"smell" news and stories

From Grateful Palate, the brilliant folks that brought us the Bacon of the Month Club, come these bacon, lettuce and tomato scented votive candles. Justifying the need for the smell of bacon in one's home seems unnecessary, but nevertheless, the Grateful Palate offers this pitch: "You may want to light them in your kitchen, office or bedroom or wherever you seek sensual pleasure and enlightenment; by yourself or with someone special." I'd say that "someone special" is an understatement. If anyone responds favorably to your setting the mood with a bacon candle, then you're talkin' soul-mate. I still don't quite understand the "Bacon=Freedom" part, though. The set of three, which sells for $33.95, would seem to go against the hunger-quelling candles that Sarah posted about last month.

Yep, a chain of pizza parlors in Lithuania and Latvia has filed a request to trademark the smell of baking pizza, claiming that customers associate the scent with their line of pies, according to the AP. If granted the intellectual property rights to the smell, the company, Cilija, would be the only company in the area allowed to claim that its product smells like freshly baked pizza. The national patent bureau that would issue the trademark did not comment.

[Via Slice]

Last week, Nicole gave us the lowdown on asparagus: its background, nutritional value, and tips for buying and cooking it. Still, some of you asparagus lovers, or haters, may still be wondering, 'why does asparagus make my urine smell funny?' There may be some of you who say that it doesn't make your urine smell funny, and you may be right.  According to an article by WebMD dietitian Elizabeth Somer, asparagus contains a sulfuric compound called mercaptan (asparagus.org lists a few other possible chemical culprits). When your body breaks mercaptan down into other components, the by-products create that distinctive bouquet. The same compound is found in rotten eggs, onions, garlic (asparagus is in the lily family too), and, yes, skunks. Some studies suggest that only certain people possess the gene necessary to break down asparagus and create the smell. Other research found that some people actually weren't capable of detecting the odor in various urine samples. So, maybe some of you are asparagus-proof, or maybe some of you just can't tell the difference.

[Photo: Nick Vagnoni]

One exhibit at the Chicago BIO2006 trade show (for the world's $90 billion biotechnology industry) aims to harness the power of insects smell to improve the grape growing process.

By using an insect's acute sense of smell - which enables it to sniff out succulent grape vines - the Australian scientists plan to take the genes and turn them into electronic sensors. These will be used by grape-growers to produce tastier wines. They have several choices in how to harness the genes. They could identify how an insect's sense of smell works, and then build similar capability into an electronic chip or they could develop a "bio-chip" that incorporates needed genes into the chip itself.

Source

Food scientists at the University of Georgia are working with a new type of soybean that supposedly has none of the "off" or "beany" taste sometimes associated with soy products, according to FoodNavigator-USA.com. The bean, known as L-Star, is a non-GMO variety that lacks lipoxygenase, the enzyme responsible for the odd flavor in question. Aside from a difference in taste, UGA scientists say that products made from L-Star may be more nutritious, as they won't have to undergo the "deodorizing" process that other soybeans are sometimes treated to. Products using L-Star soybeans may begin to appear in U.S. markets by next year.

The only instance I can think of where an odd flavor is really apparent is soy milk, which, to me, has a very distinct taste. I've never found tofu or soybeans to have strange or unpleasant flavor, however.