Missing A Mason Jar Lid? The Top To This Pantry Staple Fits Perfectly

If you've ever lost the lid to a Mason jar and assumed the whole thing was rendered useless and destined for the recycling bin, think again. A replacement lid might already be sitting in your pantry or fridge — if you've got a jar of Jif peanut butter on hand. Standard Jif lids can actually fit over many regular-mouth Mason jars, saving you from throwing them away unnecessarily.

It makes complete sense when you consider how people actually use these classic jars. Beyond crowning them the unofficial container for overnight oats, people often use them to store dry ingredients, leftovers, sauces, and other odds and ends. For most of those everyday jobs, a plastic lid works just as well as a metal one; metal lids are really only needed for preserving or canning food.

Traditional two-piece canning lids have a flat metal disc with a sealing compound, plus a separate screw band. They're designed to create a vacuum seal during canning, which can only be created once, so you'd need to replace the lid anyway. (However, for casual daily storage, you can safely reuse both Mason jar lids and rings.) So, if you're fresh out of metal lids, a plastic peanut-butter lid can save the day.

This isn't even an out-of-the-left-field hack. Bell, which manufactures Mason jars and canning lids, already sells plastic storage lids for regular-mouth jars used for things outside canning and preserving. And because regular-mouth Mason jars use a standard 70-millimeter opening, lids from any jar with the same opening size will fit, too. Plastic lids from many standard mayonnaise jars, for example, can also be used on regular-mouth Mason jars, as can jar lids from several other peanut butter brands, not exclusively Jif.

You'll just need to double-check that the lid definitely fits your jar, as Mason jars come in different sizes and "fits" doesn't necessarily mean "sealed." So, before you use a repurposed lid for anything that could leak or spoil, turn the empty jar on its side to check that the lid stays firmly attached. Of course, if you're storing anything that needs a genuinely airtight or leakproof seal, it may be better to use a lid designed specifically for the jar you're using. Still, in a jam, that Jif lid you were about to toss could be all you need to put your Mason jar back to work.