This Kitchen Staple Is Actually The Easy Answer To Removing Fried Food Stench

Though few things beat a simple classic fried chicken recipe in terms of taste and comfort, cleaning up after preparing fried food is notoriously a hassle, from properly disposing of the leftover grease to cleaning up all the grimy spatter before it has the chance to congeal into a sticky mess. Plus, there's the smell. Fresh fried food smells incredible — warm, salty, bready, and delicious. However, once that scent turns stale, it coats your kitchen in a sour odor that's hardly stimulating to the appetite.

The good news is that the solution to this problem is probably sitting in your cupboard right now: coffee. There are plenty of useful ways to repurpose coffee grounds in your kitchen, one of the most useful being to eliminate unpleasant odors. Similar to baking soda, coffee is rich in nitrogen, which dilutes and disperses the molecules stinking up your kitchen, replacing them with fresh, clean air. Though baking soda will essentially do the same thing, this hack gives your used coffee grounds a second life before you toss them.

Plus, if you already stuck that orange box of Arm & Hammer in your refrigerator to absorb smells there, you don't have to run out to purchase more for the rest of your kitchen — just brew a pot of java and put the grounds to work after they've fully dried. And if it's too late in the day to drink coffee, try using your fresh pot to make a no-fuss, three-ingredient coffee ice cream or give your favorite cut of beef a caffeinated marinade.

Though coffee is slightly antimicrobial, used grounds can still develop mold if they're not properly dried before you scoop them into a cup or bowl to literally clear the air. As you may imagine, moldy coffee grounds will be much less effective at keeping your kitchen smelling fresh, and may in fact do the opposite. To prevent this, it's essential to spread them out in a single layer on a plate or baking sheet after brewing. Stir them frequently as they dry to ensure no pockets of damp grounds sneak into your DIY air freshener.

Once totally dry, simply scoop them into a bowl, wide-mouthed mug, or glass jar. It's important the opening of your chosen vessel is fairly large so the nitrogen in the grounds can disperse efficiently. Soup mugs are good for this, as are things like martini glasses, if you want a nice display. If you're not as concerned about aesthetics, feel free to toss your dried coffee grounds into a disposable paper bowl, which will be easier to discard once the grounds have done their job.

The best thing about this hack is that each batch of grounds will keep your kitchen odor-free for about two weeks at a time, so it's also low maintenance. You might even get into the habit of drying the grounds from your daily pot of coffee, ensuring you always have fresh ones ready to go for a handful of kitchen cleaning tasks. For instance, any surplus coffee grounds are perfect for scrubbing away grease stains from your counters.