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A new thing in the canning jar world is the pint-and-a-half Mason jar. Here’s a refresher on your P’s and Q’s. A half pint is one measuring cup, a pint is two cups, and a pint and a half are 3 cups. In years past, a canner had no three cup option, nor did they have an option that sits so nicely in a cup holder of a car.
I love the pint-and-a-half for several reasons. First, they are, like all real canning jars, safe for water bath canning and pressure canning, heavy glass, and of high quality for daily use and general food storage.
The wide mouth and taller shape mean you could use them for preserving spears of asparagus, pickled carrots, tall dilly beans, etc. The shape lends itself to use as a vase for cut flowers and storage of a pound of ground coffee beans, for example.
The quantity of three cups is ideal for drinking water as any more seems to get warm before I can drink it all and replaces costly and wasteful plastic water bottles. It is perfect for the amount of coffee I drink in the morning.
The jars are made in America (as displayed on the side) which is awesome. The fact that this jar fits so nicely in a cup holder cannot be ignored. Sure, some of us would love four cups of coffee to-go but a quart jar simply doesn’t fit. Don’t try it, as it’s a mess waiting to happen- I’ve done it.
If you want to see what the actual canning process looks like, where you preserve food in these awesome jars (think tall dilly beans or pickled asparagus spears) download my free canning cheatsheet!
The jars are printed with both cups and metric measurements on the side for easy ratios. Sure, I can eye-ball a cup in a quart jar, but the curved sides at the top of a quart (as opposed to the wide mouth and straight sides of the pint-and-a-half) makes eye-balling tricky towards the top.
It may seem silly to be so totally enthused about a canning jar but I assure you this is a good one to get. I encourage you, Wildflowers, to score some next time you are out. I bought a flat and split it with a friend and I use mine DAILY. While you are shopping, grab some of Ball’s drinking lids and straws. I got a pack of four for wide mouth and four for narrow and also use those daily.
Comment below and tell me what do you put in your pint-and-a-half, Dear Reader? Click the photo link below to grab your own!
I love your enthusiasm for the 3 cupper! Your recommendation was so great that I was going to run right out and buy a dozen. Then I looked in my jar stash – and sure enough – I already had them!!! Three exclamation points for three cups!!!