Best mason jars for home canning

Start with Ball wide-mouth jars. Ball is the name most canners trust, its wide mouth is easy to fill and clean, and the two-piece lid-and-band seal is the one tested recipes assume — so your processing times hold.

Who the others suit:

• Kerr regular mouth — the everyday workhorse for jams, salsas and pickles; regular lids are the cheapest to replace.
• Quart regular-mouth 12-pack — for whole tomatoes, peaches and stock, where you want fewer, bigger jars.
• Half-pint 8 oz jars — jellies, relishes and gift jars.
• Premium 16 oz wide-mouth 12-pack — a tidy starter set with silicone-ring lids; fine for storage, but check the maker's canning guidance before processing.
• Weck — glass-lid, clamp-and-rubber-ring jars for looks and dry storage; they don't take standard lids.

Buy new lids each season, and match lid size to mouth size.