Thanks, luvncannin. The rusting is why I'm gonna stop leaving the rings on. It just "looks funny" to not have the rings on there, but I hate that rusting, and like you said, the risk of losing a seal.

It does look funny. And I always forget to give people a ring when I give a jar of goodies. My kids and my mom all have reusable plastic lids from mayo. But occasionally I give to others lol

Yes, I always remove them before storage. Then, at Christmas time and other times when we are giving away a lot of canned goods, I drag out the stored rings and put them back on the jars.

I do it for the exact same reasons that Kim mentioned: to avoid rust/corrosion if and when moisture gets trapped between the lid and the screw band and because, if a lid becomes unsealed and there is contamination, you're more likely to notice if if there are no bands involved.

We buy and use the plastic storage one-piece lids from Ball that can be used after a jar has been opened. They come in both regular and wide-mouth sizes, and are great for products like salsa, pickles, relish, jams, jellies, etc. that are not all consumed on the first day you open up a jar.

Thanks y'all. I never have taken them off before, but I just went and took them ' off everything I've canned and not given away yet. I'll just store them, and that saves me money on rings/screw bands. I don't know why I want to call them "rings". It think it's the Aphasia setting in ;) Dawn, I've seen those one-piece Ball lids, but I've never bought them. I may grab some next time I'm at the store. Thanks!!

The mayo lid from 32oz jar fits too. We had about 20 at my old school I scored and I keep about 5 on hand for myself.

I call the rings all time too, and my family knows what I mean. When talking to someone else, I try to remember to call them the screw bands as that might be more understandable to people who don't can and don't know what I mean when I say the rings. This year they had little bitty Ball jars in 4-packs complete with the plastic storage lids on them, and our store didn't have just a package of plastic regular mouth plastic storage lids so I bought the 4-pack of lidded jars. Tim loves them for putting small amounts of things, like salad dressing for his lunch or milk for his breakfast cereal (since he leaves the house at 4:20 am, he takes both breakfast and lunch to work with him). He only uses two jars per day, so that leaves 2 more plastic lids for me to use for stuff in the fridge. I'll have to remember that about mayo lids though, now that I think about it, lately I've been buying mayo in squeezable bottles so we'll have to use those up before I can buy the 32 oz. jars since so we'll eventually have the lids to use.

I do buy the 32 oz jars of mayo, and I'll start keeping those lids.

I buy both the wide month and regular plastic lids when I see them because I use them all of the time. My WM doesn't always have them tho. I also keep the lids from Braum's ice cream topping jars.

Ours doesn't either, so I have to watch like a hawk for them. Sometimes they are easier to find in the off months when no one is canning much, but that doesn't help anyone who needs them now. I cannot be in any store that carries canning supplies without going to that aisle to check and see what they have, and plastic storage lids always are one of the things I'm looking for. I have better luck down in the D-FW metro finding canning supplies because they're almost never sold out of stuff down there like they are up here.

I probably will not be canning as much this year, but I hope to make some salsa, and I almost always can apple things. I still have a lot of jam so the only thing I will probably make will be Habanero Gold a little later. Since I am feeding 9 instead of 2, we will eat most of it fresh, I think.

I would imagine so. It would take a huge garden to have a surplus left over after feeding 9 people.

I used to find the plastic lids at Target. Bought a box of each size. They do come in handy.

When i worked at Valley they made pimento cheese for Bob Wills. They used 20 jars of mayo cases of pimentos and I scored lids and jars for 3 years. I forgot I ask them to save them for me this year. I don't use condiments unless I make them myself so I scavenge others lids. I hate to pay for "free" stuff. I will if I run out though. I don't like using my rings in the frig. They rust too fast.

Does anyone call the flat lid flats. I do and it drives my mother nuts cause she didn't teach me that. We don't know where I picked it up. I told her if she would have taught me how to can she could have trained me in proper terminology. Lol i say flats and rings.

Moni I am so happy to see you here. Hope you are really loving your new chapter. Hey I finally got a flowbee!!!

Luvncannin, do you make your own mayo? I do sometimes, just for fun. I used to love Hellman's, but something changed, and so now I only buy Duke's (a mayo that is very popular in the deep south, where I lived for 23 years). Do you make your own ketchup, too?

I do make may now. So exciting

Avacado, evoo, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, salt, garlic. It is amazing.

Ketchup will be a little harder since I can not have night shades.

The British use a mushroom based "ketchup". Can you do mushrooms? I've always wanted to try it.

I wouldn't make this much, it doesn't keep long enough to use that much. But this gives you an idea. Mushroom ketchup

And there is walnut ketchup. Bon, this recipe uses unripe black walnuts.

I love Target, Moni, and I almost never get to go to one because it is easily 60 miles or more round-trip if I go to the closest one, or even farther if I go to the next closest one. I miss Target. I wish they'd build one somewhere in southern OK but I doubt that ever will happen.

Kim, I used to call them flats. We have flats and we have rings, and no one but I (at least in our household) knows what that means except me, so now I call them flat lids and screw-on lids for the benefit of Tim and Chris so they'll know what in the world I'm talking about. It is getting harder and harder to find people who speak the language of canning.

I leave the rings on the jars, but back them off about 1/4 inch. We have lost two jars in the pantry and we knew it within a few days. The rings did not interfere.

I used to store them with the rings on, but then became aware that the National Center for Home Food Preservation, the government body from whence comes all the canning rules we're supposed to observe, recommended removing the bands for storage. So, in order to be complying with their recommendations as much as possible, I started removing the ring bands for storage. Now that I've become used to doing it their way, it seems wrong to me if I leave the bands off. Due to the large amount of canning that I do (around 600 jars per year), having to store the bands separately is sort of a pain in the neck, and it takes up more space, but I do it anyway. Heaven help us if we ever misplace the storage totes that are filled with the screw-on rings/bands.

This is kind of backwards, but I started pressure canning before water bath canning. Today is my first water bath can ever - native blackberries from the farmer's market! I already put some in the freezer in case the canning goes south. Wish me luck! Had to zip over to the store for more "flats" because I didn't check my pile before starting. Luckily it wasn't a critical moment and the store is 5 minutes away.

I have lots of plastic lids for large mouth jars (which I like best), but needed a few more regular size. I was in WM today and looked for a box. They no longer had the boxes, but now have a WM brand in a cellophane bag.

Kate, After I got married and started canning on my own without my dad being there to show me what to do, I started with pressure canning too, which is sort of backwards. On the other hand, once you've pressure canned, BWB canning is a cinch by comparison. I am sure things will go perfectly well for you.

I won't run out of flats this summer because I bought them in bulk (by the hundreds) from Lehman's online, and I already had tons of them before I made the bulk purchase. I like knowing I won't run out and have to run to the store for more. With no stores close by whatsoever (especially stores that carry canning supplies), I'm the queen of stocking up on canning stuff in bulk and then (hopefully) coasting through the rest of the canning season.

Carol, I saw those, but didn't buy any because I needed regular mouth and they had wide mouth. It's always something.

Dawn

Okie, everyone does things differently. I have the Ball book edition 2006 and on page 415 it says you may if you wish reapply the rings after the rims and rings are cleaned. I wash the entire jar and rings and when dry I put the ring on loosely. That makes stacking my jars safe. Believe me, when you can 1000-1500 jars a year, you need to stack with no more room than I have.

I wasn't criticizing the way you do it. I was just noting that I changed my method after reading what the NCHFP recommended. Before I read that, I'd never really given it much thought, except to notice that when I used our in-ground tornado shelter for autumn and winter storage of canned goods, I did have to remove the bands because they rusted if I didn't. Now I store them all inside the house itself (in many different places since the pantry can only hold so many) and remove the bands before packing them away in plastic storage boxes with lids to go into various closets or cabinets, under the beds, etc. If a jar goes bad (which really doesn't happen often), I won't even know it until I open up one of the storage totes anyway. I guess I'd notice if one in the pantry or in a kitchen cabinet went bad because I'm in and out of the pantry daily, but it is rare that they go bad anyhow. Mostly I just don't want for them to corrode or rust.

Regarding the Ball Complete Book of Canning from 2006, I have it but haven't used it in years, other than to look up a recipe for someone. I tend to go with what is written on the NCHFP's website when it comes to practices and procedures because they have all the latest info based on government-funded research, and I like to stay current or at least know when changes occur. I don't think the NCHFP gets research money like it once did (budget cuts year after year, it seems) because they don't do updates very often at all any more. I generally only become aware of something changing if someone on the Harvest Forum happens to mention it. Otherwise, I'd likely never know when they change the rules of the game.