If you can never seem to pour the correct amount of olive oil in your pan, or over your salad, then this hack could make your life so much easier – and save you money
If you’ve ever opened a bottle of olive oil without wondering what the tab is for, you’re certainly not alone.
The likelihood is that when you’re pulling on the ring tab, you’re just desperate to start cooking up a storm in the kitchen and toss it in the bin – but there’s actually another purpose for it, and those who have realised hailed it as a “game-changer”.
Olive oil bottles aren’t without their flaws, as we’ve all been there before, pouring in oil to an empty pan, or putting oil over a salad, and your hand slips, and bam, suddenly there’s a whole lot more in there than you bargained for. And with the prices hugely inflated over recent years, it’s not something that you’ll want to waste.
However, this issue can be sidestepped simply by utilising the lid properly. The common misconception is that the tab with the ring is merely an indicator of whether the bottle has been opened or not, leading to it being chucked away after opening, reports the Daily Star.
Yet when you realise its proper purpose, you may want to keep hold of it. In a TikTok video initially shared by @foodies and subsequently reposted on X, formerly Twitter, the user demonstrates the hack by removing the lid and the green tab.
Rather than discarding it, they invert the tab and reinsert it into the neck of the plastic oil bottle, creating small openings around the edge. This then allows you to control how much oil you’re actually pouring into the pan, or your recipe.
“Game changer,” exclaimed the ‘Today Years Old’ X account as they captioned the clip. “Are you kidding me?!”, someone commented, and another added: “Manufacturers should be telling consumers how to use their products in the first place.”
“Sometimes I believe great engineering just goes unnoticed. Half our problems are already solved, we just don’t know that they have been solved”, someone penned.
Now you know how to use the bottle properly, how much oil should you be using? Food Network advises using just enough oil to lightly coat the bottom of your pan, typically one to two tablespoons, rather than an excessive pour. The NHS also says a modest amount of fat in a balanced diet is important, highlighting the healthful monounsaturated fats present in olive oil.
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