Preserving Jars

[Glenn Fletcher]

I have come to the conclusion that preserving, or bottling or canning, whatever you want to call it is not very popular in England.
On Saturday i went to a carboot sale on the racecourse carparks in York, to try to buy some second preserving jars. [Kilner Jars]
There must have been about two hundred stalls selling everything you could imagine, but not one single preserving jar.
Is this the same everywhere. Are we in a peculiar minority?

[Lydia Riedel-Tramsek]

Whats about this: http://www.justpreserving.co.uk/-c-3000274.html

[Glenn Fletcher]

Hi Lydia
Thanks for the link. I have seen similar jars in the shops in York. But i am a Yorkshireman and as such like to keep my money close.
I had hoped to find a cardboard box full of dusty old jars at the carboot sale, which after giving them a good wash and replacing the rubber seals would save me a lot of money.
It was not to be so i will probably have to put my hands in my pockets and buy some new ones.
I do like the jars with clickable two part metal lids as per Stumelia,s apple photo,s but they are not available over here.
I may try an advert in the local paper first to see if that produces any results for secondhand jars.

[Maggie]

We can still get jars very cheaply here in Australia
Not many folk do a lot of canning or bottling as we call it.
It was very popular before the 60's although farmers have always made preserves.
We have a Mediterranean climate.
Many Italian and Greek families make tomato puree which the bottle in beer bottles.
We have such hot dry summers I reckon sun drying is a great option.
I notice from Kathryn's comments the Turks dry a lot of veggies as well as brining them.

[Kathryn]

Yes they do Maggie, we went to the mountains last weekend and my husbands uncle had containers full of dried veggies and fruits. He had done mostly dried eggplant and tomatoes and had just started on the figs. He and his wife are in thier 70s so they arent doing alot of pickles lately. İ am hoping to go back and come back with kilos of figs to make chutney and jam, plus taking bags of dried.

İ utilise any glass jar with a screwable lid to do my preserves, they work well and İ havent had any problems with them if you cant find the jars you want.

[Mary Heaner]

I've been struggling with the jar issue here in Portugal. I've not found the jars with 2 part lids at all here. They have them in France at some of the hipermarkets but they are at least 2 euros each! At a local feed store I found what they call preserving jars but they only have a one part lid and I'm not sure I can find replacements.
If you read the US Dept of Agriculture website you are told you must use 2 part lids and must process even acid foods in a boiling water bath, etc. etc. But when I read recipes from other parts of the world it seems many people don't follow these standards, and use whatever bottles and lids they have around as long as they won't break from heat.
I wish someone with scientific credentials would explain this. The only thing I don't want to risk is botulims. If it's a case of maybe the food will get moldy or discolored, that's a risk I would take.

[Maya]

Mary, when I lived in Spain, I learned to make orange marmalade, which is what started my tawdry life of canning. I'm pretty sure that canning jars are one of the things we went to get down at the weekly market in Valenca, where certain things (bacalhao, white goods, butter) were much cheaper than in Spain at that time. If not there, then certainly right across the border (19 km?) in Vigo. You'd want to find a ferreteria (hardware store), I think. My memory tells me the jars had glass tops and separate rubber seals, and they came in much more elegant shapes than the utilitarian American jars. There are instructions on various websites for using these. Good luck!

[Michelle W. Flannery]

I've been canning for only three years. Each year I increase my efforts and fill my pantry shelves a little more. That means also that each year I've needed more and more jars. I haven't been able to find any second-hand jars, so I've been buying them new. This year I must have spent more than $125 on jars, and I've used every one! My next dilemma is finding someplace to store them all as they are emptied. I have absolutely no more cupboard/closet or usable storage space left in my home. Standard canning jars are beautiful with lovely raised designs, but I also find that they are not receptive to labeling. I have seen great jars online that I can use for canning, and they are straight and flat - great for labeling ad stacking! When I can afford it, I think I will order a bunch of those! They're cheaper in bulk.

[Mary Heaner]

Thanks, Maya
I have looked at local hardware stores but I haven't thought to try the mercados.

[Kathryn]

İ have been canning-bottling for over 15 years now and when İ was in Australia İ invested in a fowlers canning set, that is a set with all the proper jars and seals. Several years later a woman at church gave me all her unwanted jars and seals. İ bottled-canned everything from veggies to jams to pickles and never had a problem. Some of my preserves İ left for 10 years to check and see what would happen, when they were finally open there was not a problem with them (admittedly my father tested them for me as İ was a bit nervous, but when he didnt die from food poisioning İ was very happy to see how long they lasted for) some of the pickles my father ate where not in the proper jars and it was a pickled radish, İ had canned it in a normal jam jar with a screwable lid. İ am now here and İ am unable to get the jars with the seals, they sell 1 litre bottles-jars with a resealable lid. İ have used those with great sucess and with no sicknesses upon consuming. İ was just given several large honey jars that İ will be using to preserve some fig jam and chutney İ am hoping on making very soon.

[Penelope]

High acid fruits and pickles can be preserved in some of these non-standard jars/bottles, but I wouldn't trust low acid foods like string beans, etc., or anything that should be processed in a pressure canner. Jams and jellies used to be preserved in "glasses" with embossed pictures on the bottom, boiled of course to kill bacteria, hot jelly poured into the glass, then melted paraffin poured on top. To use, you take the wax off the top, dip the glass in warm water, turn upside down on a pretty dish, et voila! pretty jelly for the table with a picture on top, usually fruit or flowers -- my father said he and his brothers would get into trouble with their mother if they messed up the jelly dish and didn't take a portion politely off the side with a spoon or knife.Sometimes the wax pops loose when stored in the pantry and mold gets started, so these should be inspected regularly. A little bit of mold can be scooped off the top, but if there's lots then it's best to dump the product. . .

[Jacki]

in Toowoomba, Australia they are hard to come by and if you do find them very expensive i just ask all my friends and workmates to save any glass jars with metal lids for me...much cheeper and easier to collect.

[Kyle Gassman]

Its really hard to fathom that Atlas, Ball, Kerr (brand names) canning jars are not readily available in countries other than the U.S.
I've seen on this forum the mentioning of reusing glass jars that store bought food had come in. I've done the same in the past. One problem that I ran into a few years back was that a lot of these reused jars were breaking during the canning process. The reason for this I was told by our Agricultural University was the glass of these jars was considerably thinner and also softer. Which means that they could be scratched with cleaning and weakening the already thin walls.
As far as reusing one piece metal lids this is something I would never trust. Too much time and energy, and ultimatly food safety are at risk.
Buying used canning jars at estate auctons is one source. Make sure to check the rim for chips by running your finger around the top of the jar. My .$02
P.S. Cost of new quart jars, about $10.00 dollars per dozen.