DinnerDork [ ˈdi-nərˈdȯrk ]
As tasty as onions, garlic and fish may be, they don’t smell that great as leftovers on your hands after cooking. While rubbing your hands with the inside of a freshly cut lemon is a great way to eliminate these odors, it’s also drying to your hands, uncomfortable if you have any cuts or abrasions, and also a bit wasteful (seriously, I buy lemons to use IN my cooking, not after)!
Stainless steel to the rescue! Many chefs, chef’s assistants (and fishermen) know that rubbing your hands with or on stainless steel does a great job of eliminating the odor without the waste or discomfort of using lemon. This can be as simple as rubbing your hands along the sides of your stainless steel sink before or while washing them to eliminate all of the oniony, garlicky, fishy odors. For added convenience, portability and hygiene, you can get a stainless steel odor bar like this one for only a few bucks:
Economical Stainless Steel Odor Eliminating Bar (click to view)
These handy odor eliminating bars are more economical than keeping a bunch of hand-washing lemons around, and never need replenishing!
Wanna know the science behind it? Checkout this article from the Huffington Post that explains why stainless steel works in this way.