Stale cooking oil smell in kitchen

[BabCNesbitt]

Now I'm fully prepared to accept that the answer to this may be 'scrub your kitchen down, you slummer!'

That said, when we got in last night, it really struck me that our kitchen smelled of old, greasy cooking oil. I'm pretty good about washing up straight after dinner, and (usually, ahem) OK about cleaning up the top of the cooker (don't use the oven or grill much), but we don't have any kind of extractor fan or overhead oven canopy thingy, and we rent, so that's unlikely to change.

What's the best way to get rid of this smell, and to try and stop it coming back in future?

Do you have the windows open? Mine get closed at bedtime and then opened again as soon as we get up.

No, the window never gets opened - it's over the sink and single-glazed, so I have visions of accidentally putting my hand through a pane if I try and force the ancient paint to crack open!

You need some fresh air circulating.

I would like that, but the only other window on the ground floor (we're on a terrace) opens up to the main road, so I keep that shut to avoid lungfuls of petrol fumes. Would some kind of portable fan be any use, do you think?

My old kitchen had a window like that. I just opened as many windows that I could an air the whole house. Make sure you clean cupboard and drawer fronts, they tend to get the oil splashback from the hob and its easy to miss.

Xpost sorry mine wont be that useful then!

I'm assuming you've already washed out cupboards and washed down cupboard doors too etc.

I would say a build up of cooking fats and oils in your sink and drain.

It can happen even if you don't pour oil directly into it. Just washing frying pans with left over grease from mince, beef chicken etc etc can eventually build up

Or where your job/cooker is, could any cooking residues be running down the back or sides? If you've got a hob the the silicon seal around it could have worn away and little by little fats could escape down and build up.

And obviously is your oven clean.

Oven is clean-ish? Rarely used and we don't cook meat, so no chance for lots of fat to drip down. Good point about scrubbing down cabinet surfaces and sides of the oven, though - I'm pretty lazy about that, so will get around to that.

Think drain could be a bit blocked - will chucking soda crystals down there help, or will that just block it even more?

caustic soda is a good drain cleaner. you can get it from wilkos

stick a bit zoflora down aswell

Isn't caustic soda bloody dangerous? I don't want to kill everything in the sewer system within a 10-mile radius!

ooh I'm not sure, the one I've got is advertised specifically as a drain cleaner