Posted: 11/12/2010 12:51:36 PM EDT
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This may be a dumb question but...
Can you re-use jars from pickles, peanut butter, jellies etc...? I mean store bought items, not home canned. I also mean re-using the store lids thanks I ask because I just finished a jar of Peach preserves. and thought about it. I know cases of canning jars are about $12 or so at Walmart but could these be used? I mean the lids are popped up but would reusing them cause the lid to seal??? thanks |
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Quoted:
This may be a dumb question but... Can you re-use jars from pickles, peanut butter, jellies etc...? I ask because I just finished a jar of Peach preserves. and thought about it. I know cases of canning jars are about $12 or so at Walmart but could these be used? I mean the lids are popped up but would reusing them cause the lid to seal??? thanks Just wash them well and you can re-use jars indefinately so long as they don't have a crack. It's the jar lids that have to be replaced each new canning session. The bands can be re-used as long as they're in good shape. Otherwise if the bands are dinged up it would be a good idea to replace them as well. |
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OP are you talking about canning jars or the jars of pickles and such that came from the grocery? yes to this. I mean store bought off the shelf jars of jelly. then washing and using them. Just today I used 2 old apple sauce jars, not realizing what they were until after the process was done, I guess thats what you get with buying jars from craigs list. Anyway, they both sealed fine, so I intend to keep them in the closet for the next 2 or 3 years. |
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Your answer is no.
You really cant reuse lids on just about every kind of jar out there, so that rules out any jam, jelly, peanut butter, pickles, etc out. Of the jars out there that do accept a canning lid, they are usually a lot thinner, and there can be problems with them breaking during the canning, or during the cooling processes. |
| I wouldn't use re-use the store bought jars. We did it last year while canning peaches and had several of them break while in the water bath. The glass just isn't thick enough. They were jars that a lady gave to us with a bunch of mason jars. We didn't even realize it until they started breaking. It made for a very long day. |
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You actually can reuse store provided jars. For years mayo jars were made of glass, and while they were thinner, they shared the same threads as canning jars. Now most mayo jars are plastic and no longer work. Your jars that you purchased fruit in can be used for canning, although be aware that they are not all a full quart size.
Lids are another question. I have reused lids, both the flat type sold for canning, and also the lids you are referring to with the rubber seal part of the lid it's self. None of the manufacturers recommend doing so, I simply wanted to see the seal failure ratio between the new and reused lids. It was higher, but is lids were not available it could be done. I did not try more than one additional sealing, I would imagine that the ratio would go up with each reuse. If you reuse the flat canning lids, you need to be careful how you remove then so that the edges are not damaged in a way to prevent a good seal on the next jar. If you were to reuse lids, use them on items like apple sauce, or tomato sauce, where the second processing would not change the consistency of the canned items if the seal failed. Jelly jars and lids can be reused for jelly, but again, the ball book (the most common starting book about canning, written by the Ball Co. who by the way sell jars, lids, and such things needed for canning) says not to. With the cost of lids, it is not really worth the time to have a higher seal failure ratio resulting in spending additional time and fuel for reprocessing of the product again. Of course if lids were not available that would change things. |
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I no longer have many other glass jars, just mostly canning jars. I used to keep sugar or salt or other stuff in pickle jars and mayo jars and what not. Basically the stuff in those jars did not get affected by the lid not completely sealing up. I had a lot of scrounged candle wax and a girlfriend got on a candle making kick and most of the jars went that away since I did not mind going to canning jars for my stuff. These days I prefer to stick to similar sized items so when I make a rack or shelf everything fits well. |