Ketchup water?

ketchupwater.jpg

Or milk crust?

milkcrust.jpg

Please advise.

Lindy West was born an unremarkable female baby in Seattle, Washington. The former Stranger writer covered movies, movie stars, exclamation points, lady stuff, large frightening fish, and much, much more....

55 replies on “Poll: Which Is Grosser?”

  5. Milk crust. Just shake the ketchup bottle.

    Speaking of milk grossness… I have an ongoing debate with the significant other about the “sell by” date on milk. He doesn’t drink it after that date. I say it’s good for a week after that date (or, obviously, if it smells bad, earlier). Another poll?

  8. If you said “ketchup crust”, I’d be all over that one. But, milk crust is worse than dumb ol’ ketchup water. Especially when it’s slightly green.

  10. @5,
    When the lumps no longer fit through the opening, that’s when it’s time to stop drinking the milk.

    I have another poll… who refrigerates their ketchup? I’ve never done it.

  11. Milk crust. Milk in general is gross. Although most other dairy products, such as ice cream, yogurt and cheese, are yummy. But a crusty version of any of those is gross.

  12. Milk crust is WAY more gross! Ketchup crust is kinda gross, but less so than milk crust. And I have a giant bottle of ketchup and don’t use very much, so I refrigerate.

  15. I almost threw up in my mouth a little. Which, in fact, is the grossest.

    Thanks for a spectacularly gross return to work after lunch.

  16. As a kid I learned the deliciousness of (unrefrigerated) ketchup crust one day when normal snack foods were nowhere to be found.

  21. Milk crust gets my vote. For something really interesting see if you can find a box of oatmeal that has been on the shelf for about three years untouched. When open it there is a small zoo of tiny critters slithering around.

  24. Shouldn’t it be Ketchup “Crud”? (or Tomato Paste, as mom called it before stirring it in from toothpick to sauce.) Ketchup never dries out enough, really, to crust out.

  28. milk is way more gross than ketchup ( i have a friend that calls it cow pus). gives me the willies just thinking about drinking a glass of it..
    although now that i think of it a glass of ketchup might be grosser..
    but milk crust ?
    shivers

  29. Neither. Brush away the crust, shake the ketchup. Problems solved.

    @5 It goes bad when it starts to smell/get lumpy. Usually the “use by” date is about a week after the “sell by” date, but frankly, it doesn’t automatically go bad on any one day or a week after any one day; some milk lasts longer than others. I usually throw milk out on the expiration date, but unless it’s lumpy and smelly I don’t think it’s a big deal.

    @10 I always refrigerate ketchup. I don’t know if it makes much of a difference, but I always assumed you were supposed to. On a slightly different note, my girlfriend refrigerates peanut butter after opening, but I never have and thought it was weird. Do other people do that too? What are other things that some people refrigerate and others don’t?

  30. Also, all my previous [serious] girlfriends have hated milk, but I love it. Have I just had weird luck with girls or is there a lot more people who hate milk than I think, and do more girls hate milk than guys?

  31. I refrigerate “natural” peanut or almond butter (the kind with oil that you need to stir). But, if you have something like Jif or Skippy, refrigerating it just makes it hard and impossible to spread. Plus, it’s unnecessary.

  33. Not only do I not refrigerate ketchup, I also leave out mustard, hot sauce, and butter.
    People always freak when they see that I leave butter at room temp for some reason, but it’s the only way to keep it soft.
    I’ve left it out for months sometimes and still eaten it and as far as I know, nothing bad’s happened.

  34. Yeah, milk is gross to begin with, which is why milk crust is the clear winner.

    Seriously, it’s cow body fluids. If cow spit tasted good with cookies, would you drink it? Bleh.

  37. What the fuck is wrong with all of you people?!

    Ketchup water! By far! You hardly even notice milk crust unless you go searching for it. But ketchup water. Gross. Ick. Ick ick ick. It just fuckin’ sits there and then you shake it up and eat it anyway? Nasty.

  38. And on the fridge front:
    Do not refridgerate my peanut butter or my parm cheese either. Didn’t know this was the norm until this year.

    How are you supposed to spread frozen peanut butter? What the hell.

  40. i don’t want ketchup juice absorbed back into my ketchup. at least with milk flakes, i don’t have to integrate them to use what remains of the original product.

    both are nasty when they catch you off-guard. but even though the surprise milk crust is gross (experienced most often when drinking straight from the bottle) it’s not as off putting as having ketchup water ruin the bread — and it really has the power to instantly turn bread soggy.

  43. The ketchup water is grosser because it will land on your food before you can stop it, but milk crust rarely falls in the glass.

  44. I can’t believe so many of you don’t refridgerate stuff. put your peanut butter, katsup, eggs, milk, mustard, mayonaise, soy sauce, tabasco, franks red hot, butter, bagles, bread, — all of it — in the fridge! Otherwise you’re putting the health of your potential house guests in danger!

  45. @33 I agree with you on the butter-softening technique! But I had an argument with a roommate once about whether or not it would ever go bad. We left some butter out on a dish for about 3 months, and it did turn rancid. Eventually.

    Lindy – both of these things make me laugh! not gross.

    Ketchup, Hot Sauce, & Mustard: I refrigerate. Peanut Butter: not. Maple Syrup: didn’t used to refrigerate, but now I do.

  47. Bread goes stale almost immediately in the fridge. When it’s really hot you have to refrigerate it because it goes moldy even faster out of it, but this time of year there is no reason to refrigerate bread. Butter, likewise, lasts a long time on the counter in this weather. Things like ketchup are probably best refrigerated but they are so full of sugar they won’t mold for a long time out of it. Soy sauce? Soy sauce isn’t going to go bad if left out for a hundred years. Likewise Tabasco or any kind of vinegar product like that.

  48. It’s funny ’cause if you take the ketchup water and add it to the milk crust, it would look exactly like the dump I just took.

    Thanks Papa Johns.

  49. @28: An old high school friend (who actually lives in the Seattle area) called milk “cow pus.” I laugh whenever I think of it (while puking, of course).

    HIgh school friend’s mom taught me that real butter stays fresh-tasting at room temp for the week or two it takes to finish the stick, but margarine with all its chemically engineered fats goes rancid almost immediately.

    Maple syrup grows green furry mold on top at room temp.

    It’s really only plastic milk jugs with friction-fit or screw caps that have milk crust. Cardboard cartons stay clean (unless the pour spout gets all chewed up). Milk in glass bottles from good dairies is dee-licious!

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