# Tell the story of the grossest thing you ever cleaned from your kitchen or fridge **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 13, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-the-story-of-the-grossest-thing-you-ever-cleaned-from-your-kitchen-or-fridge/550169 "2010-08-13T17:27:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-the-story-of-the-grossest-thing-you-ever-cleaned-from-your-kitchen-or-fridge/550169/41 "2010-08-15T15:07:49Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > One year, early in our marriage, we decided to make our own Thanksgiving meal. I didn’t know exactly what to do with the bag of innards, but I had the vague idea that you’re supposed to make gravy with them. I think that was the year we accidentally left the bag in the neck anyway. It’s hard to remember exactly what happened, but regardless, the result was the same–we put the innards in the sauce pan and absently put the pan in the oven. > > There it stayed. > > The stink started gradually. We cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom. We cleaned the living room. We cleaned everything. The smell got worse and worse and worse. > > We didn’t find that pan until close to Christmas. (we hardly used the pan in question or our oven). Urgh. Reminds me of the time, many years ago, when we were helping to set up for a potluck at our synagogue. Someone turned on an oven in the kitchen so we would have someplace to put hot foods, and this… _smell_ …came up. It was horrible. Eventually someone opened the oven, peered _aaaaaaall_ the way to the back, and saw a dish. Full of chicken. From the previous event. Several weeks before. **hurk** Surprisingly, the fridges and freezers there weren’t too bad. We did have to chip away ice to free an entire bakery sheet cake that had been stashed there following a bar mitzvah party (there were too cakes at the party, and the kid just wasn’t that popular, hence an entire leftover cake). The cake was fine, and someone took it to leave in the breakroom at work. My own fridge has hosted its share of colorful molds, impromptu fermentation projects, and nose-hair-curling smells, but nothing to to top the stories here. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-the-story-of-the-grossest-thing-you-ever-cleaned-from-your-kitchen-or-fridge/550169/42 "2010-08-15T15:19:40Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > > [@lindsaybluth](#): > > > > Ugh. My stomach is churning just reading this. > > > > But I have to ask… > > > > Were there actual petals AND there were maggots, or were the supposed petals…actually maggots? > > No tiny white petals. All maggots. _Faints_ > [@Antigen](#): > > Imagine: this onion had gone so bad it was _hissing_. Best line of the thread! > [@Goblin\_Queen](#): > > The bad milk always annoys me, because, without fail, the person who bought the milk is all “Eeeew! That’s so disgusting, I can’t even look at it!!!” Bitch, you’re the one who let it develop sentience. You can pour it out. Sometimes my housemates would hide when my friend M and I went on a cleaning spree. And then come back and complain that the sink smelled like spoiled milk. GEE, I wonder why. M and I threw out a few extra-bulgy milk containers. I hope you actually said to her “Bitch, you’re the one who let it develop sentience.” ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-the-story-of-the-grossest-thing-you-ever-cleaned-from-your-kitchen-or-fridge/550169/43 "2010-08-16T03:57:34Z")
Recently, I discovered that either my wife or I had, inexplicably, put the bottle of cooking oil back in the pantry with no lid on it. I took the bottle out, wondering how long it had been like that and whether it would still be OK. Then I started to wonder what sort of grayish discoloration had formed on the top. Then I realized that a mouse had dived into it and drowned. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-the-story-of-the-grossest-thing-you-ever-cleaned-from-your-kitchen-or-fridge/550169/44 "2010-08-16T04:23:16Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Recently, I discovered that either my wife or I had, inexplicably, put the bottle of cooking oil back in the pantry with no lid on it. I took the bottle out, wondering how long it had been like that and whether it would still be OK. Then I started to wonder what sort of grayish discoloration had formed on the top. Then I realized that a mouse had dived into it and drowned. Oh my god, I just threw up a little in my mouth. I think this “wins” the thread, for some definition of the word. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-the-story-of-the-grossest-thing-you-ever-cleaned-from-your-kitchen-or-fridge/550169/45 "2010-08-16T12:51:04Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > I hope you actually said to her “Bitch, you’re the one who let it develop sentience.” I’m still giggling about this one, and **Zsofia** ’s “ex-potato”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-the-story-of-the-grossest-thing-you-ever-cleaned-from-your-kitchen-or-fridge/550169/46 "2010-08-16T13:07:45Z")
Yesterday I scrubbed and mopped every single surface in the kitchen. When the wind from the sea is right I still smell goddamned rotten potato. ---
**Author:** ![Khaki\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Khaki\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khaki_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-the-story-of-the-grossest-thing-you-ever-cleaned-from-your-kitchen-or-fridge/550169/47 "2010-08-16T14:20:16Z")
What’s with potatoes that makes them smell so bad when they rot ? After all, they’re only made of carbs, not proteins. (I’ve never experienced the smell myself, just curious from all the stories in this thread about spuds.) ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-the-story-of-the-grossest-thing-you-ever-cleaned-from-your-kitchen-or-fridge/550169/48 "2010-08-16T14:55:41Z")
Hey, you too can taste the rainbow. Here’s what you do - take one small potato and roll it under the fridge. Forget for, say, a month, then play What’s That Smell? ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-the-story-of-the-grossest-thing-you-ever-cleaned-from-your-kitchen-or-fridge/550169/49 "2010-08-16T14:59:40Z")
No, no, no, you don’t want to roll it under the fridge. Then when it liquefies, the liquid will disperse and so will the smell, eventually. I mean, yes, it will be horrific, but you won’t achieve maximum horror this way. What you want to do is take a potato and put it in a sealed plastic baggie and THEN roll it under the fridge for a month or two. Hell, give it six months. Then call an old priest and a young priest and if possible get your hands on the Ark of the Covenant, and open the bag with silver-plated tongs. Not before getting your earthly affairs in order, first, of course. You know, just to be safe. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-the-story-of-the-grossest-thing-you-ever-cleaned-from-your-kitchen-or-fridge/550169/50 "2010-08-16T15:05:15Z")
No, with the sealed plastic baggie she’ll be tempted not to open it. Honestly, for maximum nasty you need pretty much the optimum conditions I provided - put it in the potato bin on the counter, but under the good potatoes. Let it simmer. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-the-story-of-the-grossest-thing-you-ever-cleaned-from-your-kitchen-or-fridge/550169/51 "2010-08-16T15:15:16Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > No, no, no, you don’t want to roll it under the fridge. Then when it liquefies, the liquid will disperse and so will the smell, eventually. I mean, yes, it will be horrific, but you won’t achieve maximum horror this way. What you want to do is take a potato and put it in a sealed plastic baggie and THEN roll it under the fridge for a month or two. Hell, give it six months. > > Then call an old priest and a young priest and if possible get your hands on the Ark of the Covenant, and open the bag with silver-plated tongs. Not before getting your earthly affairs in order, first, of course. You know, just to be safe. And hope like hell that the baggie doesn’t explode from noxious gases in the meantime! :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-the-story-of-the-grossest-thing-you-ever-cleaned-from-your-kitchen-or-fridge/550169.md?page=2)