Oct 1, 2026 · 27 min · 14 segments
Join Liz on Seasonal Slow Living as she walks you through the classic German WECK canning system—glass jars, rubber rings, and spring clips. Learn the history, the ten essential steps, safety tips…
Let me start with the jar, because it's four pieces, and every one of them is doing something.
That ground edge is important, and I'll come back to it.
There's a glass lid, a flat disc, ground on its underside to match.
Between them, a rubber ring, which is the only part of the system that isn't glass or steel, and two spring clips opposite each other which hook under the lip of the jar and press down on the lid.
That's it.
Four parts, and you can hold all of them in one hand.
The ground rim is the part I said I'd come back to, and it's the part that makes glass on glass possible at all.
Look at the top edge of the jar in good light, and you'll see it isn't shiny like the rest.
It's matte.
Frosted.
Because it's been ground flat.
The underside of the lid is ground the same way.
Two ground surfaces with a rubber ring between them make a seal that a molded edge never could.
Because a molded edge has ridges and a ground one doesn't.
A chip on that rim, even one you can barely see, is a channel.
And the rings, a ring is good while it's soft and springy and stretches and returns, when it goes stiff, or whitens or stays stretched when you pull it, or feels slightly tacky, it's porous, and a porous ring is a ring that will let air back through as the jar cools.
they're stored in the dark dry flat because light and heat age rubber and a ring that's been used on a ferment lid or as a seal for anything other than canning doesn't come back to the canner rings are the only thing here you'll ever buy twice and the point is to buy them as seldom as the rubber allows Notice what's not there.
There's no metal in contact with the food.
The lid is glass.
The ring sits on the rim, outside the food, and the clips touch only the outside of the lid and the outside of the jar.
Let me start with the jar, because it's four pieces, and every one of them is doing something.
That ground edge is important, and I'll come back to it.
There's a glass lid, a flat disc, ground on its underside to match.
Between them, a rubber ring, which is the only part of the system that isn't glass or steel, and two spring clips opposite each other which hook under the lip of the jar and press down on the lid.
That's it.
Four parts, and you can hold all of them in one hand.
The ground rim is the part I said I'd come back to, and it's the part that makes glass on glass possible at all.
Look at the top edge of the jar in good light, and you'll see it isn't shiny like the rest.
It's matte.
Frosted.
Because it's been ground flat.
The underside of the lid is ground the same way.
Two ground surfaces with a rubber ring between them make a seal that a molded edge never could.
Because a molded edge has ridges and a ground one doesn't.
A chip on that rim, even one you can barely see, is a channel.
And the rings, a ring is good while it's soft and springy and stretches and returns, when it goes stiff, or whitens or stays stretched when you pull it, or feels slightly tacky, it's porous, and a porous ring is a ring that will let air back through as the jar cools.
they're stored in the dark dry flat because light and heat age rubber and a ring that's been used on a ferment lid or as a seal for anything other than canning doesn't come back to the canner rings are the only thing here you'll ever buy twice and the point is to buy them as seldom as the rubber allows Notice what's not there.
There's no metal in contact with the food.
The lid is glass.
The ring sits on the rim, outside the food, and the clips touch only the outside of the lid and the outside of the jar.
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