You're preparing for a party or a family gathering. You've invited the guests and planned the menu. The silver is badly tarnished.
Many people just reach for a commercial product and start rubbing.
But Jerome Kruger, a professor of materials science and engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering , says a simple home recipe using baking soda, water and aluminum foil can remove stubborn stains from silver with minimal muscle power. All you'll need to clean your tarnished silver, says Jerome Kruger, a professor of materials science and engineering , is aluminum foil, baking soda and water. Tarnish is produced when silver reacts with sulfur compounds in the air, such as the gas released when you boil eggs. Tarnish doesn't harm the metal. It's just ugly.