6 Condiments That Never Seem to Leave the Fridge

Usually found in the isolated refrigerator door, these hangers-on seem to magically refill themselves and continually remain a part of the kitchen repetoire. Most likely containing a thin bottom layer of the original contents, they will not go away until you tire of their presence and toss them ceremoniously in the trash.

1) Mustard

Flickr: williamtillis

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How often have you had the “I wonder if we have mustard” thought while shopping for hot dog components? Followed soon after by the “I’ll buy some just in case; it’s so cheap after all,” thought, the mustard duplication efforts end with a stockpile in your fridge when one is opened before the other has run out. Bonus for the crusty dried stuff at the top of the squirt bottle staring at you every time you build a ham sandwich.

2) Relish

Flickr: Kenneth Moyle

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Sweet, dill, whatever; unless you eat some sort of mayonnaise based salad or hot dogs everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it’s almost a sure bet that some relish is lounging lazily around the corner just out of sight. Perhaps you needed two tablespoons of relish for your tuna salad, and there were only 2.5 tablespoons left in the jar. Do you throw away the last half tablespoon or save it for a rainy day? Rainy day it is…

3) Sugar Free Jelly

Flickr: my amii

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Great in theory, not in taste. Either you were feeling healthy, it was the beginning of January or you weren’t paying close attention when you bought the strawberry jam. There will be a few times when you take it out for a test drive in a burst of optimism before disappointing your tastebuds with artificial sweetener, but it will rot in the graveyard that is the icebox.

4) Olives

Flickr: Dan Shouse

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They fly out of the jars after the first opening and sit in an obscure spot until the next discovery, only to be left in the cold again. The last 3 remaining olives in the bottom require too much effort to drag them out again, but 3 is still a number too high to throw away the jar. Like limbo, but for olives.

5) Horseradish

Flickr: Trois Têtes (TT)

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Specialty ingredients like horseradish are handy for a recipe, but tend to fade away when it comes to everyday use. Unless you feast on roast beef daily or keep a stash of homemade cocktail sauce, the horseradish will probably linger for years before you finally get the urge to toss it or dig out the final remnants.

6) Various Hot Sauces

Flickr: Eric in SF

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There’s one from Belize in there, a few from Louisiana (of course), some green, some yellow, some clear and some deep red. Maybe it’s the variety and your inability to use one before opening another, or maybe you just don’t use hot sauce that much. Whatever the case, it’s probably a safe bet that you’ve got a few in your refrigerator this very moment.