Can You Smell?

"Can you tell a dish by its smell?
Can you tell the smell of allspice from cinnamon?
Do you smell correctly?"

Are you one of the few women who cannot tell one smell from another? Or one of those in whom the sense of smell is lacking altogether? We think it likely that your sense of smell is sound and healthy, as with 99% of people — but to what degree have you trained this sense so as to obtain the best results from it?

Can you tell a dish by its smell? The kitchen is full of different smells — spices and the like; do you breathe in these smells? And does it give you pleasure to do so? Can you tell the smell of allspice from cinnamon, cumin from anise, pepper from nutmeg, apricots from peaches? Do you distinguish smells, so that they bring back to your mind memories upon memories?

Accustom yourself to breathing things in, just as you look and listen. Strengthen your sense of smell by putting it through constant exercise. Pay attention to the different smells, and accustom yourself to finding pleasure in breathing them in and telling them apart; and remember that your nose's alertness to the smell of fire may save you from a terrible blaze...

greatly in training your sense of smell.

And here are these observations for you:

1 — If you wish to judge a smell, do not inhale it more than three times in succession, lest it escape you.

2 — Do not judge a smell, or test yourself, right after eating a strong-smelling meal, or after smoking; these weaken the sense of smell.

3 — Put a drop on your palm and rub it well with the other palm until the alcohol seeps into the pores of the skin; then breathe it in well.

Is it oily? Is it alcoholic? Is there fruit in it? Have you reached a conclusion?

That is how you train your nose and your sense of smell.