Comments on: Jars and Lids

By: sue

sue — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:38:38 +0000

hey there, great thread. Can someone confirm for me: would The water bath time be the same for a canner load of 2 oz jellies as it would be for 4 or 8 oz jars of the same jelly? Seems like it should be less…

and does anyone know where I can get lifters for various sized jars? I have a lifter for quart jars. It will accomodate pints but only barely. Often the slide around and even tip over, making a mess. I can only imagine that my little 2 ounce jelly gift-jars would float, or over process…

By: Norma Johnson

Norma Johnson — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:43:13 +0000

I have converted to one-piece jar lids for my jams. They are available through kitchenkrafts.com I have yet to reuse them, but I have some jam I have to re-work which I made last week (it’s a soupy mess), and I’m going to reuse the lids as an experiment. I’ll keep them in the refrig and eat them pronto if it doesn’t work, and even if it does (the button goes down and pops), I won’t give them as gifts. Life is, as always, an experiment!

By: Ian on the Trent

Ian on the Trent — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:44:13 +0000

Very useful thread…thanks to all.

I’ve been canning for years, both boiling water and pressure. The high price of lids for a 2-piece setup has always ticked me off but I’ve played by the “rules” and kept to the two-piece recommendation. (I reuse the lids often. Maybe 1 in 30 don’t seal and that jar goes into the fridge for immediate use.) But I’ve always wondered why commercial canners use single piece lids with no problems.

Yes, I understand that by removing the rings the home canner can quickly discover a mess from a blown lid. But in 25+ years of canning, and hundreds and hundreds of jars processed, I’ve had maybe one or two that blew a lid and that was years ago in my beginner period. I guess it’s okay to say that my hygiene has been sufficient.

I don’t want to steal this thread but can someone point me to a discussion of practical processing times for pressure canning. The recommended USDA times get longer and longer and the quality goes down and down.

The choices of non-mason type jars is extensive. Are these jars typically as robust as our Ball or Bernardin jars? In other words, can they be reused time and time again? And are they less expensive? I lose about 3 dozen jars a year through gifting. In Ontario, a 500ml widemouth jar with tax is close to $1.00ea so the jar losses add up.

Thanks.

By: Kaylee

Kaylee — Mon, 09 May 2011 12:54:32 +0000

Thanks for this helpful thread. I’m making 200 6oz. hex jars of jam for my wedding this summer and loved the look of the jars but was worried about the process.

@heather, thank you for laying it out so simply!

By: dorisandjilly

dorisandjilly — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:07:04 +0000

Tom, I’m glad that’s working for you. For the record, this is not a practice that is recommended by the USDA or the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Personally, I prefer to use new lids (either one-piece or two) because they are more reliable.

By: tom r.

tom r. — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 04:23:09 +0000

i have recently experimented successfully with used one-piece jar cap/lid.i re-used commercial cap on standard mouth ball jar in water bath (pickles & hot sauce). the jars sealedwith proper vacuum and was fine .the plastisol lining (from my research)is NOT for 240*+ pressure canning, water bath only.new lids should work just fine, the key is to find the proper tightness before bathing.

By: julie s.

julie s. — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:34:35 +0000

I just came across the very jars you are talking about on the SKS website and have been researching like crazy to figure out if it is safe to use them for my waterbath home canning (I just canned for the first time a few months ago, so don’t know a whole lot yet). They do have some very nice looking jars to use for gifts. This post was exactly the info I needed, super helpful! Thank you!!

By: dorisandjilly

dorisandjilly — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:42:09 +0000

Cortney: If you’re working with something high acid, great! But if not, remember that you can’t preserve low-acid food in a water-bath canner. It’s not hot enough.

By: Cortney in Az

Cortney in Az — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 17:25:26 +0000

Thanks so much for this thread! I’m living overseas, and can only get the one-piece lids. As long as the seal-check is the same, I think the one-piece lids will be fine. I’m totally capable of checking a seal! And also the info on Mason jars and what that means. I was about to pressure-can my jars, and now realize I should just water-bath them, as they’re locally (aka shoddily) made.

Thanks again!

By: dorisandjilly

dorisandjilly — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:39:25 +0000

@Heather: Yup!