People Are Just Discovering This Zero-Dollar Hack to Season a Blackstone Grill

If cleaning and cooking tips are a big part of your TikTok FYP, a resurfaced viral hack that solves the problem of leaky bottles (that spill oil all over your clothes) while giving new life to your empty plastic squeeze bottles needs to be on your radar.

TikTok and YouTube creator @JoniBlackstone regularly shares videos of innovative grilling techniques and other unusual cooking methods (he figured out how to perfectly sear a steak with a propane torch, for example). A simple hack he posted involving an empty ketchup bottle is trending on the app, and it’s borderline ingenious.

The Blackstone seasoning video, which he posted back in November, has racked up almost 6 million views. In the video, the TikToker, who goes by Chef Joni on the social media platform, washes out a mostly empty, standard Heinz ketchup bottle and gives viewers a closer look at its leak-proof cap. As ketchup lovers know, you need to turn the bottle over and squeeze it in order to release its contents. It turns out that the design of the Heinz squeeze cap is a game-changer when it comes to storing your Blackstone seasoning oil.

Chef Joni explains how viewers can use the Heinz ketchup bottle hack to season their Blackstone without any of those annoying oil spills. (The Blackstone, for the uninitiated, is a flat-top outdoor grill made from cold-rolled steel, and has almost a cult-like following among grillers because you can use it to make burgers, pancakes, eggs — anything, really.)

To show how much more effective the Heinz bottle is than a typical squeeze bottle, Chef Joni shows viewers the typical plastic squeeze bottles that grillers normally fill with water and oil to season their Blackstones and cook on the surface. They can leak through the sides of the cap or through the squeeze cap itself, giving the griller less control over their seasoning technique (and more opportunities to spill oil all over themselves or the floor).

Then, for comparison, Chef Joni fills up his Heinz bottle with oil and shows how superior its secure cap design is versus the flimsy attachment on typical plastic squeeze bottles. The cap is totally leak-proof, and in fact, in order to get the oil out, the griller has to squeeze the bottle — giving them more control over their seasoning technique.

It’s a great way to extend the life of your would-be single use plastic. But what also makes this hack so brilliant is that it can be extended into many different uses. You can use this empty ketchup bottle technique for everything, as numerous Blackstone-less viewers headed to the comments to share how they were going to use the TikToker’s tip.

One user said: “Also works for funnel cake batter. I drunkenly discovered that one night.” Another noted that they also “use it to spray the floor with [sic] pinesol as well for [a Swiffer] dry pad.”

With grilling season now in full swing, this tip could also help you keep your cast iron skillets and other pans seasoned, too. Now you just need to get through all the half-used ketchup bottles you probably have in your fridge before trying it out — go on, squeeze up!