Onion granules have gone rock solid in the jar

[soupyspoon]

Shall I dump it?

I only used about a spoonful of the stuff. I dont use a lot of it

Seems such a waste. I hate waste

I use them up in home made chilli powder or fajita spice - they are fine as long as not mouldy ! They break up easily

Well you say that

The reason Im posting is not because I dont know how to use them but because I nearly took my own hand off trying to stab them to break them up.

It was nearly an A+E moment right there.

Ive realised that if I am able to use them Im going to chuck them in lots of stuff, but last night it was impossible.

Can you whizz them though a mini blender or squash them with a pestle and mortar?

I would add them to your next batch of soup, add a bit of boiling water to loosen them up first.

So, I imagine your actual issue is you can't get the solid mass out of the bottle anyway, to do anything with?

I have a fine pointy metal skewer. I wrap the bottle of whatever in a tea towel and place it on something that absorbs shock (several folded tea towels, a plastic cutting board or whatever) and then gently tap, tap, tap away to break down the contents.

It can be labour intensive and most people would just chuck out the lot, but I hate waste, so labour I will.

I just chisel 'em out with a spoon handle.

This is me all over, you are a kindred spirit.

No solid mass of onion granules is going to get the better of me

I forgot about skewers, we have some metal ones.

This will be my next project. I cant do it until Monday night so Im afraid you'll be on tenterhooks until then. Not unlike a skewer really.

I tried this and I tried the tip of a knife, which is where I nearly came asunder

But now I know that I need to use the skewer so this will be my next trick.

When you get a new jar store it in the fridge. Doesn’t go hard in there.

That would be a good idea except what will happen is that I'll rootle through the spice cupboard, wont find it, go out and buy another jar. Then 5 mins after I get home from that shopping trip realise its in the fridge.

Yeah, three small bottles of celery salt anyone? 😆

TBC…

Put a slice of bread in the jar, put the lid back on and leave it overnight. Works with brown sugar!

A slice of bread, how big a jar of onion granules do you think I have?

Can't help with this one but when you open the next jar put a few grains of rice ( about a quarter of a teaspoon in straight away, and mix them into the granules. It will absorbs any moisture and keep the granules flowing. You can either pick the few rice grains out of your measure when you use them or I just dump it all into whatever you are cooking .

It’s usually from seasoning stuff over the pan
tip it onto a spoon or your hand first and then add so you don’t get steam in the jar

Have you tried microwaving the jar with the lid off for 10 to 20 seconds? You can also try putting a small glass of water in when you are microwaving it.The moisture can help

I dunno, I'm not psychic. What are onion granules anyway? Don't you have onions where you live? If you can't fit a piece of bread in the jar try a bit of rice like someone else said. Anything that absorbs moisture should work.

Onion granules do this every single time for me, no matter how careful I am to keep them dry. I just accept this as a fact of life, and every time I need them I use a butter knife (which cannot possibly cause any harm) to scrape as many I need off the top. No point in doing any more, next time they'll be hard again.

This made me proper lol 😆

Two tips store them and garlic granules in the fridge.

Use the back of a tea spoon to break them up instead of a knife although if you store them in the fridge I find the caking much less of an issue.

It’s moisture that causes this.

To stop this happing with onion or garlic granules I decant a new bottle into a small jar and add coarse sea salt and screw lid on tightly. Shake to disperse salt crystals throughout the granules.

I then use a tea spoon when I want to use some.

I'd add some boiled and slightly cooled water to the jar to soften them, then use them up in the next couple of days.

I've given up on buying it for this reason

i keep mine in the fridge, door on the top shelf, and never have an issue with granules going solid

Just updating on with hot off the press onion granule news

The metal skewer thing works

I have been making my way through my onion granule jar and tonight started on the cajun seasoning jar which had also gone solid.