Scents Of The Month: October
12 years ago
As every Monday, I am on the way to my customer. It is Oct 1st, and leaving the Cologne train station I see a seagull next to my window. It follows the ICE train, sailing next to me while crossing the bridge. Seagulls on the river Rhine: every year, they come down from Scandinavia in search for some shelter in what must be a warmer region to them. Their early appearance is an unmistakable sign that the colder season has begun. Are we getting a tough winter?
Nature will come to a rest, and so the scents of nature change. Most fruits and crops are gone – but there are exceptions: mushrooms!
Here in Germany, October is the month to go to the forests, equipped with a pocket knife and a paper or textile bag (no plastic please!). But beware:
http://www.pilze-augsburg.de/images/pilzvergif tung/image074.jpg
One teaspoon of this is the lethal dose. (But the taste is said to be excellent!). The English language has a name for it: Death Cap. And don't they look like white button mushrooms from the supermarket when they are young? Would you be able to safely discriminate them?
http://cdn.chefkoch.de/ck.de/fotoalben/2cec16a 4b3fba68ecd3f725accbce810/6434/medium_img_4598 .jpg
http://220grad.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/C hampignon1-150x150.jpg
That's why I never pick the scaly wood mushroom nor the field mushroom, and I surely have a very close look at every supermarket button mushroom before it goes into the pan. I hope I do not spoil anyone's appetite. Writing about perfume and mushrooms, I just do not want to lure anybody into the forests and pick whatever crosses the path. Unless you are not an experienced mushroom picker yourself, make sure you are accompanied by such a person. And as a general rule, you ought to pick only those mushrooms that you have learned from your parents when young!
I remember chilly late September and October mornings, joining my father on his hunt for mushrooms. They say mushrooms grow over night, and being up early also makes sure the mushrooms will be in your pan and not in somebody else's. It is a joy to walk through an autumn forest at sunrise: it is chilly and damp, yet, there are the scents of the earth, of fallen leaves and maybe rain. The weather must be rainy but not too cold, otherwise, they don't grow.
http://www.wetter-foto.de/images/upload/orig/L Hd9L9.jpg
If it comes to earthy scents that fit well with that October mood, of course, one of the most successful men's fragrances ever comes to my mind: "Terre d'Hermès". It is the tart and earthy basenote that made it so successful. Judging from the pyramid, it seems to be the combination of cedarwood and vetiver which gives it its character. This famous note called for plagiarism: Montale's "Red Vetyver", La Marina's "Bayres Hombre", and some others. Go find out the differences between these resembling fragrances!
Earthiness and tartness are the matter of Vetiver fragrances, but I would hesitate to generally link all Vetivers to the month of October. However, there is one that is quite close to the scents of an (October) forest, and that is Etro's. With its distinct nearness to nature's scents it is maybe the least abstract Vetiver available, and surely not everyone's cup of tea.
Picking mushrooms is not easy in the area where I live. You have to know all the hidden spots where they grow – and you have to develop some kind of 6th sense to find them. Different mushrooms require different soil and environment. There must be some foliage, but they need some air as well: so, the undergrowth must never be too thick. Very good eyes are necessary to find them in the forest twilight. With their brownish caps, some of the best sorts hide perfectly between fallen leaves, moss and spruce needles. Not only your eyes, also your nose can show you the way. Once you catch the odour, it is time to stop and have a very close look at the ground. Among the many edible sorts, my parents and me only picked those that we exactly knew: birch boletus, porcino, red-capped scaber stalk – slippery jack and honey-coloured agaric only if we could not find enough of the better sorts. The best and tastiest mushroom of all, much tastier than the famous porcino or cep is the bay boletus which only the inexperienced confuse with cep:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/ thumb/4/40/Maronenr%C3%B6hling_cropped.jpg/789 px-Maronenr%C3%B6hling_cropped.jpg
Bay boletus is among the late mushrooms, its main season is October, after the porcino has vanished. It is so delicious fried with oil and a little minced onion, salted and peppered just before serving, and with only some good rye bread aside. Especially the “sponge” under the cap contains a lot of water, so you have to fry your dish for half an hour at least.
Isn't it strange that scents we like in food we do not necessarily like in perfumes? One would like to eat a smelly cheese but better not have the scent around. I think it is the same with mushrooms: truffles is listed as a note in some perfumes. They might provide a more Mediterranean approach to autumn. You can find cep only in very few supposedly experimental niche perfumes, but that's it.
There are hardly any mushroom perfumes named as such, yet, a few perfumes give me the impression of it. There is a special way of handling lavender that makes it smell like mushrooms, and it can only be found in a few lavender fragrances: very distinct in "XPEC Trinity 2" and to some extent, Parfums de Nicolai's "New York". This smell is more like porcino or cep, but layered with Etro's Vetiver, you might come out with something similar to bay boletus. - Personally, I love the smell of forest mushrooms in an October forest, but not so much on my skin.
So, what are your recommendations for October?
Nature will come to a rest, and so the scents of nature change. Most fruits and crops are gone – but there are exceptions: mushrooms!
Here in Germany, October is the month to go to the forests, equipped with a pocket knife and a paper or textile bag (no plastic please!). But beware:
http://www.pilze-augsburg.de/images/pilzvergif tung/image074.jpg
One teaspoon of this is the lethal dose. (But the taste is said to be excellent!). The English language has a name for it: Death Cap. And don't they look like white button mushrooms from the supermarket when they are young? Would you be able to safely discriminate them?
http://cdn.chefkoch.de/ck.de/fotoalben/2cec16a 4b3fba68ecd3f725accbce810/6434/medium_img_4598 .jpg
http://220grad.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/C hampignon1-150x150.jpg
That's why I never pick the scaly wood mushroom nor the field mushroom, and I surely have a very close look at every supermarket button mushroom before it goes into the pan. I hope I do not spoil anyone's appetite. Writing about perfume and mushrooms, I just do not want to lure anybody into the forests and pick whatever crosses the path. Unless you are not an experienced mushroom picker yourself, make sure you are accompanied by such a person. And as a general rule, you ought to pick only those mushrooms that you have learned from your parents when young!
I remember chilly late September and October mornings, joining my father on his hunt for mushrooms. They say mushrooms grow over night, and being up early also makes sure the mushrooms will be in your pan and not in somebody else's. It is a joy to walk through an autumn forest at sunrise: it is chilly and damp, yet, there are the scents of the earth, of fallen leaves and maybe rain. The weather must be rainy but not too cold, otherwise, they don't grow.
http://www.wetter-foto.de/images/upload/orig/L Hd9L9.jpg
If it comes to earthy scents that fit well with that October mood, of course, one of the most successful men's fragrances ever comes to my mind: "Terre d'Hermès". It is the tart and earthy basenote that made it so successful. Judging from the pyramid, it seems to be the combination of cedarwood and vetiver which gives it its character. This famous note called for plagiarism: Montale's "Red Vetyver", La Marina's "Bayres Hombre", and some others. Go find out the differences between these resembling fragrances!
Earthiness and tartness are the matter of Vetiver fragrances, but I would hesitate to generally link all Vetivers to the month of October. However, there is one that is quite close to the scents of an (October) forest, and that is Etro's. With its distinct nearness to nature's scents it is maybe the least abstract Vetiver available, and surely not everyone's cup of tea.
Picking mushrooms is not easy in the area where I live. You have to know all the hidden spots where they grow – and you have to develop some kind of 6th sense to find them. Different mushrooms require different soil and environment. There must be some foliage, but they need some air as well: so, the undergrowth must never be too thick. Very good eyes are necessary to find them in the forest twilight. With their brownish caps, some of the best sorts hide perfectly between fallen leaves, moss and spruce needles. Not only your eyes, also your nose can show you the way. Once you catch the odour, it is time to stop and have a very close look at the ground. Among the many edible sorts, my parents and me only picked those that we exactly knew: birch boletus, porcino, red-capped scaber stalk – slippery jack and honey-coloured agaric only if we could not find enough of the better sorts. The best and tastiest mushroom of all, much tastier than the famous porcino or cep is the bay boletus which only the inexperienced confuse with cep:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/ thumb/4/40/Maronenr%C3%B6hling_cropped.jpg/789 px-Maronenr%C3%B6hling_cropped.jpg
Bay boletus is among the late mushrooms, its main season is October, after the porcino has vanished. It is so delicious fried with oil and a little minced onion, salted and peppered just before serving, and with only some good rye bread aside. Especially the “sponge” under the cap contains a lot of water, so you have to fry your dish for half an hour at least.
Isn't it strange that scents we like in food we do not necessarily like in perfumes? One would like to eat a smelly cheese but better not have the scent around. I think it is the same with mushrooms: truffles is listed as a note in some perfumes. They might provide a more Mediterranean approach to autumn. You can find cep only in very few supposedly experimental niche perfumes, but that's it.
There are hardly any mushroom perfumes named as such, yet, a few perfumes give me the impression of it. There is a special way of handling lavender that makes it smell like mushrooms, and it can only be found in a few lavender fragrances: very distinct in "XPEC Trinity 2" and to some extent, Parfums de Nicolai's "New York". This smell is more like porcino or cep, but layered with Etro's Vetiver, you might come out with something similar to bay boletus. - Personally, I love the smell of forest mushrooms in an October forest, but not so much on my skin.
So, what are your recommendations for October?
Last edited by Apicius on 13.10.2012, 08:48; edited 2 times in total
