Why Your Kitchen Still Smells Like Bacon And How to Fix It Quickly

Nothing smells more like breakfast than the smell of bacon cooking in a pan. Unfortunately that smell can linger around the kitchen for an impressively long time.

Learning how to effectively remove that bacon smell from your kitchen will keep your kitchen and your home smelling fresh and inviting. Keep reading for our guide on how to remove with the stubborn scent of bacon from your home.

You’ll learn numerous ways to deal with this problem as well as why the smell lingers in the first place.

Why Does The Smell Of Bacon Linger?

When you fry bacon in a pan, the smell lingers because of the volatile compounds that get released as the bacon cooks. Grease and smoke particles stick to surfaces and fabrics in your kitchen and throughout your home.

Those compounds mix with food particles which then settle on worktops, stovetops, walls and even fabrics in your kitchen. Any surface can be affected but absorbent materials like curtains and carpets hold onto the smell for longer.

The trouble is that the grease and smoke particles release their smell for a long time after the cooking has finished. And as they travel through the air, they can quickly spread into other rooms in your home and linger there as well.

Quick Fixes For Lingering Bacon Smell

Before we get into all the ways you can fix this, here’s a quick checklist for reference:

• Close kitchen doors while cooking
• Ventilate the kitchen (open windows, turn on the hood, use fans)
• Cook bacon in the oven or air fryer
• Store leftovers in airtight containers
• Clean dishes and wipe down surfaces immediately
• Use a vinegar spray to clean greasy areas
• Wash your hands with soap and lemon
• Light a scented candle or boil lemon water
• Use coffee grounds or baking soda to absorb odours
• Run an air purifier or place houseplants nearby

How To Deal With The Smell Of Bacon Quickly

Now that we know exactly how that bacon smell enters your home and why it lingers, let’s look at ways to eliminate it. They include;

Keep The Kitchen Door Closed

We’ll start with the best way to prevent the smell from spreading to other rooms in your home. The secret is to keep the connecting door between your kitchen and the rest of your home shut for the whole duration of the cooking time and beyond.

If that door remains closed, those grease, smoke and food particles can’t travel into other rooms. You keep the smell contained in the kitchen.

Which makes it a whole lot easier to clear if it’s only in that one room. Plus, there’s less fabrics in most kitchens which means you can often get away with a quick clean and a spray with a fresh air spray to remove the smell altogether.

Make Sure The Room Is Aired Out

To prevent that lingering smell of cooked bacon you need to make sure air is being removed from your kitchen. Considering what we just said about keeping doors closed, this might seem contradictory, but we want to contain the smell to the kitchen and remove it effectively.

Open the kitchen windows, turn on the cooker hood and if needed turn on a fan. This will deal with most of that aroma and most likely drive your neighbours to cook up some bacon too!

Consider Alternative Cooking Methods

The traditional way to cook bacon is in a frying pan, but that leads to lingering smells throughout the kitchen and beyond. Bacon cooks really well in an air fryer, and the smell is contained.

Failing that try cooking your bacon in the oven it tastes just as good but the smell is contained. What you’re trying to achieve here is keeping the aroma of cooking bacon contained in one small area.

When you fry bacon on the stovetop the smell spreads all around the kitchen, using an air fryer or the oven keeps the smell in that one small area.

Store Any Leftovers ASAP

If you cooked extra bacon or some got left after the meal was finished, as soon as it’s cool enough, pack it away. Use an airtight container and keep it in the fridge. 

This means there’s more bacon for later without allowing the smell to continue spreading.

Wash Up As Soon As The Meal Is Over

The smell can linger on pans, plates and dishes long after the meal has finished. Which is why you should clean all of those dirty dishes as soon as possible.

If you own a dishwasher, pack all of the dirty dishes in there and close the door. Then sort out the frying pans or other pots that might be on the stovetop.

Even if those pots weren’t used for this meal the grease and smoke can attach itself and linger if not dealt with. The worktops also need to be wiped down.

The best way to remove grease and lingering odours from worktops is to make a mixture of 1 part white vinegar to two parts water. Pour it into a spray bottle and spray the worktops, stovetops and anywhere else that looks or feels greasy. The vinegar will neutralise the bacon smell.

Why Vinegar Works

White vinegar contains acetic acid, which breaks down odour causing molecules, neutralising smells instead of masking them.

Don’t Forget About Your Hands

The smell of bacon can attach itself to your hands especially if you’re the cook and washer upper. To remove the lingering smell of bacon from your hands, wash them with warm soapy water and then squeeze some fresh lemon onto each hand.

Why Lemon Works

The citric acid will neutralise any odours and leave your hands smelling fresh and clean.

Make The Air Fresh

If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember those pine air fresheners that used to hang on the rearview mirror in cars. They were there to mask smells and you can do a similar thing indoors to mask the smell of bacon.

Instead of a hanging pine air freshener, how about a spray air freshener? Or you can make home made air fresheners using a bowl of bicarbonate of soda sprinkled with your favourite essential oils.

Light A Scented Candle

You could also use fragranced candles. As soon as you decide to cook up some bacon, light a scented candle to help neutralise that greasy smoky smell. 

Use Houseplants

You might think the kitchen isn’t a good place for houseplants. But a few strategically placed herbs can help keep your kitchen free from bacon smells.

Basil, thyme, sage or any other highly scented herbs add a nice fresh smell to the room and will help combat any unwanted cooking smells including bacon.

Get An Air Purifier

Air purifiers contain activated carbon filters which are designed to neutralise odours. If you leave an air purifier running for the duration of the meal and during the washing up phase it will help get rid of that bacon smell.

Boil A Lemon

Lemons are great for neutralising smells and especially greasy bacon smells. All you need to do is cut up a lemon and put the whole thing in a pot of boiling water.

Let the pot boil for around 10 to 15 minutes and then turn off the heat. Leave the lemon pot on the stove to cool down. If you want to make this even more powerful, add a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda into the mix as it’s boiling.

For a really fragrant aroma, try adding cinnamon to the boiling water as well. Or you can add essential oils like lavender, lemongrass or peppermint.

Get The Coffee On

If you’re making bacon for breakfast, you’ll most likely finish the meal off with a nice cup of fresh coffee. As the bacon cooks, the aroma of the brewing coffee helps to mask the lingering smell of the bacon.

The leftover coffee grounds are even more powerful for getting rid of bacon smells. Simply spread the coffee grounds on a piece of aluminium foil and let them dry out overnight.

Coffee grounds contain nitrogen which is a strong smell neutraliser. As an added bonus, coffee grounds will keep your fridge odour free as well.

Long Term Prevention Tips

If you cook bacon regularly, these tips can help minimise odour buildup over time:

 Deep Clean Regularly

• Clean cooker hood filters every few weeks to remove built up grease.
• Wash kitchen towels, oven mitts, and curtains if they’re near the stove.
• Wipe down walls and ceilings with a degreasing cleaner every few months.

Upgrade Ventilation

• Consider installing a vented range hood that exhausts air outside.
• Use a splatter screen over your frying pan to reduce airborne grease.

Keep Supplies Handy

• Keep a spray bottle of vinegar and water under the sink.
• Stock up on baking soda, coffee filters, and lemons, your odour fighting trio!

Keep A Herb Garden

Fresh herbs like rosemary and basil not only smell great, but they naturally release scent into the room and refresh the air.

Say Goodbye To The Bacon Blues

The smell of sizzling bacon might be delicious at the moment, but nobody wants it lingering long after breakfast is over. With just a few smart strategies, like switching up how you cook, ventilating your kitchen, and using natural odour fighters like vinegar, lemon, and coffee, you can banish that greasy scent quickly and effectively. 

Whether you’re a weekend bacon lover or a daily devotee, these tips will help keep your home smelling fresh, clean, and always ready for company. So go ahead, enjoy your bacon without the problem of the after smell.

SEE ALSO: Can You Put Ham In An Air Fryer? (read this first)

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