I was gifted a hand full of jars. A handful are branded Ball, but have no way to screw down a lid. A couple others have markings on the bottoms, but my google searching wasn’t conclusive if they are safe to use. The markings are “AHK S 81 7”, and “AHK H 80 14”.
Are the Ball branded useful for anything without threading?
Can anyone help me identify the other two jars to help me determine if I can use them for water bath or pressure canning?
by mateorn
5 Comments
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The ones with screw on lids should be totally fine for water bath or pressure as long as they aren’t chipped or anything! The ones that don’t have screw on lids probably aren’t going to be super useful for canning but I think they’d make cute drinking glasses.
The quilted ball jars are also known as jelly jars
The non-threaded jars are jelly jars that used paraffin wax to seal with a snap on cap to keep off dust. Of course, newer research shows that is an unsafe method for jams and jellies, so they would only be good for dry storage or short term refrigerated storage.
The pattern glass like this was common for canning jams and jelly the idea was that you want it to look nice because it also serves as the serving container on your table where guests may be present. If you can water-bath can them they should be fine. I wouldn’t recommend pressure canning with them tho because they are old glass and may not handle the pressure. I would keep these for jams, jellies and marmalades my self.