What do you use old sauce jars for?

chog24

Oh, or this: https://www.pinterest.com/katlthomas/mason-jar-recipes/

wallace3600

Can't see how to 'thank' you for your reply but I'm part of a slimming group and love your explanation of the different sauces, so will be copying this for them. Hope you don't mind!

chog24 wrote: »

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).

Chris25

if there are nicely shaped, I usually use them for chutney or marmalade/jam to give as presents or to give for the produce stall at different fund-raising events. The larger or more ordinary ones, I keep for the family's chutney etc

Very large ones that come form things like pickled gherkins, I use in Summer with candles in and I line the path in the garden.

I have some smaller ones that have particularly deep grooves for the screwtops and so I use them with wire wrapped around the grooves & I've tied handles on and those I use hanging from the wall ,again in summer, with tealights in.

And, I use some jars to store buttons and I have one for ribbons.

I've got a jar in the shed - using one of the larger ones, I've put a huge ball of garden twine, I pierced a hole in the lid & pull the twine through that.

Greenqueen_2

Flour, sugar, dried milk powder etc----keeps mini beasts away.

meames_2

wallace3600 wrote: »

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.

How long do they keep for?

Gwendolyn

I've given mine away to friends who want to make jam. I often lend them my maslin pan and I often get a jar of jam as a thank you.

wallace3600

Sorry - can't see how to post a reply either! Some of the jars do 'blow' and spoil, but I have kept some sauces for a couple of months with no problems. Depends on what kind of sauce I expect. But we only use them at home - I don't go giving them away!

meames_2

Last night we went to aboard in Birmingham that used te square jars (EPC lazy garlic jars) for cocktails!

I think I will keep them for that :-)