Favorite Christmas Cookie Survey
* This is a seasonal blog created to discover what cookies are favorites among my readership audience.*
The olfactory sense and memory are connected, as I suspected before I began writing this. I suspected this because my earliest memories of Christmas are connected with the smell of a certain cookie. This cookie, which is my holiday favorite, is cream cheese wreaths. These were made every year for Christmas when I was growing up, and still evokes the strongest memory of this holiday season for me.
The primary olfactory cortex, in which higher-level processing of olfactory information takes place, forms a direct link with the amygdala and the hippocampus. Olfaction is the sensory modality that is physically closest to the limbic system, of which the hippocampus and amygdala are a part, and which is responsible for emotions and memory. this may be why odor-evoked memories are unusually emotionally potent.Source: www.macalester.edu/academics
So, this connection between smell and memory has a strong physiological basis. Maybe, like me, your earliest Christmas memories are tied to the smell of a particular cookie, bread or baked good. If so, I would really enjoy hearing from you, and ask that you share the history behind the baked good if it is a heirloom recipe...no need to share the recipe however.
I am looking forward to hearing back from you!
~Kathy~
Before I read the line about your favorite cookie, I was thinking of those wreaths! The only reason I don't make them myself is that darn cookie press.
ReplyDeleteMom! Those wreaths! Soo good. But I think my all-time favorite are your mincemeat... mmmmm.
ReplyDeleteAnother blog? Really mom? I wish there was a picture of two of those wreaths. They are good, as long as they are not completely frozen!
ReplyDeleteMom, we can develop a survey on docs.google.com if you would like to really collect some data.
Just the other day my mom came over with a wonderful treat. She brought over some Bibinka which is a very traditional Filipino baked treat. She brought it out and one smell of it brought me back home to the Philippines. Not just back to the Philippines but back to comfort. I always remember eating it by myself. It's hard to explain. The authentic way to cooking it is with a specially made terra cotta bowl and banana leaves over coals. It tasted great but was missing the smell of smoky banana leaves and charcoal. I'd love to make it one of these days but it's complicated. No one really cooks it at home because it's time consuming. So I remember going out to the market or buying it off of some street vender.
ReplyDelete