Stainless Steel Erases Garlic’s and Onions Aroma - Here is the chemistry behind it
If you love
cooking with garlic, you know it does a lot of good in recipes by helping build
flavor — but its strong odor can linger for hours, especially on our hands.
We’ve
all been in the situation where after preparing a wonderful meal, we’re left
with the stench of garlic on our fingers — yuck! There are a few tricks people
often recommend to eliminate the smell: lemon juice or vinegar, rubbing your
hands with salt, or even using toothpaste! But those don’t work — all they do
is mask the garlic smell. So what does really work? Stainless steel.
Using any
stainless steel surface works. Try your stainless steel kitchen sink or faucet
— just hold your hands under cold running water while rubbing the
stainless steel for 10 seconds. Voila, the smell will be gone.
Let’s explain
why stainless steel works.
Not
surprisingly, it all has to do with the chemistry of garlic and stainless steel.
Garlic contains molecules with sulfur. When cutting garlic, the molecules are
transferred to your skin. Washing your hands with water heightens the smell
because the water causes the sulfur to turn into sulfuric acid. When you touch
stainless steel, the molecules in the steel bind with the sulfur molecules on
your hands, thus transferring the molecules (along with the smell) to the metal
and off from your hands. Presto! No more garlicky fingers.
Stainless
steel can also help remove onion or fish odors from your hands. So the next
time you’re handling garlic, onions or fish as part of your kitchen prep, try
stainless steel for yourself. You’ll be surprised at how well it works.
What do
you do to get rid of the garlic smell from your hands? Leave us a comment
below.
Source:huffingtonpost
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