The Aroma of Bacon: Why it Draws You in

Bacon: America's favorite breakfast food. The sound and smell of fresh bacon sizzling in a pan is famous for getting even the laziest of weekenders out of bed. But why is this? What makes the smell of bacon even better than sleep?

To answer this question, experts from the American Chemical Society (ACS) collaborated with the chemistry blog Compound Interest to scientifically break down the aroma of frying bacon.

According to a resulting video and info-graphic, when thin strips of salty deliciousness hit the pan, sugars in the meat react with amino acids in what is known as the Maillard Reaction. This same reaction is the reason that anything you heat - such as steak or bread - turns a browner color. However interesting that is, it does little to explain smell.

For bacon that browning reaction combines with melting fats to create a wide variety of more than 150 aroma compounds (aromatics). Two thirds of this compound cocktail consist of hydrocarbons and aldehydes - basic aroma compounds present in many cooked foods that help craft their pleasant smells. However, 2.1 percent of the bacon aroma was found to contain nitrogen-containing aromatics, according to Compound Interest.

"It just may be nitrogen-containing compounds that make bacon smell like nothing else in the universe," according to the ACS's latest video from the "Reactions" YouTube series.

According to the video's narrator, aromatics called pyridines and pyrazines traditionally create a meaty aroma, but "combine them with hydrocarbons, aldehydes and other odor compounds, and they become the major contributor to bacon-y goodness."

Past research has shown that smell can heavily impact taste. This is why many German beer brewers focus so much on a thick head with a nice aroma. It is also probably why bacon tastes so darn good no matter what time you have to get up for it.