Updated May 2022
The Penley jars discussed in the post below are no longer in production. This post is originally from 2011. If you are looking to purchase canning jars that aren’t made by Ball Canning, I recommend you look to a jar distributor like Fillmore Container. They sell a wide variety of mason jars.
Canning jars, at least as we know them now, have been around since 1868. John L. Mason developed the system of a threaded jar with a lid designed for sealing (he used lead lids with a rubber seal, not exactly the two-piece lid we know now, but very close). The technology hasn’t change much since then.
It used to be that there were a number of canning jar manufacturers. Ball. Kerr. Atlas. Drey. Mason. Globe. Mom’s. Knox. Golden Harvest. However, as so often happens, through a process of competition and consolidation, the number of jar producers grew fewer over the years.
In 1993, the Ball Corporation (which by that time was the only domestic canning jar manufacturer) spun off their canning jar sector into the company that is now known at Jarden Home Brands. They make all the Ball, Kerr and Golden Harvest jars currently available in stores. One of the reasons that canning jars can be so pricey is that there’s been no competition in this sector of the market.*
However, thanks to the growing popularity of canning in recent years, we’re finally going to start seeing some new canning jars hit the market this season. Walmart has a line of mason jars called Mainstays, as well as a fancier variety branded with the Better Homes and Garden name. And soon, a variety of stores will be carrying Penley Mason jars (these are not the jars that Walmart is carrying). Those Penley jars are the ones I want to talk about today.
I recently had an opportunity to preview the line of jars made by the Penley Corporation. Up until now, they’ve been in the business of making and distributing clothespins, matches, toothpicks, plastic cutlery and drinking straws. Canning jars are a departure for them, but from the examples I’ve seen, they are doing an amazingly good job with their new product.
In most respects, they are physically nearly identical to the jars most of us currently use. They make pints and quarts in both regular and wide mouth and an embossed half pint in a regular mouth. Lids and rings are interchangeable between Ball, Kerr and Penley, which is fabulous for those of us who already have a stash of lids or who are planning on using Tattler lids this season.
When I met with the Penley rep, he pointed out the fact that they intentionally left the back of their pints and quarts smooth to better accommodate the labels that so many canners apply to their jars. I was happy to see that particularly since I’ve always hated the round of wheat and fruit on the back of the Ball jars (in researching this post, I learned that it’s been there since 1970).
As far as performance goes, I’ve canned in these jars several times now and they’ve been perfect, not a failed seal among them. What’s more, they just feel good in the hand. They are sturdy and solid, just the way I expect a good canning jar to be. As you can see from the picture above, there’s a water spot left on that jar from a run through the dishwasher, there because I’ve used this jar for leftover storage and the transportation of iced coffee to work. They’ve seamlessly become part of my collection of working jars.
Finally (and best of all), they are going to be less expensive than Ball or Kerr jars. While it will only be a dollar or two difference, if you do a lot of canning, that can add up quickly.
As far as I can see, there are only two drawbacks to these jars. The first is that they’ve left no space on the lid for writing. As someone who always writes on the lids of my preserves with a Sharpie, this is a minor annoyance. Second is that the jars are made in China. I pass no judgment on Penley for making this choice as in today’s market it is really the only way to make a lower cost product. If you are someone who avoids things made outside of the U.S. I wanted to make sure you were aware (and as you can see, they’ve clearly printed the origin on the bottom of all the Penley jars).
Disclosure: The Penley Corp. gave me an assortment of jars and lids to try. However, all thoughts and opinions expresses herein are my own and untainted by the free loot.
*There are the Leifheit jars, but they are so much more expensive (around $20 for six jars) than Ball and Kerr jars, that I don’t see them as a viable alternative for people who do more than the most basic recreational canning.
I’ve looped wire around them and created my own outdoor chandelier. Just pop a candle in and light up the patio. My dad used them in his shop – nailed the lids into the bottoms of shelves and screwd the jars in to keep his nails and screws and small hardware seperate , organized and visible. Also, very best iced tea glasses in the world! ;0)
My mason jars are multipurpose in the kitchen and around the house. They hold dry goods, leftovers, safety pins, crayons, you name it.
I use them in place of Tupperware to take my lunch to work
This will be my first year really canning so I haven’t done anything unusual with jars yet—besides keep loose change. Hope to win!
Don’t include me….I only buy jars made in the USA.
These look wonderful. I cringed at the Made in China tag, but your point about that allowing for the lower cost is well-taken. My most creative use of a canning jar is storage of homemade rose beads. Opening the lid of that jar is like gathering up a whiff of last summer’s sunshine and flowers all blended together into a permanent sense memory.
i would rather spend $2 more for a case and know that I am helping an American worker keep his/her job than save a buck.
That’s good, Suzy, but this isn’t a comment section for your politics. It’s a giveaway with comments about use of canning jars.
Keep our baby chicks food and water in a jar next to their brooder.. just makes for a quick and easy grab and refill their feeers.
I use the smallest ones I have as little ramekins – perfect for chocolate souffles!
I take a jar to church & collect the offering in it from the 6th graders that I teach.
OOHHH fun…. sign me up!!!!
I use canning jars for a variety of things.
I love to drink from them. Though they are heavier to carry around than reusable plastic bottles, there is a certain charm I can’t resist.
I don’t know–I’ve never had a canning jar!
I use my jars for everything – conventional and not. Storing my raw milk from the farm, storing my homemade baby food, penholders, vases, waterers, drinking glasses, the list goes on 🙂
All right! I’m really hoping they will be selling their lids on their own like Ball does. I really have a good supply of jars, but always have to buy lids of course. I agree that the lid is full for writing on.
My current unconventional canning jar thing is using the little bitty half pints as votive holders. I’m sure tons of people do this, but I never have before.
I really enjoy canning, always can use jars.
I hope people who see these in the store stop and realize where the jars are made. Kerrs and Masons are made in the U.S. With gas at $4/gallon and rising, why would we support a manufacturer that is shipping heavy glass objects across the ocean–even if you save a buck on the jars, think of what all those imported goods do to the price of gas overall. Not to mention the safety concerns others have mentioned above–who knows what kind of cost-cutting corners were taken?
If you’re trying to save money on jars–hit the thrift store, walk around your neighborhood to investigate yard sales this summer, stop by estate sales. Don’t buy jars made in China!
amen!
I love the Bernardin Mason jars the best–I always stock up when I drive to Canada (not that often). The crest emblem (seen here http://www.flickr.com/photos/grahampowell/392512988/ is incredible)! Anyhow: I’d love to try the new jars !
I think in my house it’s more a question of what canning jars don’t get used for! I often hang dangly earring (the hook kind) off the outside of a canning jar on my dresser. Keeps them neat and contained.
Oh it’d be fun to win some jars! I somehow wind up giving away a lot of jam and my poor jars never seem to come home. ^^ My most unconventional use? In the late spring after we’ve eaten though a lot of our canned goods I use the mason jars as cloches in the garden for the wee baby plants. I’ve got to make sure they make through any frosts, otherwise what will I be canning in the late summer?!
When I was little, we would run around barefoot in our backyard in the summer collecting fireflies in ball jars. Now, I like to fit them with a wire mesh lid and use them to sprout seeds for sandwiches.
I had taken some sugar syrup in a quart jar down to the garden to feed my new bees and found them dead in a pile. I scooped some into the jar and went angrily back to the (warm) house to study them. Once I dumped them out on the table, they started to come back to life! So naturally I scooped them back into the jar in a hurry, and put some cheesecloth over the top. The rest of the bees I brought in in other containers, and most of them lived in the end, but those first 30 or so spent the whole night in a mason jar, eating honey dripped in from the top.
How exciting to get some new brands of canning jars! Competition can only be a good thing. One thing I use a canning jar for is to store salt by my stove. I cut the top off a round salt box, cut it to the right size to fit on a regular mouth pint jar, and add a ring. Then I have the pour spout from the salt box, but the salt stays dry and protected (I used to get grease soaking into the salt box, now I don’t).
I have used canning jars for everything from holding odds and ends mails/ screws to sprouting greens for salads to drinking glasses. Of course I used every size for canning from the 1/2 pint through the quarts and even a few gallon jars my mother had, these are a pain to do a water bath on, lol.
I know this isn’t that unconventional….but I love to make iced coffee and shake it up in a mason jar for summer mornings.
I’m a newish canner and haven’t had the opportunity to can using odd jars yet!
I love jars! Besides using them for all the usual foodie uses, I also love to use them for drinking glasses and vases. I also store all my powdered chicken medicine and electrolytes in them to help keep them from clumping up from moisture. (I also want to try those solar powered lights you featured recently…very cool). Please sign me up for the drawing!
Wow, this would be awesome!
While I’m alwasy interested in more jars, I try to avoid products made in China, so this gieveaway is not for me. I hope competition drives down the price of US made jars without sending them overseas!
I use mine to store vanilla beans, drink beer, and make sun tea. 😀
I make yogurt in quart jars.
Always willing to try something new. It amazed me that all of the other jars are made by the same company.
I store all kinds of bits an bobs that my three year old deposits around the house. Crayons, hair clips, play doh, you name it!
We use the jars to drink out of. Would love to win these.
I use Mason jars to make/store my cold-brewed coffee, but I’d love to try the new jars for jam!
I use a quart jar as my green smoothie drink container. Yum!
I use my jars for candy 🙂 small unwrapped candy like jellybeans, M&M’s etc. to keep them sorted and fresh. Also works with chocolate chips 😉
I’m a Southern girl, and my favorite non-canning use of canning jars is for drinking. I like the rustic appeal.
It’s not inspired but I use canning jars to store the bulk spices and herbs I buy and/or grow. They’re clear, they big enough to hold most bulk packaging sizes and I write the name on the lid in the event I have dementia one day and won’t remember what they are. Got this idea from Michael Smith on Chef At Home.
Great idea! I have mine in baggies and they’re a bit of a mess. I’d bet moving them to jars would clean ’em up (I could stack them) and then they’d stop falling out of the cupboard. Plus they’d probably seal up better and stay fresher. Thanks for this!
I’ve been using a widemouth half-gallon to store my cupcake paper liners … Hundreds of them! They don’t get crushed and I can see exactly what I have.
Well, it’s not particularly revolutionary, but I use extra jars to make and store homemade yogurt. Thanks so much for this review, and for your generous giveaways in general.
Besides using jars for the usual preserves, I have lids attached to the underside of my cabinet where I can screw on jars filled with little tchatchkes like corn holders, stawberry hullers, crab forks etc.
Hmmmm … I use them to store bouncy balls – not marbles or buttons but bouncy balls. The ones you spend a quarter for at the grocery store in those little machines. 🙂 My husband collects them (and loses them!) so I “put them away” in the jars in the pantry. I’m up to 4 quarts so far! 🙂
On windy spring days I use canning jars as hurricane lamps. They are also wonderful for impromptu bouquets.
I store the spare buttons that come with my clothes in a pint jar on my dresser. Pretty to look at, and a handy way to keep all my buttons in one place.
I use mine for everything from bulk goods to flowers. I would love to try these!
Wow so many comments thew most unconventional way i have used them is to measure laundry detergent…I know it sounds strange but it worked before they let you use the top of the bottle. Abs still works great for dry detergent and sugar and flour the little one is best
I like using them as votive holders.
I used jars with beach sand and candles for luminaria at my wedding!
You can make bizarre looking but tasty popovers in mason jars.
I like to keep a jar 1/2 filled with water in my car for collecting wildflowers.