Post Punk Kitchen Forum

is it just me, or does this take forever??? Sometimes I just want a god damn tablespoon of the stuff and I have to spend 5 minutes mixing the oil in and I usually make an oily mess on my hands/the counter and start worrying about it drying out. Am I doing something wrong?



Sort of related, but I have never in my life made a bowl of oatmeal where it didn't bubble over the lid and irritate me. I make oatmeal a lot.

Leave the lid on and shake the hell out of it until your arm feels like it's going to fall off. It's a lot of energy expended, but it spares you the mess.

I have the same issue with my natural peanut and cashew butters. Will definitely be trying hoveringdog's suggestion.

I make so much hummus that my tahini barely has time to separate before I'm cracking it open again, so mine's not usually too tough to stir, and it's never in the fridge long enough to dry out.

my oatmeal used to do that all the time. do you make it in the microwave? because what fixed it for me was doing it in 30 second increments and stirring in between each time.

I don't use tahini very often so I buy it in very small amounts (4-8 tbsp) at the Bulk Barn. My son can't eat sesame seeds so I only use it in my occasional hummus, which he doesn't like anyway.

I have done the shaking thing with natural peanut butter, though. It's a good workout.

If you store it upside down, it is easier to stir. Only do this with the tahini jars that have screw on lids, otherwise you will have a whole other sort of mess.

yes. I rarely use tahini because of that. Too damn lazy.

I used to be able to get tahini in bulk and I never had any problems, but now I get that Joyva kind in the orange and black jar. It is SO hard to stir! It doesn't even seem like it would shake up. The bottom is so solid.

Put it in the fridge upside down.

When i first get my tahini i put it in the food processor and process it until it is good and mixed up. Then i pour it back in the jar. As long as you use it fairly regularly this helps it not need to be mixed; if i do need to mix it it is always easier. I figure i don't know how long it's been since the tahini was first made and the processing helps reincorporate the oils so well that it takes longer to fully separate.

Be careful because even with screw-on lids, even if you never opened it, it can leak all over the place. I know.

I don't have any solutions, but I hate stirring nut butters, too.

the kind of tahini i get is pretty liquidy already, so it's easy to stir, but I do hate stirring peanut butter!

yes! i hate using it too! i usually end up scooping mostly thick tahini stuff and then scooping a bit of the oil. i figure itll get mixed in my recipe.

that's why i don't use it, and buy no-stir pb...

I bought natural peanut butter for the first time in my life this weekend and immediately regretted it when I was stirring... The taste makes it worth it but I really hate getting oil all over my hand!

I always buy no-stir stuff because this annoys me so much. I've heard if you keep the jar upside down you don't need to stir as much, though.

me too.

if the store doesn't have that kind and i have to get another kind, i store it upside down.

I buy a big giant jar of peanut butter from Costco and I despise mixing it. Even after storing it upside down I always get oil all over the sides and by the time I get to the bottom there are dried out chunks. My mixing skills suck.

I shake it up as good as I can then stick it in the fridge. Stays pretty much together if you do that. You can also mix it up and then stash it in the fridge.

yes! if you have the option of trying a different brand you might find one that is easier to blend.

I recently had a stroke of brilliance (that could have quickly become tragedy) with a jar of cashew butter. I hate how I never get the oil stirred in right and then the bottom of the jar is just a rock of oil free nut butter. This time, i opened the new jar, and slowwwwly worked the immersion blender into it, pulsing, and eventually worked it down and blended it all. A month+ later, it's still perfectly mixed and spreadable. If you have an immerison blender and nerves of steel, give it a go!

I try and buy the more liquidy brands too.

It makes too much of a mess to give a stir, especially when the jar is full, so I usually just try and get my spoon as far down to the bottom of the jar as I can and then get a bit of oil as I pass the top again and mix it in my mixing bowl or wherever I'm going to be using it. Although, I usually wind up with a nearly dry turd of tahini by the very bottom of the jar using my scavenging oil and solid methoid, but it's not a big deal. We're talking a tablespoon or two and it's definitely still usable.

Or, yeah, this is what I do.

now i want tahini!

I hate stirring too. I was given a huge jar from a Middle Eastern Market. I stirred it with a chopstick and that worked pretty well. Made much less of a mess than a spoon. It's managed to stay combined even in the fridge