20 hours Ago By [email protected] (Stephen Bradley)
The movement has become increasingly popular among professionals and home chefs. Restaurants are using spacious walk-ins to store leftover ingredients and repurposing them in special meals to reduce waste. Home chefs are implementing compost piles, simmering homemade stocks, and using the to cut back on scraps.
Beyond this, the zero-waste movement does not just apply to the food products themselves — reusing food containers and other non-food kitchen items is a helpful way to reduce waste in the kitchen. Cartons with a capped spout — think orange juice, milk, and — can be repurposed as tops for mason jars to give you an accurate pour. To make a mason jar with a capped spout, detach the glued walls of the juice carton, and cut off the top, leaving the square of cardboard around the spout.
Take the sealable ring from a mason jar, and trace its circumference around the spout with a pencil or marker. Cut along the circumference, and use the card circle to cover the top of your mason jar. Make sure to keep the screwable top for the spout to ensure the jar is still airtight.
Why is this useful? Mason jars are wide-mouthed containers, meaning they often result in messy and inaccurate pours. A smaller spout allows you to pour the contents of a mason jar more smoothly and slowly, ensuring the perfect amount comes out. When , dusting your surface can result in a few mishaps.
Sometimes you pour too much flour, and the dough ends up dry. Sometimes you don't pour enough, and the dough sticks to your counter. Rather than keeping your flour in its paper bag — which often develops holes that flour can spill through — store it in a mason jar with a carton spout top.
The smaller top allows you to easily control how much flour comes out, making the dusting process much more accurate. You can also use these customized mason jars to keep chopped nuts for a quick salad topping, granola or dried fruit for a morning yogurt bowl, or chocolate chips for a midnight snack. Recommended.
