It’s not unlikely that your grandparent used canning jars for their original purpose: canning. But here in the twenty-first-century kitchen, the hard-to-destroy, easy-to-seal jar has become valuable for many more purposes. We love it — and not just because one of the most popular models is manufactured by aerospace pioneer Ball.
The jars are cheaply available by the dozen, and replacement lids are even more cheaply available, so you can keep an array of lids on hand, customized for different purposes.
Here are a few of our favorite things to do with jars. What do you do with yours?