Top 5 Reasons Why Your Kitchen Reeks Of Fish

There are easy ways to get rid of a lingering smell after cooking fish. Never fried that fish? We have the answer and solutions to freshen your home.

A fishy smell in the kitchen comes from cooking or electrical problems. If cooking is the culprit, lemon and vinegar can deodourize the kitchen. Electrical malfunctions can also smell fishy. You need an electrician to diagnose and fix the problem.

Learn the best tips to banish last night’s hake from the kitchen. Are you worried that the problem might be electrical? Here’s why it’s potentially dangerous. How to fix this: The most common way to “deodourize” a fish - and to make it taste amazing - is to let the critter soak in a liquid mixture of some kind. There are so many options and recipes that we cannot cover them all. Feel free to dig around to find more favourites but two options that effectively add taste and remove odours include soaking the fish in milk or a blend of water with lemon juice.

Read Next: This is why your kitchen sponge smells .

The Reasons Your Kitchen Smells Like Fish

Let’s tackle that carp-in-garlic first. Preparing fishy meals at home is a great way to get more of the health benefits that fish offer - and nothing tastes better than a freshly-made fish dish. However, such recipes often leave behind an odour that is not very appetizing. Worse, it can spread to the rest of the house.

The main reasons that fish can cause a lingering odour include:

1. The fish is not fresh.
2. Frying causes an odour.
3. The fish was not prepared beforehand with deodourants.
4. Kitchen windows that stay shut.
5. An improper cleaning routine after working with fish.

But what if you never dunked that hake in parsley sauce last night? You might be wondering where the smell coming from. The most common alternative is an electrical fault somewhere in the house. Since faulty wiring can potentially cause a fire, one should never ignore this type of fishy smell in the home.

The main causes of fishy-smelling electrical problems include:

1. Loose plugs in wall outlets.
2. Damaged wall outlets.
3. Damaged electrical insulation.
4. Overheating circuits.
5. Short circuits.
6. Wiring or circuit breakers that are too small.

Fresh Fish Should Not Cause An Odour

To be fair, fish do not smell like a garden of roses. Even when it is really fresh, there is still that tang that is so unique to fish. However, it should never be a true odour. If you open a pack of fish and the smell knocks you between the eyes, the fish is old and should preferably be discarded in a safe manner.

How to fix this: There are plenty of ways to check the freshness of a fish product. You can buy at a market known for selling the day’s catch or check the dates on the packageing. Here are more tips to check if a fish is fresh .

Solutions To Frying Odours

Here’s a delightful fact. Fish tastes amazing when fried. Not so delightful fact - frying is a notorious cause of odours in the kitchen. And when the thing being fried is fish, the smell can be particularly offensive and resistant to removal. Indeed, sometimes a fish smell will hang around for so long that the room will start to smell rancid. Not a good thing when you have visitors coming over!

How to fix this:

• Consider cooking the fish in another manner than frying. There are many recipes that call for wrapping the fish in paper or foil and they tend to prevent a lingering fish odour completely.
• A boiling pot can also cleanse the atmosphere. Add vinegar to the water to neutralize the smell. You can also add extras to create a pleasant smell, like essential oils and spices.

Learn how to make chips without a deep fat fryer .

The Fish Was Not Prepared Beforehand With Deodourants

Sometimes, a little extra preparation before you cook or fry a fish dish can save you from a bad smell in the kitchen. The good news is that these preparations can make your meal taste better too! It is nothing fancy. Indeed, all you will be using are extra cooking ingredients.

Open Those Windows To Get Rid Of The Fish Smell

The draft is your friend. The draft will bring garden aromas inside and kick kitchen odours out. That is the hope anyway! But seriously, keeping the kitchen well-ventilated is a great way to get rid of fish smells quickly.

How to fix this: It is pretty much as simple as opening enough windows to create a draft or proper airflow. Make sure that the kitchen door is closed for some time. Otherwise, the fish smell might get blown into other parts of the house.

Improper Cleaning Routine After Working With Fish

Cleaning up after cooking fish is one of the biggest reasons why most people prefer to go to a restaurant or get take-out. They can enjoy their fish without facing a clean-up (or odour in the kitchen) afterwards. Indeed, there are several ways that an incomplete cleaning routine can stink up your kitchen. Tiny bits of fish can remain behind or on the floor, body fluids from the fish can also reek when they are not thoroughly removed from the preparation area.

How to fix this:

• Use a strong and effective detergent to clean the counter where you worked with the fish.
• Make sure that bits of fish did not fall on the floor, in the sink, or behind the trash can.
• Speaking of which, if your trash can contains fish parts take it out of the house as soon as possible.
• Consider using a disposable cloth to wipe the surfaces with. Normal kitchen cloths might absorb the fish smell and never let go.
• Deal with dishes as soon as you can. These include the bowls and tools you use to prepare the fish as well as the plates and cutlery from the table.

When Does The Fish Smell Indicate An Electrical Problem?

Bad cooking odours are, at worst, annoying and embarrassing. An electrical issue can be very dangerous. A fishy smell indicates a serious problem that must be dealt with as soon as you can. The smell is coming from electrical parts that are overheating and they can cause a fire. Since different things like circuits, plugs, insulation, and wiring might be responsible, it is best to get a professional to have a look around your home and determine what went wrong.

A concern is that some people do not recognize the danger immediately. They assume that the drain smells bad, the smell is coming from outside, or that an animal died somewhere. Here are important signs that you are dealing with an electrical malfunction:

• A certain wall plug smells like fish.
• The fishy smell is not outside the house.
• You clean the drains and the smell persists.
• The source of the odour is hard to track down.
• The odour comes and goes (this is usually because the electrical current is being switched on or off).

At the end of the day, there are plenty of tips that can help you to prepare fish that won’t stink up your kitchen. A good cleaning routine is also crucial. If there was fish in your wastebasket, learn how to effectively clean a kitchen bin . But it’s best to leave an electrical malfunction to a professional electrician who can quickly identify the problem and make sure that it never happens again.