Remember that unknown syrupy scent that would waft over Manhattan every so often? Mystery solved:

City agencies mapped wind patterns, odor reports and air samples to determine that food processing plants in New Jersey’s Bergen and Hudson counties were the likely cause.

A company called Frutarom was processing foenugreek seeds to produce food additives when the smell popped up most recently, on Jan. 29.

Neither Frutarom nor any of the other processors appear to be violating any rules or laws, city officials said.

New Yorkers have said it smelled like French toast, pancakes or even coffee cake.

I have yet to detect this stench, at least mindfully. There’s any number of smells that invade my nose daily; I can’t say a particularly sweet one ever stood out and made me take notice.

As for why Frutarom’s industrial exhaust should predominate over all the other byproducts drifting across the river from Jersey, that’s another mystery waiting to be solved, I guess.