scraping out the jar......

[alanamoana]

Some of the new silicone "spoonulas" have one very sharp edge on one side and a rounded edge on the other side and are narrower than the standard scrapers.  (Discovered at Linens 'N Things)

They are perfect for cleaning every smidgen of stuff from the inside of jars of PB, jams, jellies, honey, molasses, mayo and the very sticky things such as tamarind paste, chile pastes, sambals and etc.

When there is a bit of PB left in the jar, not quite enough for spreading on something, I add a little seasoned rice vinegar, a dash of coconut oil, a little coconut milk, a dab of chile paste, a squeeze of lime juice, a teaspoon of brown sugar (or palm sugar). 

Put the lid on the jar and shake vigorously, remove the lid and microwave for 15 seconds or so, replace lid and shake again.

Then I make gado gado salad.

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you beat me to it. when i go visit my parents, there are two or three jars of peanut sauce in the fridge. my mom can't bear to throw out the jars, but because there are only two of them they can only eat so much peanut sauce! of course, my dad can eat peanut butter until the cows come home! supply of partially empty peanut butter jars exceeding demand...

[christine007]

Put me down with the lick out the jar by the dogs.

as you can see by my avatar, I have good help around the house!

It keeps him busy for awhile, anyway. his favorite is peanut butter jars.

[Trishiad]

You guys are killing me!

My Grams used to save the last bits of bar soap until she had a little pile. Then she'd melt them down and reform them into cute round soaps for her many travels.

[Rebecca263]

My refrigerator and pantry are havens for upside down jars of various items, always! Honey, maple syrup and ketchup right now. Then there are the pickle jars, especially any pickle with lotus root in it. I put some lemon juice or vinegar in those jars when there is just a tiny bit of pickle left and use the liquid in my salads. I'm pretty boring, I know. Well, I can top myself here. I purchased a wire cutting pair of scissors just so that I can... open up the tubes of wasabi paste, anchovy paste and tomato paste, when they're almost empty! I then soak the tubes in a flat glass bowl, with vinegar or wine or soy sauce... for seasoning things! I have a fixation with emptying out containers.

[JanMcBaker]

Have to get every last drop, lump or smidge.  Open up the seams of the sugar and flour bags, unglue the sides of the dishwasher detergent box, add water to the last of the shampoo, dishwashing liquid, fabric softener.  Mustard jar - rinse it around with the acid for a vinaigrette.  It goes on and on, obsessively.  The worst - Vegemite or Marmite - only fingers finally work - Now you know!

Never thought of red wine for the pasta sauce though!  Thanks!

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Oh lordy-- I do that too with the sugar bag! It drives me nuts hearing those little sugar crystals moving aroound between the two layers and in the seams so of course I have to rip open the bag completely to get everything out!

Ditto for the great idea about red wine for the sauces. Have to think beyond using water for some containers. Oh, and as for hand soap, I have one of those bottles that dispense foam rather than liquid soap. When it's empty I'm going make my own foamy hand soap. I think you can go with 1 part soap to 3 parts water and get foam. Really stretches the liquid soap.

[natasha1270]

LOL! On the internet, you are never alone...

Opening the seams of the flour bag, snipping the tube of tomato paste... I'm filing these for future reference. Brilliant! That last bit of toothpaste in the tube drives me crazy!

Dare I ask what happens to the jar after? You don't even want to know how many empty jars we had to empty out of my moms house after she passed away. 30+ year old baby food jars, anyone? This could be me... but that is one thing to be thankful for my lack of storage space in my current kitchen. Although I do use some old pasta sauce jars for storing dried mushrooms, lentils, etc. I am pretty good at knowing when to hang on and when to recycle. My sisters might tell you another story

N.

[ghostrider]

Scrape scrape scrape, yes.

Meld old soap bar to new, yes. (Akin to homeopathic principles, I am wondering if there are atoms of a 30-year-old bar of soap somewhere in my current bar.)

But what is this talk of jars IN THE TRASH???? You are scraping & saving and then not recycling? How can you live with yourselves?

[andiesenji]

I have an antique "soap saver" like this one that my grandmother used, not for laundry but to swish about in her tub. When I was little, I used to get to do this and can remember hanging over the edge of the tub and swishing it about in the water to make lots of suds, just like a bubble-bath. I remember she had some soap that smelled like gardenias. Thanks for evoking this memory.

However I also have one of these, sisal soap bags into which one puts the remaining pieces of bar soap to wet and work with the hands or simply swish about in a basin of water.

[miladyinsanity]

Hmm...

Here, we make coffee/milo in the can the evaporated milk or condensed milk came in to finish up the last bit. The maternal grandparents owned a coffeeshop, and they used to pack takeaway tea or coffee in the can.

But to clean out old jam jars and the like, you can take a slice of bread, tear in, and use it to 'wipe' the jar. Then eat it. Great snack!

Edited March 3, 2006 by miladyinsanity (log)

[JanMcBaker]

Hmm...

Here, we make coffee/milo in the can the evaporated milk or condensed milk came in to finish up the last bit. The maternal grandparents owned a coffeeshop, and they used to pack takeaway tea or coffee in the can.

But to clean out old jam jars and the like, you can take a slice of bread, tear in, and use it to 'wipe' the jar. Then eat it. Great snack!

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Bread! Brilliant!! And it sounds soooo obvious now, of course! Seems like spearing a hunk on a fork should work well getting around those dang annoying ridges that are in some jars.

As for recycling, there's not much around here for plastics recycling. Got a couple neat looking jars so far to save for next Christmas to put spiced pecans in for gifts.

[jgm]

I'm pretty sure that after my funeral, people are going to sit around and tell stories about me. And they will include certain uh, anal, habits of mine.

It all started in home ec class in my freshman year. We were making fruitcake, and our group was having trouble because there was too much fruit and not enough cake batter. Our teacher came along and threw one of those depression-baby fits; she grabbed our mixing bowl and scraped every last bit into our cake pan, while lecturing us about how the greatest sin in the world, was to waste food. I was surprised to see that after she did that, and mixed the stuff in with the rest of the fruitcake, we did seem to have a better proportion of cake batter and fruit. It was an important lesson.

Now I meticulously scrape down every container. Okay, not every container. Lemon or chocolate pie filling deliberately has some left in the pan; after I have my treat, the dog gets it, but there's usually not much there and he gives me pathetic/dirty looks. But everything else is cleaned out completely, whether it's oil being added to a cake, or tomato sauce from the can. My favorite kitchen gadget is that two-part, self-cleaning measuring cup I have. Pure genius.

It drives me nuts to watch cooking shows, and see the 'chefs' dump stuff from a bowl and not scrape it out. I understand that they don't want to spend time on TV doing something like that, but I also understand that they're setting a bad example.

[ghostrider]

Our teacher came along and threw one of those depression-baby fits; she grabbed our mixing bowl and scraped every last bit into our cake pan, while lecturing us about how the greatest sin in the world, was to waste food. 

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My mom was a Depression-era kid & my dad a Depression twenty-something. I grew up with those lectures. Though I rebelled against a lot of their ideas, the waste thing stuck with me, because it made sense. And so I scrape.

[murraygrey]

Hmm...

But to clean out old jam jars and the like, you can take a slice of bread, tear in, and use it to 'wipe' the jar. Then eat it. Great snack!

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Now why didn't I think of that years ago? Great idea!

Guilty on all other counts here.

I'd say it's genetic, but my daughter skipped this gene. My son, on the other hand, says he laughs when he finds himself, once again, cutting open nearly empty tubes of medication, or finding ingenious ways to get to the last speck of toothpaste.

[Mottmott]

Oh my, I'm in good company with all my jar scraping and empty bottle hoard. And have you ever bought something because you liked the shape of the jar/bottle?

I've even picked up a few good tips. So here's one in return. If you go to an art store, you should be able to find, ta dah! a tube wringer . Two gears married in a plastic or metal holder that will wring out every itty bitty bit. A luxury in the kitchen for a tube of tomato paste, but a necessity in the studio where paint can run as much as $60/35ml. --be careful: do not use the same wringer for paint and food.

Which bring me to a question. How many of us, wringing our tubes, diluting our dishsoap, piggybacking our handsoaps, and swishout out our jars of tomato sauce with wine (oh I'm guilty, guilty, guilty, too), are also addicted to expensive cookware and pricy produce? My hand is up.

edited to add link to tube wringer

Edited March 4, 2006 by Mottmott (log)

[Anna N]

Oh my, I'm in good company with all my jar scraping and empty bottle hoard. And have you ever bought something because you liked the shape of the jar/bottle?

I've even picked up a few good tips. So here's one in return. If you go to an art store, you should be able to find, ta dah! a tube wringer . Two gears married in a plastic or metal holder that will wring out every itty bitty bit. A luxury in the kitchen for a tube of tomato paste, but a necessity in the studio where paint can run as much as $60/35ml.          --be careful: do not use the same wringer for paint and food.

...

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My daughter and I have been searching everywhere for one of these wringers - never thought to look in an art supply store! Many thans.

[Rebecca263]

I loved tube wringers, but they're very difficult to use when you have arthritis.

[prasantrin]

I open up potato chip bags and use my finger to scrape up every last crumb and flavoured greasy oil bit. I do this especially with Old Dutch Bar-B-Q potato chips, and Old Dutch Nacho Cheese and Taco flavoured tortilla chips.

But that's not just for frugality's sake...

[JanMcBaker]

Oh my, I'm in good company with all my jar scraping and empty bottle hoard. And have you ever bought something because you liked the shape of the jar/bottle?

Which bring me to a question. How many of us, wringing our tubes, diluting our dishsoap, piggybacking our  handsoaps, and swishout out our jars of tomato sauce with wine (oh I'm guilty, guilty, guilty, too), are also addicted to expensive cookware and pricy produce?  My hand is up.

edited to add link to tube wringer

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Priorities Mottmott, priorities! We know what we want, or need, to spend a pretty penny on, but we also want to get our money's worth too, whether it's a $2 jar of sauce, or a $200 pan.

[silentmeow]

I do all that scraping too! Waste not, want not! I even wash out plastic storage bags and reuse them. Foil is sometimes washed and folded for future use too. My parents were depression kids, Mom's family had to move out to the farm and live with her Grandparents as her dad lost his job. As posted above I'm turning into my Mom and sometimes my Grandmother!

[andiesenji]

I was born in 1939. I remember washing and flattening empty food cans (made of steel then), bottle caps, saving foil from candy wrappers, gum wrappers, paper, rubber jar rings. Glass jars and bottles were saved and re-used. Waxed paper was used sparingly - we made our own waxed muslin for many kitchen applications.

I recycle everything, scrape the remnants from jars, combine sauces, salad dressings, marinades and etc., when there is just a smidge left in a bottle - some interesting flavor developments discovered this way.

And I am also addicted to expensive cookware and other kitchen accoutrements. In the matter of food, only the best is good enough. My philosophy is that I am worth it and life is simply far too short to skimp on certain things. After all, there is no guarantee that I will be around next week or next month or next year to taste something if I avoid it now because it is expensive.

Presently waiting for a delivery of Perigord truffles coming by way of Fed-Ex.

[FistFullaRoux]

Which bring me to a question. How many of us, wringing our tubes, diluting our dishsoap, piggybacking our  handsoaps, and swishout out our jars of tomato sauce with wine (oh I'm guilty, guilty, guilty, too), are also addicted to expensive cookware and pricy produce?  My hand is up.

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It'[s not about being cheap, it's about being frugal. There's a difference. If you are cheap, you wouldn't even think about the expensive items. If you are frugal, you think of ways to use every bit of the cheap AND expensive stuff.

It's an important distinction. But compared to some of the OCD postings here, I'm a lightweight when it comes to scraping and such.

[andiesenji]

Which bring me to a question. How many of us, wringing our tubes, diluting our dishsoap, piggybacking our  handsoaps, and swishout out our jars of tomato sauce with wine (oh I'm guilty, guilty, guilty, too), are also addicted to expensive cookware and pricy produce?  My hand is up.

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It'[s not about being cheap, it's about being frugal. There's a difference. If you are cheap, you wouldn't even think about the expensive items. If you are frugal, you think of ways to use every bit of the cheap AND expensive stuff.

It's an important distinction. But compared to some of the OCD postings here, I'm a lightweight when it comes to scraping and such.

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That's me! Frugal. I don't mind spending market price on lobsters because I use every bit of them. I shudder when I see people throwing the shells away without making stock with them.

[slbunge]

Several years ago, my parents came back from a trip to Europe. They brought me back this little item that, I believe, was from Amsterdam. Essentially it is a jar scraper. The half-disk at the end of the handle is flexible enough to allow for it to be inserted in a jar with a reasonably small mouth. The edge is nicely bevelled and it scrapes pretty well. (It actually does say that it was made in Holland.)

Sorry for the blurry pictures, but it is white and difficult to photograph.

If Chufi is out there reading this thread, is this a common implement used in Amterdam kitchens?

[Sonia]

After reading some of these posts ya'll are makin' me miss my DOG !! I have to mop the floor more often now that he's gone.

[MicBacchus]

I have the same mentality as ghostrider - my parents indoctrinated me!

Wine and water work in the kitchen for cans and jars while cooking; with mayo I scrape until the bitter end. My DH takes care of the soap in the bathroom.

What makes me crazy is watching other people [whether on the food network (no surprise there, PBS, or a friend/relative] not getting everything out of the bowl. I mean, sometimes they leave a WHOLE SERVING behind