Anyone else have a fridge full of SAUCE?

[Blue278]

Really struggling with fridge space. I’m a keen cook and seem to accumulate stuff from recipes which fills half the available space in the fridge.
Me and my three young adults at home and when I do the main shop there’s just not enough space for fresh stuff.
Just looked and I have Mayo, Ketchup, brown sauce, sweet chilli, hot chilli, gochujiang, harissa, mint sauce, tartar, English mustard, Dijon mustard, American mustard, wholegrain mustard, chilli crisp, garlic puree, mint yogurt sauce, tahini, chipotle paste, ginger garlic puree. On top of jars of pickles and jalapeños and onions and olives and capers and grilled peppers etc.
Do people just keep this out of the fridge? Or manage with one or two sauces? Or throw things away constantly? I am wondering if I could just buy catering packs of sachets of some things to free up space. No space for a bigger fridge!

Most of that I have too, but not all in the fridge. Got a pulllout cupboard that it lives in.prior to that I had a lazy Susan,

Mustard, ketchup, brown sauce, chilli sauce, not in the fridge.

I have a good few of them too, none of my mustard is in the fridge, in fact just finished one jar yday of English mustard that I'd say is open 2 yrs and just in the press! Don't keep capers/olives in fridge either or anything pickled. Some of the sauces I seldom use and that would be used in cooking rather than just squirting out onto something like ketchup I freeze in ice cube trays and then into a bag as I find they go off before I get to use them even in the fridge, could be stuff you might only use few times a year!

Mustard, ketchup, brown sauce, chilli sauce and all pickles are kept in a little kitchen cupboard. It's my 'condiments' cupboard with salt, pepper etc.

You forgot cranberry, horseradish, tartare, apple, lime pickle, mango chutney and every sort of mayonnaise going.
Yes, I have the same problem.
MIL laughs at me "we just kept it all in the cupboard in my day"
I stand them all in a large Tupperware just so they don't keep falling over.

Oi - get out of my fridge! (You missed the chilli jam)

Yes, that's us too. We save on fridge space by getting milk from the milkman 3x a week so we never have too much at once, one bottle in the door, others stand at the side of the bottom shelf strictly rotated for date. So the rest of the door (3 rows) is free for jars and sauce bottles. The rest go on the top shelf as we are all short we like the fresh stuff where we can see it. Also have a regular clear out and tidy up. We don't keep pickled onions or tahini in the fridge but do keep olives, capers etc there.

We don't keep ketchup, brown sauce, sweet chilli, hot chilli or tahini in the fridge and we don't have 4 types of mustard on the go at once. We use frozen garlic and ginger cubes, which obviously live in the freezer. Bollocks instructions such as 'use within 3 weeks of opening' are ignored. We've had stuff in the fridge for months, if not years, and they've not gone off.

Mint yogurt sauce is made as needed by mixing mint sauce into normal yogurt - we almost always have a tub of Greek yogurt on the go, so would use this. Likewise tartar sauce, make it from mayonnaise, capers and chopped gherkins. Greek yogurt is also fine as a substitute for sour cream and normal cream in dishes such as curry at a push. So tweaks like this can reduce the number of jars a little.

But I do feel your pain and wonder where the type of Mumsnetters who eat prodigious amounts of fruit, veg and protein store it all, seeing as most also claim to only shop once a week, twice at most. We recently replaced our ancient (still working but terrifying gobbler of electricity) fridge freezer and got a taller version, with a bigger fridge section because we couldn't fit our fruit and veg in even though there's only two of us and the amount we eat is far less than I'd ever admit to on here.

No of course not

Because 50% of it is pickles, pastes, spreads etc. in addition to the 300 sauces

I may be exaggerating a little but seriously why?

I keep open animal products in the fridge. Nearly everything else lives in my pantry happily and I am in a hot climate.

You keep too much in your fridge.

Yes! Worse than that we seem to have two of everything open as my teenagers and DH cannot seem to look properly and find the open one. 🙈

This has actually got better as I got some fridge organisation boxes and they have a proper place in the fridge now.

Yes, hate it. I use mayo very occasionally and maybe sriracha now and again. DH uses about 12 difference sauces, they’re everywhere.

I don't have half of that, and I have 2 fridges - built in under worktop in kitchen and fridge freezer in utility.

Neither fridge is rammed, even on a shopping day.

We call it the “Museum of Mustards.” DH can’t see a new type of mustard without adding it to his collection.

Pickles don't need to be in the fridge - that's the whole point isn't it? They're preserved.

same goes for things like ketchup and BBQ sauce et c- usually so much sugar in them they're preserved.

Not entirely sure why you'd need to keep chilli crisp oil in the fridge either... ?

In fact there's literally nothing i your list that needs to stay in the fridge, surely? (although i do keep pickled gherkins in the fridge, because they're crunchier :D

well, that's becuase you have two fridges to spread your shopping out in ...

my spare bottles are kept in the coalshed for this very reason LOL if they have to go outside to get the new bottle, they look properly first time ha ha

as @RadStag says, pickles don't need to be in the fridge if they are properly made. Preservation was the whole point of them for literally centuries.

Also, a lot of those sauces are just a simple spice blend - sometimes with added sugar - mixed into in an emulsion of oil and water perhaps plus the dreaded thickeners, as well.So you're paying an awful lot for very, very cheap ingredients. Just as one example, it's really cheap to buy - from a reputable wholefood supplier - dry powder harissa spice mix. All you have to do is stir it into some olive oil with, if you like, some lemon juice or vinegar. Add sugar if you must.

Another example. If you have mayo and pickles and salt and pepper and perhaps garlic and a few dried herbs, you can very easily make cheap and excellent tartare sauce that has never seen an expensive little bottle or jar.
Just:
chop your pickled gherkins finely
do the same with a little bit of very finely chopped raw onion/spring onion (takes just 5 mins) and also, if you like, some garlic - just a tiny bit required
Mix with some (quantities to personal taste):
mayonnaise, lemon juice or vinegar/pickle 'juice', some salt (just a little, the mayo already has it), ground black pepper, a good pinch of dried tarragon (v. cheap) and ditto of dried dill (also cheap)

Mix all this together. Let it stand for at least half an hour. You'll end up with a generous amount of cheap but very good tartare sauce.

I think if you look at the ingredients of many bottles and jars sold as sauces etc, you'll find that they'll be quite easy to assemble from a few dried ingredients plus simple store cupboard items - oil, lemon juice or vinegar - at home, freshly and when you need them.

Yes got quite a lot of that stuff in the fridge but I mainly keep things out of the fridge, so have a lot of that stuff in cupboards as well

Ive got a lot of sticky bottoms

I don't keep any of our sauces in the fridge. None of them go off. We get through them all quickly enough to not have to worry about it.

I saw an "ADHD hack" that said to put the perishable stuff that is usually hidden in your salad drawer on a fridge shelf that is at eye level, and all your life long life fridge stuff like condiments and jars of pickles etc in the salad drawer.

Game changer.

It's a miles better use of space AND means I'm having less food waste as the fresh perishables are in my line of sight every time I open the fridge door.

They seem less of a space hogger in the salad drawer too somehow. I'm never having to shuffle them about to access the foods.