What can I do with jelly jars, pasta sauce jars?

[kacymoose]

Is there any way to re-use jelly jars or sauce jars?

[Scribe]

Gah. Yes. I never have enough! I use them to package bath stuff.

But you can use them for any sort of storage/packaging.

Or bake tiny pies in them to give as gifts!

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

They are great for storing craft supplies, dry food (rice, beans, spices...) nails and screws and things like that, leftovers in the fridge and probably a bunch of other things I'm not thinking of.

Like avenginophelia said, they are great for packaging bath stuff as gifts. I also use them to package home make cookie mixes or other baking mixes or home made tea blends.

The only thing I wouldn't use them for is canning. The glass on those kinds of jars is prone to breaking in the high temperatures of a canning pot and they often don't get a good seal. With out a seal, you food will go bad.

[jrabbit]

Originally Posted by avengingophelia

Or bake tiny pies in them to give as gifts!

Have you actually baked the pies in store-jelly or other jars? The recipe talks about buying jars for the purpose. I haven't read all the comments, yet.

thanks
--janis

[Scribe]

Originally Posted by jrabbit

Have you actually baked the pies in store-jelly or other jars? The recipe talks about buying jars for the purpose. I haven't read all the comments, yet.

thanks
--janis

I haven't. Do you think they might not be able to withstand the heat? I'm worried about that as well.

[urchin_grey]

I use them for food storage. Or sometimes even leftover storage, like spaghetti sauce that I made myself. So much better than plastic and it doesn't stain like plastic does!

[kacymoose]

food storage

what a great idea

That will help me eliminate all that plastic tupperware that I no longer want to use.

It seems so obvious, but never occured to me

[cristeen]

Any kind of storage... I use them for keeping my craft area somewhat organized, the tool bench, the garden shed, anywhere you have lots of little things that will scatter everywhere.

[Buddhamom]

You can make snow globes with the smaller ones

[sunnysandiegan]

We reuse nearly every glass jar that comes into our home. In fact, I purposely choose glass packaging whenever possible. It is becoming harder and harder to find mayonnaise, mustard, and other items in glass jars. We have now replaced 90% of our plastic food storage, which includes transferring food that comes in plastic bulk storage or bags into glass containers. We only kept 6 very small plastic containers for DD's school lunches, a few water bottles, and some specialty plastic items. I don't mind plastic lids, though. I just make sure the food is below the lid "zone"...

My motivation is TASTE!!! I find food tastes soooo much better in glass storage than in plastic. I also really like how much easier and cleaner glass is to clean. Health and environmental aspects play a part for me, also, but really the taste won me and my family over...

[lightheart]

I know that canning is a no-no although my mom always did it with mayo and pasta sauce jars, I never have though. What about freezing things in them? Don't some people use glass to freeze things, just leave enough headroom for things to expand?

How about starting a couple of plants, sweet potato comes to mind this time of year, I use glass jars for rooting cuttings all the time.

[Bleu]

I use them for rooting planting in water, for leftovers, and for storing food items I get in bulk.

[paakbaak]

for everything. storing food, supplies, mixing salsas, anything.
and i love them for candle holders...if you paint them, they give off a great light.

[Tangled Hill]

We definitely use them for food storage - both in the fridge and in the pantry. I often take my lunch to work in them (a repurposed jar filled with chili or lentil soup, for example). I have a padded lunch bag, so I don't really have to worry about them breaking. I'm about to start doing poured candles in them, too. Let's see.... I store things like baking powder in them for cleaning and put one in each room. I have the tooth powder I made in a pesto jar. I like to put pretty rocks or buttons, etc. in jars around the house. We have the counters for ds's card games (like Yu-Gi-Oh! and such) in a little pickle jar. We drink out of jelly jars. I'm sure we have them employed in other ways, too - just can't think of them right now. We use them for everything, though. Yay glass!

[DreamsInDigital]

Definitely for bulk food storage. I get moths in my cupboards so everything needs to be in closed packages.

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by lightheart

I know that canning is a no-no although my mom always did it with mayo and pasta sauce jars, I never have though. What about freezing things in them?

Why is canning a no-no? Growing up my grandmother reused any small jar for jelly. Any jar (like most mayo jars before they went plastic) that will take a standard lid and ring can be used for canning, whether you buy them with mayo in them, or you buy them empty.

As for freezing, sure. I'm chicken about freezing in glass, but I know plenty of people do it. Just leave plenty of head room, and I've also heard to leave the lids off until they're frozen.

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

I think in your grandma's day it might have been better.

Now though most glass jars are made of thinner, lower quality glass than the jars made specifically for home canning. Also they are less often made to fit a standard sized lid. Re-purposed jars are more likely to break under heat and pressure, they are also more likely to have irregularities that make it difficult to get a good seal.

You can can with them, but you run a higher risk of your jar breaking or not sealing properly.

[almadianna]

Originally Posted by Buddhamom

You can make snow globes with the smaller ones

i did that a couple years ago. it was TOO cute.

[kacymoose]

I'm just getting started using jars for storage now. I went to put some homemade hot chocolate mix in one. It still smelled like pickles despite being washed well and air dried. Another one still smelled like jelly.

What can I do about the smell?

Thanks

[jrabbit]

Originally Posted by cristeen

Why is canning a no-no? Growing up my grandmother reused any small jar for jelly. Any jar (like most mayo jars before they went plastic) that will take a standard lid and ring can be used for canning, whether you buy them with mayo in them, or you buy them empty.

Another reason is for bacterial contamination. The PP was talking about using new canning rings on the re-used jars. When you preserve something, it takes heat (canning jars designed for that heat) plus the ability to seal the lid air-tight. You can't do that without a canning lid.

Freezing is different. Most glass will be fine. You just need to be sure that the food is room temp before putting it in the freezer - and allow it to "warm" up naturally, but don't heat it up in the glass jar.