My wife loves waffles. So much so that I bought her a Cuisinart Double Flip Waffle Maker for one of our anniversaries. On weekends, the smells of fresh ube waffles, scrambled eggs, breakfast sausages, and coffee filled our place as I cooked brunch. It was a nice break from the busyness of the week, when I would leave home early to catch my hour-plus-long commute with multiple public transit transfers. These brunches were the little things we’d look forward to.
Then came the first pregnancy. We knew about “morning sickness” and expected certain smells to trigger nausea, but this was different - suddenly, every meal seemed to make her sick. What we thought would be a few weeks of careful cooking turned out to be hyperemesis, something she’s facing again in this pregnancy.
We tried everything. Fans on high, windows open, different spices, no spices - trial and error became our new normal. After talking with doctors, family, and friends, we learned the hard way that what works for one person might not work for another. Most things didn’t work for us. But eventually, we found a few strategies that made this second pregnancy more manageable - at least when it came to food.
Here are five things worth trying if cooking smells have become your enemy.
Strip Down the Flavors
Turn on the fans, open the windows, and cook with less flavor. My wife found that onions and garlic were the biggest triggers for her nausea, so we cut those out first. Eventually, we removed most spices from our cooking entirely. When even that wasn’t enough, we switched from olive oil to avocado oil. Yes, it’s pricier, but among the various cooking oils we tried, avocado oil smelled the least and was the most tolerable.
Bland doesn’t have to mean bad - it just means adjusting expectations for a season.
Sometimes, Takeout Is the Answer
In my first post, I mentioned ordering from Uber Eats after our first kid was born because we were exhausted. But takeout serves another purpose when you’re dealing with nausea: it removes cooking smells entirely.
As much as you might want to cook nutritious meals, sometimes takeout is the better option if it helps your partner keep food down. Nutritious food doesn’t matter if it doesn’t stay down. This isn’t sustainable forever - takeout adds up - but even incorporating it occasionally can provide relief. Just remember that takeout doesn’t guarantee smell-free dining. Super flavorful dishes will still smell when you open those containers, so you’ll still need to order with the smell test in mind.
The Instant Pot: A Smell-Containing Miracle
When you cook on the stovetop or in the oven, smells waft through your home from the moment you start until hours after you finish, depending on your exhaust fan. We found the Instant Pot did an excellent job containing smells while cooking.
Of course, when you release the vent, the smells escape. Our solution: cook near a window with a fan blowing outward as we release pressure, then close the lid quickly once we’ve served the food. It takes some adjustment and new recipes, but the Instant Pot became our best tool for managing cooking smells.
Go Low and Slow with Sous Vide
Similar to the Instant Pot, you can try cooking with a Sous Vide machine. It’s on the pricier side, but if you don’t mind the cost and the different cooking style, it does a remarkable job containing smells.
After college, I lived with roommates who were really into cooking - one eventually founded a food startup, another trained as a chef. They swore by sous vide. I eventually bought one with all the accessories and loved the results, especially for fish and meat. But I preferred other cooking methods, so it sat unused until we needed to tackle the smell problem. If the price doesn’t deter you and you’re willing to learn, sous vide is a solid option. There are plenty of budget-friendly brands if you want to test the waters.
Move the Kitchen Outside
If you’re fortunate enough to have a balcony, backyard, or garage, cooking outside is your best bet. You can set up any of the appliances I mentioned, or even a plug-in countertop burner. If you go with a countertop burner, I’d recommend avoiding the cheapest options - some of them emit a burnt plastic smell just from heating up.
This is my current setup for pregnancy number two: Instant Pot in the garage, fan blowing outward, smells contained. It’s not the most convenient solution, but it works.
Well, that’s all for today - stay tuned for our next note!
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