Deodorizing a smelly crock....

[Peces]

Hi,

Brand new to the world of fermenting. Currently in the midst of Katz's "The Art of Fermentation". Excited about starting, but...

My upstairs neighbor is a potter, so I asked if he would make me a crock. He said he had one lying around that I could have if I waited a few days for him to clean it.

I received it a few days ago; it's a beautiful crock, about two gallons, in the moat (Harsch) style. Very thoughtful and kind, but....it STINKS. Really bad. Like putrid seaweed.

Turns out that he had something fermenting in it, which he forgot about for the past year. I'm assuming it was putrid when he opened it and cleaned it the best he could.

I tried soaking it in hot soapy water and vinegar for 24 hours. No effect. I made a baking soda paste and scoured the inside with it. No effect. I'm thinking about a mild bleach solution next, but then I'm out of ideas.

The crock is glazed on the inside, and so far as I can tell, no cracks where mold could be growing.

Does anyone have any suggestions for deodorizing it? Will it be safe to ferment in?

[Christopher Weeks]

Since you have the exceptional situation of having a potter (the! potter) upstairs, I'd ask how much it would cost to run the crock through a bisque kiln-firing. It'll take up space in the kiln so it'll cost something, but not too much. That will surely kill anything there and probably break down any organic molecules hanging around.

[Gutted]

It might be worth trying Borax or Citric Acid. Borax destroys fungi and Citric Acid can be very cleaning due to it's acid nature. They are not very expensive.

[CoconutLover]

I have had a couple of issues with metal lids holding odors. Pickle lids, the lids off the kimchi jars, etc. Vinegar, my usual go to, does pretty much nothing for the smell unfortunately. The one thing that I found that worked was leaving the lids out in the sun for about a week (maybe two weeks, I tend to forget things if I don't need them right away so it might have been as long as two weeks).

Good luck with your stinky crock!