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Ingredient Smell Test

Before cooking, the child smells each ingredient and guesses what dish it will become.

Cartoon illustration of a parent and child at home: before cooking, the child smells each ingredient and guesses what dish it will become.
  • Age2 to 7 years
  • TimeUnder 5 minutes
  • EnergyCalm
  • CostFree
  • WhereIndoors
  • PrepNone

While you or another grown-up is pulling out ingredients for a meal, your child smells each one and tries to guess what you are making. A two-minute sensory ritual that turns meal prep into a moment of genuine curiosity and connection.

How to do it

  1. As you gather ingredients for the meal, hold each one near your child and say: "Can you smell this? What does it remind you of?"
  2. Let your child sniff the item, then ask: "Do you think this goes in something sweet or something savoury?"
  3. After three or four ingredients, ask: "Can you guess what we are making?"
  4. If they guess correctly, celebrate it. If not, give one more clue: "It has noodles" or "It gets cooked in a pan."
  5. When the final dish is ready, connect back: "Remember when you smelled the ginger? That's what you can taste now."

What you need

  • Cooking ingredients

Signs it is working

Your child leans in to smell each ingredient without being prompted after the first. They attempt a guess at the dish, even if wrong. At the meal, they point out or comment on an ingredient they recognised.

If it is not quite clicking

Child pulls back from a strong smell (onion, fish sauce, chilli): Do not push: acknowledge it: "That one is pretty strong, isn't it?" and move to the next. Child is not interested in guessing and just wants to keep smelling things: That is fine: the sensory engagement is the point, not the right answer. Child wants to hold the ingredient themselves: Let them hold sturdy items (a carrot, a ginger root, a lime) but keep raw meat, raw eggs, and hot items with the adult.

Make it yours

Younger, 2-3 years: Skip the guessing game entirely; just name each smell together: "This is garlic. Smell! What do you think?" Older, 5-6 years: Challenge them to arrange the ingredients in the order they think they will be added to the dish. Siblings: Turn it into a competition: who can name the most ingredients correctly gets to announce dinner is ready.

Try this with your child.

Tell PLAI™ about your child and this moment. It shapes the activity to fit.

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