Can I give you some advice? You don’t really want a candy bar right now. Full of sugar, rots your teeth, and all you get is a rush that lasts a few seconds. How about something healthy, like those baked tofu chips down there?
via Sharon H.
Break Room Dietician
Only 50 cents for an adorable raccoon?
Which button do I press to get the raccoon?
Hard to tell… the numbering on there looks a little odd. I wonder if he moved/knocked off some labels while climbing up the shelves.
How in the heck did she get IN there?!
Same way the snacks come out, I suspect.
What an adorable trash panda, I’d gladly spend 50 cents for that. And by the way, too late on the diet advice. Lunch today consisted of a slice of cold pizza and several mini candy bars. Weather here warmed up and has my sinus headache acting up so all I feel like eating is junk food. Oh well, tomorrow is another day to make smart decisions.
Dang. The last raccoon in the machine is stuck. Isn’t that always the way?!
Speaking of food…..could use some advice from my fellow Cutetropolitans…
I pan seared salmon for dinner last night for the first time using my new stainless steel cookware (I usually broil it) and although it was absolutely delicious my kitchen STILL stinks of fish. 🤢 I cooked with the windows open, while running the overhead exhaust fan (the fan is in the microwave above the stove), cleaned up immediately after, wiped down the counters, soaked the pan, etc. I even left out a box of baking soda on the counter and sprinkled some in the sink for overnight. Today it was so bad I had to stop work and run out to buy vinegar, after googling excessively, which I boiled on the stove (in a different pot) and left it to simmer for over 30 minutes while running the exhaust fan again. It helped quite a bit but I can still smell it.
The microwave smelled like a school of fish set up camp inside overnight and cooked themselves a fish dinner. It’s better now since I boiled the vinegar but the odor is not gone. Same for my new pan, even though I used baking soda and vinegar to wipe it down today. I plan on leaving the vinegar and a bowl of baking soda in the microwave overnight.
Any suggestions? Does the vinegar/baking soda need more time to work its magic or am I doomed to live in a fish market and use a smelly pan forever?
This article mentions the usual ideas (lemon juice, vinegar), most of which you’ve done, but adds some other good advice, especially about cleaning spots you may have missed (though I must say it sounds like you can’t have missed much).
https://www.thecitycook.com/articles/2010-02-25-getting-rid-of-cooked-fish-smells
If you don’t like the Windex suggestion, cleaning with Simple Green may help. And while leaving an open box of baking soda near the source of the odor can’t hurt, sometimes leaving out fresh (that is, unused) coffee grounds in a dish instead can help. Personally for cleaning the inside of a microwave I prefer lemon in water to vinegar in water. But either should help.
If you have odor in fabrics (kitchen curtains, tea towels, nearby upholstery, rugs, carpet) you may need to wash the washables and sprinkle baking soda on the un-washables, rub it in, let it sit, and then vacuum.
Can you leave windows open and keep some cross-ventilation going?
Lastly, when was the last time you cleaned the filters in your exhaust fan? Because those may well be the biggest offenders at the moment.
And yes, time should help, but you do want to make sure you didn’t miss something that’s really holding on to the stink.
If a raw fish smells that much, then it’s past its expiration date (no matter what the package says). No fish reeks that much, with the exception of smelts (hence the name). You’re lucky that you didn’t get food poisoning.
If you have a plastic-encased microwave or a plastic blade fan, it’s possible that the smell got in the plastic and that’s why your kitchen reeks. There’s nothing much you can do to get it out, other than what others have already suggested. In the future, use a lid when cooking anything.
Few stainless steel pans have a thick coating of stainless steel. Especially the newly made kind, even from trusted brands like All Clad. Stainless steel is not supposed to have a lingering smell after the pan is cleaned.
Personally, I only use cast iron and carbon steel pans. Either work great for searing fish, chicken, etc. They’re affordable enough that you can have multiple and dedicate each to vegetables, fish and other meat.
Handy tip: regardless of what the manufacturing label says, you should always season your cast iron and carbon steel pans when new. And regularly after use. The pre-seasoned cast iron pans have a rough texture that takes a while to get rid of on its own.
You can speed this up by having using a drill with a sander attachment. (If you do this, please use a respirator or N95 mask at minimum, in a well-ventilated area like a garage. You don’t want to breathe in particles of cast iron.)
Instead of just leaving the baking soda out to absorb the odor, maybe try simmering the baking soda (and maybe add some lemon/vinegar for good measure) on the stove for about 20 minutes. For any fabrics, try using some Febreze fabric refresher to get rid of the odors. Febreze also makes a couple more natural sprays that I’ve used to get rid of some stinks in the kitchen. What’s nice is they’re not as heavily scented as the regular versions. One is called Febreze One and the other is Febreze Air Heavy Duty. Good luck!
P.S. This info is coming from the queen of kitchen disasters and setting off the smoke detector on a regular basis.
Doesn’t adding baking soda and vinegar create a foam-nami? I think my brothers used to propel balsa racing cars along a wire track this way.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions, appreciate the help!