Last week I made a big batch of applesauce and was rewarded with a delicious snack and an awesome-smelling kitchen. To me, starting with warm apples, fall is full of the best scents and some of the best flavors.
Thanks to my grandma's prolific applesauce making and canning, I am deeply nostalgic and snobby about the stuff. What you can buy at the store just has nothing on the kind made at home. (I keep the skins on my apples to make my sauce pink, and I don't add any cinnamon or sugar.) The unadulterated flavor and satisfying smell make me feel at home, which I think is the most powerful thing either sense can do.
What are your favorite scents of fall?
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Pumpkin. The fist fall breeze means you can officially make pumpkin pie.
Amen on homemade applesauce! I grew up eating applesauce made from backyard apples and it completely spoiled me for the store-bought stuff; it all tastes incredibly bland when compared to the tartness and depth of flavor that homemade sauce has.
My favorite fall scents are
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simmering in the Crock Pot, wood burning in the fireplace, and wool. I may be alone in this, but I love the smell of wool.
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Love the smell of warm apples. Fun tip: add cranberries to applesauce! - it makes it a little tart, and adds to the color.
My grandparents had an apple orchard. Every autumn my father and his brothers would help my Grandfather pick apples. My mother, my aunts, and Grandma cooked in the kitchen and all us cousins ran wild outside. It was epic.
For me, the smell of fresh apples, applesauce, apple butter, apple pie, apple dumplings, and apple crisp etc. is magical.
I'm also one who loves the scent of cooking apples. Another scent that feels like fall to me is that great aroma when we make hot spiced wine.
Definitely pumpkin and cinnamon!
Yesterday at the liquor store, customers were offered some iced cider. It smelled like and tasted like a ripe McIntosh apple. The liqueur was first poured in a bowl, then frozen instantly by adding liquid nitrogen, and served in little paper cups. Instant granité, 40 percent proof, allelulia!
Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove. Any combination of these. Whether in a pie, muffin, cider or just sitting in my coffee grinder on the counter.
hands down - the smell of crunchy fallen leaves!
I made my first applesauce last week too, and was amazed and in love with the smell that took over the house! Not to mention, the applesauce is soo delicious and much better than store bought.
And, I have a chicken pot pie in the oven now that is also creating a delightful aroma.