My Pantry - What Do I use to store stuff in - Part Two - Jars

Once upon a time many moons ago, there was a young woman recently married, who bought a 1930s house along with her husband.  That house had a Scullery Kitchen, outside loo and Little Pantry.  She loved that little Pantry but her kitchen was too small as she was a proper old fashioned style cook.  Eventually after a few years of savings, they had the kitchen and Pantry (which was half way along the kitchen) turned into a full kitchen with units which is what she wanted for that house for more space. She had no choice in keeping the Pantry. It was not the largest of kitchens but it was hers and she did love it.  However, having had the Pantry, there was something missing as that little storage space had held so much and the units did not hold things like she had hoped for.  What made things easier for the new units was that she invested in Tupperware bulk ingredient holders for all her baking and cooking ingredients and kept them in a designated Larder unit.  That young woman learned early on from practical experience that if you had a proper full sized larder space, to keep it if you could or if you were in a position to renovate it or create a new Pantry area then do so.  

What do I do if I do not have a Pantry

Sometimes though there is no possibility of having a Pantry area per se. There are always options though. In those circumstances and as an alternative to create your own Pantry area buy an old second hand square wardrobe or two, give them a makeover with shelves inside, paint the outside if necessary and use that as a Pantry area for the time being. A means to an end, not perfect but a means to an end.  Sometimes you have to think outside the box. Bookshelves revamped are also another good way of storing stuff.  Storing items in a box or two under the bed in a cooler bedroom, under the stairs as I use as an extra area.

What to use for storing Pantry ingredients in

What do I use for storing my Pantry ingredients in, basically anything and everything that I possibly can; even if it means re-purposing something.  However I am a traditionalist.  My Pantry is kept to my household needs and requirements.  I like to be able to find things quickly, I like vintage pieces, pretty pieces and I keep a variety of ingredients often the jars or bottles whatever are decided by how much of an ingredient I want to keep. 

I love Cornish ware pottery and have several smaller pieces in my stash.  I started to collect some of the Cannisters.  I also love unusual vintage Statement pieces as well.  When my sister-in-law was alive she used to take me to Car Boot sales and the like.  We used to go all over and I have several bargains that I found when out and about with her.  Sadly those days seem to be long over for me as I am not allowed to drive and cannot get to where I want to  under my own steam.

Old Sweet Jars

My main bulk storage items are large old Sweet jars.  Roses, Quality Street or any other old vintage sweet jar.  They hold quite a bit and I predominantly use these jars for storing my Bread flour, SR Flour, Plain flour, Dark Brown Sugar, Light Brown Sugar, Demerara, Vanilla Sugar, Pasta, Large Porridge Oats, fine Porridge Oats etc. These are heavy, but I have used these for over 30 years. Quite a few of these came from our Christmas celebrations from years past, and others have come via Ebay.  I have  a price I will go up to and no more.  I am constantly looking for these to add to the collection but only buy when I can afford them. I source Ebay and other similar sites, and always check out the Charity shops and Antique and Flea markets.  I also use these jars when I can afford it for making bulk quantities of pickled onions, pickled eggs, Sloe Gin, Damson Gin etc.  Next year I intend to have a go at Salting Runner beans using one of these jars.  These size jars are good at buffets and parties where there is a crowd to eat as you just fish the pickles out of the jar with a ladle.

Vintage Coffee Jars

When I was a little girl, growing up in the sixties, Mum used to collect glasses and small storage jars from the Coffee companies.  Maxwell House I think was the main provider.  I inherited the last couple of these jars from her and I would love to add to these at some point.  These have what are known as the Daisy lids.

I also today collect the Douwe Egbert coffee jars as well.  Often you can pick these up off of Facebook or on Ebay.

Ground Glass Lidded Jars

I have collected these for a while mostly from Charity shops, but they do tend to get a bit expensive especially for the larger jars.  I also have a few of these.  I do have quite a few more of the smaller ones.  Most of these are stored on one of my Welsh Dressers.  I have far too many jars to get them all in my Pantry and so I utilised the Dresser for this purpose.

Kilner Jars

Vintage Kilner Jars

The vintage jars can be used as Pantry storage jars. 

The jar below is a vintage Dual Purpose Kilner jar.  You can still find these and you can use a modern wide seal on the jar, with wide rings.  Leifheit rings and seals fit these perfectly.  So you can re-use these jars for storing Pantry essentials as well as still water bathe with them.

If you want to use them for water bathing this chap may be able to help you re-love these old jars.  Quite interesting histories on some of the jars as well.  I love these old jars and have used them in water bathing fruit.  I love the size of the jar as it is a nice wide mouthed jar which enables you to get your fruit packed into the jars evenly.

Kilner Jars and Parts (preservingjarparts.co.uk)

Current Kilner Jars

The modern day versions most definitely seem to be more for storage.  I have a couple but not many. These are the clip lock topped jars which use an orange gasket to seal the jar.  They can be used for water bathing but are more commonly used for Pantry storage especially the larger sizes.

You can also actually use the 1 pint Preserving jars for this purpose or a larger jar.  However these jars are not as cheap as they used to be and I personally would prefer to use these for processing food.  

I am going to look in Home Bargains though to see if I can find some of their Erin jars to add stuff to the Dresser and Pantry shelves.  I think these work out at around £1 a jar.

Le Parfait Jars

Another clip lock jar this time by Le Parfait.  I have lots of their jars as at one time they were about the only real large jars available in the UK especially after Kilner stopped producing preserving jars.

Other Jars   

I do use a variety of these.  Take for instance the Bisto Gravy Granule jars, I also utilise these as well as old honey jars and any suitable sized jar that I can obtain replacement lids for in order to re-use them.  Nothing is sacred and if it can be utilised it will be.  There is always a way to achieve things just by a little lateral thinking every now and then.

You can start off with a certain type of jar for convenience but then if you come across something that you like better you can always replace and recyle those which do not suit.

Jars are not the only items that I use in the Pantry.  I also use a variety of other items. More to come on that in the next post.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards.

Pattypan

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