Recently, after panting after them for years, I finally broke down and ordered a dozen Weck jars*. For those of you not in the know, they are a brand of canning jar that is produced in Germany and is quite popular across Europe. Instead of using a disposable lid with the sealing compound embedded in it (like our familiar Ball and Kerr jars), these jars depend on a rubber ring for their sealing power.
They are much like the bailing wire canning jars that were once quite popular across this country (I wrote about canning in those jars here, if you care to give a gander). One of their primary benefits is the fact that because the lid is made from glass, the only thing that’s in contact with your food is glass (just like the Tattler reusable lids, there’s no BPA-imbued surface to worry about when you use these suckers). They also feel a bit less wasteful than the Ball/Kerr jars, because the only piece you end up throwing away is the rubber ring, not an entire lid. The primary downside of Weck jars is that they are expensive. I have hopes that if enough people start buying them, they’ll become more accessible and affordable here.
The Weck jars are made up of four components. The first is the rubber ring, which is the analog to the sealing compound in American lids. And just like our lids, these rings need to be submerged in boiling water for a few minutes before use in order to soften up. Keep them in the hot water until the moment you’re ready to use them to maximize their sealing abilities. These rings should also be given a once over before use, to ensure that they don’t have any cracks or tears. Another way these rings are like conventional lids is that they can only be used once.
Next comes the flat, glass lid. Prior to use, make sure to give them a careful inspection, to ensure that the lid is free from chips, particularly on the edge that comes in contact with the rubber ring. Even the smallest chip can prevent a quality seal. Keep in mind that if you’re planning on processing something in these jars that will be in the boiling water bath canner for less than ten minutes, these lids need to be sterilized along with your jars.
I have found that the best way to assemble these jars is to caress the rubber ring onto the lid and then place the lid on the jar. Before you settle it into place, make sure to wipe those rims. It’s just good canning practice.
Now come the clips. All Weck jars come with two stainless steel clips. They do the work that our screw-on bands typically perform, holding the lid in place so that air can escape during processing and cooling, but no air or liquid can get in. I believe the best way to attach a clip is to hook it over the lid and then firmly (but carefully) push down. There should be a satisfying click when the clip is in place and there should be no wiggle or movement. I have found that it often requires just a hair more pressure than feels appropriate. Take it slowly and make sure to hold onto the jar (wrap a towel or pot holder around it so you don’t burn yourself) so that you don’t slosh the product on to your counter.
Once you have the clips in place, quickly check the status of the ring. It should still be flat and even between the top of the jar and the bottom of the lid. On one occasion, I have had the ring wrinkle up while I was finessing the clips onto the jars. Had I not caught it before the jar went into the canner, I could have compromised my potential seal.
Now that your jars are filled and the rubber rings, lids and clips are in place, it’s time to process. This step is just like all other boiling water bath canning. The only caution I have to offer here is to take care with your jar lifter placement when working with Weck jars. I once nearly tipping several jars over while maneuvering in and out of the pot because my lifter caught on the clips. They hold tightly enough that you shouldn’t be able to dislodge one with the lifter, but it is something to be aware of.
Once the jars are finished processing, let them cool fully. Once they are totally cool to the touch, you can remove the clips and check your seals. There are two easy ways to ensure you’ve got a good seal. The first is to grab onto the jar holding onto just the lid and lift the jar just a bit (I will never be a hand model). If it holds, it’s good.
The other way to check the seals is to take a look at the tab. It should be pointing down, like it’s sticking its tongue out at you. Also note that Weck jars should be stored with the clips off when it’s on your pantry shelf. This is for the same reason that we store Ball and Kerr jars without their rings. If something happens to grow inside the jar, the off-gassing will break the seal and you’ll know right away that the product is compromised.
When it comes time to open a Weck jar, it’s incredibly easy. Just grab hold of the tab and gently pull it, until you hear air rushing in and the seal breaks. Do this slowly, so that you don’t run the risk of popping the lid off the jar with too much vigor. While the jar lives in the fridge, you can use the clips to hold the lid in place, or you can invest in some of the snap-on plastic lids that Weck makes as well.
For information on how to pressure can in Weck jars, read this post!
Thank you for the great post–that answered so many questions for me. I’d like to try making pickles.
I’ve got a pineapple and some leftover blood oranges on my kitchen table screaming at me to be made into preserves and put into these wonderful jars!
I have had my eye on a pomegranate jelly recipe that would be awesome in these jars! I have been looking at them for awhile and have bunch of uses in mind but haven’t taken the plunge yet because of the price.
Wow, what a fantastic post! I bought to of these sweet jars at the market building in San Francisco last year and had no idea I could actually can with them. I want to make a marmalade pepper jelly for these little puppies!
I would put the strawberry jam in them from the strawberries we are going to pick next week.
I’d make a batch of apple/peach chutney! Or, sometimes I find the most tiny perfect okra and pickle it – this would be adorable in there. Most people turn their nose up at the okra, until they taste it!
Gosh, they sure are pretty, and my larder is starting to show that canning should be on my mind.
I really want to make a balsamic fig jam, or a bourbon grapefruit marmalade! I’ve been drooling over these weck jars for the past few months, just need to get up the gumption to buy them!
I can’t wait for spring to appear here in Toronto and for our local farmers’ market to blossom with lots of local goodness. My plan for these jars is to can whatever spring fruit or vegetable tempts me first. Perhaps some pickled asparagus, or something with wild leeks (ramps) OR even better, a tasty ruby red rhubarb butter with a hint of honey. I am tempted by something less local like a blood orange or meyer lemon marmalade, but these jars are so awesome, I feel they deserve only the best local produce tucked inside for future enjoyement. 🙂
Mmmm ~ ruby red rhubarb butter with honey…this sounds so good! We’ve never worked with rhubarb but really want to. Do you ever visit Olig, the honey man at the Honey World in the St. Lawrence Market? He’s got such an amazing selection of mono honeys.
It’s really easy to work with rhubarb in jams, butters etc. Maris, who writes this site, even has a rhubarb butter recipe she posted last year (search for it on the site). Since there is a honey vendor, Bees Universe, at our local farmers’ market, I usually make my bulk honey purchases from them. Although I pick up jars here and there from other sources. One of our current faves is the honey from Rosewood Estates, which makes wine and mead in the Beamsville, Ontario area.
Thanks for the info. We’ll check out Rosewood Estates. We collect mono honeys from all over the world ~ they are all so different and unique depending on what the bees are feeding on. Bees are simply amazing and so important!
The jars are lovely! The first thing I would can in my Weck jars would be delicious strawberry preserves. The strawberries will be ready in my area soon and I will go to a strawberry farm to pick them. I can’t wait!
I am so jealous! I even looked for these when I was in Brussels to see if I could ship them to myself (cheaply) but only found really tiny ones. I wasn’t even canning then! I’d love the tall ones for asparagus.
I ordered Weck Jars with girlfriends last year to save on shipping. They are beautiful. I made pickles in the tulip jar first. This year I’d like to do more jam in the smaller sizes.
Despite the fact that we still have two feet of snow on the ground and more to come this weekend, I’m dreaming of Spring and Strawberries. I want to try my hand at preserving strawberries this year, with the berries big and beautiful and crystal red.
I’m planning on making some mango cardamom jam soon and it would look great in those jars!
My first every cooked jam, most likely strawberry. I can’t wait for some fresh from the fields Lancaster strawberries!
I am so excited about this post! I am currently in the throws of a Weck Jar obsession!
The first thing I would probably use them for is leftovers. I am trying to switch from all plastic storage containers…to all glass. These are by far my faves!
Ooo, Weck jars are so pretty! I canned some ginger-peach jam in some my friend has, but a set of my own would be so wonderful.
I would love to pickle my crop of asparagus that I grow in my parking strip in those tall stright weck jars
Strawberry jam, of course!
I’m anxiously awaiting the first strawberries and rhubarb of the season for some strawberry-rhubarb jam, which I think would look lovely in these Weck jars…
I would like to try Sri Kaya (Malaysian coconut jam. I don’t know if it will work but it will be fun to try!
Weck jars are so beutiful, but the shippiing has always stopped me from ordering. It is great to know that shipping is free at Kaufmann Mercantile with a good purchase amount. I have really dreamed of using the juice jars for canning. I grow so many berries and different fruits, that I want to use the juice jars for making homemade blackberry and raspberry syrup. For the jam jars, I would like to make some of my tri-citrus marmalade. The color would be beautiful in the clear glass weck jars! Off to the Kaufmann site to look at what is available!
Upstate New York in March is a waiting game for most produce. So many people are talking berries on here already! I would hold on to my Wecks until spring when I could pickle asparagus or make strawberry jam.
Rhubarb jam! I”m waiting impatiently for the first stalks of rhubarb to appear in the farmers’ market!
Well, what’s in my MIND to make right now is some white cherry/white peach jam. But I may not be able to hold out until cherry season and will probably fill them with something else before then. 🙂
I am obsessed with jars! I love jars for everything and now I’m wondering how it is that I’ve never heard of these jars. I love them!!!
I would love to win these jars, and make strawberry jam!
Oooh, raspberry jam, for sure. It’s so pretty and ruby-like in ball jars already, I bet it would be stunning in Weck.
I make and can chunky cinnamon applesauce very often, and I imagine that’s the first thing I’d make with those beautiful Weck canning jars! I have drooled over them for years. I’ve kept an order form in my recipe files for several years, but due to the cost I’ve never used it. To win some and see them filled and sitting in my pantry would be a little bit heaven. Home canned goodies on my homemade bread…..nothing better.
Strawberry season is in full swing down here. I would put strawberry jam in them!
I can’t wait for strawberry season to arrive and that would be the first, of many items, that I would put in the Weck jars. Thanks for the great post. I’ve leaned so much here.
I used Weck jars years ago when they sold them at Williams-Sonoma. I still have a few left. I’ve wanted to buy more, but alas, every year I realize they’re too expensive. Last August we made two kinds of ketchup (smoked paprika and Chinese 5 spice), and decided, once again to put off buying them. But this year….is the year. I love the jars you used. They will be perfect. Thanks for posting this Marisa!
I’d go for a nice tomato sauce… My fiancee can’t eat onion, which is in virtually everything, so we’re making more and more stuff from scratch. This would hold the perfect amount for a meal for two!
These jars look really unique! I would love to put peach butter in them =)
i live in germany and am obsessed with WECK!! there little jems are why i started canning. but i do more than can lovely pepper jelly on them… i store pesto in them and rice and homemade breadcrumbs and chocolate chips for all to see! it’s all about the WECK jar!!
STrawberry Raspberry jam!!
I can some grape jelly.
I’ve been drooling over Weck jars for a while! While I’d love to say that I’m going to can something creative in them first, I have to be honest and say it will be strawberry jam. We eat a ton of it around here, and it’s nearly strawberry season!
Berry season is coming…and I can’t wait. I’d start with strawberry jam.
Would love to try out the weck jars, I think the first thing I’d make is some wine jelly.
I think strawberry jam–something that’s a really beautiful color to show off the pretty jars.
I found this website while looking for a local distributor of wecks (haven’t found one yet, but still looking). SO how cool is that that there is this draw for that exact thing I am looking for. I think the first thing I would can is pears. Plain and simple. Family favorite.
These jars are so, so, …just so! During the spring, probably BBQ sauce, but I can’t wait to replenish my apple butter and blueberry butter.
Jelly. :). My kids really like my RedHots jelly on their waffles, and I like to make it because it’s such a far-our red.
These are beautiful, but I am not sure I understand the benefit compared to the lovely old bail jars that I have been using for years!
I’ve only seen these overseas – I didn’t know we could get them here! I would can….my first crop of blueberries this year (fingers and toes crossed).
The first thing I’d can would be something involving strawberries, whose season is blessedly rapidly approaching. As a double-plus bonus, my comprehensive exams will be over by then, so I can actually live it up!
This will be my first year to give canning a go, but I have a large garden, so I have plenty of things to try…asparagus, tomatoes, beans, strawberries, raspberries…I’m excited to get started, but a tad nervous, since I don’t know anyone who cans. Everything looks pretty in a weck jar.
Strawberries will be ready here soon and because that is my kids’ favoritei usually make a double batch a week for a month. So I would probably make strawberry jam for the 1st run with those lovely, lovely jars.
I think it would be some kind of jam or maybe some cool looking fruit or maybe some interesting kind of veggie or…..please just enter me.
Mary
First, I would just admire them ~ on my counter. Then, I would process the Cara Cara in my fridge. I think the recipe with heat… sounds good in a house without power for 3 days!