Salt Is The Key To Cleaning That Onion Smell From Your Cutting Board

If you've ever chopped an onion, garlic, or other fragrant ingredient on your cutting board, then you know the smell of said ingredient tends to overstay its welcome and linger for what seems like an eternity. Good news — the solution to ridding your cutting board of offensive odors is already in your pantry. Salt is the key to a clean, fresh-smelling cutting board.

Because salt is made of both acidic and alkaline substances, it has a neutral pH. This allows salt to absorb and removes odor when directly applied to a surface. Salt has antibacterial properties, so it will work at cleaning your board and removing smells simultaneously. It also helps to clean plastic cutting board stains and scuffs, so you're deodorizing, removing stains, and cleaning all at once. You can even use salt to clean cast iron pans without soap. (It's like the other pantry staples aren't even trying!)

You can clean both wooden and plastic cutting boards with salt. Start by grabbing some coarse salt. You'll want to choose a coarser salt like kosher or sea salt, for example, because its structure is more abrasive and therefore ready to take on stubborn smells. You don't need to use a lot of salt, and the amount you use will depend on the size of your cutting board. One-third of a cup should be more than enough in most cases.

Sprinkle your board with the salt, then rub half a lemon onto your board cut-side down. Rub the lemon in small circles all around your board, making sure to squeeze a bit to release lemon juice every few seconds. Lemons contain citric acid, which is both antiseptic and antibacterial, so getting some juice on your board will only help clean it further. This is just one of the many ways to naturally clean your kitchen with lemon.

Allow the lemon and salt mixture to rest on your cutting board for about five minutes, and then remove the mixture with a bench scraper or paper towel. Rinse your board with water to make sure the salt is gone. Finally, dry your board with a cloth before letting it air dry.

Salt isn't the only household staple that gets rid of odor and bacteria on your cutting board. Vinegar is acidic, which makes it a convenient way to neutralize alkaline odors like onion. Cleaning a cutting board with vinegar is as easy as filling a spray bottle with vinegar, spraying your board, cleaning the vinegar off, and rinsing it with water.

Baking soda is another inexpensive, easy option for cleaning your cutting board. The chemicals in baking soda that make it alkaline are able to neutralize foul-smelling acids from fish, meat, and other acidic foods you might put on your cutting board. The process of cleaning and deodorizing a cutting board with baking soda is pretty much identical to the salt cleaning process. Simply sprinkle some baking soda onto your cutting board, then use a lemon to scrub it in. After letting it sit for a moment, rinse your board and dry it off.