Have you ever returned home after a hard and exhausting day working and dreaming of a delicious plate of fried eggs with some beautiful French fries and here you are in your kitchen reaching out to the frying pan to start fulfilling your dream of a delicious meal!!
But once you catch it, you’re surprised by a strange, bad smell in the frying pan?
We all went through this situation and the strange thing is that this thing always happens to us when we are not ready or in a hurry!!
I decided to understand why I smell bad and what are the reasons for this
As a general rule, the reason why your non-stick pan smell is the quality of the oil and butter used, as well as the high cooking temperature, as well as some types of food with a strong smell.
What happens is that low or medium-quality oils dissolve quickly and heating to a high degree removes the non-sticky layer from the pan, therefore it is easy for some traces of use to remain in the frying pan, which causes unpleasant odors.
Let’s dig deep into every reason
Why does my non-stick pan smell?
Low-Quality Oils and butter
There are general rules when using oils, the most important of which is that oils are subject to oxidation
This means that if you buy and store large quantities of oils, they are likely to oxidize and therefore will have an unpleasant smell, especially after use.
The oils should also be used within 30 to 60 days.
Most oils can be stored at normal room temperature, except for some types of oils, such as grapeseed or walnut oil, which must be kept in the refrigerator.
Cooking With High Temperature.
As I mentioned to you at the beginning of this post, one of the most important reasons for the non-stick pan to smell is cooking at high temperatures.
And you should know when using a non-stick pan that it has extreme temperatures and after reaching this the non-sticky layer begins to corrode.
Therefore, you must not heat the frying pan before use.
The maximum temperature for the best non-savory frying pans is 660°F.
Also here it should be noted that the oils start to break down at a temperature of 220°F, I think now you can expect what will happen when you put the oils on a heated frying pan!
Types Of Food That Will Make Your Non-Stick Pan Smell
There are foods that naturally have a pungent smell such as garlic, onions, and fish.
All these foods when cooked leave traces and odors, and you must use some small tricks when you finish cooking such foods.
And in the next part, I will share with you some simple steps that can help you get rid of odors.
How to get rid of your non-stick pan smell.
Put the frying pan in the water immediately when you are finished frying, as this will help prevent food residues from sticking and thus reduce odors.
Use a dry sponge when you finish cooking the types of food that have a pungent odor. It is preferable that the cleaning sponge be new or dry so that there are no leftovers from previous foods and thus ensure that there are no odors after cleaning.
Use baking soda with warm water. Baking soda works to remove dirt from all metals, which is why silver manufacturers use it to clean dirty silver.
Put a little lemon on your dish detergent, because the lemon works to remove any sticky odors and odors on the pan.
Put some white vinegar on the dishwashing powder because it will work to kill the bacteria that cause bad odors.
Conclusion
To sum up all of the above.
In order to ensure that there are no odors in your frying pans, you must use good types of oils and take into account that they are not stored for a long time.
Avoid overheating the frying pan.
When cooking food with a pungent odor, you should put the pan in water when you are finished cooking.
When cleaning, a dry sponge should be used, and it is preferable to add lemon or vinegar to the dish detergent.
Resources: Safety of Teflon™ Nonstick Coatings