How to Remove the Garlic Smell from Your Hands

Published on Wednesday, September 23, 2009, by CHOW Video Team / Edit Post

How to Remove the Garlic Smell from Your Hands

Domenic Chiaromonte, executive chef of Match Restaurant just outside Toronto, shares his secret for ridding your hands of the strong smells of cut garlic and onion. Hint: It involves your breakfast’s leftovers and doubles as an exfoliant.

CHOW Tips are the shared wisdom of our community. If you’ve figured out some piece of food, drink, or cooking wisdom that you’d like to share on video (and you can be in San Francisco), email Meredith Arthur and tell us what you’ve got in mind.

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POST A COMMENT |14 Comments

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  • Copper pennies and steel wool work also, mainly due to ionization; that said, I agree with JR.

    Garlic oil smells good.

    Copper is a good disinfectant for water also.

  • Coming soon to Chow Tips:

    How to get rid of coffee breath by chewing on a clove of garlic.

  • I agree with playfulotter -- stainless steel under running water has always worked for me. I use a spoon, tho, and make sure to take a pass under the nails as well. I follow with a citrus shell if I have one handy.

    I like the coffee grinds idea, tho I'd have to reserve them.

  • I happen to like the smell of garlic! But a lemon peal works well for me.

  • I found this reason online...It is a bit scientific though but it had to be...ha ha

    "The reason why the stainless steel removes the garlic odor is the same reason your hands have a metallic smell after handling coins. The metal oxides create a break down of oil in your skin. Scientists think it works like this: When touching objects made of iron, perspiration from skin causes the iron atoms to...+READ

    I found this reason online...It is a bit scientific though but it had to be...ha ha

    "The reason why the stainless steel removes the garlic odor is the same reason your hands have a metallic smell after handling coins. The metal oxides create a break down of oil in your skin. Scientists think it works like this: When touching objects made of iron, perspiration from skin causes the iron atoms to gain two electrons. The doubly negative iron atoms react with oil in skin, causing them to decompose, forming 1-octen-2-one."

    I guess it is just a hypothesis though and maybe hasn't been fully researched.-COLLAPSE

  • That's utterly fascinating about the stainless steel. Does anyone know the scientific reasons for this? If so, I'd love to hear why this works.

  • I am glad to know about the S/Steel. I have always used lemon rind, orange rind, and/or celery to try to remove the odor of onions or garlic. Sometimes that works well and sometimes not so well.

  • YES!

  • playfulotter is right: stainless steel is the easy, quick and much less messy solution. You can even buy 'bars' of stainless steel much like bars of soap to rub your hands over, but I have stainless steel fittings on my kitchen sink so I just use those and it works.

  • Wow, a chowtip that is actually useful. Coffee grinds, I like it. I go fishing quite often and often end up using Comet on my hands after.

    To Remander above, it is really hard to find polecats up here in Boston, and then of course these Yankees around here are far to politically correct to kill one.

    Never mind if I did have a dead polecat I would be on the web looking for recipes right off the...+READ

    Wow, a chowtip that is actually useful. Coffee grinds, I like it. I go fishing quite often and often end up using Comet on my hands after.

    To Remander above, it is really hard to find polecats up here in Boston, and then of course these Yankees around here are far to politically correct to kill one.

    Never mind if I did have a dead polecat I would be on the web looking for recipes right off the bat.

    So many cats, so few recipes.
    William Shakespeare.-COLLAPSE

  • Rubbing your hands in a dead polecat will also remove the garlic smell.

  • Toothpaste, or peanut butter or a paste of salt and water rubbed over your hands will also do the trick. A paste of baking soda and water also works.

  • also had good luck with grabbing some coffee grinds (esp when I've forgotten to toss them)... works like a charm on garlic)

  • To remove any garlic smell from your hands all you have to do is rub your fingers over something stainless steel such as the back unsharp edge of the knife you used to mince the garlic (be careful if you do this of course!) or anything else that is stainless steel while you have cold running water run over your hands at the same time...This works great for me every time!