[mrob]

Why would it smell and taste unusually good before cooking was invented? Isn't it more likely that appreciation for the taste of cooked food evolved because cooked food is safer and more nutritious? If there's no cooked food there's no reason for this preference to evolve.

[koolba]

It may be the stronger smell or the faster delivery of particulates of burnt fat through the air.

Dogs, wolves, and bears can’t cook or start fires but all of them are attracted to the smell of cooked food as well. You could argue that dogs and maybe wolves co-evolved that preference alongside ours, but that doesn’t hold up for bears.

[BoiledCabbage]

Are bears attracted to the smell of cooked food? Or just attracted to the smell of food, and cooking is how most people treat food out in the wilderness?

[peteradio]

Why come did bears evolve to steal my pickinickbasket them?