What in the hell is the 'Smell Test'?

[RadiationTherapy]

Is it any more rational or reliable than a 'Gut Feeling'?

[Motown_Johnny]

ever pull something out of the refrigerator that you were not sure how long it

had been in there?

You might have a gut feeling that it had gone bad but you would give it the smell test to be sure.

[WatsonT]

6. Natures gas chromatography

[shraby]

1. The "smell test" is something a cook does if he/she is going

to use some food that's been in the fridge a few days. They smell it to see if it's tainted at all.

[Wednesdays]

2. I would hate to have to study for one, that's all.

:shrug:

[emulatorloo]

3. Try the Judge Judy Version: "If it doesn't make sense, it probably isn't true."

EOM

[CJCRANE]

4. I'll leave it up to other DUers to judge

whether this OP passes the smell test...

;)

[PeaceNikki]

5. It's not.

[Quist]

7. You don't put something in your mouth...

...unless it passes the 'smell test'--passes under your nose--first. In other words, you don't swallow something easily.

[RadiationTherapy]

8. I can dig that, but making it a metaphor makes it physically impossible

thus rendering the situation into a 'gut feeling' right?

[CJCRANE]

9. A metaphor doesn't have to be physically possible.

That's why it's a metaphor.

[Quist]

10. No, actually...

It's meant quite literally; if food doesn't smell good to your nose first, don't put it in your mouth to tast it. It was the only way people in ancient times had for knowing if they were eating something spoiled or not. Thus, palatable, usable food had to 'pass the smell test'.