Roasted chicken with lemon

Our sense of smell is better than we think, most of it happening subconsciously though. But we have a problem of self-esteem for reasons of wrong comparison.

The story goes like that: Because puppies are nice and adult dogs are helpful in keeping other carnivores far off from livestock, I happened some 10000 years ago that mankind chose to make dog-like creatures to their beloved companions. Both parties took advantage. Man because we got a devoted follower and guard, dogs because they got an almost free lunch and tender loving care. Of course, both parties had to pay a price, too. Dogs gave up their freedom and man took over responsibilities, a task we are not always up to. (evolution of dogs...)And we human beings started off to compare our sense of smell with the outstanding skills of our long-nosed fury partners with their wet black nose knobs. Which leaves us with nothing more than the impression of complete failure of evolution as far as our sense of smell is concerned. But, evolution did a great job on our nose, too and we smell a lot better than we think.

Our kind has survived for millions of years in an environment where our sense of smell was key to warn us from dangerous animals (hence we are quite good at smelling lions which might easily be tested at your local zoo) and to bring us to the closest source of food. Such as roasted chicken with lemon for instance (recipe here)which finally brings me to the point: The combination of citrus scents such as lime, lemon, or orange with burnt wood scents such as birch tar, or tobacco! What a wonderful combination of sweet freshness and smoky outreaching vibrant powders. The association to grilled meat mouth wateringly flavoured with citrus fruits is obvious.

I am convinced that a good perfume always has a line in it which brings back memories of good food. Thus, in the very end, by perfuming we surround ourselves with an atmosphere of good food ready to be eaten. Now, don’t ask me what dogs think about our perfumes….