# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Gardening >  Canning Jars....What size, brand, etc.

## Sourdough

Is one brand more goooooder than another, is one lid more gooder. Quarts or pints......? Do the lids need special storage.......?

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## BScout

I only use the Ball brand.

There's some off brands, many of which are made in China who's quality (or lack thereof) isn't something I want to deal with.

I use quarts for most things but pints or smaller for jellies and pizza sauce (as a full qt of pizza sauce is enough for 6+ pizzas).

If I'm just juicing or making things like soup that go quickly, I actually go up to 1/2 gallon jars.

I store my lids in a moderate climate area.  Basically, in the house is reasonable.

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## crashdive123

I only use the Ball brand as well.  Most of the things I put up are in quarts and pints as well.  I do use some of the smaller (4 oz) jars for things like honey so I can give away some.  I also keep my dehydrated foods in the Ball jars.  One important thing to keep in mind about the lids is to buy extra.  You do not (when canning) want to reuse the lids (rings are OK).  Any small cut or tear in the rubber gasket will not allow a good vacuum and the food can spoil without you being aware of it.  I do reuse the lids when I am using the jar for dry storage or honey.

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## finallyME

My mom and grandma always said Mason was the best brand.  But, I don't think they are still selling.  Ball is top notch as well.  I like wide mouth better than narrow mouth, but that is just me, easier to fill.  I have never looked at temp ratings (ie, can you store them in freezing Alaska all winter with no problems).

Edit:
I found this website helpful
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/questions/FAQ_canning.html

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## Sourdough

What about Kerr brand.......????    And what do you pay for a box of Quart size......? They are $11.97 here.

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## finallyME

My mom says that Kerr works if you can't find Ball or Mason.  My grandma told me the same thing before she died.  She has been canning since before even you were born.  :Smile:

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## oldtrap59

Over the years I have collected several different brands of jars. Ball,Kerr,Atlas,Mason and others are on the list. I can't say that any that I have are not usable. They're all rated for pressure canning so I use them. As far as size qts,pints are the most used when canning here. Depends how much of one thing you think you might need for a meal. If you throw half of it away because you don't use it then your defeating the purpose of all that work. We also use some 8oz and 4oz for jam and jelly. I do have some larger Atlas and Mason jars (1/2 gal and 1 gal size) but only use them in special cases as they don't fit the canner. Remember to always check the lip of any jar you're using. A small chip or any rough spot can mean failure no matter how good the lid is. Lids. I use Ball most of the time. I haven't had good luck in resent years with some of the others. As far as storage we keep all our canning equipment in our pantry room. As cool and dry as we have here in this house.  

Oldtrap

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## BScout

> And what do you pay for a box of Quart size......? They are $11.97 here.


Everyday price is about $7.00 - $7.50 for regular mouth and $8.95 for wide-mouth around here.

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## oldtrap59

[QUOTE=BScout;312489]Everyday price is about $7.00 - $7.50 for regular mouth and $8.95 for wide-mouth around here.[/QUOTE

Don't buy many jars anymore as we have alot on hand but if we ever need any I'd like to know where you live. Around here Ball runs about $10-$11 for the standards and $13 and up for the wide mouths.

Oldtrap

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## BScout

The prices I quoted are pretty standard at the closest Wally World.  I only go in there a few times a year (and when I do, I get as many cases I can carry in a cart), but that's what they've been for the last couple years.

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## crashdive123

Our prices are about the same as BScout's at Wally World.

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## Rick

I echo what Oldtrap said. I've used a lot of different jars and I don't see any difference. When I buy jars I do buy Ball only because that's about the only thing you can find around here. Ball lids and rings as well. I also try to stay with the wide mouth jars. Just a lot more convenient to me. I use quarts mostly because I like the larger amount with a big family. I've canned a few things in pints and if I wind up with only enough of something to fill a pint that that's what I use. Jelly jars are the last on the list. Those three sizes are what I use.

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## SARKY

1: Only get large mouth jars, (easier to clean and cleaning is very important)
2: Even if you jars other than Ball get Ball lids! They are the best made.
3: If you standardize the jar mouth size, you won't be buying different sizes of lids and rings
4: quarts for most things, I use 1/2 gallons for pickles or pickled vegies

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## woodsman86

Scoping yard sales and flea markets can really save some cash on jars. I have yet had to buy any jars from the store. Just make sure you check the edge of the lip for any cracks or chips. The last score I got was 9-wide mouth ball quart jars for $3 at a yard sale.

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## canid

kerr are fine jars. i use both them and ball. i agree about the wide mouths. it is handy in a couple of areas; as mentioned. it is also a good size and shape opening to neatly pour both thin liquids and thicker gloopy stuff like sauces and soups,

size is a tougher question. quarts are a good size for many things. for many items, a quart is simply more than you might be able to consume before spoilage (e.g. how much mint jelly might you really go through in 2-4 weeks?). a good bunch of pint and half pints might be handy.

larger sizes may be usefull from time to time, but beyond a quart they can become cumbersome for processing (do you want to invest in a high end pressure cooker to hard can gallon jars?). 

$10-12 is about what i have usually paid per dozen quart jars.

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## LowKey

Don't you have to pressure process 1/2gallon jars? I don't think I'd do anything over a quart in a water bath and then only if the water came over the top of the jars 1.5". I use the pressure canner when doing quarts, I just don't screw down the lid or close the vents.
I have an odd assortment of jars from various folks. Usually use pints for pickles, fruits, and strawberry jam and half pints for smaller batches of jellies.
Lids, they do have an expiration date of sorts. Ball would like you to think you should toss them and buy new every year if you don't use them up, but I keep em a couple years and make sure they stay in rotation.

Has anyone checked out the reusable lids? Lehmans has them. Expensive but might be worth it if you can use them 4 or 5 times. 
They're also BPA free. Most canning lids contain BPA in the sealer or the liner.
http://non-electric.lehmans.com/hard...Canning%20Lids

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## canid

larger volume just means longer time and/or greater heat input for the contents to reach temp, just as with pressure canning, heat processing being a function of time over temperature.

whether you need to hard can simply depends on the material being processed.

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## Beans

> size is a tougher question. quarts are a good size for many things. for many items, a quart is simply more than you might be able to consume before spoilage (e.g. how much mint jelly might you really go through in 2-4 weeks?). a good bunch of pint and half pints might be handy..


As there is just the two of us, we use the pint size jars. We  can consume the contents before there is any waste.

My Wife canned over 100 pints of tomatoes and 20 jelly sized jars of Salsa off of 6 tomatoe plants. It was a bumper crop year.  The tomatoes were like grapes hanging on the vine in clusters. the plants were over 5 ft in height and over 80% of the tomatoes were in the 3 inch or larger range.

We have never had tomatoes such as these before. Wife suggested we scale back to 4 plants next year.

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## LowKey

There comes a point in heat processing though where the outside cooks to mush before the middle is heated enough to kill the beasties.
I just don't have a tried and true recipe for anything over quart sized. 
Consider yourself lucky if you do.

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## Rick

> We have never had tomatoes such as these before. Wife suggested we scale back to 4 plants next year.


And sure as you do it will be a drought year and you'll get two tomatoes. You know how it works.

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## aflineman

Mainly Ball wide mouths and lids. We do a a few Mason jars and a couple of other brands. Some are quite old, but still work for us. This year we have put up both quarts and pints. Pints work well at my work trailer, since I am only cooking for me.

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## ronjnk

I can't add much here. We have about 650 jars of a couple different brands. Jelly, pint and quarts. We do favor wide mouth. Processing time and density does affect the size we choose for a particular item. In any given year, my wife will can 300-400 jars as a guestimate. Over 30 plus years, that's a lot of jars filled. 
I want to share an experience we had within the last year. Failures in canning are rare here with a few jars failing to seal in a canning season. She was pressure canning something. The processing was done and she had taken the lid off the pressure canner after it was safe to do so. She was getting ready to take the 7 quarts out of the canner when one jar literally blew it's top with such explosive force that we ended up cleaning the kitchen ceiling of splatter. The jar remained intact, the ring and lid both exploded off of this jar. We have no explanation and after all these years, it is a first. 
I don't want to scare anyone off of canning. Just keep your face from being directly over the tops of the jars when removing from the canner.  I shudder to think if her face was in the "zone" and the potential medical problems we could have been faced with out here. Ron

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## ronjnk

In thinking about my previous post, I can only think of 2 reasons why a lid would blow off with great force. Either she didn't screw the ring on tight enough or the ring is too old and lost it's strength. We tossed the ring to be safe.

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## canid

there are a couple possibilities:

1.) the jar was actually sealed before heating, or very nearly sealed, such that the expanding fluid was unable to escape as the temp in the jar rose. the pressure inside the cooker had not dropped all the way (or it would have blown before openeing) and the sudden change lowered the pressure to below that required to keep the jar from failing.

2.) the jar was not sealed but the pressure was not even nearly equalized and the pressure change when opening the cooker was so dramatic and sudden that it sucked the loose lid off upon opening.

in both of these scenarios; the pressure inside the jar was still much higher than the abmient pressure (outside the cooker) which means that in either case they had not cooled sufficiently before opening. it is also extremely probable that the pressure inside the cooker was still much higher than the ambient, or it would just as likely have blown at any point after the heat was turned off and the pressure was dropping.

in either case, this is a case of operator error, and you must make sure your cooker has cooled enough to reach equilibrium with and ambient pressure before opening.

in neither case could a loose lid itself have been the problem. you want them screwed down just tight enough to sit flush with the rim of the jar, so that the expanding gas can escape as the jar heats, and get sucked back down against the rim when the pressure begins to fall. the goal being that the volume has been reduced and you achieve a vacuum seal.

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## Rick

I have to agree this wasn't a lid failure per se. Something prevented the jar from reducing pressure. It seems to me the ring may have been too tight before being placed in the canner. The pressure would have built up but would not have been able to reduce. The sudden loss of water cover and the movement of material inside the jar as it was being lifted out was probably enough to cause the failure. Whatever the reason I'm glad she was okay. Not only could she have been injured from the lid or ring but she could have easily been scalded by the hot material inside the jar. Your warning is both timely and noted!!

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## canid

i completely failed to consider the effect of movement on the pressure and i'm glad you brought that up.

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## Rick

Easy to miss, that one. I'm reminded often with my shirt buttons. Pressure and movement, you know. I may go to 80 pound monofiliment.

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## ronjnk

Thanks folks for the input. Some good feedback. The books say to finger tighten the bands so they are snug as has been noted above. Another book says to screw band down firmly without using full force. Our pressure canner will Not allow opening until it is safe to open. There is a safety lock on it that triggers once the pressure drops to zero. Probably a good thing to look for if someone is buying a new pressure canner. Get one with that safety feature so you aren't guessing. Use the lid as protection when taking the lid off so that you don't get a face full of steam. We'll never know exactly what the exact cause was. Fortunately, she has canned many thousands of jars over the years and this was a first and hopefully last.

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