We’ve had our Rubbermaid Glass containers for a couple years and the lids still work fine. The only issue I’ve had is slightly overfilling the containers when freezing, there’s really no give to the lid so it ends up being more of a hat on the frozen food than any sort of protection.
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A wide-mouth funnel for filling the jars is an awesome thing. I like the metal version.
A few years ago I was helping my parents clean out their garage and found 20oz Ball jars like I’d never seen before. Tall and skinny, perfect for making dilly beans or pickled asparagus, or more commonly, a pint+ of our favorite beers.
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To be honest, outside of a few specialty DIY-style stores, I’ve never seen these 64-oz wide mouth style Ball jars for sale anywhere, and there isn’t a Walmart within a 1.5 hr drive from me, so it’s good to have a resource.
I always heard them referred to as mason jars, which I thought was a brand, but it’s the generic term for the style invented by a guy named Mason. Ball and others actually call their products mason jars. Bernardin in Canada makes a 1.9 litre jar which corresponds closely to 64 of those US fluid ounce thingies.
For bulk storage of a lot of things, we use various sizes of these:
which are easier if you need to open and close them regularly.
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For some history on the Ball (glass jar) company:
Hoosier Slide, for example, 200 feet in height, was the largest sand dune on Indiana’s lakeshore. During the first twenty years of the battle to save the dunes, the Ball Brothers of Muncie, Indiana, manufacturers of glass fruit jars, and the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company of Kokomo carried Hoosier Slide away in railroad boxcars.
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They’re one of the standard wide mouth styles for smaller volumes. and that’s exactly what they’re for.
We have a bunch around for green beans, they’re also great for sliced cucumber pickles.
I have mostly seen them in craft stores and cheap home decor place. Though they carry them at Target sometimes and at my local hardware store.
As some one else noted they aren’t meant for canning. So they’re a bit less available than other sizes.
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Ha! You’re right. I still like my glassware, especially for meal prep.
The most annoying thing about these is that they shift the lid styles or size or shape ever other year, and now I have 3 different styles, none of which match. I can’t find the same square lid-locking containers anywhere.
So I’m living with my hodgepodge collection, I guess.
The Amish and Mennonites in SE TN will buy any of these jars they can get at the World’s Longest Yard Sale and other regional sales. They definitely use them for pickles and canned fruit and probably are using them for tomatoes. No deaths or food poisoning have been reported by the sects.
They also are great for storing flour, corn meal, sugar etc.
Yeah, these jars are great for storing all kinds of stuff, and are perfect for larger-batch lacto-fermentation. That said, while the Amish and the Mennonites might be using them for canning, I’d under absolutely no circumstances eat any food prepared in such a way. Botulism is just way too terrifying a way to go.
https://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html#16a
From the link:
The only processes that USDA, the National Center for Home Food Preservation and the University of Georgia have to recommend for half-gallon jars are for very acidic fruit juices (and juice only): Apple Juice and Grape Juice. This process time is not to be used for tomato juice, for example. There are no other research-tested processes for half-gallon jars.
Whatever process that the Amish and Mennonites are using to prepare canned food in a half-gallon jar like this is definitely not in line with the USDA’s recommendations for canning preservation of food. Just play it safe and use the appropriate sized jar for whatever recipe you are following.
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Um, no. Not only do I never have 64 oz. left of anything I make in my Instant Pot, but these are not stackable, less easy to clean, and have rustable metal bits. Fail.
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I bought a kit of silicone stretch lids. Really versatile, so just about any glass anything I can use for instant pot leftovers.
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