Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Tips and Trivia — Besan the deodorizer



My blog turned 5 on August 4, 2015, I wanted to revamp my blog before making any new posts, but that is taking time so I thought why don’t I post a tip? In any case, I have neglected my Tips and Trivia section for a long time. 

Some days back a neighbour  and after a few days my cousin, both expressed helplessness at not being able to get rid off the fishy smell from utensils after cooking and eating fish. They also faced this problem with eggs. They tried the usual remedies like lemon juice, vinegar,  tamarind and so on. When I told them what could solve their problem, my cousin immediately suggested I put it in my Tips and Trivia section.

So here I am with the solution. The solution to this problem is actually quite simple, it is good old besan (chickpea flour). Apply besan to the utensils before you scrub it off with the dish washing liquid or powder. You will have successfully got rid off the fishy smell. In case you do not have besan then use whole wheat flour, it works just as well.

In case of your hands besides besan you can also use coconut oil or mustard oil. Apply the oil to your hands and leave it on for a while, then wash it off with soap and water  you will not get that fishy smell. 

Hope this tip proves to be of some help to my readers.

4 comments:

  1. How interesting! I'd never heard of this - though I do know of one thing that works very well for other smelly stuff, such as garlic: stainless steel. So if you've got hands smelling of garlic (I suppose it should work for other smelly things too), just rub them on the inside of a steel sink. These days, in some places, you even get what's called 'steel soap': a piece of solid steel which is the shape and size of a bar of soap. My sister has one.

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    1. Is that so? That is interesting, maybe I should try it sometime.

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  2. Yes, I was sceptical when I first heard of it. But it does work!

    Incidentally, regarding besan: in Mughal times, it was commonly used in place of soap to clean hands at the end of a meal - since it removes grease so effectively.

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  3. Although I do not know much about the history of besan, this much I know that besan along with different kinds of dal paste have been used as body cleanser in our country since a long, long time.My mum used to use besan and other dal paste when I was kid. It was a practice to do so, because soap was not considered right for the delicate skin of kids. Later of course all these baby soaps and shampoos came into the picture.

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