January 16, 2012

Thrift Store Canning Jars

I made a trip to one of the many thrift stores in my area yesterday to look for canning jars. I was lucky this time, I found four 1.5 pint jars, two pint jars, and two 8 oz jars. At $0.30 a pop, I got all this for $2.54 including tax!



However, the 1.5 pint Atlas jars are kind of weird, so I looked them up online. It turns out that the Atlas Mason jars are just commercial spaghetti sauce jars used by the Classico brand. I think these jars are simply a gimmick used by Classico to make their product look more legit. Honestly though, can they really put the word "mason" on their jars, if they aren't actually canning jars?

I know I've water-bath canned with Atlas jars before with no trouble.  I just assumed Atlas was a brand that had gone out of business, since you can't buy them anywhere. But now I'm wondering if I should really be using them for canning? From what I've found online, plenty of people use these for canning with great success, but I've also heard that they have a coating inside that can wear off and eventually cause breakage.

I'm not sure what to do...

1 comment:

  1. Old Atlas jars were made for canning (look up Atlas Hazel) but the current ones that are used to market pasta sauce are not recommended for canning. I read somewhere (can't find the source now) that the glass used for these jars is not tempered like true canning jars but is coated instead and as you mention the coating wears off. Also I guess my question is coated with what? It's likely something you wouldn't want leaching into your food anyhow. Do yourself a favour and save those jars for storing dry goods or maybe non edibles.

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