What do you use old sauce jars for?

ivanbrownbear

If you are accumulating a lot of jars, I would suggest you stop buying them! Seriously, homemade sauce is a lot better and has no e-numbers in them.

kacie

I saw this on pinterest for using up jars

pigpen

They fill my recycling bin!

I have some douwe egberts jars I keep lentils, tiny pasta, sesame seeds, rice etc in.. but pasta ones the lids won't reseal so they are useless and just get recycled.

Fosterdog

I don't use pre made sauces but I do get through loads of coffee jars, they get used as storage for anything and everything. Pasta, rice, HM sauces, HM vanilla sugar, nuts, seeds, dog treats, craft bits and bobs, planting herbs, DIY bits and bobs.

My cupboards are full of jars.

claire1a

My friends and I save all our jars all year long and make Chutney in Oct/Nov ready for Christmas Prezzies!

I have also made Cookie mix in a jar (layer all the dry ingrediants and then add a label with wet ingrediants needed and instructions!) They look really pretty and are always appreciated by friends.

You can also get spray paint or chalk board paint to cover the lids so your not giving a 'h*mepride' prezzie out!

For the Chutneys we get christmas material and cur it out in suares and secure with ribbon so looks nice when giving!

SailorSam

I saw on a Tv programme once a guy had collected so many he buried them upside down in his back garden and made a path.

ChrissieT_2

I don't have many as do my own jams etc, but they are useful for leftovers in the fridge because you can see what is in there. Hopefully you can then use your leftovers before they need to be thrown out. When DH does DIY he uses a small one for any screws or bits so they don't go AWOL in the process.

wallace3600

I make batches of homemade sauce and store them in old jars. I wash them just before filling, and sterilise by rinsing with boiling water. Fill the jars with the hot sauce and put the lid on, but don't overtighten. As the sauce cools the button on top of the jar will pop back down (something to do with science and heated molecules taking up more space than cool ones - when the liquid cools it creates a vacuum in the top of the jar which is why the button pops back down). I've made lentil Bolognese sauce which just needs reheating in a pan to go with pasta, and curry sauces which really help reduce cooking time.

tulip12

Some coffee jars I buy are square and these are fab as they fit neatly together in my cupboard with no space lost as you get with round jars. I use them for herbs and spices and what ever else I need to store.

chog24

dandy-candy wrote: »

I've been keeping old pasta sauce jars and lids but other than putting tea lights in them I don't know what to use them for.
They're the 500g size which is too big for jam (in this household anyway!) and we don't eat pickles or chutneys. Any ideas?


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You BUY pasta sauce?! o_O

Try this:
1. Get a tin of chopped tomatoes, put it in a pan, half-fill the tin with water, slosh the water round the tin and add that to the pan, add a pinch of salt, a generous pinch of sugar and any of the following that you feel like or have in the house:
black olives, a clove of garlic (whole), a bay leaf, a pinch of oregano, a few basil leaves, crushed chilli flakes (to taste), chopped bacon, ground black pepper, minced beef (about half the volume of beef to tomatoes should work), minced pork (same proportion of beef), a splash of red wine, chopped vegetables, lentils, whatever you think might taste good.
2. Bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce it to minimum and leave it for 20 minutes or so, stirring it once in a while.

The result will be authentic* Italian pasta sauce with no nasty additives and no 500g jar to find a use for ;-)

* this is how my authentic Italian partner makes "salsa semplice" (simple sauce). Strictly speaking "semplice" is tomatoes, salt, sugar and maybe a bit of oregano, basil or a bay leaf. If you add chillis you get "arrabiata" (angry) sauce, if you add chopped bacon (or pancetta cubes or lardons) it's "amatriciana" sauce, add beef and/or pork and it becomes "ragu" (or bolognaise). If you use a couple of tins of tomatoes and add in minced beef/pork and chunks of beef/pork and sausages and vegetables etc then it becomes "sugo" (stew) and in that case you can add red wine and either two cloves or a leaf or two of star anise (not the whole star, just one or two points from it).