{"id":153951,"date":"2025-03-24T15:59:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T15:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/baking-category-a-b\/things-bakers-know-sniff-your-equipment\/"},"modified":"2025-03-24T15:59:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T15:59:36","slug":"things-bakers-know-sniff-your-equipment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=153951","title":{"rendered":"Things bakers know: Sniff your equipment!"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

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When I was working as a private chef years ago, I made a batch of fudgy brownies; I slowly melted chocolate and butter, used eggs from a nearby farmstand, and included a hefty dose of expensive vanilla extract<\/a>. I let the baked brownies cool and cut them into perfect squares. And when members of the family I worked for took their first bites, they politely acknowledged that the brownies tasted like garlic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The culprit was easy to identify \u2014 I hadn\u2019t washed the cutting board on which I\u2019d cut the brownies after slicing garlic on it \u2014 but that didn\u2019t make my mistake any less shameful or wasteful. I had to throw the entire batch in the garbage. If only I\u2019d observed the rule I already knew: Always sniff your kitchen equipment before using it, especially when making sweet things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And sniff every step of the way. In the case of those brownies, for example, other potential threats included the silicone spatula<\/a> used for mixing, the baking pan<\/a>, and the knife. (Though, as I\u2019ll explain below, the material nature of a knife or a baking pan means you only need to clean them. No sniffing required; in the case of the knife, that would be dangerous.) And perhaps the most common offender of them all: the storage container. To understand why and when smelling your tools and equipment is so important, it helps to know a bit about how aroma and flavor work and how the two can be absorbed and transferred by kitchen tools.<\/p>\n

\n
\n \"White<\/p>\n

<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n

Photography by Rick Holbrook; Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne<\/p>\n<\/div>

Slicing garlicky pizza<\/a> on a cutting board? Make sure to sniff it \u2014\u00a0and probably wash it! \u2014\u00a0before using for anything sweet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Understanding the relationship between taste and smell\u00a0<\/h3>\n

\u201cTaste and smell,\u201d explains Harold McGee in his book Nose Dive<\/em>, \u201care molecular senses,\u201d meaning \u201cthey detect and report on the presence of particular molecules in the air around us and in our mouths.\u201d For smell, volatile molecules (which means they evaporate easily from whatever it is you\u2019re sniffing) enter your nostrils and make their way to smell receptors near\u00a0your eyes. In the case of taste, the tongue\u2019s taste buds are doing the detecting; nonvolatile (non-evaporating) taste molecules from whatever is in your mouth dissolve in saliva. Having detected scent or taste molecules, the receptors send electrical pulses to the brain, where nerve cells process these signals into what we perceive as odors and flavors.<\/p>\n

Bakers know that smell and taste work together to create flavor. That means that if you can smell it, you can taste it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One reason you might smell it \u2014 as in the case of the cutting board I used for those brownies \u2014 is that residue containing nonvolatile molecules (the type that can be perceived by your taste buds) is present. There\u2019s an easy solution to this problem: Clean the object in question. Another possibility is that the sniffed surface has held onto odors, whether because it\u2019s porous (as with wood), or, more often, because of the material\u2019s chemical nature; McGee told me that the chemical nature of plastic, silicone, and rubber \u201cresembles [that of] fats and oil \u2014 and smellable volatile molecules.\u201d Cooks often hear that \u201cfat carries flavor\u201d \u2014 and unfortunately the materials many of our kitchen tools are made of work in a similar way!<\/p>\n

\n
\n \"Silicone<\/p>\n

<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n

Photography by Kristin Teig; food styling by Liz Neily<\/p>\n<\/div>

Sniff your silicone spatula before using it to mix cookie dough.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Keep pesky food smells away\u00a0\u00a0<\/h3>\n

So how do you combat these unwanted smells? One option is to use materials resistant to odor absorption when possible. You\u2019re safer from odors with nonporous and, more importantly, chemically inert materials such as stainless steel, glass, and glazed ceramic.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in many cases, the use of odor-absorbing materials can\u2019t be avoided. In the case of silicone spatulas, plastic storage containers, and wooden or plastic cutting boards, clean them well with (preferably unscented) dish soap or detergent and, when necessary, baking soda and\/or distilled vinegar. To tackle smelly microwavable utensils and storage vessels, McGee recommends leaving them in a 200\u00b0F oven for an hour or two, which evaporates the small-molecule volatiles. \u201cI do this all the time with silicone ice cube trays to get rid of that freezer-air stink.\u201d Another kitchen staple to pay attention to is kitchen towels<\/a>; wash them in hot water with an unscented detergent and dry them without dryer sheets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Want to go the extra mile? You can take a cue from professional kitchens and keep two sets of tools: one for savory food and one for sweet food. But that requires an investment and a lot of storage space!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sniffing your kitchen equipment is a simple step to prevent you from contaminating the flavor of your baked goods. Make it a habit; the worst that could happen is you get some side eye from a dubious witness, while the best that could happen is you save an entire batch of made-from-scratch brownies<\/a> from ending up in the garbage.<\/p>\n

Cover photo (<\/em>Rye Blueberry Bars<\/em><\/a>) by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was working as a private chef years ago, I made a batch of fudgy brownies; I slowly melted chocolate and butter, used eggs from a nearby farmstand, and included a hefty dose of expensive vanilla extract. I let the baked brownies cool and cut them into perfect squares. And when members of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[21068,1733,63849],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-153951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baking-category-a-b","tag-bakers","tag-equipment","tag-sniff"],"yoast_head":"\nThings bakers know: Sniff your equipment! - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=153951\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Things bakers know: Sniff your equipment! - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I was working as a private chef years ago, I made a batch of fudgy brownies; I slowly melted chocolate and butter, used eggs from a nearby farmstand, and included a hefty dose of expensive vanilla extract. 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