Put a lid on smelly foods

Q: How do I keep foods with strong flavours and smells from tainting other food in my fridge?

A: If you’ve ever left a clingwrapped half onion on top of a pound of butter in your fridge, or a wrapped bowl of diced onions near a jug of milk overnight, you know what can happen. If the flavour is strong enough, it can transfer to other ingredients in your fridge.

Onions and garlic have a very strong smell and taste that is hard to contain. If you have to store onion in the fridge — either a leftover half onion or chopped pieces of onion prepared to save time later when cooking an evening meal — thin plastic isn’t enough to keep the flavour from transferring to other things.

Consider storing pungent foods in a glass bowl with a sturdy lid, or a thick-walled food storage container. You should also keep strongly flavoured foods from touching anything else in the fridge, even if they’re stored in plastic.

Keep anything that absorbs other flavours easily — butter, milk and eggs, especially, but also breads, cakes, etc. — away from strongly flavoured foods. Also keep any meat in a strong marinade well sealed, especially if garlic is involved.

To keep some fridge odours at bay, baking soda can help. But that doesn’t mean you can just crack open a box of baking soda and leave it at the back of the fridge for half a decade. Look for specially designed packages that are made for deodorizing fridges and freezers, and make sure you swap out old for new packs based on the

manufacturer’s directions.