On Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:46:08 -0500, "DKat"
wrote:


"Bob Masta" wrote in message
...

I have saved old glass peanut butter jars for similar purposes.
They hold 2 cups and have 1/4 cup markings on one side and
1/3 cup on the other, with a metal lid having a rubbery sealer.
I use these in the kitchen all the time for measuring and
shaking things up.

For small glaze test batches (100-200 grams) my favorite is
the new plastic containers that frozen juice concentrates
come in. I go through a lot of Welch's Grape Juice, so there
are always plenty available. These are just the right size to
shake really hard with one hand, holding your thumb over
the lid. Since the containers are abundant and free, I just
mark the top with a felt-tip and store as-is. Later, when
you want to use that glaze, you just shake it up and you
are ready to go. Great for detail brushwork, where you don't
need a large batch in the first place.

There are a couple of caveats: When you initially use the
juice and wash out the container, snap the lid back on
right away. If you store the lid separate from the container,
the plastic apparently shrinks or something and it won't
go back on easily. (You can rejuvenate by running in hot
water for a bit.)

Also, the lid has a pretty fine groove that interlocks with the
lip of the container. Excellent seal when new, but the
groove tends to catch drips of glaze that you have to wipe
out (with difficulty) to insure a good seal. Sometimes when
I open a glaze that I haven't used in many months, the
contents have dried out (slightly or a lot) and need to have
water added. But that is pretty easy.

I cannot put a jar in recycling if it has measurement marks. I will buy a
brand I would normally pass by if it is in a glass container with
measurement marks. I have never seen a plastic frozen juice container. I
just know of these little cardboard ones. I'll have to go looking. Locally
I'm known as the odd container lady. I go around to deli's, grocers, bakers
asking for any plastic containers they may have that they are throwing out.
Pickle containers are 5 gallons and come in blue and green. I have
discovered that it is really good to color code your glaze containers for
newbies. The smell of pickles is with you for a really, really long time
but the glaze doesn't seem to mind. Bakers have these great 10 liter
containers for eggs. If you don't get the eggs entirely off it grows a
really nice black mold.

What really works about this litte 'shaker' is that it has 'blades' at the
top and then a dome lid. So if you could join two jars together with a
something between them that acts as blades, and then some way to seal it....
I wonder if just a bit of screen on the top of the jar with some rubber
rings on top of it so there is air space between the screen and the top of
the lid but you still get a tight seal? It really acts like a blender. I
can put dry powder in it that really doesn't want to go into liquid form and
this little sucker turns it into cream.

Donna

P.S. Are you in the U.S? (otherwise I think it will be a fruitless search).


Yep... Ann Arbor, Michigan. All Welch's frozen concentrates
are in plastic now, as far as I can tell, and a few other brands
are moving in that direction as well.

I also am an avid recycler and reuser. One thing you might
want to know about the Welch's containers is that they are
HDPE (number 2 in the little triangle). Now, many community
recycling programs state that only "bottle" shapes are
acceptable in HDPE, not wide-mouth containers. But what
they *really* mean is that they only accept blow-molded
HDPE, which is a slightly different formulation from the
usual wide-mouth. Welch's containers, however, are indeed
blow-molded... you can tell by the parting line. You may have
to prod the authorities a little bit to recognize this, but they now
accept the Welch's containers here. (Or at least they seem
to. They might have told me that to shut me up, and are
still quietly tossing them in the sorting facility.)

Best regards,



Bob Masta
dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom

D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com
Home of DaqGen, the FREEWARE signal generator