Homespun Air Freshener: The Cozy Simmer Pot

image: Timothy Newman on Unsplash

Now that it's officially fall, it's time to talk about indoor fragrance. I have mostly used scented candles for indoor fall fragrances. However, this year I decided to really assess the value of using a candle for fragrance and look into the alternatives.

If you are like me and enjoy a nice spicy or citrusy fragrance for the home in fall and winter, read on.

The good news is there is most definitely an alternative. In our modern era of convenience in cooking and food prep, we've forgotten how women traditionally fragranced their homes in the "closed window and door" seasons. They used natural substances -- herbs and spices. While in some instances home-grown herbs might be placed by windows and doors to keep various critters out or simmered in a pot of water for medicinal or aesthetic value, for the most part the home was fragranced as a by-product of cooking and baking.

Most of us have the luxury today to bypass baking if we want fragrance. Spices are no longer an extravagance that should only be used judiciously. Instead, many of the common spices, like cinnamon and cloves, are available relatively inexpensively for our use today when compared to household income.

Adding fragrance to your home is as simple as a simmer pot. A simmer pot is just what it sounds like, a pot of spices and other natural aromatics in water, simmering on the stove or in a slow cooker. While a simmer pot doesn't exactly replace burning a candle, it has it's own virtues. 

Let's take a look at both the pros and cons of using a simmer pot.

Simmer Pot Pros

• very inexpensive, costing pennies per batch and a single batch can be used multiple days in a row
• no toxic fumes or burn-off from wax components or artificial fragrances
• may have very, very mild health benefits
• after use, the waste can be composted -- there is nothing that must be disposed of in a landfill
• no ghosting -- the soot-based surface film that ends up on walls, draperies, ceilings. It's practically invisible, but it remains.

Simmer Pot Cons

• you can only use it when you have a power/fuel source
• they're not free to use, as there's the cost of power or fuel to keep a pot simmering
• there is the risk a pot will boil dry and ruin that pot. Simmer pots require more attention than a candle, which will burn out when the wick gets too low
• you're limited to the fragrance items you have at home
• relatively short lifespan, due to the possibility of mold. You can keep a simmer pot overnight in the fridge to prolong the life of the ingredients, 3 to 5 days max. Then it's time to discard the batch.
• not as pretty to look at

Mitigating These Cons

• you can use a slow cooker to reduce the power/fuel use with a simmer pot and reduce the speed of evaporation
• you can use a timer switch that automatically shuts off electricity to the slow cooker after a specified number of hours, preventing the pot from cooking dry

If you still prefer using a candle, I will say that candles have their virtues, too. Let's look at the pros and cons of using fragranced candles.

Candle Pros

• they provide light and ambiance, as well as scent
• candles can be used in a power outage
• candles are highly portable and can be taken outdoors, camping, to the cabin, or moved into any room of the house
• candles provide many different fragrances
• candles burn themselves out when done
• they have a very long shelf life and can be stored, unlit, in a drawer or cabinet for months in between uses

Candle Cons

• candles have a statistically higher risk of house fire than using a simmer pot on the stove
• candles are risky if you have pets or small children that can reach them. Our cat was very attracted to candles and simply wouldn't leave them alone no matter where we placed them 
• candles have a high purchase cost in relation to actual burn time
• candles have limited scent throw, usually confined to one room
• candles often contain ingredients that you might not want you, your kids, or your pets to breathe in
• they can release by-products and soot that thinly coats surfaces in your home 
• depending upon your point of view, jar candles either create waste in the form of a residual jar after use or they provide a "free" container to store small items.

What you decide for fragrancing your home this fall and winter is up to you. Like I said above, I've traditionally used scented candles in the cooler months. This year I'm going to try keeping a simmer pot. 

For the one I made the other day (and have been using for 3 days in a row), I used cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, vanilla flavoring, and maple flavoring. The aroma is like that of a pumpkin pie in the oven or a batch of spiced cookies cooling on the counter. 

Other fragrance possibilities include citrus peels, apple cores and skins leftover from making applesauce, slices of apple, fresh and dried herbs, pine tree sprigs, and fresh and dried blossoms.

The method is simple. Fill a saucepan or small crockpot 3/4 with water, add your simmer ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and top off with warm water periodically.

Modern simmer pots are actually a return to our roots. While commercial candles represent a linear "buy, burn, and throw away" cycle, the historical simmer pot was the ultimate example of the circular economy -- giving a second beautiful life to things that would otherwise be discarded, then returned to the earth to nourish the next generation of homegrown aromatics.