Why use wide mouth jars? It seems that

the regular should work in every single way. It's just that the wide mouth lids are pricier than the regular ones. Also, a dozen of pint size jars are around 7 bucks at china mart and the lids run 3-4 bucks...what gives?

Pickles are hard to pack in narrow mouth jars. Applesauce is more difficult to scoop out of narrow mouth jars. But if you're just canning tomatoes or something more liquid, of course the less expensive small mouth jars are the way to go.

I use the wide mouth when I can cakes. It's easier to get the baked yummy out of the jar. That's the only time because they do cost more.

I always can meat in wide mouth jars.

I think wide mouth jars overflow less when using the pressurer cooker.

Wide mouth jars tend to be freezer safe.

I'm in the midst of canning peach halves and it's so much easier to get them into wide mouth jars. Some of the local peaches this year are huge.

I think lids (and rings) may be up as metal prices have increased, although I'm not sure about that. It's almost more economical to purchase a dozen jars with the lids and rings. Of course, grocery prices across the board are up...

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Wide mouth are also easer to clean -especially when meat has been in the jar.

I only buy the wide mouthed jars...easier to put food into them...and I can get my hand in them to waSH them easier.

Since lid prices have gone up. I use my wide mouth jars for dry goods with recycled lids.
My wet canning all goes inro small mouth jars. With the exception of canned rabbit meat, which I raw pk on the bones and.
I use a toilet brush I bought from the $ store to wash the small mouth jars.

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squashnut & bassketcher

Champagne D Argent, White New Zealand & Californian Cross Rabbits

I guess I am just cheap-LOL! I only have a few wide mouth jars that I picked up here and there over the years but I am too cheap to buy lids for them. I use regular mouth jars for everything. I agree some things would be a bit easier to get into the jars but not enough for me to switch to paying more for lids. I can meats and peaches and just about anything else with no problems in regular mouth jars. Oh, I do agree if you were doing cakes that would be one place you would definately want a wide mouth.

This is not something with which we are familiar, not having ever canned cakes. What kind of cakes do you can?

I use whatever I have in the right size. Sometimes I use wide mouth because of the ease of getting stuff out of it (like meats, single servings of stew, and certain sauces/spreads) and for whole dill pickles I nearly always use narrow mouth since I can jam pickles in the top to keep the floating down. Sometimes I use a wide mouth jar because I think it looks better.... Mostly I use narrow mouth because they are cheaper, the lids are cheaper, and I have the most of them.

I haven't seen a difference in the two lids when pressure canning.

I just caned up Bratwurst. There is no way I could have shoved those links into a regular mouth jar.....getting them out would have been impossible, too. I use Tattler lids for many things, so that drops the lid price considerable.

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Jen
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Anything you're going to freeze in a jar, it's easier to get it out of a widemouth jar.

I found widemouth jars a lot easier to use when I first started canning. Now I still prefer them, but it's getting easier to pack stuff into the narrow mouth jars. Narrow jars are usually what I find at yardsales, anyway.

Easier to pack, easier to clean, easier to stack, hold up better to the freezer... why not use wide mouths?

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“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” - E.B. White

Can't get as many pints in the canner!

You can cakes? where can I find that recipe?

That's what I was thinking.

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Carol

Wife To One Hardworking Husband
Mom To 3 Amazing Sons!

Ds30, DDIL
Ds27
Ds21
And our first grandchild due in November!

If your freezing in jars, I think wide mouth would be the way to go. The shoulders on the small mouth jars could break when the food expands. But with freezing you can use recycled lids so cost is not a factor really.
i've started using pint wide mouth to freeze in so I don't have to buy so many bags.

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squashnut & bassketcher

Champagne D Argent, White New Zealand & Californian Cross Rabbits