This Super-Easy Trick Instantly Creates a Pour Spout for Your Bottle of Oil (So Brilliant!)

published Jun 30, 2024
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multiple different brands of olive oil on marble surface
Credit: Alex Lepe

I have two pet peeves in the kitchen. Okay, let me clarify: I have a lot of pet peeves in the kitchen, but two of the most significant pet peeves of mine have to do with oil (specifically the bottles that they come in). While some olive oil bottles have spouts for easy pouring, a majority of them do not. I find when I pour vegetable oil into a pan, I easily over-pour; and while I could transfer that oil into a dispenser bottle to make things easier, that would require me to buy another item for my kitchen. However, thanks to a clever cooking trick I stumbled upon on the internet, both of these pet peeves are about to disappear.

Here’s how it works: Using a pair of metal tongs, hold a plastic bottle cap over the flame of the candle. When the plastic is warm enough, press the thinner end of a chopstick into the center. The warm plastic will form a spout, similar to a squirt bottle. Let the plastic completely cool, then trim the top with scissors. Your oil bottle has turned into a dispenser that will make it easy to squirt oil into your pan. No need to buy that extra dispenser bottle and take up more space in your cabinets.

Keep in mind that when storing oil, especially olive oil, it is best to limit its exposure to oxygen and to store the bottle in a cool, dark place to avoid the oil going rancid. Thankfully, you just cut off an easy cap for that squirt bottle! While the plastic is still warm, shape that small snip of warm plastic that you cut into a slightly larger cap that can fit over the top of the bottle to limit the amount of oxygen exposure.

This trick could also work well for other liquids that you need to dispense. Clean out old water bottles that you can fill with pancake batter, then cut larger holes for the dispenser to make it easy to make all kinds of designs for breakfast. This trick is also brilliant for dressing bottles so you can lightly dress your salads or add sauces to your sandwiches, instead of accidentally dumping the contents of the bottle onto your lunch.