Mason Jar Blender Trick Trick

January 15, 2015 12:27 PM

How do I safely execute this blender trick?

I found this DIY hack on Pinterest and thought, "Brilliant!" which is normally not what I think about DIY hacks on Pinterest. Then I read down in the comments section and it seems about 80/20 between "I love the Mason jar hack!" comments and "I got seriously injured from flying glass shards as a result of the Mason jar hack!" comments.

I think my basic question is where I can buy an actual mason jar with heavy unlikely-to-break glass like blenders have? My searches for "glass blender thing jar size" wasn't giving me what I want. Or any other advice about how the mason jar blender trick for the safety minded.

posted by mermily to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

Best answer: I'm sure it works (as the video shows), but the clearance between the blades and the walls of the jar made me cringe. If something got really jammed in there, even a fast-moving piece of dense ice, I could see a typical jar cracking. I'd stick with the OEM pitcher or get one of those smoothie blenders with the smaller blades.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:36 PM on January 15, 2015

I've done it without breaking glass, but occasionally the not-perfect-fit would mean that the rubber ring that goes between the blade and jar on my Oster blender would get hacked up, defiling the food and requiring a replacement gasket.
posted by metasarah at 12:42 PM on January 15, 2015

Best answer: As someone who is responsible for chemistry lab safety and making sure that I'm not taking people to the hospital with a handful of glass shards every day, that video gives me some pause.
posted by bonehead at 12:50 PM on January 15, 2015 [11 favorites]

Best answer: Oster also makes a plastic "mini blend jar" that's very handy for ble nding up small things that you want to store in the fridge, and not likely to break.
posted by straw at 12:50 PM on January 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

Mason jars aren't tempered, fyi.
posted by bonehead at 12:51 PM on January 15, 2015

Best answer: You could see if your blender comes with a mini jar accessory, like this one from Oster or this one from Bledetec.
posted by melissasaurus at 12:51 PM on January 15, 2015

My mom had an Oster blender and a few Oster-branded jars meant for this purpose, and she shared the "common knowledge" that you could use a Mason jar when I asked her about them. Mom's current Kitchenaid blender doesn't have a jar-sized opening, and my Waring has the blade and bearing integrated into what Waring just calls the "glass container," so the jar trick isn't actually an option for either of us at this point.

It's safe with common sense: use an actual canning Mason jar and not just something prepackaged food came in; make sure the jar isn't chipped or cracked; don't put any hot liquid in because there's nowhere for steam to vent; make sure your blender is actually compatible with your jar. FWIW the only time I ever saw mom use her Oster jars was when she made her own salad dressing, since the blender would emulsify it and then you'd have a container you could use for storage of the leftovers. I don't think I'd want to put anything in there but liquid ingredients, and I'd pay strict attention to the maximum fill line.

Aside from salad dressing I think the other common old school use for the little jars was making baby food in small quantities. If you're making less than 8 ounces of something soft, you'll get better results from a small container that doesn't let everything shoot up the sides of the pitcher and stick where the blades don't reach.

Mom also had a bigger plastic tumbler (also Oster brand) that we could have used for smoothies, had smoothies been a thing in the 70s, but it seems they now have a specialized line with sport bottles (BPA Free even) just for that purpose.
posted by fedward at 1:11 PM on January 15, 2015

Mason jars are tempered, they're just not safety glass.

I was going to say you should look for the mini-container options but I see others beat me to it.
posted by phearlez at 1:19 PM on January 15, 2015

Please consider just buying an immersion blender. The whirly sharp part usually just goes in the dishwasher, and it won't take counter space. Win/win/win (the third win is safety).
posted by amtho at 1:19 PM on January 15, 2015 [5 favorites]

I used to use one of these Ninja blenders with single serving cups for my smoothie fix. The cups are sturdy plastic, everything is designed to fit together so it does so securely, and in over a year of usage I was never once menaced by hurtling shards of glass.
posted by books for weapons at 2:19 PM on January 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Seconding the Immersion blender. Having one is a godsend for soups as well. I might've also used it for suds generation in my kitchen sink because I added the soap last, but if asked, I will deny it ever happened .

The reason this would go wrong easily is that it's a sealed jar. Blending a bunch of cold stuff might be okay, and blending anything hot would pretty much always explode because of the steam release (just as if you did hot soup in a regular blender), and something in between in temperature would be a dicey.
posted by Sunburnt at 3:32 PM on January 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thirding the immersion blender. The blades are shielded, so there's no risk of a jam shattering glass into your hand. They're also inexpensive--$30 or so.

If you do insist on trying the mason jar trick, please don't follow the example of the woman in the video who holds the glass bare-handed. Put a heavy overn mitt or dish towel between you and the jar to act as a minimal shield from broken/flying glass and to buy your hand time to move away from the whirring blade.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:49 PM on January 15, 2015

I found a dupe of the magic bullet that cost me about $30 instead of whatever a magic bullet costs (I think they cost more than $100 here). I'd have a look for one of those rather than risk serious injury with flying glass.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 7:11 PM on January 15, 2015

seconding the cheapass magic bullet knockoff. i've seen them for like $19 at jc pennys even.

for what it's worth, this doesn't seem dangerous to me and i think people are way overplaying that. i also just wouldn't bother though, i loved the cheapo fake bullet at my old house. Killed it making like 20 margaritas in a row at a party though.

I would much rather break a super cheap fake magic bullet than my regular blender is my logic, and that unit will take up barely more space than a mason jar. I'd be way WAY more afraid of it catastrophically leaking and shooting tons of liquid in to the motor base of your blender all through the buttons and stuff than the jar shattering. i think the shattering thing is super unlikely. Leaking all stupid though? yea, that's the first thing i thought when i saw this idea. And someone above mentions the gasket not fitting super great with the jar. Blender carafes have totally flat bottoms to meet up with that gasket. Mason jars are rounded off. Way less surface area, not designed to fit together, yada yada.

Just seams like a big annoying to clean up mess waiting to happen, and possibly a ruined blender.

As a bonus, the fake bullet things usually come with several "jars" and lids for the jars with resealable sippy cup spouts(with nice big openings for smoothies and such), and cup rims, and color coded lids, and all that cute stuff.

Mostly though, i'm just tired of cleaning up stupid leaky blender messes from the blender bases, and that little crack between the counter and the backsplash.
posted by emptythought at 4:24 AM on January 16, 2015