Originally Posted by
WizardOfBoz
This was hilarious. Had me chuckling, and thinking about all the smell-good stuff we used back in the day. And then I recall walking on (the U. of Wisconsin) campus one evening with one of the really pretty cheerleaders from my high school. Missy says "What are you wearing? It smells really good". I completely missed the hint. Proving that no amount of personal product conquers cluelessness. Sigh.
Aha! The explanation for why you can speak with authority about this stuff. I suspected as much. For my PhD, I ran a moonshine still. Serious.
I’ve spent most of my career working on stuff to feed to bugs so that they can feed your still. In other words, I separate cellulose from wood mostly to make ethanol. Unfortunately, the cellulose I make is too good for making cheap ethanol. Makes good plastics but not cheap ethanol.
But the stuff that mostly blew out my nose was pyrolysis oil. I spent about 5 to 10 years breathing in concentrated wood smoke and it did a real number on my sense of smell. I did figure out how to make something useful out of the pyrolysis oil after fractionating it with ethyl acetate. It made good plywood adhesives but not quite cheaply enough.
Oddly enough, I do have a good appreciation for good smoked barbecue partly because of my experience with pyrolysis oil. I smoke my own stuff...not just meat but various vegetables. I find the common woods like hickory and mesquite to be very harsh. Fruit woods are my favorite to smoke with as they are a more delicate smoke. Peach is really good. So is cherry. One of my favorite, however, is pear. Very delicate without being harsh.
A couple of my favorite things to smoke are sweet onions and chili peppers. They are fantastic in a warm pasta salad.