How long does it take for the smell of fish to go away?

While your dinner may have been delicious, fish smells can linger long after you’ve cooked.

If you’re quick to clean up, you can eliminate most fish odors and prevent them from taking over your house. But if you’ve burnt food, splattered grease, or have a lot of upholstered items in your kitchen, the smell can settle in.

Here are the top home remedies for getting fish smell out of your house fast.

Top Home Remedies for Getting Rid of a Fish Smell Fast

Ridding your home of a fish smell can be quick and easy. Here’s what to do.

Wash All Dishes After Cooking

After eating, discard leftover fish and wash your dishes. You can hand wash dishes with soap and water or run them through the dishwasher. 

Wipe down your stove and backsplash after cooking to remove any splashed-on debris or oil.

Take Out the Trash

If leftover fish sits in the trash, the smell will spread through your home. Even if your trash bag isn’t full, change it to prevent your kitchen from stinking.

Set Out a Bowl of Vinegar

Fill one or two small bowls with vinegar and place them where the odor is most potent. Vinegar is an odor-neutralizer that will absorb lingering smells.

Air Out the Room

If it’s weather appropriate, open up your windows for ventilation. Fresh air will enter the room, and the odor will dissipate.

Make Homemade Boiling Potpourri

A top home remedy for eliminating bad food odors is stovetop boiling potpourri. Lemon is one of the best ingredients since it cancels out the smell of fish.

You’ll need the following ingredients:

• 2 sliced lemons
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• Fresh mint

Fill a large pot with water, add the lemon, cinnamon sticks, and mint and bring to a boil. After the water boils, reduce the heat. Allow the pot to simmer for several hours, adding water as needed.

If you don’t have the ingredients for the recipe above, use what you have. For example, you can use oranges, grapefruit, apples, rosemary, or vanilla extract.

Light a Candle

If you’ve cleaned your kitchen and removed all fish, use a scented candle to mask the smell. If you don’t use candles but have an essential oil diffuser, consider diffusing lemon oil.

Inspect Fabrics

If you cleaned the kitchen and set out odor absorbers with no luck, inspect fabrics in the room. If your tablecloth, curtains, or other linens smell like fish, wash them according to their care instructions.

What if Your Home Smells Fishy, But You Didn’t Cook Fish?

If there’s a fishy odor in your home, but you haven’t cooked fish, the cause can be overheating electrical wires. Most electrical components have heat-resistant chemical coatings. When these components overheat, the chemicals release a bad odor that initiates the smell of fish.

So if a pungent fish odor is circulating through your house without proper cause, it’s time to call an electrician. Don’t put it off – the smell can signify that your home and safety are in jeopardy.

If your oven smells like fish, allow it to cool and wipe away food residue with a mixture of half vinegar and water. Then fill a small baking dish with an inch of water and a teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Bake the dish on low heat for about an hour, but don’t let all the water evaporate.

A fish smell can stay in your house for 12 hours after cooking. The scent will last longer if you’ve burnt the fish or splattered the kitchen with grease when cooking. If you haven’t taken out trash that contains fish reminants, the smell will remain until you do.

Get rid of a fishy smelling microwave by adding one cup of water and three tablespoons of white distilled vinegar to a bowl. Microwave the mixture for five minutes, then let it sit in the microwave for another five minutes. Afterward, take out the bowl and wipe the inside of the microwave.

Final Thoughts

As delicious as it is, fish has a strong smell that lingers. The best way to eliminate a fish smell is to clean up after eating. Wash dishes, take out the trash and wipe down the kitchen counters.

If the smell lingers after you clean, set out a bowl of vinegar to absorb odors. You can also cancel bad smells by creating a stovetop potpourri that incorporates lemon slices.

Love fish but hate getting the strong smell on your hands and in the kitchen? Often, this can put people off cooking this incredibly tasty food.

But what if we told you there are really easy ways to get rid of fish smells from yourself and the room? We got in touch with a top seafood chef and fishmonger to find out their top tips to keep the smell of fish down.

How to remove fish smells from your hands:

• Use toothpaste. Award winning restaurateur and seafood specialist Mitch Tonks's go-to trick is to squeeze a small dab of toothpaste into your palms post cooking and rub over the front and back of the hands before rinsing with warm water.
• Cold water first. CJ Jackson, CEO of Billingsgate Seafood Training School, is a firm believer that water and soap is all you need. 'Cold water first is key,' she told us. 'This is to remove any fish remains or scales from your hands. If you wash with hot water first you run the risk of cooking the fish remains!' Once you've done the cold-water stage, wash your hands with hot, soapy water – and that'll do the trick.
• Palms of steel. Alternatively, rub both hands for a good five seconds on your stainless steel sink, then wash with warm water and soap to eradicate the fishy odour.

How to remove fish smells from chopping boards and utensils:

• Don't bother using lemon. CJ's tip of cold water first followed by hot and soapy water can be applied to your chopping board too. '‘I’m a firm believer that you don’t need to use lemon to clean your hands or utensils – it’s a waste of a lemon!’ she told us.
• Stock up on sterilising fluid. Something as simple as a daily sterilising solution (the stuff you sterilise a baby's bottle with) can remove the fish residue from your utensils. CJ recommends Milton.

How to cut down on fish smells when you cook:

• Vanish with vinegar. Mitch tells us that when frying up fish, he leaves a small bowl of white vinegar next to the hob: it absorbs the odour and leaves the room smelling clean and fresh. No need to worry about the vinegar scent either, as this will fade as it dries.
• Cook it al fresco. CJ tells us that whatever the weather, she loves to cook her fish on the BBQ. Not only does it give the fish a beautiful taste, it'll keep the smells outside!

• Keep the lid on those kippers. Kippers are probably the smelliest of fish when cooked, so keep the lid on the pan to retain the smell.
• Practise what you poach: Cooking fish in water means that any unpleasant waft is contained within its bath and keeps the flesh soft and tender.
• Bundle with baking paper: Wrapping fillets in baking parchment before cooking retains moisture in the fish while keeping any nasty smells at bay. When reading recipes, this method is known as 'en papillote.'

How to stop fish smells when throwing fish away:

• Freeze your fish. CJ reveals an incredibly nifty way of reducing the smell of out-of-date fish when you're chucking it out. Freeze it. ‘No one likes dead, raw fish in the food bin,’ she says. ‘What I do is freeze the fish, and then on the day of my bin collection I chuck it in there frozen to stop any pungent smells forming.’
• ​Use up all your fish up so there is no waste. Mitch is working with Asda on its 'Fin to Tail' campaign to encourage more of us to use all the fish, to save money and to cut back on waste. 'It’s crazy to think 47% of people are throwing away their leftover fish when it’s actually perfectly safe to eat,' he says. Ideas he has to use your whole fish are:

1. Reserve any raw fish left for a chunky chowder.

2. With any cooked fish leftovers, save and serve up in a sandwich or tacos the next day. 3. If using salmon, take the remain cooked salmon and create a pâté to serve with hot toast.

4. Never throw away the head – it's where the most flavour is. Instead use it to create a juicy curry sauce.

MORE: 12 FANTASTIC FISH CAKE RECIPES