Food - Drink
Why Your Silicone Kitchenware Makes Food Taste Like Soap
By JESSIE MOLLOY
From sheet pan and cupcake liners to creatively shaped ice cube trays, silicone kitchenware is great to have on hand as it is durable, easy to store, and makes for faster clean-ups. However, silicone products can start to smell and leave a bad taste as they get older, but there are a few fixes for this.
Unfortunately, the very thing that makes silicone so desirable — its non-stick, heat-resistant makeup — causes this issue. As the materials heat up, the silicone molecules expand and absorb the oils from whatever is being cooked, and once they cool down, the smells and tastes of the absorbed oil, along with the soap used to clean it, become embedded in the material.
The easy way to avoid this is to use parchment paper for particularly pungent foods, and avoid using dish soaps with moisturizers, essential oils, or antibacterial agents when cleaning silicone, especially since most silicone products are antibacterial and anti-fungal by nature. Instead, you should use lemon juice or vinegar to scrub silicone cookware and then wash it in hot water.
If you already have set-in smells and tastes, you can remove them by slathering a paste of baking soda and warm water on your silicone products and baking them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes to an hour to release pungent oils. Then, plunge them into a bath of hot water and white vinegar. Repeat the entire process until the smell is gone.