If you’re like us, you’ve probably cooked a lot through the festive season, and, if you love garlic, you probably worked a lot with it. If you’re a fan, garlic is delicious, but it does come with attendant problems – chief among them the difficulty of getting the smell of garlic off our fingers.
Officially called allium sativum, garlic has, alongside its use as a flavor bomb in many cuisines across the world, also been used for its medicinal properties from ancient times, and used to treat an endless number of health conditions. Records show that the ancient Egyptians too tapped into garlic’s culinary and therapeutic benefits.
Both raw and cooked garlic are known for their health benefits, and the allium is believed to have antibiotic properties as well.
But we’re talking, of course, of the sheer deliciousness of garlic when it is cooked into our favorite dishes, even something as simple as garlic bread or mashed potatoes infused with garlic. And of the insidious way that garlic can get into everything – the aroma will permeate the cutting board we are using, and stick around our fingers no matter what; which makes for a real tussle with our chosen perfume for the meal, right? And a challenge if you’re setting out a romantic meal, we agree.
So what can you do?
Most of us have tried rubbing slices of lemon or orange on our hands, even coffee grounds, to get rid of the smell. Other options have included scrubbing with salt and baking soda, or with vinegar.
The queen of all things domestic hacks – has a new hack that is shared on TikTok. In a recent video, hacks have been shared for getting rid of the garlic odor is to run a stainless steel knife under warm water, and then rub your fingers on it under the running water. The video promised that this set of steps will make the smell of garlic disappear.
When the domestic goddess speaks, we listen. Of course, a knife is a knife, so do be careful, and keep in mind that the hack centres around ‘stainless steel’ – which means, even if you rub your fingers along a stainless steel sink, that should work! Even a stainless steel dish scrubber would work!
Go on, try it! Because we’re certainly not going to be giving up garlic, are we!
