Research project: Asparagus stink-o-meter

Just had a fine late-evening snack because Pam and I had some hors d'oeuvres a few hours ago at the museum's 75th anniversary kickoff event, but no real dinner. So we were hungry. For a snack, I prepared two small plates of sliced pepper-jack cheese, about eight spears of cold salted asparagus, a pile of walnuts and a banana. It hit the spot.

Which leads to the experiment. It came up at dinner the other night that it would be nice to know what factors might affect the distinctive odor that is a byproduct of asparagus consumption (let's call it asparagus "water"). How long does it take to become evident? If you are drinking a lot of water, does that dilute the perfume? What if you're a bit dehydrated; does that mean that if you don't need to urinate for six or 10 hours, you'll still get the A-E (asparagus effect)? How quickly can the effect present itself? I seem to remember that Michael once identified very rapid release of the perfume. What conditions were present for that to happen?

Here's my own initial data, from yesterday. Four hours after consumption, a pretty impressive odor. Two hours after that, definitely still there. The following morning, nothing I noticed.

I'll have more data later, what with the snack and all.