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As a US resident who visited the UK, I was surprised that many wooden buildings built before say 1800 smelled strongly of pork, an ammonia-like smell but most precisely like boar taint. I have never smelled this in old buildings in other countries.

What is the smell? Is it residue from centuries of cooking pork? Is it from an old type of varnish? Decaying wood?

fritzo
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    Probably related to specific fungal metabolites. This seems to be an interesting question and I'm not sure why it's getting downvoted and marked as unclear. I suppose every person who ever visited a museum of wooden architecture or just an old village log house in temperate climate zone would know what OP is talking about. – andselisk Jun 29 '20 at 15:48
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    The What causes the old book smell? question and answer were very well received, so maybe someone will provide an answer with corroborating literature references. I hope it does not turn out to be centuries of sweat. ;) – Ed V Jun 29 '20 at 17:20
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    @andselisk, This is exactly what I am wondering. What is wrong this with this genuine question! Above all "-3" votes. What is wrong folks? – AChem Jun 29 '20 at 20:01
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    @M.Farooq I gave it an upvote, but maybe the downvotes were due to something like assuming answers would be predominantly just opinions. That is just a guess. And maybe andselisk nailed it with his fungal metabolites hypothesis. Would have been nice to see a demonstrably valid answer. – Ed V Jun 29 '20 at 20:36
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    @EdV, it will be a great gas chromatography-mass spectrometry project for undergraduates for summer projects. May be you can also vote to "reopen". – AChem Jun 29 '20 at 20:54
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    @Fritz, Search the paper "Smell of heritage: a framework for the identification, analysis and archival of historic odours" by Cecilia Bembibre* and Matija Strlič. It is open access and probably you will find the answer. – AChem Jun 29 '20 at 20:58
  • @M.Farooq I would vote to re-open if I could, but that requires 3000 or higher rep. ;( – Ed V Jun 29 '20 at 21:18
  • @EdV Congrats on reaching 3000 rep points, feel free to vote:) – andselisk Jul 01 '20 at 04:39
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    I would imagine the type of heating and cooking fuels e.g. wood/peat/coal/dung would also be a major factor. I find it surprising that there haven't been any answers. Isn't there some historian/archeologist who also knows their chemistry and can give us an answer? – Gwyn Jul 01 '20 at 11:57
  • It might benefit possible answerers if you mention one or more examples of the buildings in question. This seems a very difficult question to answer without other than sensorial anecdotal information. Still, the smell you describe seems pretty specific (and rather odd). The link provided by Farooq seems to provide a narrow set of possible sources for the smell. – Buck Thorn Jul 01 '20 at 17:26
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    @BuckThorn The strongest smelling examples I can recall are (1) St. Mary's Guildhall in Coventry, build in the 1300s, and (2) the ground floor wooden hallways of Warwick Castle, I believe built in the 1600s. Many other buildings smelled similarly. – fritzo Jul 01 '20 at 21:53
  • From your description it sounds like it might come from food preparation. Ventilation was often poor and kitchens used wood for fire. I am not sure what candles were made of, but I would not think lard. In later times lanterns were fueled with different kinds of oil of both animal and vegetable origin. – Buck Thorn Jul 03 '20 at 20:06
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    From the wikipedia: "Tallow, fat from cows or sheep, became the standard material used in candles in Europe. " – Buck Thorn Jul 03 '20 at 20:09

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