Tuesday Tip | Parmesan Cheese lids fit Mason jars!

It’s true! Those plastic lids from grated Italian cheeses fit regular-mouth Mason jars.

In my opinion, they don’t fit quite as well as the lids that are made for Mason jars, but hey, if you’ve already got them sitting around, they’re a free one-piece screw-top lid.

You can use regular lids and rings on your jars, of course, but sometimes it is a lot more convenient to have a one-piece, rust-free lid.

For my wide-mouth jars, I use the Ball brand of plastic lids, which on Amazon are less than $10 for 8 lids.  

And on Target.com, they’re less than $5! (thanks to a reader for letting me know)

(jars of homemade yogurt)

There are other cheaper ones available on Amazon, but I can’t vouch for how well they last.   I’ve had my Ball lids for over 5 years and they’re still going strong, so I can recommend them heartily.

I do still use some metal lids and rings when I’m storing something stinky in my jars. That way I don’t have to worry about the lids absorbing some horrible smell, and if the metal lid (which I’ve already reused a zillion times) gets a bad odor, I can just throw it away.

P.S. Please note that plastic lids aren’t meant for canning, and they don’t provide an air-tight, leakproof seal the way that metal lids and rings do.