Recipe(tried): Cooked-fish Smell

Hi, AJ. We are seafood eaters in our family too and have the same problem. The first thing I do is to have the stove fan running (on high) when I am cooking fish indoors. If you are pan frying, use a spatter shield over the pan. If any spatter hits the floor, wipe it up immediately with a wet paper towel. Also, salmon is an oily fish, so if it is cooked more gently, at lower temperatures, the oil will not burn and become airborne. The other thing we do is trim the skin and the gray, oily flesh from the salmon prior to cooking. Besides being seafood eaters, we are also sportfishermen, used to fish straight out of the ocean, and are very sensitive to the fishy taste of the gray flesh on salmon. It seems to permeate the rest of the flesh when it is cooked, so that is why we trim it. We have found that we prefer our salmon steamed (not poached). I found a terrific fish steamer for $39.00 in a local department store. I line the insert with foil, spray it with vegetable spray and steam the salmon just until it flakes. When cooked this way, there is almost no smell at all. If you don't have a good filet knife, you might think of investing in one. After we trim fish, we coat the cutting board and knife in lemon juice and let it sit during dinner. Then we run the board through the dishwasher. Just last week, though, we had to throw away one of our plastic cutting boards because we couldn't get the smell of fish out of it. Both Febreze and Lysol make products that neutralize odors, rather than just masking them, so you might try one of those. I guess you probably can't leave your windows open in Maryland in the middle of winter, but fresh air helps too. Use lemon and more lemon to clean your counters and pans after cooking. I hope some of these suggestions help. Have a lovely holiday.

Marilyn