As I’m sure you know by now, one of my biggest pet peeves is food waste. I don’t care if it is on a large scale or on a teeny tiny scale like I’m about to talk about, I can’t stand it. So I’m here to let you in on an easy peasy way to get rid of a food waste culprit: the remnants of the pasta jar!
When I’ve dumped out the contents of a jar of pasta {or even a can of chili or soup}, I can’t stand to throw the jar away with all that sauce still stuck to the sides. It might not be much, but that’s food I’d be tossing! So I use a simple trick my mom taught me years ago: swirl some water in the jar, close the lid, give it a good shake, dump it back in with the rest of the sauce and BOOM, no more remnants.
Please tell me there’s someone else out there that uses this little trick?
~Mavis
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Teri says
I do!!
Scott Henley says
This is one trick I have done for years. The key to this trick is to use some of the pasta water you have just cooked your pasta in. The water is already hot, and it also has the starch that was cooked out of the pasta, ensuring that you don’t thin out the sauce. I use some of the water in the actual pasta dish anyway. How often do you add sauce to your pasta only to have the pasta soak up the sauce, leaving you with a dry dish? Pasta water to the rescue. old water would just cool and make your dish watery….
Julie Ann says
Yep!
Been using this trick since I was 13 🙂 I also use broth to get the remnants out of my cans of enchilada sauce and milk to rinse out the last dribble of creamer/creamed corn/”cream of” soup.
I also use a rubber scraper for peanut butter, hot water bath (lid on) for honey/coconut oil/molasses.
KAte says
I do all of these things too!
You’re supposed to wash the jar out before you recycle it, and don’t see the point in washing food down the drain! Sometimes I use a little milk instead of water, depending on the food I’m rinsing out.
Kayla says
I do this too. If you buy the glass jars, you can wash them out and use them for canning. They fit a small size metal lids and rings. The plastic jars are great for freezer jams too.
Rosaleen says
Are you saying that someone DOESN’T do this? 😎 If I anticipate leftover pasta, I might plan store it in the , which also uses up sauce. Some pasta sauce jars fit canning rings. Any of them that have a rubber gasket can be used for vacuum sealing of foods, especially great for dehydrated items.
KAte says
If I anticipate leftovers often I’ll just put the extra sauce (after I’ve added in extra meet, cheese, whatever) right back into the jar. Then I can dump it right out and reheat when it’s leftover time!
Tasha K says
When I’m making a red pasta sauce, I swirl a little red wine around in my jar to get out all the leftovers, and to add a little flavor.
Mavis Butterfield says
My mom does that! 🙂
mandy says
I do this too!
Tina says
I totally do this.
Lesley says
I remember when The Tightwad Gazette recommended this exact strategy. I think her example was ketchup bottles, and she did the same thing (swirled a bit of water in it, then dumped into soup). Obviously this wouldn’t work in, say, a broccoli cheese soup, but anything tomato-based would be fine. Great tip!
Same thing goes for using scrapers to get the last of the peanut butter, mayonnaise, jelly, etc. People without scrapers baffle me!
Julia says
Love the Tightwad Gazette. I was so sad when Amy “retired.”
Jonnie says
I do it with everything I can. My great-grandmother told me the last little bit in the jar, was always the best tasting. As she canned everything herself, you had to know she was right. My grandmother, and mother agreed with her. That you don’t waste anything was taught from my earliest memories, and led to what my children, when they were small, called recipes. From combining leftovers to make something new to eat.They didn’t like staying at friends houses , because they didn’t make recipes like I did.
Madam Chow says
I do this, too. I also put some olive oil, vinegar, etc., in mustard jars that are used up but have remnants left in them, pu the lid on, shake, and you have salad dressing!
kelliinkc says
This is brilliant!!! Never thought of it. Thanks for posting this tip!
Terri Trepanier says
No fear, my dear, you’re not the only one. I do it all the time as well!
Vicki says
I do this too. With ketchup and many other things. I have even added water to the liquid laundry detergent bottle. I just have to get that last bit out. I think my Hubby thinks I may be a little nuts at times….lol.
Mavis Butterfield says
Mine thinks I’m being cheap too. LOL
Ashley says
I totally do that with detergent, too I figure if I have to rinse the jug to put it in the recycling, why not get an extra load of laundry out of it!
Susan says
LOL! I do this, too. There’s enough in the handle alone for a full load! 🙂
Erin says
I definitely do this too!
Tina B says
I do this, but I put the “spaghetti sauce water” from the jar into my “freezer soup” container. It helps add more flavor to my soup the next time my freezer soup container is full and ready to use. What goes into my “freezer soup” container, you may be wondering? Leftover bits of veggies, rice, pasta, diced meat, potato peels, “spaghetti water” from rinsing out the jar, the water in which I have boiled carrots, juices from having roasted meats that didn’t get used when using the meat for a recipe, etc. Each time I make my freezer soup it’s unique, but always good. Only inedible stuff gets tossed out in my house, and that goes into my compost bin if it isn’t meat-based.
MaryW says
I make my own sauce, but I put water in the freezer bag to get any remnants that get stuck to the bag. Not a fan of jarred sauce.
andrea d says
Yes! glad to know I am not the only one. Drives me crazy when I see people just leave it. For me it’s more of an OCD issue than food waste. Like on cooking shows when they make a cake and don’t scrape the mixing bowl.
Also, If you use Hershey’s syrup and the bottle is almost empty just add the milk to the bottle and shake to get the last drops of chocolate goodness.
Ashley says
OMG- that drives me nuts on cooking shows, too, especially when they have a glass bowl and all that batter is glaring at me the rest of the segment. I always just tell myself that maybe they’re leaving it like because someone backstage wants to lick the spoon/bowl, lol.
KAte says
They’re not usually backing the stuff from that bowl. They usually have a pre-baked version and spending time scraping the bowl would take time the producers probably see as a waste. I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that the stuff from the bowl just gets dumped in the trash when the segment is over. It makes my heart just just thinking about it.
Margie Hudgins says
Yes, and when they peel fruit & cut the ends off green onions/scallions, they cut off 1/2 of the white part with it. Makes me want to call them & tell them there are hungry folks in this country who would love to have those scraps.
Sharon says
Cooking shows drive me nuts, too!!
Connie P says
Yep … my Momma did it and so do I! She always said waste not, want not. Love the “red wine in red pasta sauce jar” and “olive oil/vinegar/etc in mustard bottle” ideas … thanks for sharing!
Mavis says
Love that saying!
Sherle says
All the time! I can’t stand to waste food. Which is also why I find it impossible to go on a juicing cleanse for a few days. There’s so much wasted product. I’d rather make smoothies and use the entire fruit or vegetable.
Jan says
My mom taught me years ago to never waste food, rinsing the sauce jar was mandatory!!
suzanne says
I did this in front of my brother in law last week. He freaked out and said the sauce is to watery. He digressed after dinner was served.
Mavis Butterfield says
What is it with the guys? They think we are all crazy.
Denise says
I always use some red wine to rinse the jar and it gives a great flavor to the sauce. I’ve heard that wine also prevents heartburn from the tomato sauce. Can’t say for sure about that but I do love the addition of wine. Maybe the brother-in-law wouldn’t object to that.
Lea says
I use a skinny spatula to scrape the jar clean – that way we don’t end up with watered down sauce! 🙂 I totally do this with canned soup and anything else that a little added water doesn’t make a difference with though.
Great tips!
Lea
Susan says
All the time! 🙂
M says
Guess I’m the only one who didn’t do this trick before. My mom did not cook if she didn’t have to, so she didn’t really teach me to scrape anything carefully or rinse out (other than for recycling). Even with that, I ‘rinse’ out my shampoo, body soap, laundry soap and other ‘soap’ containers and get the dregs before the bottle gets tossed/recycled. I didn’t even think of doing this for food. Learn something new every day, right?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yay, we have a convert! 🙂
kelliinkc says
I usually make a Pasta with Jarred Alfredo sauce for my son’s Swim Team Pasta Dinners. I add a little milk to the jar and give it a good shake to get as much out as possible.
Mavis says
Mmmm. Alfredo sauce! Yum.
Heidi says
I do this too!
Gardenpat says
I have a funnel I keep in the kitchen too for things like mustard and ketchup. When one bottle only has a little left in it, we open a new one, but after we’ve started to use the new one, we put the funnel in the new one and let the old one completely empty through it! I barely have to rinse the old bottles for recycling at that point!!
Debra Berns says
I was taught to do this making any sauce when I was a small child. We rinsed from can to can to jar to jar for our spaghetti sauce. Made the most out of what we had. And we always ate well surrounded by love and family.
Laura says
Yes, there is someone else out there who swirls water in the pasta sauce jar to get it all ! My mother taught me that by
her just doing it ! And the tip you had about using the butter/margarine wrapper to butter a pan – that is an old country
way of doing things that my grandmothers used to do. None of them ever went hungry and they were great cooks!
Cooking on a budget was just how how they lived and ran their kitchens. Thanks for remembering! Ps Tonite I made a batch
of no bake chocolate oat drop cookies and opened your daily email and there was your recipe for the same.
Enjoy!
Mavis says
Great minds think alike!
Tracy L. says
Yes, me too!!! Any jar, can, bottle, I get every last bit out. I don’t care if it’s shampoo, detergent, or food, I’m not going to waste it!!
Leslie says
I don’t do that. I toss some noodles in before adding them to the sauce, swirl them around, and that cleans the jar. Might need to do it twice, but then I call it good.
Peggy says
Always! My mom taught me the same thing!
Heidi says
Learnt this trick from my mother-in-law who lives in Austria, so this trick is a worldwide phenomenon!
maria lewis says
I do the same thing. Then I save the jar to can fruit in. They work great, are a good size and the lid seals great.
Maria
Sherri P. says
I always doctor bottled sauce and add a little port wine. I pour the wine into the empty jar, swirl it around the same way.
Silke says
I do this too.
Angie says
I have always done this too!
Trish K says
You are not alone. I do this every time!
SuperSeniorDeals says
My Nanny (grandmother Ruth) used to be a zealot about getting the last bits out of the jar. She once scraped out (she would sometimes heat up jars to make the process easier) the remnants of several jars over a period of time (storing the jar appropriately during each scraping, of course) to show us how much we were throwing away. She saved a jar every four or five months (sometimes less) that way. Even by 1980 standards, that came out to a good piece of change over a year.
Diana says
I use the last bits of different sauce jars to make marinades. Sometimes tomato sauce, sometimes steak sauce or barbeque, sometimes mustard. Depends on what flavor I’m looking for, but sometimes I’ll rinse the jar with vinegar or beer instead of water for a meat marinade.
Ellen in Clackamas says
yes, have always done this with pasta sauce, ketchup, shampoo, detergent. NEVER thought of adding olive oil to the mustard bottle. Thanks Madam Chow for the tip!
Lori B. says
Have done this forever! My HH thinks I’m nuts.
Heather says
I do it!
Betty D says
it itks me to know end to see waste. Believe me…my son and family waste like crazy and it drives me bonkers…Told them I could eat a yr off the wast they throw out. Believe me…he wasnt brought up that way as I was a single parent….with no support except for sitting help. Mom made most of our food from scratch…so not many jars/container to clean out. Ive always did the can swirling/jar shaking. Yes the sauce would be soupy like but it does cook down over time or you can add a thickening. The same with shampoo/detergent/rinse. I have found that taken bottle dressings..like ranch/thousand/etc…when I make a pork or beef roast in the crock pot….I use these salad dressing in them….gives a slight new taste and leaves them tender. .Also growing up we had the old frigs that didnt defrost. And every two wks or more mom would have to clean it out…as the freezers would be packed full of ice…..thats when she made the best home made soup…with all those left overs….and I do it sometimes also…nothing like homemade soups…….sorry its so long….bringing back some good memories..
Jen Y says
Yes, great idea! You can also do this with a little bit of oil or water in a jelly jar & use it as a glaze or marinade on meat.
Julia says
To get the rest of the sauce out I swir/shake some still warm pasta around in the jar.
Susan DuBois says
Hi Mavis,
I am from Louisiana, and love reading your blog. I have every intention, when I retire, to live out your life here in good ole Louisiana. Until then, I will just have to continue to read your post and dream of the day, I too, can have the time to garden and travel..HA We are off the whole next week for Mardi Gras (I’m in public education), so I am catching up on your post. This post is so totally me! As a single parent of 4 children, I could not waste a crumb in our house. I have always done this. Even eating out can send me into heart failure. I can remember (on rare occasions) taking the kids to eat out at buffets, which I wasn’t big on buffets, but everybody could find something they liked and it beat McDonalds. I would watch other parents let their children fill up their plates with food, then the kids wouldn’t eat it, and the server would have to throw it away! My kids knew better. If you aren’t sure you like it, take just a teaspoon full, taste, then if you don’t like it, very little, if any is thrown away. To this very day (my youngest is 27), they all are very conservative with what they purchase at the grocery store and eating out. I am also in and out of schools everyday, and I cannot even begin to tell you the waste there…..heartbreaking. Like you, food waste, big or teeny tiny is my biggest pet peeve!
amy says
I usually put the tomato paste I’ll be using in the jar with water to blend it up, then shake and pour. Nothing wasted. I use the jars themselves for everything. Food storage, etc.
Beverly says
I have been doing this for years. I do the wine thing when making pasta sauce, unless, of course, I don’t have any. Then I do the water thing. I rinse out my dish detergent bottles, shampoo, etc, squeeze the last bit I can out of the toothpaste tube. I don’t like wasting either.