Stainless steel soap

[snopes]

Comment: My sister just bought a piece of steel that looks like a bar of soap,
and it's supposed to take the smell of garlic, onions and fish off your hands.

I haven't been able to find much about it on the internet -- a lot of people
claim it works, some people claim it doesn't, and anybody that I can find
that sounds like he/she would know what he/she is talking about (a
chemistry professor, for example) sounds very dubious.

[franjava]

Here is a picture and description of the item in the OP. My mom always told me to rub my hands on the stainless steel sink after handling onions, fish, other smelly stuff. I prefer citrus juice. Last night, I handled tons of garlic and onion. I was nibbling an orange while making dinner and have a hardly noticeable hint of garlic lingering on my hands.

[Aimee Evilpixie]

Alton Brown recommends just carefully running your hands over the blade of your knife when you wash it after cutting garlic. It's what I do, and it works just fine!

The stainless steel soaps do look pretty cool, though.

[unbroken]

My ma just bought one of these as a present for a friend.. I'd love to give it a go and see if it works but I can't really take it out of its packaging. It does look cool.

[DaniFae]

Originally Posted by Aimee Evilpixie

Alton Brown recommends just carefully running your hands over the blade of your knife when you wash it after cutting garlic. It's what I do, and it works just fine!

The stainless steel soaps do look pretty cool, though.

I do the same thing, and it works fantastically. Makes my hands not smell like whatever I was chopping and helps keep my knife in better condition (getting beat around in the dishwasher is NOT good for the blade) I pretty much agree with Alton with his whole "there's only one unitasker in my kitchen" deal.

[Troberg]

I have one, works nicely. My guess is that it's some kind of electrolytic process with the smelly juice as the electrolyte, but that's just a guess. It may also be some kind of a catalyst thingy.

[Don Enrico]

According to this (German) expertise (commissioned by a maker of said "stainless steel soap"), the odor reducing effect is provable, but the exact working is unknown. Discussed are a catalytically induced oxidation of odor molecules and an absorption of molecules on the surface of the stainless steel (especially a chemical compounding with ferreous, manganese and/or molybdenum molecules).

According to another study, a stainless steel odor reducer was able to double the rate of odor reduction in a controlled lab setting.

Not being a scientist myself, I can't say anything about the reliability of this studies, but the second one was carried out by the respected quasi-public Landesgewerbeanstalt Bayern.

Don Enrico

[Jelly Bean Queen]

I have a stainless steel soap near my kitchen sink and it works beautifully. We eat a lot of garlic and onions so my hands contantly had onion or garlic odour. Rubbing my hands on the sink didn't work as well as I couldn't get in between my fingers.