Get the most out of that jar … Rachel Roddy’s mixed leaf salad with gorgonzola and hazelnuts. Photograph: Rachel Roddy/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Get the most out of that jar … Rachel Roddy’s mixed leaf salad with gorgonzola and hazelnuts. Photograph: Rachel Roddy/The Guardian Feast Food Make the most out of the last spoonful Before you throw away that jar with only a bit left inside, turn it into a dressing, sauce, glaze or even a drink instead
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Rachel Roddy Thu 22 Oct 2026 13.35 CEST Last modified on Thu 22 Oct 2026 13.36 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google I t has been almost three months now, and we still haven’t replaced the cupboards that fell off the kitchen wall. It is also disturbing how well we have adapted to the chaos and having half the room covered with plastic crates that once contained vegetables and that now contain the hundreds of items that used to fit in the three cupboards, the collective weight of said items explaining the incident. The lack of cupboards has put pressure on the fridge, too, which has become a depository. That’s why, when I finally looked inside it properly, I found three jars of honey, each with between 2mm and 2cm at the bottom, as well as two jars of peanut butter, and a pretty much scraped-out jar of chocolate spread. At least all of those jars provided inspiration for today’s newsletter.
Making a dressing with the last inch of honey is perhaps the most efficient and satisfying way to deal with a near-empty jar. Pour in a bit of boiling water and some lemon juice, orange juice or red-wine vinegar, screw on the lid, then shake aggressively so the honey dislodges and dissolves into a syrup. Now add everything else – olive oil, a bit of mustard and whatever else you fancy – and shake again to emulsify. This dressing is great with one of the most useful, speedy and cheap salads in existence, namely shredded red and white cabbage, grated carrot, possibly with grated apple. Alternatively, use the same dressing on a seasonal salad of radicchio, hazelnuts and gorgonzola . And if the remnants in a jar happen to be mustard, do exactly the same as above, just inverting the order and adding honey later.
Felicity Cloake also suggests a dressing in her four healing honey recipes , which also function as suggestions for using the stuff up. Her suggestion of a hot toddy is great – add hot water into a jar with a centimetre of honey left, shake, then pour the now syrupy liquid into a glass or mug and add a curl of lemon peel, a knob of ginger, a cinnamon stick, a few cloves and a large dose of whisky, too, for a really effective cure. Her honey peanut butter is another way: put two tablespoons of hot water in the peanut butter jar, shake, then add honey to make a dip for celery and carrot, or add the mixture to cake batter.
View image in fullscreen Healing … Felicity Cloake’s warm hot toddy. Photograph: Brent Hofacker/Getty Images/iStockphoto It isn’t just honey, either. The most efficient way to use up the end of any jar, and especially peanut or any other nut butter, is to add a little hot water, then shake the jar violently to turn its contents into a paste. And a good way to use peanut paste is in the base of a soup (especially one with pumpkin and white beans) or with pasta or noodles .
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