First aroma

rudbeckia

There is a moment when one is baking that is exquisite.  OK, maybe that's hyperbolic to use such a term, but it is a moment that I look forward to every time I put something in the oven.  This past weekend I made brownies.  Brownies are incredible, of course ... is there anyone who doesn't think that?  Even before they go into the oven, they are incredible.  The batter has a fantastic taste and texture.  The batter even looks wonderful sitting in the pan before the baking has started.  But then you put them in the oven and you wait.  And for several minutes, you just wait.  I often use those minutes to tidy up the kitchen, wash the utensils and bowls and wipe down the countertop.  Or sit down and play a blitz game of chess online.

brownie batter

And then, after some minutes, you get that first faint aroma of brownies coming from the oven and then it strengthens and seems to surround you.  It doesn't happen right away.  It takes several minutes.  But when it comes, it seems to fill the kitchen very quickly and leaves no doubt that something amazing will soon be pulled from the oven.

That moment of the first aroma of something baking is akin to watching the first snowflake of winter settle to the ground, or hearing the first crack of the bat on opening day of spring baseball, or watching the opening scene of a movie you've been waiting all year to see.  It is singular.  It is there for just that moment and then it blends into the rest of time and becomes part of the flow of time instead of being a moment that exists by itself.

That is an "exquisite" moment.