ViscoDisc Home Bottling Wide Mouth Mason Jar Inserts

These work well for pickling of almost any vegetable that you cut into chunks. They wouldn't work for finely cut or mashed vegetables, such as sauerkraut or salsa.They work in any wide-mouth jar that flares out below the neck. That includes the most common types of quart and half-gallon wide-mouth jars. I don't think they'd work in the tall types of wide-mount pint jars that taper inward towards the bottom instead of flaring outward below the neck. The Canning Buddies hold themselves in the neck by pushing outwards just above and below the narrowest part of the neck. They don't rely on the food to push them up, or on the lid to push them down. Forget the applicator - you don't need it. With a bit of practice these become second nature to insert with just your hands: put one side of the Canning Buddy in the neck of the jar and hold it there with two fingers. Then push the other side down into the neck with your other hand. I recommend running them under hot water before folding them the first time, to reduce stress in the plastic at the folds. Without doing that, I'm afraid the plastic will weaken and eventually break at the folds. After repeated use they mostly hold their shape. Insert them into the jars before adding the brine, and you won't get your fingers in the brine.I've used these for a few years now on many jars of lacto-fermented cucumber pickles, carrots, and kimchi. They barely pick up any odor from the food, they are fairly easy to wash, and they seem to be holding up to repeated use. They have picked up some color from the food.I use Canning Buddies to keep foods below the brine, silicone lid inserts with pinholes to act as airlocks and keep out the oxygen, a mini-fridge as my fermentation chamber, a temperature controller, and a heater. I've yet to have a bad batch.

This was exactly what I have been looking for to keep my fermented veggies under the brine for long-term storage. When I received these, I added them to jars of sauerkraut, salsa, and jalapeños. They work great. As you can see by the photo, I put them in jars with "feet" downward instead of upward. This allowed them to hold the food under the brine without taking up room. I recommend using them after the fermenting process is over and remove the glass weight. They would work during the process if you use a glass weight with it. Buying more.

Appears to work ok. I have used them 2 times so far

These are simple to use. They pop right in, and pop right back out again, and hold all my fermenting veggies below the brine where they belong! I had been using glass weights but these are so much less expensive and take up less space to store. I'm a little squidgy about the fact that these are made of plastic, but I am trusting that they really are BPA-free as advertised.

If you do fermenting or canning, you are always told to leave a gap at the top for expansion, and to keep all of the product submerged. The typical way to do this is with a weight of some sort. A clean rock. Glass weights specially made. Bags of water. One problem with all of them is that they take up valuable space... often that expansion space. The ViscoDisk Cannin Buddies work great. They take up virtually no room in the jar, and keep the product submerged. I use them all of the time and highly recommend them.

I used two of these within a couple days of receiving. Seemed ok, but a bit cheap. But after a month of fermenting sauerkraut they are not usable any more. They broke upon removing (gently) from the jars. I'm past the thirty day return window. Don't use these unless you understand they are a one time use item, marketed as reusable. They are not. Very disappointed. Back to fermentation springs for me!

Way over priced for what you get

It took many attempts to insert this screen thing into the jars. I kept putting in and out and because it kept going sideway and not straight down. My fingers were in the ferment time and again and even when I got the screen down in place, some of the garlics escape above the screen as I push the thing down. I did not buy the inserter, I'd read about it but didn't know it was a must so I didn't order it. If the description stated that the insterter was required for this screen to be pushed down properly, I would have bought the package that came with the inserter. So, my experience is the product did not work well (without the inserter) as I had to put in and pulled out several times before it got in place, quite frustration to have to do that to 10 jars!