The first step to getting rid of a non-stick pan is to know the reason behind the strange smell in your non-stick pan. There are some reasons why the pan begins to smell like soap. Generally, pans having non-stick coating don’t get too smelly.
Why does my pan smell like soap? Your pan smells like soap because oil burns off and result in a soapy taste and odors. Pan smells of soap as it is not cleaned properly and soap compounds get trapped within scratches on pan.
How Do You Get The Soap Smell Out Of Your Pan?
You can use a natural cleaning way to work out your non-stick frying pans and get rid of soap odor from the pan easily. Following are the natural steps to get rid of the soapy smell from your pan:
Boil Water And Add Lemon Juice Or Vinegar
Make a mixture of three parts water and one part lemon juice or vinegar and boil it in your pan. You should perform this process over medium heat for about five to ten minutes.
Cleaning With A Soft Brush
Let your non-stick pan stand until it cools down, and then use warm water and soap and clean with a soft bristle brush for cleaning.
Rinsing And Drying
Rinse the pan, and then let it dry. This pan cleaning method helps you get rid of smells that come from your non-stick frying pan. If you still get the odor, then probably it’s a sign that your pan is now on its end legs. If there are any scratches in your non-stick pan, you can also get the smell from the trapping of oil and food particles. If this is the case, you will need to replace your pan and get a new one.
Reseasoning
Another way of getting rid of soap taste and smell in your non-stick frying is to re-season the pan with a fresh coating of cooking oil. The oil must be heated until you see smoke. Once you re-season your pan, don’t try to use soap again to clean the pan. Instead, you can use warm water or normal water and a little salt.
Alternatives For Soap Cleaning
The third and most effective way to get rid of the soapy smell in your non-stick frying pan is to use soap cleaning alternatives like baking soda and salt for cleaning your pan. If you use soap, then ensure to rinse the hot frying pan thoroughly before wiping it or drying it. As the water evaporates completely, place your frying pan on the hot burner until you see water drops sizzling away on coming to contact with your Pan’s surface.
Why Does Your Nonstick Pan Smell Like Soap?
If you get a strange smell from your non-stick pan, you want to know why. You would also like to know the tips to stop the strange smell. Those who’ve cooked in a frying pan know that a non-stick pan smells and even tastes like a soap when it’s not cleaned or washed properly. Thankfully there’s a quick fix for this issue. If your non-stick pan smells soapy or gets metallic after cooking, it’s the right time to use good seasoning.
Why Does Your New Pan Smell Like Soap?
As some people say, the taste of soap is quite similar to metallic flavor, whereas some say that soap tastes like the citrus or floral scent of a dishwashing liquid. In both cases, a bad taste and smell come due to dishwashing cleansers in the iron, which results from improper cleaning.
You get a bad smell since dish soap consists of synthetic compounds made to break food particles and grease molecules, including the compounds that can dry the skin. These compounds often leave their traces behind in your non-stick frying pan or cast iron cookware and tend to give a bad soap smell and affect the flavor of the foods when you cook food on them.
Is It Dangerous If Your Pan Smells Like Soap?
The soapy smell generally comes from your unrinsed pan or kitchenware, and this is mostly the case with cast iron pans made of plastic. It can impose health hazards when soap residue remains on your pan or kitchenware and can result in a stomach ache or other issues. So ensure that you are not using any laundry soap for washing your utensils and pans.
Only use kitchen soap. This is because laundry soap consists of a strong fragrance that makes it difficult to rinse it. If you want to store leftover food, always use glassware rather than plastic-made pans so that it doesn’t retain soap taste and soap smells. The next thing to ensure is to avoid high perfumed dishwashing liquid, which can retain the soapy smell, and go for fragrance-free liquid varieties.
Non-stick pans have scratches on the surface of non-stick pans, which creates a way for the dishwashing soap or liquid to get trapped. When you cook your food, this soapy smell and flavor get transferred. This can affect the pan and your health, so it is recommended to rinse the frying pan with hot water and a soft and non-scratch brush for thoroughly washing the surface.
Final Verdict
If you love your non-stick pan, then try to get past the soapy smell from it so that it no longer lingers. You need to ensure two steps carefully-
- Firstly remove your frying pan from heat and allow it to cool off before you clean them. Studies have shown that when you heat non-stick pans for a very long time at higher temperatures, it can break the Teflon coating, and this soap gets into the pan’s surface and gives rise to a soapy smell and taste. Therefore, it is recommended to be mindful of the temperature while using the non-stick frying pans.
- Secondly, always clean your pan with water and coarse salt as this method helps to avoid the soap smell and hardens the seasoning processing on your pan. You can use kosher salt for cleaning your cast iron, and it works mostly in pans that don’t have baked-on residue that must be removed.