The Best Way To Eliminate Fish Odors While You're Cooking

While fish makes a great home-cooked meal, it can also make for a not-so-great-smelling home kitchen. Even the most die-hard seafood lovers are less than enthused by the lingering fishy odors that cooking a hearty piece of salmon or trout can bring. Chowhound spoke exclusively with investigative chemist Alexis Rochester, owner of ChemistryCachet.com, who said those smells are due to the unsaturated fats in fish undergoing rapid oxidation. This leads to strong odors from ketones and aldehydes, two volatile compounds naturally found in fish. "[This smell] can linger on many surfaces, especially sinks or dishes," Rochester told us.

Rochester says that the best way to keep your kitchen smelling nice and clean when cooking fish is to use an acid, which can neutralize the smells rather than merely covering them up. "Squeezing lemon on your fish right after cooking can be the quickest way to minimize the fishy odor," she explains. Lemon is a common choice since it already adds a pop of bright flavor to fish, but Rochester adds, "You can also use vinegar to neutralize the fishy odor on surfaces like your sink." Just don't try to use an air freshener to cover up the smell, she advises, since this only masks the odor and doesn't eliminate it.

Neutralizing fishy surfaces immediately after cooking isn't the only trick for eliminating pesky smells. Sometimes, these odors linger and a deeper cleaning is required. When that's the case, and you do decide to clean your kitchen after cooking fish, make sure to pay attention to the oft-forgotten spots that can make a big difference. Alexis Rochester mentions one part of the kitchen you might forget to scrub down when trying to get rid of odor and grime: oven vents. "[These] can hold onto the fatty molecules after cooking," she explains. If cleaning the oven isn't your idea of a great time (who can blame you?), using handy oven-cleaning hacks can be a lifesaver.

Another area Rochester says can trap and hold onto fatty fish molecules are air filters, so she advises changing these out on a regular schedule. Regularly cleaning your drain and sink garbage disposal, even with cheap and quick methods, can also make a big difference. Finally, Rochester says, "Trash cans also get dirty and hold onto odors, so regular trash can cleaning is another important method to keep bad odors to a minimum. I make a DIY trash can spray with citric acid and use this weekly." With these tips in mind, your kitchen should smell nice and fresh any time — not only after cooking fish.