New McGee book

I'm a fan of Harold McGee, and placed a hold on his new book Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World's Smells at the library. Smells are important in cooking, eating, and even writing.

[Robin Garr]

Ha! Thanks for the alert, Larry! I just grabbed the e-book from the Louisville Free Public Library. I guess the word isn't out yet.

https://lfpl.overdrive.com/media/5329692

[Jenise]

Cool! Didn't know about it.

So far I've read a few chapters, and I'm enjoying it.

[Jenise]

What have you learned?

What have you learned?

Wrong thread?

What have you learned?

In the 1st part, which I've read, I learned about the chemical bonds and composition of the simplest smells since the beginning of time to life on Earth. I'm now in the middle of part two, which covers animals: dependence, mobility, and microbiomes.

I finished Nose Dive yesterday. What a fascinating tour de force! It took McGee over ten years to write it. I certainly learned a lot. But a caveat: it's not a page turner as with a novel. It's partly a chemistry book with some narration. I can see it as an reference book that can be referred to as needed or if you're curious about some odor.

Here's a quoted tidbit for you wine lovers:

"Wines can end up with undesirable smells, which include an excess of volatile acidity in the vinous bouquet or of the sweaty-saddle volatiles produced by Brettanomyces. Musty, dank cork taint is caused by fungal growth on chlorine-disinfected cork stoppers. In smoke taint, grapes exposed to smoky air detoxify the phenols and guaiacols by bonding them to nonvolatile sugars; later, grape and yeast enzymes release them during fermentation, as do mouth microbes during drinking! Ladybug taint is a green-pepper, asparagus smell that results when too many of those helpful insects end up crushed along with the grapes. Then there's fruit-fly taint: if you see a fly overcome by the bouquet of an open glass or carafe, fish it out quickly! Female drosophilia carry a waxy-floral aldehyde as a pheromone to attract males, and can leave a detectable off-odor in the glass within minutes."