This Fruit Instantly Stops Canned Tuna From Stinking Up The Entire House

Have you ever gotten a whiff of roses when you opened a can of tuna? What about caramel? If so, congrats! You have a rare genetic mutation that makes fishy odors smell sweet or floral. The rest of us are not so lucky. For most people, opening even the best brands of canned tuna isn't like lighting up a scented candle — it's like setting off a stink bomb in your kitchen.

According to Nadia Munno, TikTok's Pasta Queen, it doesn't have to be that way. "If you're a little bit put off by the smell of tuna, you can kill it instantly," Munno said in an interview with Tasting Table. The answer is in your fruit basket. Don't worry: Munno isn't talking about an unholy combination of tuna and bananas. Her secret ingredient is lemon, which is traditionally a popular pairing with fish. 

"You take the tuna, you drain it off, and then you squeeze a whole lemon on it," Munno says. "It makes it a lot milder and it doesn't give off [the smell]. It kills a little bit of that fishy type of intense flavor." If you don't happen to have a lemon on hand, a splash of vinegar will work, too.

You can blame trimethylamine oxide, or TMAO, for the fishy smell in tuna. TMAO is an organic compound that protects the cells of saltwater fish — like tuna — from being damaged by the salt and high pressure around them. After the fish dies, bacteria begin to convert TMAO into trimethylamine, or TMA: the fishy-smelling gas that wafts through your kitchen when you open a can of tuna. 

So why exactly is lemon (and vinegar, for that matter) a fishy odor killer? Turns out the reaction is science in action. Acidic ingredients, like citrus juice or vinegar, react with TMA to keep volatile organic compounds — the organic compounds that make smells smelly — from wafting into the air. Marinating fish in milk helps prevent the volatile compounds in TMA from reaching your nose, too. All those not-so-fresh tastes and odors get absorbed into the milk as the fish marinades. Just make sure to pour the milk off before digging in. If you happen to be lactose intolerant, allergic to citrus, and can't stand the taste of vinegar, try masking the fishy smell with cinnamon or consider ditching the can and simply buying fresher fish.

Static Media owns and operates Tasting Table and The Takeout.