I live in small apartment too so I know what you mean.... One thing I love and recommend is the Yankee Candle Odor Eliminating Scented Beads (I like the green "just plain fresh" smell better). I leave it open on top of the refrigerator and it really does help getting rid of cooking odors. Another thing I do sometimes is put vinegar in a small bowl and leave it open near the source of smell. The only problem is the place will smell of vinegar for a little bit, but it will neutralize the other smells!

I found something at Costco (and I'm sure you can find it on Amazon) that is a splatter guard screen AND odor eating as well. Basically, you just put it over your pot and it's a screen so it won't trap the steam, but the screen has activated carbon in it, so it absorbs all the smell.

That won't help with food smells caused by eating, but it'll help during the cooking process!

I have a jar of white vinegar that I open and leave on the counter. It sucks up the smells without adding too much stink of its own.

My roommate is constantly frying cheap meats like chicken livers and goat hearts in our tiny kitchen so I am very interested in these replies. He also stores all of his rendered fat so I had to make sure those are now stored in air-tight containers (as they weren't previously).
I've tried placing boxes of baking soda throughout the kitchen but I can't tell any difference from that.
Sauteing onions seems to clear up the smell, but of course there's an offset of the smell of whatever I'm cooking (which doesn't bother me at all of course, hah).

I usually wipe down my counters, appliances, and walls with a degreaser. Then leave out a dish of vinegar to get any stuff that's still airborne.

A small air purifier helped me. I have it on top of my fridge and turn it on while cooking.

Febreze candles. If they can get rid of the smell from accidently putting a frozen burrito in the microwave for 20 minutes instead of 2, they can get rid of anything.

Activated charcoal is used to absorb smells for compost indoors (although compost mixed right smells nice, like line needles) and coffee absorbs trash smells quite well. I wonder if either of those would absorb cooking smells too.

I don't know if this helps? http://greenrenters.org/tutorial/removing-bad-smells-your-rental-property

For really strong smell simmer a bit of white vinegar in a pan on your store. If you have them around add some citrus peels for a less vinegary smell.

My favorite quick way to clear out bad smells is to sprinkle ground cinnamon on a baking sheet and bake it for a few min at 350. Try not to burn it and then wave the pan around your house and dump in the sink. Easy cleanup and a quick fix.

I heard something once about half an apple absorbing odors, so that may help. My boyfriend's family burns candles while cooking (frying) fish, and though they're scented - I think it's the burning that helps with smells. Do you have an outdoor space? I do some of my cooking outside (on hot plates, in a toaster oven or crock pot) if it's particularly smelly (like rendering fat). Finally, if nothing helps, change your perspective on eating seasonally, and only eat foods you don't like the smell of during the months when you can comfortably open up the house!

Or, you know, just make cookies after.

We don't have a vent either and the stove is far from the window. We live in a three bedroom house and it stinks all the way back to the bedrooms!

I buy the $1.50 variety candles at Walmart with the metal lids. Usually something vanilla. I don't burn it until I've cleaned up. Somewhere central and nose level in the kitchen should do the trick. Mine burns on the counter between the stove and the sink. And sometimes if what we had was with onion or leaves leftover shrimp shells or bad grease we take the trash out right away.

I've been scared away from most odor-eliminating sprays like Febreeze after reading about the chemicals in them, but Fresh Wave makes great odor-eliminating products that are nice and natural.

I also recommend Fresh Wave.

Get a big jug of Fabuloso (I'm partial to purple), dilute it a bit, and simmer it on the stove.

Boil cinnamon sticks.

My father taught me this trick to rid my small kitchen of lingering odors after cooking salmon. Water in a pot, throw cinnamon sticks in, boil. Sometimes I do this just so my apartment smells like cinnamon.

I am confused by this as I am really happy when my whole house smells of food. Did you cook something that smells really awful?

I used to have the same issue until I purchased a effusion lamp. those things are miracles. light it up in my kitchen, and 30 minutes late the whole house is rid of smells. I purchased mine at http://www.effusionlampsltd.com/ and can vouch for their products and services.

I use a lampe berger, which has been around as an air freshened for a hundred years. Just light it at the same time the cooking smells start to appear.

Delicious as food smells may be, you don't want them constantly surrounding you.

Sometimes a good smell seems less present after a long time. If I fry up bacon in my apartment, my entire place is going to smell like bacon grease for the rest of the day. That is cool for about 30 minutes and not so cool for the remaining 7 hours.

By the way, I submitted this question and I want to thank you for your suggestions. I'm really happy to know that other people have ways of dealing with this problem and many of the suggestions are cheap and easy to do. I'll be trying them all out eventually. Thank you all!

I live in a tiny apartment with someone who eats very differently than me (spicy,vegetable-filled vegetarian foods verses omnivorian casseroles and packaged foods with lots of meat and dairy), so we both cook things from time to time that bother the other person and the vinegar trick is great! Not only does it work really well, but it's so much cheaper than some of the other options and very easy. If one of us has been cooking something smelly, I'll just leave a little bowl of white vinegar out on the counter overnight and we won't have to be kept awake with stale food smells or, even worse, wake up to them.

how do i "like" a comment? :)

I dissolve Downy's unstoppables in in hot water in the kitchen sick. Stir it up and let the aroma begin to work. It'd like you stuck a rainbow up your nose.

Offensive odors are made from invisible gases that have vaporized from the source such as cat urine, cooking and smoking odors. These vaporized odors float through the air attaching to the suspended dust particles which act like a sponge absorbing and carrying the odors and toxins throughout the room. Air-ReNu a paint additive, turns any wall, surface, into a permanent and effective air, purification system, removing all offensive odors and improving indoor air quality.