Smart Trick Most People Have Never Thought Of
Here is the part that literally caused me to question everything I thought I knew.
Do not throw away the pull tab. Flip it upside down and press it back into the bottle opening.
I know this seems ridiculous. I thought so too. But I decided to try it one night while cooking, primarily for my own curiosity, and the difference was instant. Rather than oil gushing out in that wild and unpredictable manner of glug-glug-glug, it began pouring into a smooth and controlled stream.
No spills. No flooding your salad.
In my experience, the best way to handle messy pouring is to control the rate of flow. And that is exactly what this little trick does. The flipped tab acts as a basic pour spout, which slows things down just enough to provide you with control.
One thing I learned the hard way was how easily oil could spill. You think you are adding a tablespoon and your pan appears to be a shallow pool. With this trick, that problem simply goes away.
Honestly, I was blown away at how well it worked. It was one of those “why didn’t I figure this out sooner?” moments.
How Does This Work?
The reason this trick works is quite simple once you think about it.
When you flip the pull tab and press it back into the opening of the bottle, it essentially partially obstructs the large opening of the bottle. This causes the oil to flow out of the bottle more slowly. As opposed to the free-flowing pour you would normally get, you now get a slower flow.
This is similar to the bottles with built-in flow restriction. Same concept, just improvisational.
Again, I want to make it clear that this is not necessarily what pull tabs on oil bottles are designed to be used for. Not every brand has intended for consumers to reuse them in this way. Due to their design and size, however, they will fit back into the opening in a way that is very similar to using a pour control insert.
And it works surprisingly well.
