Good food containers?

July 11, 2024 9:12 AM

Looking for good non-plastic food/kitchen containers. Like any that you've used?

I had a set of Rubbermaid containers for a long time, and they were great, but as they got old I wanted to replace them with non-plastic.

Next I had glass containers (brand unknown, I think they were a name brand), and they were great -- until they eventually started chipping, and you'd find glass chunks in the dishwasher or worse... your food or mouth!

I bought cheapo, drop-shipped-quality stainless steel containers and they've been shit from the start, the lids on them all seal quite poorly/pop open. The steel part is fine, but the lids are nearly useless.

Can you recommend bomb-proof glass containers, or steel containers with known-useful lids that you like?

posted by so fucking future to Home & Garden (23 answers total)

Pyrex. Have had my set for decades. No chipping. They also have continued to have Standard Sizes, AND they continue to sell replacement lids for those standard sizes separately, and at a reasonable cost. It's been a buy-it-for-life investment for me.
posted by Silvery Fish at 9:20 AM on July 11 [9 favorites]

Have you ever seen the polycarbonate items made for restaurants by the company Cambro? They are really durable, and also designed for efficiency and practicality foremost.

I know you asked for not-plastic but these are a cut above what most people have used. Otherwise, yeah, Pyrex -- especially if you can find some of the old stuff, which was amazingly strong.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:33 AM on July 11 [1 favorite]

I second Pyrex. I've had one of them chip but I've had the entire set 14 years and they see heavy use. These are ones with just push on red lids.

I also have a set of Rubbermaid glass containers that are great.

I have a more recent set of Pyrex from Costco with the snap on lids (snaps on four sides) and they seem to be similarly excellent.
posted by miscbuff at 9:36 AM on July 11 [2 favorites]

For small containers, I use Ball's glass canning jars (4 oz, 8 oz, and 16 oz) with leakproof plastic lids. The jars are bombproof: they're meant to be boiled, they're safe to freeze as long as you leave head room in the jar for expansion, and both the jars and the lids do fine in the dishwasher. Just make sure you match the lids to the jars (there are both "normal" and "wide mouth").

On edit: they're also a standard size that has been in use for a century, so no worries about parts no longer being available.
posted by A Blue Moon at 9:41 AM on July 11 [5 favorites]

I also use Ball jars including gallon sized ones for things we use a lot of. Cheap and tough.
posted by leslies at 9:43 AM on July 11 [4 favorites]

The Rubbermaid Glass Brilliance containers are great. The Ello glass containers are very good too, if they come in a size that suits you - they come in a silicone plastic sleeve to protect against chips.
posted by Jeanne at 9:44 AM on July 11 [5 favorites]

+1 Glass brilliance
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:48 AM on July 11 [2 favorites]

We have 2 sets of snap lock glass containers. They are excellent, and can be baked / microwaved / frozen if you get the right set. I got mine at Canadian Tire.
posted by Enid Lareg at 9:57 AM on July 11 [1 favorite]

I have Glass Lock containers that I have been using for about 19 years. They have been in constant use during that time. A couple of years ago some of the covers started to wear out so I looked for replacements. Turns out the company lets you order new covers for the cost of shipping. They did this for product I had purchased over 15 years previously.

The containers nest neatly when not being used. They seal tightly. The glass containers and their covers are dishwasher safe. The company has best of class support for their products. I am a fan.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:12 AM on July 11 [3 favorites]

Pyrex in the US is dead to me. It is no longer borosilicate as of old, but just tempered glass. Ball jars (or their competitors) are pretty great, especially the wide mouth ones. I use them for various concoctions though we use plastic for storing things in the fridge.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 10:51 AM on July 11 [1 favorite]

+N to the Rubbermaid brilliance containers. I have several, and if you are careful about the sizes you buy, the lids are interchangable.
posted by OrangeDisk at 10:54 AM on July 11 [2 favorites]

We also use a LOT of glass canning jars (Ball is the most common brand). Pro tip:
They are nearly always available at thrift stores (Goodwill and the like) and garage/tag sales for Pennie’s on the dollar over what you’d pay new (watch the goodwill prices on the big ones though, they can be stupid expensive) - we’ve paid an average of $.15-.20 each. Just check for chips on the rim and you’re good!
posted by dbmcd at 10:57 AM on July 11 [3 favorites]

Pyrex in the US is dead to me. It is no longer borosilicate as of old, but just tempered glass.

I was just coming in to say this. The issue is nuanced, but the Pyrex of today is not the Pyrex of old.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:08 AM on July 11 [2 favorites]

I tried pyrex and it chipped and most of it doesn't nest. I also tried snapware, but the lids fit poorly in my dishwasher and led to the snap part of the lid getting weak and not closing fully.

I have a couple GlassLock containers that I really like. Otherwise, I second Ball canning jars. Those don't nest either but you get height rather than width with those, so you get a lot in a small area. I've got from 4 oz jelly jars through 1/2 gallon jars (those I mostly use for pickling). I use a mix of the metal two part lids they come with and some plastic lids as recommended above. I also use them for drinking glasses, so it's a twofer.
posted by carrioncomfort at 11:11 AM on July 11 [1 favorite]

Anchor/pyrex containers. You can get them at the close out store for way less than regular price, and then order replacement lids from Amazon when the originals go to hell
posted by toodleydoodley at 12:12 PM on July 11 [2 favorites]

Do you consider silicone to be plastic? If not, I have a few collapsible silicone containers that I'm pretty happy with. (The lid is regular plastic, I think, if that matters.)

Also, we have some IKEA glass containers which are doing fine so far.
posted by demi-octopus at 12:28 PM on July 11 [1 favorite]

Another vote for glass lock. I encountered them at someone's house and liked them so much I bought a bunch. I love them and find them so much more satisfying than the leftover yogurt containers that have been my mainstay. And they're super airtight. I.e., guacamole doesn't turn brown!
posted by swheatie at 1:52 PM on July 11

I moved all of the food storage containers in my house over to ball jars a few years ago and haven't regretted it one bit. They come in various sizes, are as bombproof as glass can be, there are only two sizes of lids so it's never hard to find the lid you need, and getting more jars or lids is easy (and can be done independently if you need more lids but not jars, for instance). Some solid food are a bit big to get into a jar, but not as many as you'd think and it's otherwise been great.
posted by lhputtgrass at 3:00 PM on July 11 [1 favorite]

I buy the Ikea glass and plastic lockable food containers. Rubbermaid discoloured after a while and I have bounced around others. The IKEA ones are stackable and in useful sizes. I haven’t tried the bamboo lids yet, but the plastic lockable tops are decent and the glass is heavy and sturdy. They’re at a price point that I don’t weep if one goes missing.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:28 PM on July 11

Korean steel nesting containers with steel lids, rubber gaskets, and three clamps. Haunt the Asian marts until you find them. I also have some with plastic lids where of course the hinges on the clamps are all about to fail. Eff that: hold out for steel lids and clamps. The cool thing about these is, you can use them as cake tins to make cakes in various unexpected sizes, then freeze cake layers in the tins you baked them in.
posted by Don Pepino at 8:44 AM on July 12 [1 favorite]

I’ve got Glasslock containers that are 15 years old at this point. They’ve been great! The lids are plastic, though.

IKEA carries various stainless steel containers and bowls.
CIKLID bowls with lids
FÖRSKAFFA Insulated lunch box
LÄTTUGGAD Snack containers
posted by Eikonaut at 11:01 AM on July 12 [1 favorite]

I have used the Weck canning jars with their keep fresh lids for about 2 decades. Rode them to work in a pannier on my bike all that time. Never had a lid come off. The lids are best washed by hand as they can deform in the dishwasher but even then they still worked. Probably bought a new batch of lids twice. Jars never failed unless I just dropped and broke them.
posted by kiblinger at 4:40 PM on July 12 [1 favorite]

If you're using them in the fridge, I highly recommend these these pyrex ones. Color coded lids, and the mix of rectangular and circle ones helps us fit leftovers in our small fridge. Bought last year as a throw-in Christmas present, have been excellent so far.
posted by true at 6:26 PM on July 13 [1 favorite]