Martha Stewart’s Simple Trick for Getting Garlic Smell Off Your Fingers

Chopping garlic

There are not many things more intoxicating and comforting than the smell of garlic being sauteed in olive oil or butter or garlic bread toasting in the oven. But here's something that's less charming: the lingering smell of garlic on your hands.

But as anyone who has chopped, sliced or peeled garlic knows, ending up with the pungent smell clinging to your digits is unavoidable. Even washing your hands with soap doesn’t get rid of it.

Luckily one of our favorite domestic goddesses—Martha Stewart—has a tip for that. In one of her most popular videos on TikTok, which has over 5 million views, Martha shared her secret for getting the smell of garlic off your hands.

“Rub your fingers on [anything stainless steel] under running water… and the smell of garlic disappears,” she says, demonstrating this trick using the non-sharp side of a stainless steel knife. If you'd rather not use a knife, you can use a stainless steel spoon or if your sink is stainless steel, you can rub your hand on the side or along the faucet. There are also stainless steel "soaps" (basically a soap-shaped piece of stainless steel) that you can buy.

View the original article to see embedded media.

Why Does Stainless Steel Remove Garlic Smell?

Ok, easy enough. But why in the world does this work when nothing else does?! We did some internet sleuthing and discovered that there’s a simple scientific explanation.

Apparently, garlic—like all its cousins, including onions, leeks, scallions, chives, and shallots—contains a sulfur-based compound called Allicin that has powerful antioxidant health benefits and also gives this veggie family its pungent taste and smell. For some reason, the human body is particularly sensitive to this compound, which is likely why your fingers get so easily smelly from coming into contact with it.

According to some scientists, this compound is particularly fond of molecules found in stainless steel, so when you rub your fingers along stainless steel under water, it helps bind the molecules to the stainless steel, removing them from your skin. Voila! No more garlic smell.