The Smelly Cheese Refrigerator -- Conclusion

The Naked Whiz

I just thought I'd relate how my refrig...,er my friend's refrigerator made out. You may recall that I, er, he put baking soda on a platter in the refrigerator to eliminate smoke odor induced by placing freshly smoked cheese in to harden. The baking soda, as predicted by stike I believe, had no effect.

Next, I, er, he placed (ever so tastefully) a ring of natural briquettes around the edge of the platter:



This seemed to help somewhat. But finally I, er, he bought an activated charcoal filter from Lowes for about $10. I, er, he cut it in half and placed half in the fridge. In a couple of days most of the odor was gone.

So far, a couple of really great uses for this smoked cheese have been to shred the cheddar on baked potatoes done in the Egg, and using shredded Pepper Jack cheese on top of chili. So, I, er he, will probably smoke some more cheese in the future, but just watch how much smoke it gets, and let it harden outside the the fridge.

stike

activated charcoal.... that's the ticket my friend.

folks only seem to remember the "charcoal" part, but as you found out, it's the activated stuff that's the real deal. ...and of course, the baking soda fable is just for selling more baking soda. but damn, it looks pretty. i thought you made an oreo ice cream pie when i first opened yer post.

as for stench-removal, you should have done a graph er sumthin of the various substances used to defunk the fridge !

BigT

Baking soda is certainly cheap enough to give a shot, but I agree that to give it a chance you need to spread it out on a baking sheet- leaving it in the box won't work.

I also use cheap coffee on the baking sheet with the baking soda- anything to take the edge off the bait freezer...

Morro Bay Rich

Told you!! Being a chemist for 35 years wasn't for nothing. Now I'm famous.

BENTE

glad to hear that i thought about you...er him the other day and wondered what the outcome was. i usually just skip the whole baking soda thing and just use a whole plate of briquetts at least that is what i did to get the chlorine out of my fridge. (we bought the outside one from a storage wharehouse auction)

Darnoc

This fix is down in print form at my household.The next time I have a left over squid smell(fishing bait) in the freezer or the bottom half I will remember you guys.You learn something every day on this forum.Cheers.