Yep. We've got so many condiments, pickles, olives, salsas, dressings in the fridge there is barely room for food. Husband wants to put another fridge in the garage for condiments. I told him I'm not walking down a flight of stairs, up another flight and back, for a bottle of catsup.
I sooooo want a rancher with a pantry off the kitchen.

This is a big cause of squabbles in my family. I've never kept ketchup, mustard or hot sauce in the frig. But we use it a lot. I do keep soy sauce, olives, salsa and pickles refrigerated.

Yes. I am known as "The Condiment Queen." (But when I can throw together a great meal because all the proper spices and condiments are already there, they stop joking about the fridge.)

Yep, everything in the fridge, except for vinegar and oil, oh....there is the bottle of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar in the fridge. I figured the "mother" wanted to stay cold?

Teresa

I refrigerate them all. And just looked at them. Of the mustards, most say refrigerate, one says "refrigerate for quality" and one doesn't say anything. Ketchup says "refrigerate for best results." Hot sauces don't say anything. Others vary.

Wow, after that excercize I now have almost as many condiments in the garbage as in my fridge. And several of the remaining have an Oct '14 date on them. I had better get cooking!

Where is this info? All of my bottles say "Refrigerate after opening" except for hot sauce. They are in the fridge.

I don't follow those instructions for soy sauce or worcestershire, for some reason.

Except for soy sauce and vinegars, I keep everything in the fridge.

Even if foods don't require chilling to prevent spoilage, chilling helps preserve their flavor, so all our condiments are in the fridge, except for olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

Al

This is useful. Now for olives: do you refrigerate once opened? Also, it sometime happens that a partially used jar of olives gets a whitish film on the liquid, what is it? My family is sometimes lazy and picks olives with fingers rather than using a utensil--could that be reason for film.

I refrigerate all except my siracha sauce.

Even if foods don't require chilling to prevent spoilage, chilling helps preserve their flavor, so all our condiments are in the fridge, except for olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

Al

Fridge! So it's all in one place. And I have no cabinet space.

I keep most condiments in the refrigerator but they're a manageable amount. I usually make salad dressings and grilling sauces in one or two meal amounts so not much of those items in the fridge.

Yes! I've seen mold grow on vinegary condiments. Really disgusting. (Edit: I mean even on vinegary ones, like mustard, which are harder to get mold going on.) Always in the fridge, and even for camping they go in the cooler (but we only bring a few).

Re olives, there are many things the film could be. It could actually be rot. But it might just be congealed fat. Skim it off and put it in something small, like a bottle top, in a dish in the fridge and see if it turns into something recognizable as fat.

Edit: Remember, too, that refrigeration inhibits bacteria growth. While ketchup, which has both vinegar and sugar (both preservatives), might not show spoilage, if the the kids are wiping the drip edge with their fingers, you don't want to encourage whatever gets left behind to grow. :) I haven't heard of serious illnesses being traced back to the ketchup bottle, but there are also lots that are classified as "proximity" where they just know it's in the same house.

This post was edited by plllog on Fri, Sep 5, 14 at 13:41

Yes, but not so much for preservation. Lots of ants here, so anything with sugar in it goes in the fridge, always. Otherwise it's like a beacon calling them in from outside.

I do not refrigerate olive oil. Or onions.

I keep everything but mayo in the fridge.

Haha, just kidding. It keeps it all in one place, plus I like my ketchup cold when using it, same with mustard on sandwiches. Maybe it's just what I'm used to.

I keep the opened bottles in the fridge just so everyone knows this is what to use first. If I put the opened bottles in the pantry I'd have multiple bottles of each opened... and unused.

First of all, I do not have any ketchup - it is too sweet for my taste. I refrigerate most condiment, but not soy sauce or Worchestchire sauce. I do refrigerate hot sauces, chili pastes, mustard, dashi paste, lemongrass paste (even though I have lemongrass in my yard and freezer), wasabi paste, ginger puree, etc. They pretty much fit in the door, but I do have a full size fridge (i.e., fridge without freezer) in the garage plus a standup freezer in the garage. Since I do live in a ranch style house (I guess that's what you would call it), it is easy enough to get things from the garage, as no stairs are involved. Typically, new things that I buy go into the garage refrigerator because there is little room in the house fridge, and then I get them out quickly and use them. You might think that it should be the other way, but if I put seldom used items in the garage, they would NEVER get used! The trip to the garage is pleasant, and I walk by lemon, lime, and orange blossoms, which are fragrant at night. Since it has hardly rained in the last two years, that has not been an issue, but I am expecting to have to deal with that in the near future.

Lars