5 Ways To Repurpose Coffee Grounds In Your Kitchen

You already know your beloved daily brew gives you that early morning boost. But coffee has so many other uses. Like Ina Garten, you might even be using coffee to flavor desserts like chocolate cake, or maybe you're following Julia Child's lead and incorporating it into ice cream sundaes. What you might not know is that coffee isn't just for drinking and adding depth to desserts. From nourishing your garden to scrubbing grime from dirty pots, there are quite a few clever uses for your leftover coffee grounds.

There are plenty of myths about coffee out there. For example, while some caffeine enthusiasts might want to make the most of their coffee, it's not really a great idea to reuse coffee grounds for a second cup. You won't be able to achieve that same rich, robust flavor you got that first time around. However, that doesn't mean you can't repurpose your used coffee grounds. There are plenty of ways to utilize used coffee grounds in your kitchen.

Dry coffee grounds can neutralize intense odors, which is why you might have heard they work as an easy solution to a stinky refrigerator. Coffee grounds contain a substantial amount of nitrogen and can help to eliminate unpleasant odors from surfaces in your home.

To rid your fridge of offending scents, first allow coffee grounds to dry before placing an open container of them in your refrigerator. If you're really set on recycling your coffee grounds for kitchen use, you can also rub them between your hands to exfoliate and remove lingering kitchen odors. When you're finished, you can compost your leftover grounds.

If mushrooms are a mainstay in your homemade meals, it might be time to grow your own. The proper substrate — meaning the material an organism is growing in — is essential for providing the fungi with the nutrients they need to grow.

Lucky for caffeine connoisseurs and mushroom enthusiasts, coffee grounds make for an effective and nutrient-dense substrate for the same reasons they make great compost. You can repurpose used coffee grounds to grow tender enoki or cultivate textured oyster mushrooms for future plant-based chicken bites.

If you don't have a traditional meat tenderizer mallet, there are plenty of foods you can use to get the job done. You can use fruits like kiwi to tenderize beef or utilize crushed pear to make even the toughest steaks tender. But you can repurpose coffee grounds to do the same thing.

Much like other acidic ingredients used in marinades, like vinegar, citrus juice, and tomato juice, coffee can break down some of the collagen in meat. Plus coffee grounds add layers of rich, earthy flavor to charred steaks. Make a rub with used coffee grounds and savory spices for flavorful melt-in-your-mouth meat.

Before you think of tossing used coffee grounds, repurpose them to revive your dirtiest pots and pans. Coffee grounds' gritty consistency makes the substance an excellent natural cleaner for scraping off those crispy bits of debris clinging to cookware.

Paired with a little soap and water, coffee grounds are abrasive enough to scrub away oil and food remnants, while also removing enduring odors. Just fill a pot or pan a third or halfway with soapy water, add a tablespoon of grounds, and then use the smooth side of a sponge to rub the grounds along the bottom of the pot or pan. You can also try using coffee grounds to clean dirty oven racks and grimy grill grates. Just make sure to throw out soapy coffee ground remains rather than composting them.