Cooking Tips: 9 Ways To Eradicate Kitchen Smells ASAP
Foods with strong flavours and spices like fish or curry can often cause lingering odors in the kitchen. Fear not, as this smell is fairly easy to get rid of with five simple, inexpensive ideas
Close bedroom doors prior to cooking
One of the most handy ways to minimize pungent cooking odor is to not let them enter into every nook and corner of your house. Closing bedroom and closet doors prior to cooking anything smelly or with strong flavours ensures that you won’t have to fall asleep in a bed that smells like fried fish. Also, make sure the kitchen is clean before you start anything.
Clean up as and when you’re done
There’s absolutely nothing worse than waking up to a sink full of stinky oil-lathered utensils. Wash and clean all your greasy cooking pans and pots as soon as you’re done using them. This will save your time and effort, or else the stubborn smelly grease will sit on your utensils.
Ventilate, in every possible way
Drive out the foul smell as quickly as possible. For that, you’ll require, an exhaust fan or a chimney that can remove greasy cooking smells from the air.
Prevent oil buildup
Apart from airborne odors, grease and oil can wreak havoc on the surfaces around your kitchen, including ceilings, exhaust fans and windows. Although not volatile at room temperature, at boiling point, oil does evaporate, and tends to condense on cooler surfaces in and around the cooking area. Now, if you are a “once-a-month cleanup person”, your problem could be from the grease accumulated on surfaces. By using strong cleaning agents, preferably fresh-scented ones on a daily basis, you can reduce cooking smells in your kitchen and around your house to a great extent.
Make a separate disposing bag for smelly items
This is the most sane and easy tip to eliminate any possible foul odor. Toss smelly items like fish, vegetables or anything that will rot in a separate bag which can be disposed of outside.
Hot water and dish soap
Put a stopper in the sink and fill it with several inches of hot water. Add a squirt of dish soap. Turn on the disposal and unplug the sink to let the water flush through. This is different than simply running the tap like we usually do since the disposal will actually fill with water.
Vinegar and lemon ice cubes
Slice a lemon into small (quarter-sized) wedges and place in muffin cups, pour distilled white vinegar into the cups, let the cubes set up in the freezer overnight, remove the cubes from the tray, and pop a few down the disposal. Run a low stream of water and flip the switch!
Get air-condition
This can be costly, but some kitchens are equipped with air conditioners, especially if you live in a place with really hot summers. An efficient air conditioner is a good way to dissipate kitchen odors.
Soak smelly cutting boards
You probably don’t notice this, but cutting boards, especially the wooden variety, tend to pick up cooking smells, especially from onions and garlic. It’s a good idea to leave your cutting board underwater overnight, to get rid of the smell. Just remember to dry it out after.