Metal smell/taste

[Frosty]

EAT possums! Possum is what thieves and such play up here. The only thing I'm interested in stuffing possums with is jail house "food".

What IS it with you tejicans eating bad guys like that? I suppose you BBQ them in a big pistol shaped smoker trailer. I'll meet y'all rat cheer for pulled burglar after work tomorrow. Cooter treed one t'other night, I got him with the first shot and he's been brinin two days now. Don't forget t' bring beer!

Frosty The Lucky.

[ausfire]

9 hours ago, aessinus said:

When I posted this, I was expecting it would devolve to recipes.   Thank you all.  Now I'm hungry.  

So I'll throw this out.  What do you each stuff your possums with?  Brussel sprouts,including all the Brassica family or just traditional celery, onion, garlic and cornbread crumbles?

Ausfire, do you all(spelled out so he don't have to figure out texan) eat your possums?  How do you cook them down south? 

Mate, I'd have to be near starving to try eating possum. There's lots of better tucker around than smelly possums. I don't know but I reckon they would taste like eucalypts. It would be like eating a koala. Kangaroo is much more palatable, but then, they don't eat gum leaves.

And I have no trouble figuring your Texan. Y'all might have more trouble with my ridgy didge fair dinkum  Australian.

[aessinus]

6 hours ago, Frosty said:

What IS it with you tejicans eating bad guys like that? I suppose you BBQ them...

Nah, we don't smoke 'em, we just chute 'em!

@ausfire  had roo jerky a few times, but never steak.  Texans will jerk pretty much any sort of critter to carry in their pocket, and I've been known to cook anything that wanders by, at least once.

[JHCC]

4 minutes ago, aessinus said:

I've been known to cook anything that wanders by, at least once.

If you cook it, it's not going to wander by twice!

[aessinus]

17 minutes ago, JHCC said:

If you cook it, it's not going to wander by twice!

  That's true.  What I meant is there are some I won't bother with again.  Grackle, copperhead, water moccasin fall in that category; taste bad. even smoked.

Armadillo, on the other hand, makes awesome fajitas.  Raccoon is good, just a tad greasy, I've cooked bobcat a few times too.  When we lived in Schuylkill county, PA, I cooked pigeon on a regular basis.  Farm country has loads of them & no season. 

[Stash]

I tried smokin' a squirrel once, but couldn't keep the end lit.

Steve

[aessinus]

2 hours ago, Stash said:

I tried smokin' a squirrel once, but couldn't keep the end lit.

 Try parboiled & reducing to a broth.  Two cans of whop biscuits, quartered makes dumplings.  You can cook over the forge.

[gote]

On 2016-09-07 at 9:18 PM, Frosty said:

I like the hypothesis that some metal ions fit some of our smell taste receptors and many metals are reactive enough they don't require outside stimulation beyond the presence of oxygen to react chemically and release ions. Even sunshine is enough to make iron sheet's scent plain to my nose and it doesn't have to be in sunlight long enough to even warm up, just the sunlight striking it  is enough.

 

I think that you are absolutely right. Nearly all metals oxidize instantly and it is a well know phenomenon hat light rays (and other energy input) can push put particles into the surrondings. Einstein got his nobelprize for his work on photons releasing electrons - not for the theory of relativity. That was too extreme for the comittee in those days.

However, there is nearly always some kind of contamination on the surfaces so organic compounds is probably a contributing factor.

The onion smell contains sulphur in the formula. It is not much of a deterrent however.    

[Frosty]

18 hours ago, aessinus said:

Nah, we don't smoke 'em, we just chute 'em!

@ausfire  had roo jerky a few times, but never steak.  Texans will jerk pretty much any sort of critter to carry in their pocket, and I've been known to cook anything that wanders by, at least once.

How many times do things wander by after you cook them!? I know rare is a tejican tradition but holy mole!

Frosty The Lucky.

[SLAG]

It has been discovered that our brain uses most, if not all, of our senses to determine taste.

I just came across this recent reference with new research findings.

Try this article, if you are interested. (it's a short read).

ttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160831133706.htm

SLAG.

[SmoothBore]

On 9/7/2016 at 7:41 PM, aessinus said:

What do you each stuff your possums with?

 How do you cook them down south? 

Stuff a possum with apples, ... or "dirty" rice.

You bake a possum, wrapped in foil.

( By that, I mean you wrap the possum in foil, ... it doesn't matter how you're wrapped, ... tightly, or otherwise. )

[aessinus]

Slag, thank for the reference.

7 hours ago, SmoothBore said:

Stuff a possum with apples, ... or "dirty" rice.

You bake a possum, wrapped in foil.

( By that, I mean you wrap the possum in foil, ... it doesn't matter how you're wrapped, ... tightly, or otherwise. )

Ah, but does the tinfoil impart a metallic flavor?

[SoulElixer]

Oh yeah this is totally a thing! I'm a 28 year old female and have been considering a job in some kind of metal work cause I can tell the difference in metals.

Each has a different taste (like iron tastes similar to ketchup or blood), overall feel (like weight via mass, texture along a raw edge after its cut.) (Color differences between shades of silver because iron, steel and aluminium are slightly different shades but can be hard to tell due to lighting or dirt but they ARE different.), and sound difference when its being cut (vibrational frequency) or clangs together(think wind-chimes which small ones usually sound like aluminium and bigger ones can be aluminium, copper or steel). I've always been able to do this and never tried to utilize it cause I wasn't aware it was unique. Is there a job where this could be useful?

I can taste and smell the chemical compounds really strongly. And not just metal, its alcohol too. I can't drink alcohol or wear expensive perfumes cause the chemicals in their respective products will overpower even the strongest fruity taste or smell. The taste of alcohol will disappear if the chemical make-up changes on a molecular level via cooking. And the smell in perfume will disappear after a few minutes when the alcohol evaporates off the skin. But before that its all I can taste/smell.

[Frosty]

On 2/17/2021 at 10:03 AM, SoulElixer said:

 I've always been able to do this and never tried to utilize it cause I wasn't aware it was unique.

Sorry Darlin, it's hardly unique. Being able to ID metals via: smell, feel, mass, color, etc. is an every day skill for folks who work various metals. I can't imagine being able to find employment based only on a relatively common acquired skill. I've worked metal my whole life and could tell what was being spun in Dad's shop by the smell when I was 9 or so. Other than when picking through a pile of random metal I've never had need to differentiate. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

I agree with Frosty.  Almost everyone who works with metal can identify the type of metal by various sensory perceptions such as color, weight, mass taste, smell, sound when struck, hardness, etc..  Now if you could detect subtle differences between different alloys of metal such as silicon bronze and phosphor bronze or mild steel from high carbon steel by your sensory perceptions you might have something but it is not a special talent to tell steel from copper or aluminum from brass.

Sorry.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Scott NC]

  Maybe if you can detect lead in drinking water you could profit from it.  at·tor·ney firms would probably pay you well.  As an aside, I always found a foul taste in my mouth when I work with copper.  Maybe it's that verdigris stuff....

[Steve Sells]

too bad a certain past memberr isnt still around, he would love this thread, he said he could taste the alloy content of steels  lol (his name was left off intentionally)

[Will-I-am]

The other day I had to cut 2 openings in a 4ft diameter perforated aluminum hood for my firepit forge.  Since the reciprocal saw was causing too many vibrations, I had to use the angle grinder.  In the process off cutting/melting through arc cuts I caught many whiffs of aluminum vapor.  The next day I was more tired than usual and had less endurance on a run with my wife.  Metal fume fever?

[Scott NC]

Did you stay hydrated?  I've never heard of aluminum fume fever unless you were welding or casting with poor ventilation.  I dont think an angle grinder would produce enough bad stuff to be an issue.  I'm not an expert on such things though!

[Glenn]

An angle grinder generally does not vaporize metal, but it will put a large amount of dust and debris into the air.  The lungs are designed to operate on good clean air and inhaling that dust and debris is not good.

Aluminum MSDS pdf

Inhalation

Health effects from mechanical processing (e.g., cutting, grinding): Can cause irritation of upper respiratory tract. Chronic overexposures: Can cause scarring of the lungs (pulmonary fibrosis), central nervous system damage, secondary Parkinson's disease and reproductive harm. Additional health effects from elevated temperature processing (e.g., welding, melting):

Acute overexposures:Can cause the accumulation of fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema) severe irritation of the respiratory tract, nausea, fever, chills, shortness of breath and malaise (metal fume fever).

Chronic overexposures: Can cause respiratory sensitization, the accumulation of fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema), lung cancer and kidney damage. Effects can be delayed up to 24 hours

[Will-I-am]

I had a fire going under the hood while I was angle grinding circular openings in it.  The grinding disk is well worn.  It melted through instead of cut through in many places.  Several times even bogged the grinder to a halt.  I smelled aluminum fumes!  I drank plenty of water and aimed the debris away from my body. 

[rockstar.esq]

Sorta related, but I've noticed that corrosion on metals tends to have unique scent.  Rust smells different to me than copper verdigris, which smells different than corrosion on lead.

Last year I learned that there are two things that not all people share.  The first, is that not all people have an inner monologue.  I'm told their thoughts appear to them as written words.  The second, is that not all people can voluntarily control the muscle which closes the part of their nose which connects to their throat.  I can, my wife can't, one kid can, the other can't.

My wife was mesmerized by the notion that I could breathe through my mouth without pinching, or plugging my nose.

We had a particularly flatulent dog in the car when this discovery was made.  Unfortunately for me, the dog's talents were such that I could still "taste" the cause of our commotion.

 

[anvil]

I could smell when a forge weld was ready. It didn't matter what kind of flux, no flux, or kind of metal. 

And no, it wasn't my beard burning.  ;).

[Frosty]

On 3/4/2021 at 2:40 PM, rockstar.esq said:

We had a particularly flatulent dog

The one in your AVATAR?

A NOT tasteless bit of Frosty humor. 

What a great straight line, you've made my day.  Thank you.

Frosty The Lucky.

[pnut]

On 3/4/2021 at 6:40 PM, rockstar.esq said:

Last year I learned that there are two things that not all people share.  The first, is that not all people have an inner monologue.  I'm told their thoughts appear to them as written words.  The second, is that not all people can voluntarily control the muscle which closes the part of their nose which connects to their throat. 

I didn't know that either. I assumed everyone had an inner monologue that was a voice. Mine never seems to shut up. 

Pnut