Freezer Safe

[Gail]

I have used about 1/3 of a jar of spaghetti sauce. Would it be safe to freeze the remainder in the jar? I hate to transfer it to a plastic container due to discoloration problems.
Thanks...

[I used to know how to cook...]

Hi all,

Personally, I'd divide the sauce up into serving size portions and use zip-locks.

However, if she wants to freeze the sauce in the jar, leaving the lid off until the contents are frozen will allow for the expansion.

Lucy

[greygarious]

I frequently freeze partially-used glass jars. Only after reusing a jar for freezing numerous times has one cracked. So now I freeze a jar on its side - more room for expansion that way. Thaw in the fridge or in a pan of cold water. Since glass is not air-permeable, it's the best for preventing mingling of food odors.

[fourunder]

I frequently freeze my Vodka in a glass bottle.....so I would agree you can freeze foodstuffs safely in a partially filled glass jar.
As long as the glass jar is not bounced around, it's perfectly safe. I would suggest you put a layer of plastic film, in contact, and over the sauce to aid in reducing ice crystals forming.

[thew]

the volume of the jar changes when you lay it on its side?

[Bada Bing]

Not more room, of course, but I can see that the shape would effectively prevent breaking the jar on its side, provided the jar were less than half full, because the contents would sooner push upward than outward.

[thew]

i'm pretty sure gravity isn't really as strong a force as the pressure from the increased size from freezing water. but i'm speaking purely from theory, so will happily bow to experience

[Bada Bing]

Well, I don't speak from experience. It's just that, provided the sideways jar is less than half full, any pressure of freezing contents would be free to move upward, as if being pinched up against almost no resistance, and that motion would surely be likely to happen before the freezing solids could endanger the glass cylinder with sideways pressure. But again, that only applies if the jar is less than half full.

And then, there is the issue of pressure on the lid and bottom. Can of worms, here...

[thew]

i just dont see how that pressure would be less one way or the other

[Bada Bing]

Since you ask, I'll try an illustration image. :)

Imagine freezing water in two uncovered glasses of different shapes. If one glass is a vertically oriented cylinder, the water might manage to start freezing and pressing against the sides of the glass. That glass might break. If the other glass is a martini glass of the flared triangular profile, the water would be free to creep upward in the glass as the water freezes and expands.

So long as the OP's jar is on its side and is less than half full, the contents will have similar room to expand upward easily, at least until the expansion reaches past the middle level, at which point the jar would squeeze back against the expansion, because the glass would then be narrowing again.

As compared to the martini glass example, the only additional force with the OP's jar would be the air pressure from the closed container, which I do not think would be strong enough to outweigh the strength of the glass.

[greygarious]

What s/he said.

[thew]

if the container is open there would be nothing impeding the freezing water from expanding upwards, as opposed to pressing on the sides of the glass..... thats what i meant about gravity not being very strong... the pressure against the glass is less than the freezing water needs to expand upwards so it has no reason to expand outwards

think about it - it takes an entire planets gravity to hold us, or even a feather down, and requires almost no effort to lift that feather up against an entire planets gravitational pull

[escondido123]

I have a couple plastic containers that are designated for "red/curry" sauce. Might just want to do that and get over worrying about staining your containers. Life's too short.

[Gail]

You're right, escondido, "Life's too short". I always remember that regarding cheap wine, so why not plastic containers? I lost my way for a moment...
Thanks, plastic it is; zip lock or otherwise!

[Gmaine]

Ok to freeze it but NOT in the jar. Use a zip-lock bag.