The Best Way to Squeeze Every Last Drop of Hot Sauce Out of the Bottle
Hot egg sauce is the perfect way to start a fire under your ass in the morning. The top choice for my eggs for a long time has been Trader Joe’s Jalapeno Hot Sauce (which, according to Reddit , is discontinued and I hate that they did it to me); the taste is bold and slightly fruity, with a heat that kicks but doesn’t linger so long that I can’t savor the flavor of my omelet. The only problem is the fibers and seeds of the ground pepper, which often end up in the neck of the bottle, where they congeal into the pepper slurry until the bottle is no longer produced. My mom raised me to use every last one , so I can’t just throw away the bottle when the pepper paste is still piling up inside, but its mouth and neck are too small for me to put any utensils in. So I flipped the bottle over and checked the ingredient list.
This hot sauce consisted of only three ingredients: pepper, vinegar and salt. I looked at several other bottles and saw the same thing: vinegar and water are the only liquid substances in most hot sauces; some, like Sriracha , are only suspended in vinegar—vinegar adds spiciness and water adds balance, and together these ingredients make this condiment one of America’s most popular food accessories . So I was faced with a choice: add water or vinegar to thin out the thick mass of pepper that had accumulated in the neck of my bottle, as well as catch those smaller pieces that were still clinging to the walls and bottom.
When it happens to you: choose vinegar. Unless you’re making your own batch of hot sauce and need water to balance out its strong, sour taste, adding water to a bottle of prepared sauce will simply dilute the flavor and make it unpleasant. Adding vinegar to the bottle prolongs the original vinegar flavor and rehydrates the dry clusters stuck to the walls just long enough to release them back into the mix.
This is best done with a small funnel, but you can also carefully pour it directly into the bottle in a thin stream. Place a funnel in the neck of a hot sauce bottle and add about a teaspoon of vinegar. It’s a good idea to start small – you just want to free up stuck pieces, not refill the container. Close cap and shake well. If there is still a lot of sauce left on the sides, repeat the process until it has a runny consistency. After that, add more hot sauce to your shopping list. If it hasn’t been discontinued, damn it.