How to Get That Stinky Fish Smell Out of Your Kitchen

Dinner was delicious. The lingering smell? Not so much. We asked experts how to get that fish smell out of the house—and make sure it stays out.

A fish dinner may be a feast for your taste buds and a win for your health, but it might not be a gift to your nose if you don’t know how to pick, prep, cook or store fish properly—or how to clean everything when the meal is done. With one misstep, last night’s dinner could become one of those house smells you can’t ignore … and can’t seem to get rid of. But it is possible to learn how to get that fish smell out of the house.

To help you combat an unwanted seafood stench (and avoid it in the first place!), we reached out to four chefs and professionals who specialize in different types of seafood. How do they keep their restaurant dining rooms and kitchens smelling consistently fresh, clean and tantalizing, nary a whiff of stinky fish … ever? You’re about to find out.

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About the experts

  • Sean Park developed his seafood expertise under the tutelage of master sushi chefs. He’s currently the owner and executive chef of NoriFish and Okiboru restaurants in Sandy Springs, Georgia, as well as Atlanta’s Prefecture Japanese Steak House, all contemporary expressions of some of the most celebrated Japanese culinary traditions.
  • Pano I. Karatassos is a Culinary Institute of America and Foley School of Fish graduate and the culinary director and president of Buckhead Life Restaurant Group in Atlanta, which includes the fine-dining Greek seafood restaurant Kyma and Atlanta Fish Market. He is also the author of Modern Greek Cooking.
  • Tony Manns Jr. has worked extensively in seafood for more than a dozen years. He is the corporate executive chef for C&S Seafood and Oyster Bar and Hugo’s Oyster Bar, where he specializes in the flavors of the coastal American South.
  • Scott Bennett is the general manager of Rowayton Seafood Market in Connecticut and an avid fisherman and cook.

Reviewed for accuracy by: Ann Russell, TikTok’s “cleaning auntie” and the author of How to Clean Everything.

Before cooking fish

As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This goes tenfold when it comes to keeping stinky fish smells out of the house. And the golden rule of preventing a fish-scented home? Buy fresh fish, store it properly and cook it quickly.

Buy the freshest fish

fresh fish in a cooler at whole foodsSmith Collection/Getty images

All our experts say, with passion, fresh fish doesn’t smell. “‘Fishy’ odor comes from fish that isn’t fresh or has not been frozen soon after it’s caught or killed,” says restaurant owner and chef Sean Park.

Admittedly, even if you buy the freshest fish possible, the aromas of your cooking will linger—as with cooking any food, points out Tony Manns Jr., the corporate executive chef for Georgia-based C&S Seafood and Oyster Bar and Hugo’s Oyster Bar. But the fresher the fish you use, the less of the telltale fish stench you’ll encounter.

Pano I. Karatassos, the culinary director and president of Buckhead Life Restaurant Group, agrees. “We deal with the fishermen directly who are picking up the fish from the docks, so we get our seafood 18 to 36 hours out of the water,” he says, noting that it’s an ideal time frame for fresh fish.

How else can you ensure you’re getting the freshest seafood? For starters, Karatassos says, buy seafood whole. It allows you to examine the fish properly. Check the eyes (poke them if you can), gills, tails and bellies.

“The gills and eyes need to be clear,” says fisherman Scott Bennett, the general manager of Rowayton Seafood Market in Connecticut. “The most important thing is that you are buying a firm-fleshed fish. Frozen fish can be mushier, so know where you are buying your fish from, and ask your fishmonger how old the fish is and what is the freshest. Ask if you can touch and smell it.”

Store your fish properly

Storing fish at the proper temperature and in the right environment is a key part of keeping it fresh. All seafood is particularly vulnerable to spoilage if stored or even thawed incorrectly, which is why Karatassos, who’s certified in the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point food safety system, is firm about the precise temperature his fish must be kept at. Current food-safety recommendations suggest 40 degrees as the ideal temp for fish storage.

And here’s another crucial seafood fact: Fish should be frozen or put on ice in the refrigerator within two hours of purchase.

If you’re chilling fish in the fridge, follow Karatassos’s advice and put it in a perforated container, which can rest in a pan. “Then [put] plastic wrap on your fish, then ice on the plastic wrap,” he says. “As the ice melts, it goes through the holes and into the pan, which can be changed out.” This keeps the fish from sitting in the melted ice, which can degrade the fish and create messy or unsanitary conditions.

Cook it right away

Fish doesn’t need to go straight from the boat to the frying pan, but it does need to be cooked fairly quickly. Once you’ve followed Karatassos’s method for chilling it, it’s time to plan your meal. “You can keep fish for a day or two like this, but it has to be cooked then,” he says. “You shouldn’t hold raw fish in a home for longer than 24 hours. If the fish smells, throw it away.”

Prepare your fish using nonabsorbent materials

“I always start by using a plastic cutting board versus a wood one for fish. Wood cutting boards can absorb smells from fish,” Park says. “I also use gloves because the smell of fish and seafood can linger on your hands as well.”

If you don’t have any gloves handy, you can always invest in a bar of stainless-steel “soap,” which is reusable and combats strong smells like garlic and onions.

Soak your fish in milk

An interesting technique Bennett uses is to soak fish in milk—but this isn’t a solution for fish that’s clearly giving off signs of decay. No amount of milk can save meat that’s past the brink, he cautions.

“You can use any fat level of milk,” Bennett says. “The enzymes take out some fats and eliminate fishiness.”

America’s Test Kitchen put the trick to the test and reported an aroma win. During a 20-minute soak, the casein in the milk binds to the trimethylamine oxide that produces the fishy odor. The smell goes down the sink once you drain the milk away and into a paper towel when you dry the fish.

While cooking fish

cooking salmon in a pan on the stoveSammyvision/getty images

“Oily fish, such as sardines, mackerel and dorados, have flavors and aromas that are brought out when they are seared hard, which can be confused as a smelly fish odor,” says Karatassos. In other words, the type of fish and how you prepare it will directly impact the aroma coming out of your kitchen and how easy it is to get the fish smell out of your house.

Before you begin cooking, heed the expert’s safety warning: “Make sure you watch it!” Bennett says. “Fish is not something you walk away from when cooking.”

Create air circulation

Opening a window helps dilute cooking smells of all kinds, and fishiness is no exception. “Opening a window and turning on a fan can help with circulating air,” Park says. Yet when at home, he prefers to use his outdoor stove for all cooking that causes smoke or odors. “Then I don’t have to worry about the smoke alarm going off when doing high-heat cooking,” he says with a laugh.

Baking your fish instead of frying or sauteeing? Bennett suggests putting the oven fan on too.

If your kitchen has a door leading outside, you can crack that open as well. And if it’s enclosed, keep it that way to confine the fish scent to the kitchen. By the same token, shut the doors to rooms with a high quantity of soft goods that might absorb cooking smells, such as bedrooms and linen closets. This can help prevent the spread of those aromas—and reduce the urge to clean your sheets before going to bed.

Cook your fish low and slow

“If you want to decrease the odor and flavors of oily fish, slow-bake them in the oven at 300 degrees,” Karatassos says.

If you’re cooking on the stovetop, start on low, Bennett says, as opposed to going for that “hard sear” Karatassos also advises against. “Don’t set the heat too high,” Bennett cautions. “It’ll burn the fish and make it smell fishy, as well as smoke up the house. Cook on medium to medium-high.”

If you’re following Park’s lead and cooking on the grill to avoid fishy scents in the home, make sure you’re doing it properly. “Grilling causes the most smoke, so keep the grill closed,” Bennett says.

Cook with complementary ingredients

Seasoned Raw Salmon Fillets ready for the BBQLauriPatterson/Getty Images

The experts have spoken: The strength of fishy odors depends on the freshness of the fish. Still, you can hide the scent slightly while cooking.

“The strength of the smell prior to cooking is a good indicator of what’s to come during cooking,” Park says. “If you add other ingredients, it will help mask some of the smell but won’t get rid of it completely.”

Certain ingredients naturally combat lingering smells or impact your perception of fishiness. “Using citrus on seafood dishes may not help with the smell during cooking,” Park says, “but it will make ‘fishy’ flavors and odors less noticeable and enhance your seafood dish.”

Keep your cooking area clean

“Always keep your prepping and cooking area clean; try to clean as you go,” Manns says. Cleaning your counters, stovetop and other workspaces will keep spills, scraps and fish bits from sitting uncovered at room temperature, which exacerbates degradation and, therefore, not-so-fresh odors.

Keeping fish on nonporous materials that won’t absorb odors also helps. “Cleaning will be easy and odorless if you don’t allow the fish to contact absorbent surfaces,” says Park. “If surfaces and utensils are nonabsorbent, they won’t smell if you clean them with simple soap and water.”

After cooking fish

If you followed the other tips, you won’t have much more to do outside of your regular post-dinner cleaning schedule to make sure the smell of fish doesn’t hang out after your meal. But there are a few tricks you can employ if you feel your air is a little less fresh than you prefer.

Clean up immediately

This is a given for any kind of food preparation, for the sake of both hygiene and your nose. It’s Karatassos’s No. 1 rule: Tidy and wash as you prep and as the fish is cooking so there’s only a minimal amount of cleaning left to do before you sit down to dinner. If it seems daunting and you prefer to eat first, at least wipe down the counters. Don’t wait long after the meal is done before tackling the cookware, as it gives aromas time to spread and linger.

What cleaning supplies should you have in stock for seafood night? That offers some room for interpretation. Karatassos relies on a good dish soap, while Manns says, “When I cook seafood, I try to use bleach spray to wipe down the area.”

Bennett, on the other hand, turns to a toothpaste trick: “Use a cleaning sponge and cleaning agent, and get a tube of toothpaste. This can be a cheap tube,” he says. “Use a dime-size portion on your counter.” Then wipe the counter as you normally would.

Toothpaste is abrasive enough to scrub stains but gentle enough to avoid scratching surfaces as delicate as tooth enamel … and countertops. And the minty scent doesn’t hurt!

Grind a lemon

hand cutting a lemon in half on a cutting boardWestend61/getty images

As Park pointed out, citrus can work to bring down any perceived “fishiness,” both in the air and in your mouth. Throwing a few wedges, peel and all, into the garbage disposal and letting that run can release a burst of fresh fragrance. Just keep your expectations in check; this is likely an add-on solution, not your sole path to a fresher-smelling house. “Lemon does help, but in many cases, will not get rid of odor completely,” he says.

Introduce other strong scents

If after all that you’re still stumped as to how to get the fish smell out of your house, you can try to mask the off-putting smell with strong scents. Burning a high-intensity “flavor” scented candle, lighting incense, spritzing the room with concentrated room spray or essential oils, or going at your curtains, couches and carpets with fabric spray or scented baking powder can all hide odors.

They won’t instantly eliminate icky scents, though. Still, they can be effective if used long enough! Candles and incense work best when allowed to burn for an extended amount of time; sprays will require touch-ups before odors are completely covered up. Pair that with a little fresh air, and no one but your satisfied stomach will know you were just cooking up some delicious fish.

Why trust us

At Reader’s Digest, we’re committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. For this piece, Su-Jit Lin tapped into her years of experience working in restaurants as well as over a dozen years of experience as a food writer for regional and national publications, including Epicurious, The Kitchn, The Spruce Eats, EatingWell and more. Then Ann Russell, TikTok’s “cleaning auntie” and the author of How to Clean Everything, gave it a rigorous review to ensure that all information is accurate and offers the best possible advice to readers. For this piece, we relied on reputable primary sources, each of whom boasts years of experience working with seafood. Several are executive chefs of award-winning, highly respected restaurants, including those with Michelin Guide recognition; all are passionate about fish and seafood. We verified all facts and data and backed them with credible sourcing, and we will revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.

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Su-Jit Lin
Su-Jit is a food, travel and culture writer for Reader's Digest and other national publications, including Business Insider, Better Homes & Gardens, Southern Living, HuffPost, The Spruce Eats, Kitchn, OpenTable, Katie Couric Media, EatingWell, Well + Good, Thrillist and Eat This, Not That! She directs content for a global travel tour operator, specializing in all-inclusive resort vacations, and contributes to an award-winning travel trade publication. When not writing, she is usually advocating for and playing with shelter and rescue dogs, including her own, Sable Sugarpig.