Reduce oily cooking smell?

Scam · 22 Dec 2011 at 17:36

I'm just wondering how I can go about reducing the oily/greasy cooking smell when cooking. It obviously varies according to what I'm cooking but the girlfriend keeps banging on about the cooking smell inflitrating the rest of the flat so I guess I should make some effort to reduce it. I dont overuse oil, but I do use veg oil or olive oil depending on what exactly I'm cooking. Is it worth trying something else that may have less of a smell?

It's an extreme example but I think the steak last night may have been the last straw, she's actually threatened to not allow me cook steak ever again! :eek:

(as if

)

Oh, I always do the obvious -- cook with the kitchen door shut and the extractor fan on full wack and the window open!

glitch · 22 Dec 2011 at 17:40

Scam said:
Oh, I always do the obvious -- cook with the kitchen door shut and the extractor fan on full wack and the window open!

Have you changed the filter in your extractor hood recently? I've lost count of the amount of times I've cooked in a domestic kitchen and the cooker hood was almost dripping with grease.

For me, that's the main source of any lingering smells in a kitchen. People just don't seem to realise they need changing on a regular basis.

Raikiri · 22 Dec 2011 at 17:50

Use a different oil, peanut is pretty much odourless and olive oil should never be cooked

Mr Jack · 22 Dec 2011 at 19:11

Use a different oil. Sunflower oil produces a very oily effect, but other oils such as rape oil are significantly more pleasant.

PeterNem · 22 Dec 2011 at 19:39

Use ground nut (peanut) oil - it doesn't really have a smell and as a plus point the smoke point is really high so you can get it very very hot. Ideal for rubbing onto steak before cooking or cuts of meat before searing.

Olive oil smokes too much.

Scam · 22 Dec 2011 at 19:43

glitch said:
Have you changed the filter in your extractor hood recently? I've lost count of the amount of times I've cooked in a domestic kitchen and the cooker hood was almost dripping with grease.

For me, that's the main source of any lingering smells in a kitchen. People just don't seem to realise they need changing on a regular basis.

I think that has been cleaned recently, but maybe not so recently

Maybe I'll take a proper look at it and see if it needs actually replacing.

I don't often use olive oil for cooking and certainly don't on steak, but from the sounds of it it would be worth trying something else.

I've always been of the opinion that I'm cooking, therefore it will smell of cooking! Maybe I should try these things at least..

Mr Jack · 22 Dec 2011 at 22:22

Other things to consider, that I just thought of and in no particular order:

1. Butter smells nice, and is great for adding extra tasty flavour.
2. How soon do you wash up? Greasy pans left on the side will add to the smell.
3. How clean is the hob you cook on? Grease can easily build up on gas hobs and add to the pong.

lookitsjonno · 22 Dec 2011 at 22:24

your not the only one, my wife has been nagging me for years about stinking the house out, so much that it eventuall convinced me that I ended up hating it also

when we had our new kitchen in I ensured we had a good external extractor hood and it's a million percent better

a crap answer I know but thats how I solved it

Mr Jack · 22 Dec 2011 at 22:43

lookitsjonno said:
when we had our new kitchen in I ensured we had a good external extractor hood and it's a million percent better

The betterosity of a proper extractor hood cannot possible be overstated.

Entropy · 23 Dec 2011 at 00:21

From my experience most apartment "extractor" fans are actually just filters with no external exhaust. If this is the case you don't really have many options for reducing the smells.