Cooking smells - please tell me I'm right and my husband is wrong?!

[ItsThisOneThing]

I hate cooking smells in the house. HATE. Especially things like bacon, sausage or burgers. My instinct is to fling the windows open wide, open the back door and put on the extractor fans. I obviously close the doors into the kitchen too, to reduce the smell going to the rest of the house.

My husband says if you open the windows and door it causes the smell to drift under the doors to the rest of the house, so he only closes the doors to the rest of the house and puts on the extractor fans. Keeps the windows and doors shut.

This morning we had a constant cycle of me opening the window and him closing it again. These are the big issues in our relationship ;)

Who is right here?? Please tell me it's me, I hate being wrong 😆

I would open a window. The only thing I find successfully gets rid of food smells is burning incense.

Become vegetarian?

@masterandmargarita have you smelled cooking cauliflower?? Worse than any meat!

Ooh i love cauliflower but then i dont mind cooking smells

I think your dh has a point - opening windows or doors to outside would cause air to flow into the kitchen, and won!d push the smells further into the house.

I would put on the extractor and use carbon filters to neutralize cooking smells.

I open front and back to kind of create a draft to suck the smells out

So do you never come home after leaving a delicious casserole or joint roasting, and go 'mmmmmm that smells delicious!' I just can't imagine not doing that 😮. Or, wake up on a Sunday morning to the smell of bacon, and almost break a leg rushing downstairs to make sure you get your share? I bloody love the smell of Sunday morning bacon 😆

I do open windows...but that's because my kitchen is the size of a postage stamp and if I don't, cooking sets off the smoke alarm 😂. Not because of the smell...unless fish!

Open windows and doors will affect the airflow. Whether it will push it into the house or draw it out of the window will probably depend on your particular house and the exact combination of doors and windows.

You probably need to run a series of experiments using coloured smoke bombs to work out the optimum door/window configuration.

I just put the extractor fan on full. Don't open doors or windows. Works for me.

I open windows too and also hate to be wrong, therefore we must be right

I once dated a woman (lesbian relationship) who hated cooking smells and I was shocked that such people existed and just couldn't understand it. She's white English and I'm black British (Caribbean), and in my household cooking smells just weren't an issue. Food and spices etc is just a part of my culture. It drove me mad, as she'd make me feel guilty for cooking (even for chopping things like onions/garlic - she'd make me wear gloves... GLOVES), and I'd often water down my meals to satisfy her - use less spices etc (I'm vegan, so the problem was the smell of herbs and spices rather than the smell of meat). It was really quite stressful then, but now I can look back and chuckle at how incompatible we were (not just when it came to food/cooking, but in general). Sorry, I'm not adding anything to this thread or answering your question, just taking a light-hearted trip down memory lane ☺️

@masterandmargarita I love cauliflower too, just wish it smelled nicer 😁

I love food and love the smell of it, but I just hate the smell wafting through the house. Maybe I'm weird, I'm sure my husband would agree with that 😂 I just spend so much of my time trying to remove the smell of cooking. I had zoflora in water on the low setting in my slow cooker for a while (you'll be getting a sense of my cooking skills!)

Op can't you just get a deodorising air freshener spray like neutrodol or oust and spritz a couple sprays AFTER cooking is finished to neutralise the cooking smells...

I don't think I could be opening windows each time I cook at this time of year, it would keep letting the cold air in and the heat out ..

Is it all cooking smells that you dislike?..don't you enjoy the smell of food as it cooks, e.g the smell of baking cakes, or the smell of a roast dinner, etc...I think the extractor fan on and the doors shut would be fine...

@EBearhug That sounds like a plan! My level of pettiness to prove I'm right knows no bounds!

An extractor fan is far more effective than opening windows and doors; which can either effectively remove smells or blow the smells further inside dependant on your house layout and configuration.

Food and spices etc are just *
Use less spice/fewer spices*
Sorry, my grammatical errors were driving me mad!

Shut the door and open the window. Warm air rises and the cooking smell air will be warmer and less dense than the air from outside. So it won't sink to the floor and come under the door, it will rise up and be drawn out of the window as cold air comes in.

@soulfulsun she sounds like me! I love spicy food and lots of flavours, but I hate opening the front door and being hit with a smell of food (even yummy food) or smelling it upstairs.

I was daydreaming earlier about how good it would be to have a door outside to an annex that all cooking could be done in, and smells contained to. I think I have a disease 🤣

How are you cooking your cauliflower if it smells bad?

@SuchAToDo Yes, I've got RSI from spraying my bottle of watered down zoflora, febreeze and air freshener!

@AnchorDownDeepBreath AIBU to discount your feedback from my survey?! 😜😂

@AnnaMagnani I usually steam cauliflower, is that the most stinky way??

Your husband is correct

Top tip- put on the extractor fan a couple of minutes before you start cooking. Makes a big difference

@tinselfest can't argue with science! You are the winner 🙌🏻

@ItsThisOneThing Not at all; it's your house that will smell