How Are You Supposed To Clean Ice Cube Trays?

Cleaning kitchen tools often calls for a good soapy scrub, but consider an ice cube tray. The key ingredient it comes into contact with is water, so you'd think just a bit of soap would do the trick, but the proper way to clean your ice cube trays relies on one key ingredient: baking soda. 

Caring for your ice cube tray helps to keep your ice away from any bacteria, and gets rid of any bad taste lingering in material that isn't properly cleaned. Using baking soda not only clears things up with an all-natural ingredient, but it also breaks down acidic compounds to fight against any odors that the tray may collect from surrounding frozen goods.

To clean your ice cube trays, combine two teaspoons of baking soda with a bit of warm water, and use a cloth to clean each ice cube compartment with the mixture. Then rinse with warm water and you are all set! Keep in mind that the tray material can affect how long your ice cubes take to freeze and how it should be cleaned. Most ice cube trays are made of plastic that can warp at high temperatures, making them not dishwasher safe. Silicone trays handle heat better, so you can get away with chucking them in the washer, but others will need the baking soda treatment at least once a month for proper cleaning. 

Plenty of internet hacks prove that water isn't the only thing getting frozen in ice cube trays these days. Whether you're freezing spaghetti sauce in your ice cube molds, adding fruit to your ice for extra flavor in your water, or freezing coffee for cubes that don't water down your latte, take extra care to clean your trays more frequently. You'll want to fully scrub your molds with baking soda after each use.

If you don't have baking soda on hand, you can also use a mixture of water and vinegar to soak your ice cube trays, which has a similar odor-removing effect. And if the odors won't budge, a last resort is putting your ice tray in the oven at high heat for an hour to cook out the smell — but this only works with heat-resistant silicone molds that won't melt or get dangerously hot. And if all this maintenance for one kitchen tool seems tough, use other kitchen appliances as stand-ins. There are tons of ways to make ice without a tray, and you can try using your favorite bread pan as a go-to ice bucket. You can clean most of these substitutes with baking soda as well, so you'll have odor-free ice at any size.