This Retro Simmer Pot Method for Making Your Home Smell Like Fall Is Better Than Candles
Like many others, I simply cannot resist the scent of a delicious new candle. And while I love to use those candles to decorate my home, I find that I rarely burn them. The place where they’re most appreciated — my kitchen — isn’t a hangout area for me, and I don’t want to leave a candle unattended. Let’s be honest: An unlit candle isn’t casting much of a noticeable scent beyond its little zone. That’s why I was so intrigued by simmer pots, the retro method that promises to make your whole house smell amazing.
Simmer pots are definitely nothing new. In fact, simmering fragrant herbs, fruits, and other ingredients in water over a fire is a practice that some say dates back to antiquity. But I had never tried them before, and I wanted to give them a test run to see if they might be a low-effort alternative to candles.
While you can simmer your mixture on the stovetop, I chose to heat mine in an electric slow cooker. That way, I could safely leave it unattended to work its magic.
Recipes for simmer pots abound — especially for fall simmer pots, which are the perfect way to create a cozy vibe in your home as the weather starts to cool. Those recipes looked amazing, but I wanted to use things I already had (even better if I could put scraps to work).
As luck would have it, I had a single past-its-prime lemon. I only needed the juice of half of it to make a salad dressing, so I sliced up the rest to toss into my slow cooker. After juicing, I tossed the other half into the pot, too. Then, I filled the basin about one third of the way with water.
To complement my lemon, I decided to use a few drops of peppermint extract, which I only pull out once a year to make peppermint bark. Total cost for my simmer pot: $0.
After all my ingredients were in the pot, I set the temperature to high and covered the pot to help trap heat as it got started. I waited about 20 minutes before coming back to remove the lid, at which point I began to smell the fragrance wafting through my kitchen.
Note: After about two hours, I realized that my halved lemon might not be releasing as much fragrance as the other smaller slices. I used a knife at that point to slice the lemon half into smaller pieces, which I do think helped the scent grow a little stronger.
Unlike candles, which can sometimes smell a little artificial, my simmer pot just made my home smell like I had something especially good cooking in the oven. I liked that the scent was relatively subtle, too. And I really liked that I was able to use food scraps and pantry leftovers for the task without having to buy anything new or make any special trips.
What sealed the deal, though, was that I could leave the slow cooker unattended to work its magic while I was in a completely different part of my house. I checked on it every hour or two to make sure that the water level wasn’t getting too low, but otherwise it was pretty hands-off.
Would I try this home fragrance hack again? Oh, most definitely. I’m just mad I didn’t try it sooner! I’ll be keeping this hack in mind for fall and the holiday season and testing out even more scent combinations as I go.
Further Reading
I Tried the 90/90 Rule and My Closet Is Now Fully Decluttered
Everything You’ve Ever Wanted To Know About Article’s DTC Furniture
See How a Stager Used Paint to Transform a 1950s Living Room
