Tip Of The Day: Ketchup Bottle As Pancake Dispenser
Today’s feature is from RealSimple with a super-simple tip for making perfect sized pancakes by using a Ketchup Bottle as a Pancake Batter Dispenser:
Portioning pancake batter with precision, without the usual mess of transferring batter from the bowl.
Squeeze out baby-size or plate-size rounds, or add Mickey Mouse ears to a batch of silver dollars.
Reward: Restaurant-worthy flapjacks.
A turkey baster works great too, but with this idea you can keep leftover pancake batter in the ketchup bottle–snap lid shut–and refrigerate (use within days). The pancakes won’t turn out as nice as those made with fresh batter, but still good.
Another idea for using squeezable ketchup bottles was shared by Linda in the comments section on this page: 20 Things You Can Use Twice Before Tossing. She uses the bottles to hold vegetable oil, it’s an easy squeeze to get the amount of oil you need when cooking (great tip Linda, thanks for sharing!).
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Posted in Cooking Tips | 
( 4 )
24 Sep 2008 at 8:08 am
You may not have the mess from transferring the batter from the bowl to the pan, but wouldn’t you have more mess from transferring the batter from the bowl to the ketchup bottle? I do love the idea of perfect pancakes, though!
24 Sep 2008 at 11:01 am
If you use a funnel, getting the batter into the bottle is snap! Using the bottle makes it easier for little hands to help, too.
25 Sep 2008 at 5:00 pm
I liked this tip at first. Until I thought about how to get the batter in the bottle. If using a funnel, you now have a bowl with batter it it, a funnel with batter in it, and the ketchup bottle with batter in it. That’s a lot of wasted batter, since even with diligent spatulaing (yes, spatulaing; it’s a word; I made it up) there will be some batter left behind. It’s also two extra things to wash.
I use a large liquid measuring cup for mixing pancake batter; the pour spout on the measuring cup makes for easy pouring.
26 Sep 2008 at 4:08 am
i absolutely agree with Steve above - THREE things to wash instead of just one bowl - no thanks! i find that a small ladle with a pouring spout works just as well. if you stand your bowl of batter on the stove next to your pan, there’s no mess because your ladle is over the bowl then the pan and you can pour with your right hand and swirl the pan with your left.