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You are here: Home / Canning Equipment / What do you call your canning jar rings?

What do you call your canning jar rings?

Mason jars over the past century traditionally have had a two or three piece lid system. One of those pieces has always been a “ring” that screws onto the top of the mason jar in order to hold down the actual lid part during the canning process.

It appears that people working in the field prefer to call them “screw bands.”

  • Ball: “Do not over tighten bands ”  [1] https://www.freshpreserving.com/tools/faqs
  • Bernardin: “Apply screw band – screw band down until resistance is met…”  [2] https://www.bernardin.ca/pages/high_acid_foods_step_6_/62.php
  • National Center for Home Food Preservation: “If lids are tightly vacuum sealed on cooled jars, remove screw bands”  [3] https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/store/store_home_canned.html
  • USDA: You can more easily detect some types of spoilage in jars stored without screw bands.”  [4] United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 2015. Complete guide to home canning. Agriculture information bulletin No. 539. Page 1-20

Here’s a screen cap from a Kerr Company manual from 1948, referring to the items as “Screw bands.”

Kerr Screw Bands

Answers to your canning questions. Kerr. Questions 5 & 6, page 46. 1948.

 

It would appear, though, as the experts aren’t necessarily leading popular usage in this.

In January 2015, a Google Search on various terms produced these numbers:

  • 411,000 hits on: “mason jar” bands  [5] https://www.google.com/search?q=”mason+jar”+bands
  • 866,000 hits on “mason jar” rings  [6]https://www.google.com/search?q=”mason+jar”+rings
  • 975,000 hits on canning rings:   [7] https://www.google.ca/search?q=canning+rings

That’s just a completely unscientific sampling, but it may show that the word “rings” is more popular than “bands.”

In any event, it’s difficult to imagine that there will ever be any mass consensus: you may even notice yourself using different terms at different times!

Further reading

Storing your canning rings

Baking in canning rings

References   [ + ]

1. ↑ https://www.freshpreserving.com/tools/faqs
2. ↑ https://www.bernardin.ca/pages/high_acid_foods_step_6_/62.php
3. ↑ https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/store/store_home_canned.html
4. ↑ United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 2015. Complete guide to home canning. Agriculture information bulletin No. 539. Page 1-20
5. ↑ https://www.google.com/search?q=”mason+jar”+bands
6. ↑ https://www.google.com/search?q=”mason+jar”+rings
7. ↑ https://www.google.ca/search?q=canning+rings

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We only review comments periodically, otherwise we'd never get any research and writing work done. If you need FAST canning help or answers, this is not the place to ask for that. Please try one of these Master Food Preserver groups; they are more qualified than we are and have many hands to help you. Many of them even operate telephone hotlines in season.

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“Don’t substitute dishwasher canning, oven canning, or open-kettle canning for an approved canning method – boiling water canning or pressure canning.”

— Dr Barb Ingham, 5 Tips for a Successful Home Canning Season. May 2011.

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