Being able to smell your food while cooking can make the meal feel even more appealing. But if that smell lingers for days afterward, it is a little less appetizing.
Fortunately, if this is something that has happened to you while cooking that perfect steak dinner, it isn’t something you have to worry about anymore. This is because, in a viral video amassing 548,300 views, TikToker Veronica Mercedes (@iamveronicamercedes) shared a game-changing life hack.
Standing over her stove alongside a bottle of vinegar and a saucepan, Mercedes explained, “I just finished cooking some steak. Usually, after a couple of days, my apartment still smells like steak. I just learned, what I wish I would have known sooner, that if you mix vinegar with water and you simmer it alongside whatever it is you’re making, [then] your apartment won’t smell like whatever it is that you’re making.”
In the video description, she added, “vinegar + water = no lingering smell.” Vanessa also shared a “pro tip” with viewers, advising them to keep their hood fan off.
The TikToker didn’t immediately respond to BroBible’s request for comment via Instagram direct message.
Are Commenters Convinced?
Some commenters shared their own tips on how to eliminate cooking smells.
“I just put a glass of vinegar out,” one wrote. “My mom taught me that…works like a charm!”
A second suggested, “Girl get yourself a Madison Berger lamp and it will soak up all the smells, even bacon!”
Meanwhile, a fourth advised that “cinnamon and water works also, and it’ll smell like cinnamon not vinegar.”
For other commenters, the idea of a vinegar odor was just as bad as a cooking odor, if not worse.
“I’d much rather smell steak than vinegar,” a fourth said. “No thanks.”
“It will just smell like feet though!” a fifth complained.
Elsewhere, a sixth asked, “What’s the problem with your apartment smelling like the food you are cooking? It’s better than what most people’s apartments smell like lol”
Does This Life Hack Actually Work?
According to Homes and Gardens, just leaving vinegar in a bowl next to the stove can be enough to eliminate a strong cooking smell. The outlet reports that the reason this method is effective is because vinegar is made up of acetic acid. This means it will naturally neutralize strong odors because they are usually made up of alkaline.
If the bowl alone doesn’t get rid of the smell, Saskia Gregson-Williams, founder of Naturally Sassy, suggests to the outlet that, like Mercedes, you should try boiling the vinegar with water. “Give your kitchen a steamy makeover by boiling a pot of water mixed with equal parts vinegar,” she said. “The steam will lift away any pesky cooking smells that have been hanging around.”
If your kitchen still has an odor after this, there is one more thing you could try, Gregson-Williams adds. “Fill a spray bottle with two cups of water and one to two teaspoons of vinegar and spritz it around the kitchen – it’s like a breath of fresh air in a bottle,” she says.
@iamveronicamercedes vinegar + water = no lingering smell Pro tip: keep your hood fan off!!! #kitchenhack