Nancy sent me to the store for some canning lids for her pickles. She said she wanted lids for wide mouth jars. Naturally, since it’s the middle of summer, everybody else in Charlottesville wanted canning supplies as well. I scanned the near-barren shelves and finally saw a couple packs of Ball One-Piece Leak-Proof Storage Lids. I bought two 6-packs.
But that’s not what she wanted. She wanted those little canning lid inserts that “pop” when you can something. Oh great, now I had 12 pieces of something I’ll likely never use.
But wait. I got out the lids and read the instructions and these storage lids will indeed come in handy. For one thing, when you open a regular Ball jar of pickles or whatever, rather than fiddling around with the lid and cap. You simply screw on one of these storage lids. They are totally leak-proof with an airtight design, and they are dishwasher safe for multiple uses. You can use the lids on jars you put in the freezer, and if you are storing something in a Ball jar that doesn’t need the heat and canning process, they’re perfect. I made some pickles that don’t require canning, and these are ideal.
They come in wide mouth and regular mouth and fit Ball jars from the half-pint jelly size to the one-quart jars.
They weren’t expensive – three or four bucks a pack. Sometimes when you think you made a mistake, it turns out not to be a mistake at all.