Chilli oil--to refrigerate or not to refrigerate?
I buy a lot of "Master" Asian sauces, and my latest acquisition has been their Black Bean Chili oil. It's made of chillis, black soy beans, soy oil, salt, sesame oil, vinegar. It is made in Taiwan and has a US-type nutritional info label on it. It Also says in English "Refrigerate after opening"--well, OK, actually it says "Please refrigerate after opening." But is that necessary? Or just to meet US product labelling standards?
It's just that I already have so many little bottles of condiments in the fridge, I'm running out of room in the door. (Yes, I need a bigger fridge, we agree on that point! ;)) We don't have any heat in our apartment (barring space heaters) so I'm wondering if during the cold months I can leave some of these products on the counter. I mean, take Patak's Lime Pickle; I thought the salt etc. was the preservative itself, and the idea was that they don't need refrigeration? But it too says "refrigerate after opening"--no please this time!
I do not refrigerate my chilli oil and it has not spoiled yet. I use it all the time and have had it for about seven months. I think you are in the clear. I think they put those on there for liablity reasons.
I was from Taiwan. I refrigerate everything it say so. If your place is cold and temperature is constant, and you will use it up quickly. I think you can leave it out. Product made from Taiwan do need to refrigerate in Taiwan because it is tropical weather and in Chinese Label tell us to refrigerate after it open too.
On a similar note, I've used San-J Organic Tamari (low sodium) Sauce for years and never even thought to look at the bottle to see if there were instructions. My youngest's BF was looking at the bottle one evening when we were having sushi (mmmm, sushi) and it says refrigeration is recommended. Go figure. :-\
Meh...so basically, do what you feel, or at least go on how much room is left in the fridge! So I guess now that it's cold in the house, everything stays out on my limited counter space...and when the temps go above about 75 (say March time), they stay in the limited fridge space! ;D
I don't refrigerate any oils (olive oil, chili oil, sesame oil, ect). They are all fine (and we buy the big containers, too). But I do refrigerate soy sauce. But does it really have to be? I never checked. I just do it.
KK--I've never heard you should refrigerate soy sauce. I use a lot of it, buy it 3 qts at a time, and in all the heat we have in summer (well over 100ºF, the highest I know of was 3 yrs ago we topped out at 125ºF), I've never had any go bad. I don't think it can! So if you need room in your fridge, you can take it out with a clear conscience.
Yeah, I've never had any go bad, either. Besides, I thought it had enough salt in it (even the low sodium kind) to preserve it.
Thanks Yabbit and Bookmama. I just didn't check. I just always did it. So it's coming out of the frig. I need room LOL (I have a gallon jug of it).