How to Get Rid of Lingering Cooking Smells

Whether you love or hate cooking, your kitchen will inevitably be used over the holidays. For most families, the kitchen is the heartbeat of the holiday season. Food brings everyone together to reminisce on good times with past loved ones through passed-down family recipes or to share our creative side with the exchange of new culinary experimentations in a B.Y.O. buffet fashion.

The meal we share during the holidays is often the highlight of the evening. And as we wind down, pour the last glass of wine, maybe clean off the dessert plates, and kiss our families goodbye, then we, the hosts, can finally take a deep breath knowing we pulled off a successful evening. But, as we take that next inhale, we are immediately hit with our disgusted inner monologue going, "What is that smell?!?".

All of a sudden you are hit with everything that just transpired the last few hours. Bacon. Fish. Brocolli. Curry. Cheese. These all smell so delicious when dinner is on the stove and not so great a few hours or the next day after cooking. Lingering food smells are only appreciated when they are cookies or brownies.

So how do you eliminate these strong cooking odors in your kitchen? And the rest of your home? We have an easy-to-execute plan for the holidays and every day.

1. Open your windows and use your range hood.

The best way to avoid odors is to blow them outside. If you have a range hood or vent over your stove, use it! However, be mindful of where the air is blowing. If you are in a small apartment and the vent is just blowing air toward your ceiling, the food smell may stay longer than you would like so open a window in or near your kitchen

2. Clean up right away

Wipe down dirty counters, clean off food splatters on the stove, and wash all greasy cooking pans right after cooking. It's best to take care of a pan full of stinky oil that evening rather than letting the smell accumulate overnight. This may sound obvious but don't forget to clean the drain of leftover food particles, run the garbage disposal, and take out the trash too.

3. Light a candle or burn incense (preferably Blunteffects®)

To really kick those lingering odors to the curb, you'll want to wrap up the evening by lighting a scented candle or burning an incense stick. Not all smell-good products are created equal, many candles and incense are only designed to mask odors, giving you a weird combination of pleasant and gross smells. You'll want to look for 'odor-eliminating' products like Blunteffects®. All of our products are designed to eliminate bad odors and leave you with a fresh scent.

Go from thinking "What's that smell?!" to "That smells nice!" with Blunteffects® candles and incense. They'll keep your kitchen smelling fresh all year round so you can get back to what matters most during the holidays, spending time with loved ones.

Click here to discover our candle collection and click here to check out our incense collection. With over 70+ fragrances we are sure to have the perfect fragrance for you. Happy cooking!