Meal prepping has become something of a cottage industry, where folks from all across the internet — and with all levels of culinary credibility — post their own tips and tricks. Mason jars are a particularly popular vessel for all of those salads, DIY fruit cups, and matcha almond overnight oats. And Martha Stewart, as it turns out, has been meal prepping with Mason jars since before the founders of some of those very social media platforms were even born.
Food & Wine unearthed a clip from a 1979 issue of the magazine where Stewart, in her caterer days, was asked for portable summer menu recommendations for picnics. “I’d do an entire meal in leakproof quart jars — either American-style Mason or French-style glass-topped preserving jars,” Stewart told the outlet.
These were not your modern sad desk lunches, either. Stewart instead said that she would jar carrot and sorrel soup; asparagus, string beans, and prosciutto in a mustard sauce; thin-sliced Japanese cucumbers and cherry tomatoes in a rice wine and dill marinade; and slivers of braised beef with boiled new potatoes and shallots in a cornichon and fresh tarragon vinaigrette. On the slightly more replaceable side, she’d also glug a half gallon of white wine in with some fruit for sangria to go. That, of course, would be in addition to the dessert jar of mixed fruits, nuts, and coconut soaked in Grand Marnier.
More Martha-inspired Mason jar tips
The most quietly revelatory component of Martha Stewart’s fancy Mason jar applications is the framework with which she uses them. A lot of modern day Mason jar meals seem to focus on the container’s utility as a prep tool, as much as its travel versatility. While something like Stewart’s mustardy meat and veg trifecta can certainly be made right in the jar, her beef and potato pairing illustrates how you can, of course, also use the vehicle for practically any other foodstuff.
The reason things like oats and salads so commonly fill Mason jars is because no amount of shaking, rattling, or jostling will make them any worse for the wear. It would be reasonable to be a little more concerned about items that aren’t intended as medleys. You can still build them to protect each element’s integrity. Let’s say you had some leftovers from Friday night’s perfect order at the steakhouse that you want to repurpose for a Saturday afternoon picnic. You can portion something like creamed spinach into the bottom of the jar, cover it with a bit of aluminum foil to divide, add, perhaps, some mashed potatoes, fix in another divider, and top it all off with slices of the restaurant’s filet mignon or chateaubriand. You can even build Mason jar charcuterie with a bit of prosciutto, salami, petite cheese wedges, and sliced bread as the separating mechanism. With a little creativity, you can likely fashion whatever’s in your refrigerator into a similar Mason jar masterpiece.
