More about the miracle deodoriser

Bicarbonate of soda is a great cheap deodoriser!
You can find it on the baking ingredients shelves at the supermarket.

Use to:

• sprinkle into whiffy trainers and shoes last thing at night. In the morning, shake it out - I find it best to shake it out over the bath then rinse away.
• for small, smelly objects that can't be washed, put them in a plastic bag with some bicarb. Seal and shake well. Leave to do its magic for a few hours.
• for a smelly patch on carpets or upholstery - make sure the surface is bone-dry. Sprinkle liberally with bicarb. and leave for a few hours before vacuuming away. [Particularly useful for car seats and travel-sickness-prone kids!]
• Put a teaspoon of bicarb into a new vacuum cleaner bag when you change it.
• Remove the lid from a tub of bicarb. and tuck it somewhere in the fridge where the open tub won't get knocked over. Replace every couple of months or so.

Fridge cleaning and deodorisers

To clean the inside of the fridge:

• swish a small amount of washing up liquid in cool water.
• put a soft cloth into the water and then wring out well. Use to wipe the fridge out.
• rinse the soft cloth of all detergent before wiping a final time.
• Place one teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda into a small bowl. Fill the bowl with cold water to dissolve. Put a clean soft cloth into the solution then wring out well and use to wipe sides, surfaces and shelves.

I would never buy commercial fridge-deodorisers. They're expensive, may contain unwanted perfume, and probably contain [hopefully contain!] nothing more than bicarbonate of soda.

Bicarbonate of soda is dirt-cheap! You should pay no more than about 20p for a tub [rather than over a pound for a commercial deodoriser]. Remove the lid from the tub of bicarbonate of soda and tuck it somewhere in the fridge where it won't get tipped over. Replace it every couple of months or so.

You'll find bicarb. of soda amongst the baking ingredients at the supermarket.

A note about eggs

Its unusual these days to get a bad egg, but when adding to other ingredients its not worth the risk of wasting them so always crack each egg first into a cup and pour separately into the other ingredients.

Eggs should ideally be stored in a cool place and not a refrigerator.

You get the best results using the freshest eggs, but its still acceptable to use eggs that are not perfectly fresh. Really stale eggs should be avoided because bacteria could have penetrated the porous shell.


Tests to determine whether an egg is stale:

• break it into a cup. The more watery the egg white seems [rather than gloopy] the more stale it is.
• crack the egg onto a plate. The yolk should 'stand proud' and be surrounded by gloopy white. The more the egg white spreads over the plate, the more stale it is.
• look at the inside the shell. There's an air-pocket between shell and skin-like membrane. If the air-pocket is small, the egg's fresh; if large, its stale.
• place the uncracked egg into a small bowl of water. If the egg sinks to the bottom its fresh. If it floats to the surface its stale. If it floats up from the bottom but does not break the surface of the water its reasonably fresh.

The science: Eggshells are porous. As the egg ages air gets through the porous shell and the air pocket between shell and skin-like membrane increases. As the air pocket increases, so it makes the egg more likely to float in water.