Listen to that smell, and other instances of synesthesia

          Our senses are constantly working, and in collaboration. The delicate nuances of each sense often become blurred, leading us to believe that we can single out one when it is actually the collaboration that we are experiencing. For instance, there are only four actual taste receptors in our mouths: sweet, salt, sour, and bitter. Anything we "taste" beyond these four is actually synesthesia; a conglomeration of senses and memories too.

          Sense confusion is common. In his article, "Cooking Skill, the Senses, and Memory: The Fate of Practical Knowledge," David Sutton draws attention to our linguistic elaboration of the senses, referencing the expression "listen to that smell" to describe the odor of food cooking accompanied by an orchestra of the noises of meal preparation, or the intake of breath through the nose necessary to take in the fragrance (90). Similarly, we often refer to a spicy or bold dish as "loud" or "striking," or a task that is quick or easy to accomplish as "a piece of cake," or "gravy." Sutton offers further examples in which "A man tells his friend that he ate prickly pears the other day and they were tasteless, but today 'they were honey!' A woman refers to fresh-caught tuna as 'souvlaki!' and a man describes a batch of sweet oranges as 'banana'." These are moments when we tie one thing to another based on our sense memories. We know that one is not the other -- a banana is not an orange -- but memory and sensation have created a specific way in which to experience and express the moment.

          Using Sutton's models of synthesia and sense memory recall...

The moment I turned in my first written assignment for grad school was a hard boiled egg.

Last Thursday evening's Boston Symphany Orchestra rehearsal, held in the living room of my downstairs neighbor while I sipped tea to the background of blissful scales and string sonatas, was certainly sweet-potato orange.

The faint whistle of the steam radiator is a fresh baked loaf of bread.

The end of the work day is the whole, roast chicken -- rosemary scented, but a bit dried out.