need to rush the sugar or anything.
Pages here are from the book Nature’s Larder by Daniel De La Falaise and a margarita recipe from gourmet traveller magazine.
Your festive table will be so impressive with this fancy scented salt and it is a must for any decadent Xmas sweet like caramels, cookies, roast pineapple or banana slices and pancakes #scent #adventcalendar #salt #smellallthethings #gourmetraveller
December 10
Day 10 of the scent advent calendar is Lakritze, which is licorice is German. Ian Hemphill’s third edition of his spice and herb bible gives you the name of spices in all the languages, which is profound really because a lot of the history of spices, like the spices used in the biblical incense, is uncertain because we have known these things by so many names through time and place. If you are having international guests at your festive table you might like to introduce the key spices of the dish in their native tongue.
Licorice root is used in candy and in some alcohol like stout beer and sambuca. I recently made a stout beer oat bread after watching a Nigella video and it was pretty good. Nigella Xmas videos are what I always go to for festive cooking inspo and I particularly love her style of just piling all the ridiculously fattening things into a bowl for one big decadent treat. You can do that with your licorice candy and all the raw vegan cakes and biscuits and creams and probably won’t even regret it when you next put on the little black dress.
You can also get licorice tobacco and while I don’t smoke I would quite like to offer licorice cigarettes around on the patio and sit elegantly in a deck chair taking in the exotic aromas.
This licorice here is a raspberry one from a health food store and these ‘s a licorice jelly recipe from the book Jelly by Bompas and Parr. Sambuca jelly shots would be fun!
Also here is a master stock recipe from Ian Hemphill’s Spice Bible and licorice pairing suggestions from the book The Art and Science of Food Pairing #scent #adventcalendar #xmassmells #smellallthethings #olfaction #bompasandparr December 11
Day 11 of the scent advent calendar brings you vanilla bean trapped in a vial. It’s certified organic and smells really very nice, unlike the scent that pumps out of gifts stores and candle shops. If you want to smell this kind of vanilla you actually have to get up close. It’s not going to come to you.
The story of vanilla is one of my favourite stories because it says so much about so many things. The simple version is this: there is only one stingless bee that can pollinate the vanilla orchid and that bee is almost extinct because of logging and use of pesticides and because of climate change so most vanilla is now hand pollinated. That’s why real vanilla is so expensive. The other part of the story is that hand pollination only happens, because a slave boy discovered how to do it, an invention a white man tried to claim as his own - something all minorities and women have experience of. So a black boy saved real vanilla in what might be another very common but untold story.
Because the story of vanilla says so much about our times you could hang some trapped vanilla on your tree as a conversation starter bauble and then discuss with your guests how many other very nice things will disappear if we aren’t more careful.
You should also definitely use some real vanilla in your Xmas cakes, custards and ice creams. Why not experiment with a raw vegan version?
Pictured here is a recipe from Laura Miller who did a really good raw vegan YouTube series so you can find more of her treats online #vanilla #scent #adventcalendar #olfaction #smellallthethings #blackpanthers
December 12
Day 12 brings us tomato vine, a scent definitely in the top 10 common green smells.
Tomato leaf contains ectocarpene, the pheromone in algae, which I suppose explains why I’m so wild about it. The algae sex hormone is also in capsicum, another green smell that drives me crazy.
Other than looking and smelling really amazing as a Xmas table centrepiece, December in Sydney is a great time to be eating lots of tomatoes. The reason is that eating a lot of tomatoes can significantly reduce your risk of skin cancer. The tomato is rich in lycopenes which are the things that protect against UV damage. This isn’t medical advice but just a reason to eat more tomatoes.
Tomatoes make great sauce and one of the most popular things to do with a tomato sauce is to make a pizza. A recipe for neopolitan pizza from the book ‘Italy the Country and it’s Cuisine’ is here, and you can swap anchovies for capers if you’re vegan. Neopolitan pizza is actually now protected by its UNESCO intangible heritage listing so making it means you are doing your part to ensure the survival of important culture. Really.
Another tomato recipe here is from Let’s Eat Raw by Scott Mathias but now I would really bake the life out of that little thing. #tomatosauce #tomatoleaf #scent #adventcalendar #olfaction #melanoma #cancer #xmas
December 13
The irresistible aroma of pandan greets us on day 13 of the scent advent calendar. Pandan can be used to infuse things with a vanilla-like flavour, but it’s vanilla + some.
Pandan shares aroma molecules with basmati rice, and that is a really good food smell. Have you seen Branded to Kill? That guy really loves the smell of rice, to the point of forcing his lady friends to cook it before getting romantic. So pandan is all that’s good about basmati plus all that’s good about vanilla and works in pretty much any dessert.
T2 do a great tea called Singapore Breakfast that has both pandan and rice. Aromatic tea is always a nice gift and one with pandan makes it a little bit more. We love plus+ post-covid.
Photos here show ways to use pandan to scent your home and festive food. You can make a Xmas wreath with it, or line your plates with it. You can also wrap food in it before steaming or whatever to really feel like you’re doing something special. #scent #adventcalendar #olfaction #pandan #picnicfoodwrapping #smellallthethings
December 14
Day 14 in the scent advent calendar is the very fragrant lychee.
The lychee was a hit during the Song Dynasty, with Emperor Li Longji sparing no expense to have them delivered to his favourite concubine who was very fond of them. You can go to great lengths to impress with gifts of lychees too. When you find very fragrant ones pop them in a nice box and they can be given as a present to the host of any festivities you are invited to.
I once skewered a very fragrant find of lychees and displayed them on the table. They made an incredible aromatic centrepiece and one that could easily look very Xmas with the right draping of tinsel.
Putting them on bbq skewers is quite a good way to introduce the lychee to a group who might be more interested in traditional British Australian cooking like burnt chops. They are also great in salads or as a sweet dumpling in a curry but the most obvious thing to do with them is to put them in a cocktail. Nigella has a really good Xmas lychee martini recipe.
Be careful not eat the seed though because it contains something that can cause hypoglycemia and you don’t want to end up like Navalny at Xmas. (Although by the time Navalny had been flown to Germany his blood sugars were fine and it was the novichok causing a problem. What would Xmas be without a Putin joke?)
When choosing a lychee always smell them first. You will probably have more luck at the market than the shopping centre.
I’ve made a raw vegan golden rough here with baked wildflower honey and a lychee on top #scent #adventcalendar #olfaction #xmas #lychee #downwithputin #smellallthethings
December 15
Day 15 of the scent advent calendar is very sweet with maple syrup. Perfect for fancy plating, a drizzle of maple syrup effortlessly elevates your traditional festive fare to magazine quality lifestyle shoot. It hasn’t happened if you haven’t made it look beautiful and uploaded it to Instagram and maple syrup is here to help.
Maple syrup comes from the maple tree, a tree that is better than average at cleaning pollution out of our air. Maple trees are in trouble though because they need snow to produce their sugary goodness and it hasn’t been snowing as much as it used to in North America, where most maple syrup comes from. So maple syrup offers us yet another opportunity to have an important climate change conversation, and at Xmas you have a captive audience at the lunch table.
A few years ago New York smelled oddly like maple syrup and people started to worry that it was another 9/11. Disasters don’t usually smell like pancakes so it is an unusual conclusion to come to. The cause was found to be a fenugreek factory - fenugreek sharing the aroma compound sotolon with maple syrup. Maple mystery solved and maple syrup scented cities now an actual possibility.
Here is a recipe from Pana chocolate The Recipes. Of course you can put maple syrup on just about anything and it’s obviously perfect for a glaze #maple #scent #adventcalendar #olfaction #smellallthethings #xmas
December 16
Day 16 of the scent advent calendar is all rosy, except that I just realised the Iranian rose fairy floss has carmine, or red beetle juice, in it. The nightmares vegans have at festive occasions are often centred on food colouring so if you’re entertaining vegans make sure your ingredients don’t contain insects. Of any colour.
Being a person who uses natural products I like to talk about how the natural rose scent is made up of hundreds of different aroma molecules where a synthetic rose scent is only one molecule. Natural rose is therefore far more complex and far more crafty at adhering to your different smell receptors. That’s obviously better, right??? Yes it is, but before I get too self righteous you will notice the synthetic rosewater in the photo which I do put with my breakfast oats when I have fresh strawberries. Heidi Swanson has a really good rose and black pepper granola recipe in her book Near and Far for special festive breakfasts.
Fresh or dried rose petals are great to decorate cakes and put in jellies and when you combine rosewater and pistachio you get all the really nice Persian-type things that are just irresistible.
Having a fresh rose or two on the table is a nice thing for festive occasions but only if the rose has a scent. Most roses don’t these days so best not to bother with them. The rose garden at the Sydney botanical gardens is full of very fragrant rose varieties though so it’s a good place to take a walk after you’ve eaten too much food on the big day.
Hot tip for making things look pink without beetles is raw beetroot juice, and you only need a little bit. #rose #scent #adventcalendar #olfaction #xmas #smellallthethings #sydneybotanicalgardens
December 17
Day 17 in the scent advent calendar is truffle, the scent that humans and pigs alike are mad about.
Androstenone , a steroid in boar saliva and in truffle is the reason for the intense feeling about the expensive fungus. Androstenone can make those suffering from anosmia start to smell again because it stimulates the trigeminal nerve like wasabi does. So have a hit of it at Xmas in salt, mustard, oil or the actual real thing if you can afford it.
Truffle oil is mostly scentless grapeseed oil infused with the synthetic compound 2,4-dithiapentane which is basically foot odour, halitosis, and flatulence mixed with formaldehyde according to wiki. But if you really love truffle that doesn’t put you off.
Celery also contains the magic boar steroid so is a good thing to use to make a vegan pate. Drizzle some truffle oil on it for ultra pheromone power.
Happy Hanukkah! Day 18 in the scent olfaction calendar is the star ingredient of the Jewish victory holiday - olive oil. The story of the miracle is that they were invaded and didn’t have enough olive oil but the candles still worked for a long time anyway. It is a good thing to consider as we are experiencing more interruptions to the grid, especially in the Ukraine. People made light happen with olive oil! Pictured here is an olive oil lamp I made with an orange and sage and it’s a nice thing to have on the festive table but not much help for seeing in the dark.
Olive oil is extremely precious, as evidenced by the fact that Michael Hutchence and Helena Christensen had an olive grove on their property in France that they love very much. What more do you need? Oh and it was also the base of the holy oil from the Jewish temple.
Check your olive oil is real though because the mafia release a lot of fake oil on the market. The best way to test is to see if the oil solidifies when you put it in the fridge.
Research has found that just smelling olive oil during a meal can mean you consume less calories which could come in handy with the more frequent eating.
You might want to make an delicious grassy smelling olive oil icecream, an olive oil chocolate cake or coat your zucchini pasta with it. Test out some different brands to see if you can smell the different notes. Eggplant receipe here is from the book The Art of Flavour.
December 19
Day 19 in the scent advent calendar is a Xmas wish. In my case it’s a trip to Morocco so I’m smelling Moroccan tea. Having never been to Morocco I do not know what it smells like and even if you have been there and made the candle to remember it by and you burn that candle next to me it may not be what I smell when I am there so your candle will not smell like Morocco to me. Smell is an experiential and subjective thing.
What I do know is that they drink a lot of mint tea in Morocco and smelling that makes my dreaming of Morocco a little more immersive. While I am not in Morocco part of it is in me and that’s a kind of holiday.
The great thing about festive occasions is that they are usually based around tradition. Families or groups of people will often eat or drink the same thing at those times and the smells from that generates the much discussed Proustian moment where a little cake dipped in tea makes you remember all the things and people from years ago as if they were right there. Shouldn’t they be right there if it’s the holidays? Maybe you’ve forgotten someone. If they’ve left permanently your traditional fare will bring them back in all the spirit-like aromas.
This tea has gunpowder green tea, peppermint, spearmint and rose. Peppermint contains menthol which triggers a feeling of coolness, adding yet another sensation layer to your festivities.
If you remember a smell from your past you can get out the soda machine or whatever and give your guests a trip down memory lane. Tang anyone? #xmaswish #xmas #scent #adventcalendar #olfaction #moroccantea
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