Shea Simmons
You’ve cleaned your kitchen and things are looking pristine. Then, you realize you don’t have any stainless-steel polish. Don’t worry—the solution might be in your fridge.
Pickle juice is a quick way to get your appliances sparkling again when you don’t have any dedicated cleaner on hand.
Rochelle Bilow, former pro cook and writer at The Kitchn, recently shared this family secret she learned from her aunt, who once worked in a deli. According to Bilow’s aunt, the deli would clean and sanitize the stainless steel, and then use a clean rag and pickle juice to shine them.
How does this work? Well, it’s all thanks to one super ingredient used to make pickles.
“The main ingredient is vinegar, which can help cut grease and remove things like fingerprints,” said Jessica Ek, from the American Cleaning Institute. “Vinegar evaporates fairly quickly and stainless steel isn’t absorbent, so I’m guessing the [pickle] smell would dissipate.”
When Bilow put the hack to the test, she did find that the pickle juice shined up her stainless-steel sink! But she did offer some warnings. Pickles with seasonings or spices (like turmeric) could leave behind color, so you’ll want to avoid those.
Ek also cautions against using bread and butter pickles, as their sugar content would make this hack no good.
So, next time you run out of stainless-steel polish or don’t have any vinegar on hand, dill pickle juice can get the job done.
[Via The Kitchn]
