The Onion Peel You're About to Toss Fixes a Smell Dish Soap Can't

Onion peels

Onion peels go straight into the trash after cooking, while a cutting board that's been through kimchi or fish prep holds onto an odor that dish soap and water never quite clear. Those peels are actually a genuine odor-neutralizing agent, brewed into a simple liquid — but that only handles half of what a cutting board or dish towel actually needs.

Brewing the Peels Into Something Useful

Rinse the peels briefly to clear off dust, then simmer them in a pot for about 10 minutes. What comes out is a yellowish liquid worth using while it's still warm.

Wooden cutting board

For a cutting board carrying a lingering smell — from kimchi or fish especially — pour the liquid slowly over the surface. If it's a wooden board, pour it over rather than soaking the board in it. For an odor-affected dish towel, a brief soak in the same liquid works the smell out.

Rinsing Isn't the Finish Line

After using the onion peel water, rinse the board or towel under running water — but that's not where this ends. Cutting boards and wooden tools need washing, then sanitizing, then thorough drying, in that order. Dish towels follow the same sequence: wash first, sanitize second.

Dry everything completely afterward. Leftover dampness is exactly what brings the smell back, undoing whatever the sanitizing step just accomplished.

Habits That Keep the Smell From Returning

Keep wet and dry dish towels separate by purpose, and having a few towels on hand cuts down on reaching for the same damp one repeatedly mid-cook. Separating cutting boards and knives by food type — meat and fish on one, vegetables on another — does real work for hygiene beyond just odor control.

If only one board is available, cut in this order: vegetables first, then meat, then seafood — washing with soap under running water for at least 10 seconds between each. Skip that sequence, and onion peel water alone won't touch the cross-contamination risk sitting underneath the smell.

Kitchen tool care really splits into two separate problems — odor and hygiene — and onion peel water only solves the odor half. The sanitizing half still needs its own step, whether that's heat or a diluted disinfectant, to actually be done.

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