Wide Mouth vs Regular Mouth ... Jars Of Course, Not Rabbits

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Rabbits by Accident

Rabbits by Accident

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Hi all,

Well, it's time that I am going to have to actually butcher a rabbit ... :(

I agree with @Olbunny regarding freezing, so I thought I'd try canning. We got rid of all our jars when I moved :( so I have to buy new (as well as a new canner)

My husband likes wide-mouth jars, but they are more expensive. Is it worth it for rabbits? I don't see the point, but I haven't done a lot of canning, that was my husband's field.

- Liz
 
Wide mouth!! You'll be able to can anything without it getting stuck. Being able to reach into a jar is super helpful. Depending on if you can in the future, peaches and whole tomatoes won't fit in those.
 
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Widemouth is so much easier. Even when you have deboned, diced rabbit in broth, it still takes extra effort to get it completelythrough the narrow mouth jar opening.
 
Since you need to buy a new canner, you might consider a taller one that allows to double stack your pint jars. I have a very nice presto canner but it will not accommodate double stacking. This taller size would save quite a bit of time if the volume in your pint jars is enough for your meal and you have a lot of rabbit, fruit, or vegetables to can.
 
Ditto wide mouth, as long as you are rebuilding your jar inventory for sure, suggest you check lid avaliblity as in some places lids are hard to come by. We buy stock when we find it, for fear of shortage. Also we are watching estate sales.
 
I find both types of jars good for different types of canning actually. I like my applesauce, jams, relishes etc in narrow mouth jars as it's easier to keep the lip clean using one of those jar helpers... not sure what they are called.

Pickles and larger things I like in the wide mouth jar.

So for me it depends on what I am canning.
 
I’m on the same page as @ladysown. I use both wide and regular mouth jars. While I agree that wide mouth is easier to access when trying to get things out (and perhaps in) I use regular for meat canning all the time. However, my meat is deboned and in smaller pieces, so perhap this is why either mouth size works for me. Sure, with wide mouth I can pretty much just turn the jar over and the entire contents of meat will plop out into a plate or bowl, but I like to pour off the meat broth first and save it for other uses, so regular mouth makes this super easy. I do not disturb the meat after taking off the lid, turn over the jar and the solids are prevented from slipping out while I pour off the delicious broth. once the broth has drained, I break up the meat with a fork and scoop it out.
 
For most things I prefer regular mouth jars. They are easier to handle. A benefit that I quite like is that Classico spaghetti sauce uses the same mouth. hence the one piece lid is able to be used for reclosure once a jar is opened. For soups and stews these work well. When packing meat, though, the broth is likely to go gelatinous when cooled. A wide mouth jar will then be a huge benefit for contents removal.
 
We have some of each and also have the plastic one piece lids for storage after opening the jars. The wide mouth canning lids do cost a bit more so those aren't usually the default jars used for canning unless there's a need for the wide mouth. They're great for dry and other storage, though, especially with the one piece plastic lids.

There's several different types of canners, too. A huge waterbath for jams and jellies and another huge pressure canner for everything else. For meat, I think you pretty much need the pressure canner. We've got some smaller ones and that ginormous one, I think it's a twenty four quart pressure canner? Something enormous and ancient but it still works great. Hmm, the thing is about seventy years old now! We can still get parts for it, which is somewhat amazing.

Sometimes you can find a lot of these sorts of things at thrift shops and if you let your friends know you're looking for jars, they may have some to give you as well. Although, a proper canning jar is a different sort of jar than the general sort that store bought pickles come in.
 

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