53 perfumed recipes

Lemon rose geranium angel cake: a classic cloud-light angel food cake perfumed from below by fresh lemon rose geranium leaves lining the pan. Delicately floral, snow-white, and finished with fresh berries and edible flowers.

Orjaleves is a traditional Hungarian pork and beef bone soup: a rich, clear golden broth perfumed with paprika and saffron, full of root vegetables, tender pork and hand-rolled spiral egg noodles. A heritage feast-day soup.

Green bean bundles tied with blanched leek ribbons and steamed until bright, served over two silky sweet pepper sauces (one red, one yellow) perfumed with white wine and basil. A dinner party side that looks painterly on the plate.

Garlicky paella loads saffron rice with prawns, clams, and browned chicken, perfumed with a heavy hand of garlic. The golden, one-pan Spanish classic, simmered low and never stirred so the rice cooks up tender with a crisp bottom.

*When you buy carambola, also called star fruit, look for ones that are uniformly yellow to orange and have a subtle perfume. If they are green, they aren't ripe and won't yield a great deal of flavor. At their ripest, their flavor is an unmistakably tropical combination of apple, banana and lychee.