If you love hot, spicy foods, Sambal Oelek, with its hot red peppers, salt, and vinegar, will be a thrilling sensation for your tongue. You can use the tasty sauce in all your favorite dishes or as a condiment.
Sometimes the spicy Southeast Asian chile sauce will also have garlic, sugar, and lemon juice added. You’ll find the sauce in glass or plastic bottles at your local grocery store. The tangy sauce is lovely and thick, and it contains whole jalapeno seeds.
How Long Does Sambal Oelek Last
Chefs all over the world rely on this sauce to enchant their sauce-loving customers. But how long does the flavorful Indonesian all-purpose sauce last once it’s been opened? After all, you want to be able to use the chili sauce for a long time to add a kick to most of your meat dishes.
Storage information is somewhat vague
The manufacturers of Sambal Oelek have made it quite difficult for people to get an idea of how long the sauce will keep after opening. People naturally gravitate toward the label to find this information, but it won’t be there.
You will find this information in tiny black lettering close to the neck of the bottle—ridiculously impossible to spot, particularly if your eyes aren’t that sharp. Nonetheless, this is the manufacturer’s estimate as to how long the chili sauce will remain safe to use.
Cool, dark place or fridge?
When you check out your sauce bottle, it says ‘store in a cool, dry place’. So, won’t the sauce go off if it isn’t stored in the refrigerator after opening?
Vinegar is an ingredient in the sauce, and with its acidic ingredients, it is used as a preservation liquid that extends the shelf life of perishable foods. It kills bacteria.
Then again, sodium bisulfite and potassium sorbate are some of the other ingredients also used as food preservatives and are found in store-bought Sambal Oelek.
But whether you buy your Sambal Oelek sauce or make your own, if you leave it out at room temperature for a long time, it won’t last long. It is recommended to store the sauce in a sealed container in the fridge.
Then it can certainly last a week, but you can also freeze it for six months. If you leave the chili sauce out for an extended period of time, you risk becoming ill. To prevent your chili from spoiling, the general consensus is to keep it refrigerated once the bottle has been opened.
In terms of how long Sambal Oelek lasts, some people refrigerate it after the bottle has been opened, while others don’t, preferring to keep it in a cool, dark spot.
How long does an unopened bottle of Sambal Oelek last? The precise answer depends to a large extent on storage conditions.
- To maximize the shelf life of Sambal Oelek, store it in a cool, dry area. In fact, an unopened bottle of Sambal Oelek can last at room temperature for about a year, and with a stretch, for 18 months.
- Unopened Sambal Oelek will still be safe to use after the expiration date on the bottle, but you just have to make sure that it is properly stored.
- Opened Sambal Oelek kept in the refrigerator will last roughly 6 months to a year.
- Bear in mind that storage time for an opened bottle is for best quality only, because as the sauce ages and the bottle is opened and closed over time, the texture and flavor can change. Take a good look at it and smell it too. It’s difficult to describe the smell, but you will recognize that the smell is no longer fresh and sharp, and it may even be indicative of mold. Then it should be thrown out.
Refrigeration is the ultimate best
So to answer the question about how long Sambal Oelek lasts, the answer depends a lot on your storage conditions. Those who know the sauce well will tell you that to extend the shelf life of opened chili sauce, it is best to refrigerate it.
Hot chili sauce can sometimes go bad even though you haven’t used it much. Always check the sauce for an unusual appearance, smell, or taste. If you suspect something is amiss, throw it out to avoid food poisoning.
You may be reluctant to throw the sauce out as foodstuffs have become expensive, but you can’t risk food poisoning. If you want to keep your sauce fresh and avoid mold growth, never use a knife in it that has food on it. Always dip a clean knife into the sauce.
Know where your sauce comes from
So how long will Sambal Oelek last? For starters, be sure you know where your chili sauce comes from. Imported sambal from Asian countries may not have the same strict rules about preservatives that the United States has.
Remember that food-product-dating is optional, and the date on the packaging has nothing to do with safety, but rather is a guide as to when the product will no longer be at its best. Because Sambal Oelek has vinegar in it, it lasts well.
Depending on the storage you give it, it can last for months, possibly a year. The way to tell if your sauce is good is much the same way you would with other foods—by looking at it and smelling it.
Your Sambal Oelek sauce will last well in the fridge, especially if you always use a clean knife or spoon when dipping into it and cooking with it.
Good sauces are always the hallmark of good cooking, adding richness and flavor to any dish. Stored well in a cool, dark place or preferably in the fridge, with your Sambal Oelek sauce, you can confidently prepare the perfect meal with a delicious Asian flavor.