Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.sheknows.com
It is, apparently, simmer pot season. TikTok‘s Discover page for “Boiling Cinnamon Sticks and Orange Peels for Smell” currently features roughly 4.3 million posts, which is a lot of people standing over a saucepan in a cozy winter sweater. The appeal is pretty straightforward: simmer pots are cheap, nostalgic, easy, and they look like the kind of thing a woman with a linen apron and a very calm life would do. It’s all very Ina Garten-esque. But what is a pot of fruit scraps actually doing in your house?
The simmer pot trend itself is simple. You simmer orange peels and cinnamon sticks, sometimes with cloves, apples, or cranberries, in a pot of water, and your home immediately transforms itself into a fragrant candle store. The “right” part is the smell. The “wrong” part is the implication, lurking in a lot of captions, that this is some kind of natural air cleaner.
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Do Simmer Pots Purify the Air in Your Home?
We hate to burst your bubble, but the air-purifying claims are simply not true. As The Coolist puts it, “A simmer pot perfumes the air; it doesn’t clean it.” Despite what TikTok may tell you, it won’t remove dust, smoke particles, or germs from your home. It’s an enjoyable fragrance, but it doesn’t provide any kind of air filtration or disinfection. Two French agencies dedicated to indoor air quality, OQAI and ANSES, told Grazia USA, “This mixture smells wonderful, but it does not purify or depollute your home.”
There are several ways to “purify” or “clean” the air in your home; simmer pots just aren’t one of them. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), you can improve the air quality of your home by reducing the number of pollutants entering your home, ensuring there is adequate ventilation, and using filtration systems (like HEPA filters) to remove pollutants from the air.
But just because they don’t purify the air in your home doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make one. After all, who doesn’t love a cozy-smelling home?
Why Do Simmer Pots Smell So Strong?
To get super technical, orange peel oil contains a lot of limonene, a naturally occurring terpene hydrocarbon. Limonene evaporates easily into the air and carries a pungent, citrus aroma as it moves through your home. Cinnamon’s scent comes from something called cinnamaldehyde, an organic compound that gives cinnamon its famous warm and slightly spicy aroma (or flavor, if you’re eating it). According to the University of Valencia, cinnamaldehyde makes up about 68 percent of the oil in cinnamon bark, so when you add it to a simmer pot, you’re getting a big ‘ol dose of that pungent, woody, spicy bouquet.
How to Make a Simmer Pot
While there is no shortage of ways to make a simmer pot, here’s the popular TikTok-style method, which is refreshingly low-stakes and pretty much fail-proof.
- Put the peels of 1-3 oranges and 2-3 cinnamon sticks in a saucepan.
- Cover with water and simmer on low, not a rolling boil, just a gentle simmer.
- Keep an eye on the water level and add more when the water gets low so the pot doesn’t scorch.
Related: The Best Kitchen Scents
You’ll see tons of variations online, and we highly recommend trying them all. Some add cloves, vanilla extract, apples, cranberries, or even pine needles. Basically, if it smells good, you can toss it in a simmer pot. Just don’t let that inviting aroma get you too carried away. While these smell amazing, the mixture is not meant to be consumed. It’s purely for scenting your house.
How Long Do Simmer Pots Last?
A simmer pot will typically last between three and five hours before the scent begins to fade. You’ll probably need to add water every 30-45 minutes. Bloggers generally advise against reusing the same simmered peels in a new batch, noting that fresh ingredients usually have the best effect. Cinnamon sticks can sometimes get a second round, but you’ll likely have to use fresh orange peels each time.
Why Do People Say They’re “Antimicrobial”?
One of the most common phrases you’ll hear floating around TikTok is that the ingredients contain antimicrobial properties. And they’re not technically wrong, but the statement needs some context. According to the National Library of Medicine, essential oils from orange peel and cinnamon bark have shown antimicrobial activity against certain bacteria in laboratory and food-industry studies. That is a different claim from saying your stovetop is freshening or purifying indoor air. The methods used in those studies aren’t the same ones you’ll be using when you create a simmer pot, so you can’t expect the same results. Similarly, D-limonene has GRAS status as a flavoring or food preservative agent and has been studied in the lab for anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-cancer, and anti-bacterial properties (like in this study on banana preservation), but it is not a validated home air-purification method.
The Takeaway
The simple simmer pot is a quick, nostalgic, and cozy way to make your home smell festive for the price of some oranges and a couple of cinnamon sticks. Enjoy it for the fragrant delight it is, just don’t mistake it for something consumable, or something that can clean or purify your home in any way. Keep it at a low simmer for the best scent, and know that the fragrance will last approximately 3-5 hours, with the scent dying off an hour or two after you turn off the heat.
