Get Rid Of Burnt Food Smells In Your Kitchen With This Pantry Staple

Vinegar is a somewhat magical ingredient. It works to subtly elevate a caprese salad just as well as it removes stubborn stains from plastic cutting boards. It's well-known as a versatile cleaning compound that takes care of all those grimy nooks and crannies in your kitchen, but this pantry staple has another trick up its sleeve: neutralizing unwelcome odors.

Try as we might to avoid it, sometimes distractions happen when cooking, which often result in burnt food. Once you catch a whiff of that unpleasant burnt aroma, the damage has already been done, and pizza delivery is probably in the cards. Yet that pungent burnt smell lingers long after that pizza has been devoured.

While you could go to town in the kitchen armed with a bottle of Febreze in hopes that the persistent odor ceases, a more effective (and less chemically intrusive) way to subdue the smell is to boil a one-to-one ratio of water and distilled white vinegar in a pot. The resulting "vinegar steam" will work its way into all those hard-to-reach spots where smoke has carried the burnt smell. If the odor remains, fill a spray bottle with a solution of diluted vinegar (two cups of water with two teaspoons of vinegar) and spray it around the kitchen until the burnt aroma dissipates.

Even merely leaving a bowl of distilled white vinegar on your kitchen counter can help to eradicate an obnoxious burnt smell. In fact, keeping a bowl of the pantry staple next to your stove is a terrific way to keep other unpleasant aromas, like that fishy stink that manifests whenever you cook your favorite seafood dish, from taking hold. The reason it works so well at neutralizing odors is that it is made of acetic acid, which combats alkaline smells that make our nostrils recoil in disgust.

When burnt smells are particularly powerful and lingering, vinegar might need some assistance to tame the stink. Coupling the odor-fighting power of vinegar with a bowl of baking soda will help to absorb the offensive aroma. Opening windows can also be beneficial. If you can create a cross-breeze by opening multiple windows, that will further assist the vinegar in eliminating the smell.

Of course, some folks find the scent of vinegar itself repulsive, but diluting the solution with more water will help to keep the scent of the pantry staple mild. A more effective approach might be to add a rosy-smelling essential oil to the mix. Oils will only mask the burnt odor, but if vinegar alone is just unbearable, this may be the best compromise to reclaim your kitchen.