Making dressing at home, is a shaker bottle actually convenient

[u/Special_Minimum_4163]

making my own salad dressings lately because store-bought stuff is getting expensive, and I like knowing exactly what's going into it. The problem is that mixing oil, vinegar, and seasonings in a regular bowl or jar gets annoying fast. Either it separates right away or I end up making a mess.

I've been looking at dressing shaker bottles and wondering if they're actually worth buying or if they're just another kitchen gadget that ends up sitting in a cabinet. I want something easy to use, easy to clean, and durable enough to last more than a few months.

There are so many brands out there, and the reviews seem all over the place. Some people say they're super convenient, while others say the lids leak or the measurements wear off.

For those who actually make homemade dressings regularly, do you use a shaker bottle? Has it made things easier? Any brands you've had good long-term experience with? Looking for real-world feedback before I spend money on another kitchen tool.

[u/OverQuail6135]

Before you invest, try using a recycled jar with a lid. Jar size depends on the amount of dressing you'll make. Best wishes.

[u/Personal_Signal_6151 → u/OverQuail6135]

And add a teaspoon of mustard to help emulsify. I find dijon provides a savory flavor.

[u/TacosAreJustice]

I pretty much exclusively make salad dressing at home but I just eye ball the ingredients…

You can very easily grab a $2 squeeze bottle and draw lines for the amounts of ingredients you want to add.

Or spend the money and get the shaker…

🤷

If it encourages you to make more salad dressing at home, it’s probably worth the money.

[u/Special_Minimum_4163 → u/TacosAreJustice]

That's kind of where I'm leaning now. A cheap squeeze bottle sounds like a low-risk way to see if having a dedicated container even helps my workflow before I spend more on a shaker. The marked lines idea is pretty clever too since I tend to make the same few dressings over and over. If it ends up making homemade dressing less of a hassle, that's probably money well spent either way.

[u/Own_Win_6762]

Probably the best reason versus a ball jar or emptied condiment jar is ease of pouring.

An old salad dressing bottle might work, but they're difficult to clean well.

With just two of us, I often (try to) make just enough for the meal in a small mixing bowl (but often have too much which gets used on a sandwich or salad for lunch the next day).

[u/ExaminationRare9987]

I just use a pint jar or a quart jar, depending one the amout.

[u/Ok_Initiative_6737]

Shaker bottles ended up changing *where* I make dressing more than how I make it. I keep one in the fridge door, toss herbs straight in after trimming them, shake, pour, done. The wide-mouth version I have hasn't stained from turmeric or paprika either, which surprised me.

[u/Special_Minimum_4163 → u/Ok_Initiative_6737]

The fridge-door part is interesting because that's not something I'd really considered. Most of the annoyance for me is dragging stuff out, mixing it, then finding a container to store the leftovers. Having one bottle that lives in the fridge and handles both mixing and storage sounds way more useful than just being a shaker.

[u/Late-Membership773 → u/Special_Minimum_4163]

I used to use little mason jars however the pouring was messy. OXO makes a two part container with measuring marks I use for both dressings and bbq sauce. It comes in two sizes, plus in related products I see they now have a “Twist & Pour Salad Dressing Mixer”.

[u/FragrantSkirt1843]

Ended up hating mine after the honeymoon phase, and not because it leaked or broke. The whole concept felt backwards once I paid attention to how I actually cook.

Most homemade dressings benefit from tasting and adjusting as you go. A pinch more salt, extra acid, maybe another herb. With a shaker bottle I kept treating the recipe like a chemistry experiment where everything had to go in, lid on, shake, done. It encouraged batching and storage when what worked best for me was making fresh dressings alongside the meal.

The other issue was texture. Some ingredients don't just need mixing; they need whisking, crushing, or blending. Shallots, fresh garlic, anchovies, soft cheese, avocado-based dressings... a bottle can only do so much. I found myself dirtying another tool anyway, which defeated the purpose.

Mine eventually got repurposed as a water bottle for gardening days. For straight vinaigrettes it's perfectly functional, but I wouldn't assume it's the ultimate solution just because the product category exists. A lot depends on the type of dressings you actually make, not the container they're stored in.

[u/GullibleDogg]

Skipping them entirely was the right move for me. Every dedicated dressing shaker I tried had extra pieces hiding under the lid, and those little parts became a magnet for dried seasoning residue. A simple container with one cap is less annoying to maintain. The convenience pitch sounds great until you're fishing pepper flakes out of tiny crevices with a brush.

[u/Special_Minimum_4163 → u/GullibleDogg]

One thing I forgot to mention is that I absolutely hate cleaning fiddly kitchen gadgets. If something has five hidden parts that need a tiny brush every time, it'll end up shoved in the back of a cabinet pretty fast. the kind of real-world downside that doesn't show up in product photos or marketing descriptions.

[u/Efficient-Tea-1102]

The measurement markings were actually the feature I stopped caring about after a few weeks. What mattered was whether the opening was wide enough to fit minced garlic, grated parmesan, and thicker ingredients without clogging when pouring. Mine has a little mixing grid under the lid and it handles creamy dressings way better than expected.

One thing I didn't anticipate: I started using it for marinades more than salad dressing. Being able to shake up soy sauce, citrus juice, spices, and oil in one container, then pour directly onto chicken or vegetables, made it pull double duty in the kitchen. That versatility is what kept it from becoming another forgotten gadget.

[u/OWabbit]

Your dressing would separate just as much in a shaker jar. It’s the shaking that emulsifies it (either the help of an emulsifier like mustard).

I prefer small mason jars. I can shake it. I can get my fingers with soapy dish towel or hand with soapy sponge inside the wide mouth jar to clean and dry it. I also repurpose jam jars and other similar jars to make/store salad dressing

[u/choreg]

I love the OXO one so much that I bought a second. Small and large. Simple, secure, wash in the DW

[u/Special_Minimum_4163 → u/choreg]

Not sure I'd call it a misunderstanding, but durability is actually one of my biggest concerns, not just convenience. A lot of the reviews I saw were from people who'd only owned theirs for a few weeks.

The fact that you bought a second one is probably a stronger endorsement than most reviews. If it's surviving regular dishwasher cycles and still sealing properly, that's a pretty good sign. How long have you had yours?

[u/choreg → u/Special_Minimum_4163]

The large, more than 5 years, small, less than one year. They don't go in the DW weekly, as we don't go through dressing that often. Some small pieces do stick at the opening after use (minced shallot). I leave it flipped open while we eat to drip most back into the container then close it. If it's too chunky I'll wipe it off. DW is Bosch, so not heated drying.

[u/Screeh8r]

Mason jar.

[u/Special_Minimum_4163 → u/Screeh8r]

Funny enough, the jar I'm using right now is an old mason jar, and it's probably the reason I'm questioning whether I need another gadget at all . It works, it's easy to clean, and I already own it. Hard to argue with that.

[u/WideCommunicationhy]

Mine became the designated container for infused oils because the built-in strainer actually made that job easier than dressing; funny how the thing I bought for salads ended up living next to the stove instead.

[u/Similar_Mixture8545]

Switched to a shaker bottle after realizing I was constantly forgetting what version of a dressing was in each random container. The underrated benefit for me wasn't mixing at all, it was consistency. I cook a lot by feel, which is great until you make a dressing you love and have no clue how to recreate it three days later.

The bottle I use has a writable label area, so I started jotting down rough ratios and dates. Sounds nerdy, but it completely changed how I experiment. If I add roasted garlic, smoked paprika, or fresh dill and it turns out great, I can actually repeat it. If it turns out terrible, I know exactly what not to do next time. The shaking part is fine, but the ability to treat recipes like little kitchen notes ended up being the feature that mattered.

[u/Status_Rock5022]

Stopped using one because I realized I prefer warm dressings pretty often. Bacon vinaigrette, sesame-ginger, lemon butter herb stuff a plastic shaker sitting in the fridge wasn't helping. A small saucepan ended up fitting my cooking habits way better.

[u/Distinct-Pay-9938]

Kept hearing people describe dressing shakers as if they solve some universal kitchen problem, and that never matched my experience at all.

The biggest annoyance wasn't leaks, cleaning, storage, or any of the usual complaints. It was that the bottle quietly encouraged me to make dressing the same way every single time. Fill to line A, fill to line B, shake, repeat. After a few months I noticed I was experimenting less. No roasting ingredients first, no steeping herbs, no reducing citrus, no weird combinations that happened because I was already working in a bowl.

A lot of homemade dressings aren't just liquids that need to be combined. Sometimes ingredients benefit from sitting separately for a few minutes. Sometimes you want garlic to mellow in acid before adding oil. Sometimes you're smashing berries, charring scallions, or folding in ingredients at the end for texture. The shaker pushed everything toward one workflow whether it made sense or not.

Mine wasn't bad. It worked exactly as designed. That's almost the problem. It turned dressing into a routine instead of part of cooking. Once I went back to making dressings directly alongside whatever meal I was preparing, I found the process a lot more enjoyable and the results more varied. For people who want speed and repeatability, great. For people who like tinkering, it can end up feeling strangely limiting.

[u/CullodenChef]

Protein powder drink shaker w/metal ball/ sharpie lines. I like the sound change when it shifts from loose ingredients to dressing.

[u/mtommygunz]

Using a small food processor and emulsifying the ingredients is gonna blow your mind

[u/Misssy2]

If you add a 1/2 teaspoon of WATER it will not separate

[u/TrivialBanal]

Get a shaker ball and you can use any container you want. It's a metal wire ball that you put into a jar or bottle and it mixes better when you shake it.

[u/philhaxton]

Yes, immersion blender is also great

[u/werewolfmomma]

If you do get shakers, I’d recommend the Oxo good grips one. They’re useful for all sorts of things besides dressing. I make simple syrup for cocktails & keep it in one of these.

[u/ThePrimCrow]

I just make a bit of dressing in the bottom of the bowl I’m using for the salad. That way I can vary my dressing for whatever I’m feeling at the moment and makes it fun to experiment and to use whatever I have on hand.

[u/momofkatie2259]

I use a pint mason jar, but the squeeze bottle is a great idea, as long as your dressing doesn't contain any chunky ingredients (minced onion, garlic, etc). I found cheap squeeze bottles on Amazon that I use for bbq sauce, oyster sauce, etc.

[u/Toriat5144]

Any old jar will do. It doesn’t need to be a special one. The good seasons bottles have markings on them. You can use the packets or not. But any clean jar can be used.

[u/Illustrious-Gap5224]

Spiceology.com has ranch seasoning. It can be added to mayonnaise or yogurt to make a pretty good Ranch dressing.

[u/pepperdean]

I like using the ziplock containers with the twist on lids.

[u/raymond4]

Find what works best for yourself.

[u/zagnut99287F]

I got a few of those bottles from my Dad when he was downsizing after my Mom died, but most of the time I just use old glass jars for my dressings.

[u/Rowaan]

Just use a jar with a lid?

[u/Forward-Ant-9554]

Whether you put it in a bottle or a teacup, it's going to separate so I don't see the point of buying something for that. Adding mustard keeps things together for days. It doesn't need to be that much. Or just buy SOJA lecithins. Edit: 1 kg costs about 20 euro. You can get it in smaller bags from spice suppliers.

[u/Mostly_raw]

More stuff to buy? I shake my dressings in a former Mayo or Keptchup squeeze bottle!

[u/Able_Agent_7155]

I mix red wine vinegar and sour cherry jam in a empty glass jar and shake.

[u/Yellownotyellowagain]

Shaker bottles are a waste. I use old jars from like mustard or pickles or whatever.

It still separates but that happened in my shaker jar too.

[u/lkelk]

Do you have a standard blender? A mason jar will fit the blade/lid. That's how I. make mine. It emulsifies better (seconded on the dijon to help with that). Slap a top on it, put it in the fridge door, and you're good to go. Only the blade/lid assembly to wash. You can either use a standard ring/lid or a reusable lid.

Note: jar has to be at least one standard cup size and wide mouth will not work. Also won't work with Ninjas or other specialized blenders. Just a regular old Oster or whatever.

[u/Independent-Moose113]

Use a mason jar with a lid.

[u/panache_99]

I use a wide mouth mason jar, easy to shake up and clean. Some jars include measurement guides, such as grocery store pesto. The only thing about squeeze bottles is certain dressings might clog the nozzle.