I need to pickle some stuff. My mother and all of the women in my family always used heavy glass jars with those flip tops. Trouble is, it is DAMN hard to find a glass jar of the kind I need, not without paying more than I want.
Can I use acrylic? Does the glass really make a difference? I googled it but I most of what I find is acrylic companies advertising their wares, or glass vs acrylic aquariums.
I am not 100% sure why they used glass, but I know it has to sit in the sun for 2 days, so I just fear it has something to do specifically with the glass.
Hard to find? There are dozens of companies that make glass canning and pickling jars of all sizes for home use. If anything I would imagine an acrylic jar would be considerably more expensive than a glass jar.
That flip top is important, but it also needs to have a rubber thing around the opening.
Only I don’t need three jars, and that little one is no good to me anyway. Plus, I can find an acrylic jar for $5, locally. I am just wondering if there really is a difference.
ETA: I should have said, I have searched plenty locally and everyone has acrylic jars. This shocked me. When I was growing up, it was glass jars, everywhere!
You still need to heat sterilize the containers before pickling. Also, acrylic is easily scratched and cleaning the scratches would be near impossible…
I know I can taste the difference in Root Beer that comes in a plastic bottle vs. a glass one. I realize the call of the thread has to do with canning, but IMO plastic adds a little flavor of it’s own.
astro, if I knew this would be a success, I’d pay the $23. I only need two jars, though, and I was hoping to get them for $10- $15. I will never be able to use them for anything else, probably - what I am making smells and tastes very strong.
But see, this is my first attempt ever at pickling, and I am not really sure I’ll do it right or anything like that. And I want to follow the procedures exactly the first time.
I am trying to pickle some mango, and make some achar.
if you can’t use metal lids because of the acidity then you might try a metal lid glass jar with a piece of plastic wrap/film over the top before the lid.
If the smell and taste is strong, then I think you definitely don’t want acrylic - won’t it absorb these odors? AFAIK, glass doesn’t do this, so then you could reuse them for something else. The rubber seal might go off, I suppose, but maybe you could find a replacement gasket?
What if you buy them used (flea market, ebay) and just get new rubber seal rings? None of your aunts or older neighbours have them lying around?
Pickling is done with acid, vinegar usually, which I would worry about damaging the acryl.
Also, how heat-resistant is acryl? I heard that when acrylic panes are used for hothouses (because of breakage) that the heat of a sunny day, about 40 C, is enough to bend and warp them, so proper sterilizing them with 100 C sounds difficult. It might depend on the quality of the acryl, but I doubt that high-quality acryl will be much cheaper than glas, although prices in your area might be different from mine.
Ah! What a good idea, I will try flea market and maybe other things like that…then I can just replace the rings. And if I have to, I’ll buy those off amazon, but I’d like to find them locally. I am not that comfortable with online shopping even now.