Some say you can't and some say you can - now what is your experience?

[Monique1]

I'm thinking of making some homemade refried beans and homemade salsa as gifts - I am thinking of freezing these in Ball jars - I've read the jars crack and some say no. What is your experience? My family is against the use of plastic. I myself - would rather the glass but do not want this to shatter in the freezer.

[hippywife]

1. I've never done it.

But I've also read if you leave plenty of head room under the lid, it should be okay. You could just put the salsa into a hot water bath for 15-20 minutes to seal the jar lids and not have to do anything else with it.

[The empressof all]

2. I wouldn't do it

I have a set of glass freezer safe storage containers that I got at Costco. I think you should have tempered glass like a Pyrex to assure safe freezing

[Denninmi]

3. You can freeze in certain types safely.

The newer style jars with no "shoulders" are freezer safe and labeled as such -- just a tapered cylinder, and take widemouth lids. The shape helps make the difference -- the pressure is diverted upwards, not outwards. Still have to leave adequate headspace, of course. They should come in pints and quarts, not sure about smaller sizes.

http://www.canningpantry.com/pint-wide-mouth.html

[grasswire]

4. How about aluminum pans?

Those "disposable" pans that can be recycled. Wrap those in aluminum foil and seal the edges. Would that work?

[trud]

5. I suspect freezer to microwave would not be a good idea for glass. n/t

[Arkansas Granny]

6. Here's some info I found at the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Can glass jars be used for freezing?
Regular glass jars break easily at freezer temperatures. If using glass jars, choose wide-mouth dual purpose jars made for freezing and canning; these jars have been tempered to withstand extremes in temperatures. If standard canning jars (those with narrow mouths) are used, leave extra headspace in liquid packs (3/4-inch for pints; 11/2-inches for quarts) to allow for expansion of food during freezing and completely thaw food before removing it. Do not use regular canning jars for foods packed in water.

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/questions/FAQ_freezing.html#15

They answer a lot of questions here about preserving food for the home kitchen. It's a great resource.

[eleny]

7. How about using the plastic Ball jars made for freezing

I did a search for <plastic Ball jars> at Google and a list turned up of their plastic freezer jars in various sizes. Evidently, they make 8, 16 and 32 ounce sizes.

My cousin gave me some her homemade sugar free cranberry orange sauce at Thanksgiving. It was in a cute 8 oz size plastic Ball jar that has a twist on lid.

But I'd adjust the amount you put into the jars for freezing expansion. Maybe test one out to see if the lids stay on. Someone at the Ace Hardware site said the lids pop off. But they didn't say how much they put into the jars. Nine out of eleven people at Amazon gave the jars a 5 star rating.