My Husband’s Ingenious Hack for an Empty Ketchup Bottle That We Use Every Single Day
I love watching a good TikTok hack, but it’s rare that I ever follow through in my own kitchen. Some exceptions: baked feta pasta (though now I love Kelli’s baked feta broccoli even more), feta fried eggs, and this odd, but surprisingly helpful, ketchup bottle hack my husband sent me. Essentially, you clean out a ketchup bottle and fill it with oil to use while cooking.
If you’re thinking, huh or why? That was me, too. I rolled my eyes and said it was silly, but my husband was insistent. As soon as we polished off a squeeze bottle of Heinz (we have a 2 1/2 year old, so this is not hard), he scrubbed the bottle until it was squeaky clean, made sure it was 100% dry, then poured vegetable oil in it. Nearly six months later, we’re still doing it and there’s no going back.
What’s So Great About This Ketchup Bottle Hack
Vegetable oil used to cause annoying greasiness in my pantry cupboard. I mostly use it for baking, and when measuring anything, I’d need to be extremely careful to pour just so to avoid any drippage down the side. No matter how much effort I put into creating the perfect stream, the bottle, the cap, and therefore my pantry shelf would always end up annoyingly greasy.
Using a Heinz upside down-style squeeze bottle, there is no excess grease that drips from the top down. In fact, the cap is totally clean, thanks to the cross-shaped silicone valve that the ketchup (or in my case, oil) comes out of. Measuring is easier (just apply light pressure if you need a small amount), and my cabinet shelves aren’t greasy (doesn’t mean they’re organized!).
How to Do This Ketchup Bottle Hack
Clean the bottle and top. Super, super well. Obviously, you don’t want to taint your oil with any ketchup.
Dry the bottle. Honestly, this was the most annoying part. We let it dry on our drying rack, then went in with a paper towel to soak up every last drop of water.
Decant your oil into the clean ketchup bottle. A funnel makes this easier.
This post originally ran on The Kitchn. See it there: My Husband’s Ingenious Hack for an Empty Ketchup Bottle That We Use Every Single Day
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