People Are Just Finding Out They've Been Using Their Spice Jars Wrong This Whole Time
Woman cooking
According to Statista, there are more than 300 million Americans who use spices and seasonings. This means there are a lot of spice jars in the average home. And as home cooks know, sometimes spices have a mind of their own. When I encounter clumpy granules, I find myself banging the bottle on the countertop until it loosens up or just shaking it up endlessly.
There’s a spice jar hack making waves on social media, and I wanted to put the idea to the test to ease my own frustrations. The hack, which we saw on @fatsdabarber's Instagram, involves inverting a spice jar and holding and twisting the top (aka the shaker piece) instead of shaking it. The seasoning is supposed to be dispensed more quickly and evenly than with just a shake. The idea is similar to using a salt or pepper grinder, without the option to choose the coarseness.
I have quite an assortment of spices in glass jars (thanks, Ikea) and plastic bottles, so I had lots of options for trying this trick. I found that the best lid for this spice jar hack is the 1-piece, screw-top lid with a perforated shaker lid (like Walmart’s Great Value spice bottles). This hack won’t work on spice containers with a flat shaker (e.g., Simply Organic style) that’s on top of the container because the plastic piece is too slim to twist.
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What I Thought of The Spice Jar Hack
I do like the “hold-and-twist” method, with some caveats. It’s a 2-hand method, so if you’re making a pumpkin pie spice seasoning blend in a plate or bowl, this method works. However, if you need one hand free to season your cod on both sides, here comes the cross-contamination police.
The other thing to keep in mind is that the size of the granules could cause waste with this method. Watch the size of the holes because too many twists could deliver more than you need. You might want to try the trick over a plate before committing fully to make sure you have the hang of it.
Another good tip is to make sure the shaker lid is securely snapped. The last thing any cook needs is for an entire clump of black pepper to fall into their soup (yep, it happened to me with a pepper grinder).
Some social media commenters aren’t buying this new life hack. Once a shaker, always a shaker? For my part, I will continue to shake, but I’m definitely twisting my Everything Bagel Seasoning on my avocado toast in the morning to cover each corner.
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