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Original poster

Cooking fried breakfast at home shouldn't be allowed?

219 replies

luckysdadsway · 22/08/2025 10:19

I know I'll get flamed for this, but AIBU to feel so completely annoyed when anyone suggests cooking sausages, bacon or at worst a full fried breakfast at home?

Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed a friend breakfast or the odd bacon sandwich in a cafe but absolutely not at home.

I can't cope with the awful cooking smell that comes from them. It sticks to everything including my hair which means I can smell it all day. The smell lingers throughout the house all day and we have any visitors I feel mortified by it.

A fried breakfast is even worse because not only do you get the awful smell but the amount of washing up that comes along with it. The need to use so many pans!

OP posts:
WiddlinDiddlin · 22/08/2025 17:35

We no longer have an oven and fixed hob, so no extractor fan. So we use the air fryer otherwise yes, frying meat does stink the house out.

But when we did... I had one big oval pan that sat over two rings and the whole lot went in there (don't do beans, ugh), so I don't see why there has to be 'all the pans'.

Now it all goes in the air fryer, any tinned tomatoes either I use a seperate tin inside the airfryer or it goes on a portable hob. So one saucepan and the airfryer basket.

Carandache18 · 22/08/2025 17:24

farmlass · 22/08/2025 13:31

It’s our favourite way to entertain
we invite friends for brunch .
Full Scottish
good breads
yogurt granola and fruit and lots of toast and jams etc
invites say “come hungry for brunch at 11:30 “
Sometimes it’s an hour or two sometimes it stretches til dinner time !
relaxed and delicious .

I am copying this. It sounds perfect.

Jom222 · 22/08/2025 15:50

I love bacon but hate the smell it leaves. During warm weather I often take an electric skillet outside to fry it, if I have to cook indoors I make sure to clean the stove, pan, etc and open a window w/a fan running for at least an hour.

Still lay in bed at night smelling it.

SaltAirAndTheRust · 22/08/2025 15:24

YABU.

I don’t ever really have a full English anymore but the smell is no worse than any other cooking smell.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 22/08/2025 15:23

MagpiePi · 22/08/2025 10:32

It’s the grease spattering everywhere that is so disgusting.

Try a spatter guard! They work!

InTheRW · 22/08/2025 15:21

AgnesX · 22/08/2025 13:11

All of these comments that complain about the smell. What about other cooking smells. Do you never cook or never use onions, garlic or spice?

It’s just a preference thing. I love the smell of frying onion, garlic, and spices! A fried breakfast smells stomach-churningly greasy to me. Ofc plenty of people hate curry smells etc so it balances out.

Avocadohoho · 22/08/2025 15:17

As pp have said, you need an air fryer.

InterestedDad37 · 22/08/2025 13:56

I'm an atheist, but if someone can prove that the smell of frying bacon was wafted here from heaven, I'd change 😀🥓
It's right up there as one of the best smells ever invented... However, if I'm cooking anything, I don't do it in clothes I'm gonna wear out later 👍. And I occasionally open the window 👍

New2you · 22/08/2025 13:40

Decent extractors stop this. I can’t even smell my food cooking sometimes even if it starts burning because my hob extracts the smell and steam out so efficiently

OdisseanQueen · 22/08/2025 13:36

CharlotteRumpling · 22/08/2025 11:54

I only cook smelly food. I don't like any other kind!

Show quote history

My DD is coming home tonight and there are 3 curries on the go already 👍🏽

Whatareyoutalkingaboutnow · 22/08/2025 13:35

I've been cooking my sausages and bacon in the oven for years, crisps them up nicely and no nasty niffs.

farmlass · 22/08/2025 13:31

It’s our favourite way to entertain
we invite friends for brunch .
Full Scottish
good breads
yogurt granola and fruit and lots of toast and jams etc
invites say “come hungry for brunch at 11:30 “
Sometimes it’s an hour or two sometimes it stretches til dinner time !
relaxed and delicious .

BumpyWinds · 22/08/2025 13:28

Comedycook · 22/08/2025 10:24

It's the frying imo. It's totally unnecessary. You can cook it in the oven or air fryer. I do the sausages, bacon, hash browns, mushrooms and tomato in the air fryer. I make scrambled egg in a pan on the hob and heat the beans in the microwave. No horrible smells.

Agreed. I hate the smell of fried breakfasts, thanks to spending many years when I was younger working in a cafe at breakfast time. Air fryers have made them palatable again and we'll often have a "fry up" for dinner, now I can do the most offending items in it.

Lionness5 · 22/08/2025 13:26

Just light a candle that takes away the aromas.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 22/08/2025 13:21

Coffeeishot · 22/08/2025 11:38

@NeverDropYourMooncup my eldest used to appear like a ghost on a Sunday morning if there was bacon cooking appear out of nowhere 😀

The eldest looked like a redheaded version of Samara Morgan from The Ring when she appeared at the kitchen door. I'm not even convinced she was fully conscious at the point she was there mumbling 'Is there one for me?', but after she'd disappeared with her teaplate (she could not be relied upon to carry a full sized plate in that condition) and the youngest had trotted off after her with a glass of orange juice, I could guarantee she'd reemerge bright-eyed and alert, fully dressed and ready to do anything including tidy up about half an hour later.

There must be a market in olfactory alarm clocks and ones that make the sound of a cat with a furball.

Poppins2016 · 22/08/2025 13:17

I don't think it's much worse than frying onions or cooking a curry, for example... but I admittedly do those things (and fried breakfasts) with the internal kitchen door closed, extractor fan on and kitchen windows open (because the extractor fan is rubbish)!

ChocolateCinderToffee · 22/08/2025 13:15

You grill the bacon, sausage, tomato and shrooms, poach the egg and keep the window open and fan going.

derxa · 22/08/2025 13:14

JudgeJ · 22/08/2025 11:00

Mumsnet has a disproportionate number of the population who are over-sensitive to most things and enjoy feeling superior with their drama-llama antics.

Show quote history

I know. I never meet people like this in real life

AgnesX · 22/08/2025 13:11

All of these comments that complain about the smell. What about other cooking smells. Do you never cook or never use onions, garlic or spice?

InTheRW · 22/08/2025 13:07

No fried breakfasts in this house. I’m with you OP! They are for holidays in hotels only ;-)

narcASD · 22/08/2025 13:04

I’d much rather smell fried bacon that those dreadful incense, sticks!
I grill or air fry my bacon and a fried egg shouldn’t smell if you use good quality pans with a little oil.

milveycrohn · 22/08/2025 12:59

We have a cooke breakfast on a Sunday.
I use one large frying pan for DH (egg, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, black pudding (his favourite; i never eat it). I put the fan on to avoid smells.
For myself, I do a scrambled egg, cooked in the microwave!

Westfacing · 22/08/2025 12:58

YABVU - fried breakfast is a human right.

Extractor fan on, kitchen door closed, window open and away you go! 🍳🥓🍅🌭🍄🍞

AintNoPunshineWhenShesGone · 22/08/2025 12:57

Fionuala · 22/08/2025 12:49

i think days of this are numbered
if we want special breakfast I keep it simple and we have scrambled eggs and smoked salmon
Be in charge of your kitchen!!

Surely whoever is doing the cooking at any given time is 'in charge of the kitchen'?

If you don't live alone, it's not just your kitchen.

ETA: Although it's not like eggs and fish aren't smelly.

Fionuala · 22/08/2025 12:49

i think days of this are numbered
if we want special breakfast I keep it simple and we have scrambled eggs and smoked salmon
Be in charge of your kitchen!!

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