Remember the discussion about freezer safe mason jars?

[Cinder]

Actually the original topic was something else. I can't remember exactly but it was about food--freezing ahead or something like that? Anyway it came up that some people successfully freeze in mason jars, specifically "freezer safe" mason jars. I'd asked if those were different from regular mason jars but didn't get an answer--the thread died.  Now I have an answer.

 

Yesterday I read a couple articles on the web about freezing in jars. Turns out you *can* use regular mason jars as long as they're the straight-sided type. If there is *any* curvature at the top of the jar--some articles referred to these as "shoulders"--the jar might crack. The shoulders interfere with the expansion as the food freezes. The point was also made to fill only to the "fill line" which is marked on freezer safe jars but not on the other jars. (No wonder I couldn't find the fill line on my quart jars!) And there was a recommendation to cool food to fridge temp before putting it in the freezer.

 

So I was at walmart today to buy wide-mouth pint jars and was surprised--and delighted--to find the box marked "freezer safe." I then looked at the other types of jars and noticed the ones with straight sides were also marked "freezer safe" while the ones with curves--like the wide-mouth quart jars I bought last week--were not.

 

I was kind of giddy over having this mystery solved and I just wanted to share what I'd learned. I'm still a little nervous about freezing food in jars but I'm more hopeful that it will work out now that I have the right jars.

[ashfern]

I make freezer jam all the time in the half-pint glass jars.

[myfunnybunch]

I make freezer jam all the time in the half-pint glass jars.

 

I do too. And I freeze pureed pumpkin  and apricot in glass jars. Yummy!

 

Cat

 

[skimomma]

I am a bit of a risk taker because I do use the regular jars for freezing too.  The worst that can happen is that you get a cracked jar.  I have had that happen a couple of times (out of hundreds, probably thousands, of frozen jars).  But only when I did not cool in the fridge first or I overfilled the jars.  I obviously had to toss the food and the jar.  I always check the jars the day after they go in the freezer so that I don't have a dinner emergency on my hands and a cracked jar.  I have discovered improperly sealed home-canned goods on a far more frequent basis.  They seemed sealed at the time of canning but turned out not to be months later when I went to open one.  So if people have their hearts set on mason jar freezing and do not have the freezer safe types, there is hope.

[fraidycat]

Thank you for the info!

[cjzimmer1]

I've never used the "freezer safe" jars simply because I don't own any but have used the regular jars many times.  Yeah I've lost a few because they were too full and the expansion cracked the jar.  Overall though the value of the lost product and jar was far less than the cost of new jars (I've personally never bought a jar in my life, l just asked older people and they freely empty their pantries of old jars for me).  For smaller jars the natural peanut butter jars are perfect (I use smucker's brand).  I have 30-40 in my freezer at any one time (jams, pestos, small amounts of broths or leftovers).