What jars should you use?
Types of Jars
The jar choice depends heavily on where you live in this world.
- Masor jars are screw-on jars and are common in the US. The Ball brand is great.
- Glass jars and lids with seals and wire latch are used in Europe besides regular screw-on jam jars. Le Parfait, Kilner, or Bormioli Rocco are my recommendations.
- Weck glass is sometimes used in Germany, and these have a clip to hold it all together
- Jar’s that resemble mason jars are sometimes used in France to can mushrooms. Holes are punched in to decompress before they are opened.
We always use glass jars with rubber seals and a wire latch because it’s the safest way to create a vacuum. For jams, we simply use screw-on jars. You just have to use a quality rubber seal. You can always buy a set of rubber rings for your old jars too.
We throw out rubber seals when they look discolored because they might not seal that well anymore. Out of experience, I always recommend orange-colored rubber seals. The white ones are no good.
However, don’t limityourself;, you can use mason jars too. Weck jars are good for small canned desserts.
Size
The size depends on what you want to can. Large stone fruits such as peaches are best canned in 32-ounce or 1-liter jars.
Mushrooms or French meat pâté is better stored in smaller 8-ounce or 250-milliliter jars. I love 1-quart (24 ounces), or ¾-liter jars OR 1-pint (16 ounces), 500-milliliter jars.
I personally have never done a gallon or 1900 milliliters. You can try this sizetoo,o but keep in mind that you will need to cook your jars a bit longer in your water bath canner.
