A food jar is bought on the promise that lunch will still be hot at noon, and most disappointments trace back to how it was filled, not to the jar. The personalised insulated food jar is 630 ml of double-wall 304 stainless steel with a silicone-sealed lid, a carry handle built into the lid and, the detail that matters most, a wide mouth of about 11.4 cm. Here is how to get a hot lunch out of it every day.
Preheat it, every time
A cold steel jar takes the first few degrees out of whatever you pour in. Fill it with boiling water from the kettle, put the lid on loosely, leave it for five minutes while the food heats, tip the water out, then fill with food that is properly hot, not warm. This single habit is the difference between hot at noon and lukewarm at eleven. Reversed, the same trick works for cold food: ice water for five minutes, then yoghurt or pasta salad.
Fill it to the line
Air is what cools food. A jar that is a third full loses heat far faster than a full one, because there is more air inside to warm up and more steel per spoonful. If a child eats small portions, fill the rest of the space with the part of the meal that does not mind being hot (the pasta, the rice) rather than leaving it empty. If the meal is genuinely small, this jar is the wrong size and a smaller one will hold heat better.
What travels well
- Best: pasta in sauce, stew, chilli, curry and rice, baked beans, soup with bits in, leftover roast in gravy, noodles.
- Fine with care: mashed potato (hot and dense, stays hot for hours), porridge (the school breakfast club favourite).
- Not really: anything crispy (steam softens it), fried eggs, pizza. Chips arrive as a memory of chips.
The wide mouth
Plenty of flasks this size have a narrow neck that a child's spoon barely fits through and that is hard to wash. The 11.4 cm opening means a normal spoon, a normal fork, and a hand with a cloth in it. It also means the last of the pasta comes out rather than staying in the bottom. For a child at school this is the difference between eating the lunch and giving up on it.
Washing
Hand wash with warm soapy water; the wide mouth makes it a thirty-second job. Take the silicone gasket out of the lid every few days and wash the groove, because that is where a smell lives if one develops. Leave the lid off to dry. Keep the jar out of the dishwasher: heat is bad for the vacuum seal between the walls and dulls the printed name.
The name
A staffroom fridge and a school cloakroom both hold a lot of near-identical containers. The one with the name comes home. Pink, blue or green jar; a first name in a clear font with one icon is the layout that reads across a room, and white text is the default because it has the most contrast on all three colours. Pair it with the bento box for the cold half of lunch and the water bottle, all with the same name.
Everything is personalised to order in Cheshire, usually dispatched within one to three working days, with free UK delivery. Because the jar carries the name you type, it cannot be returned for a spelling change. For what to put in the rest of the bag see what to pack in a school lunch box.
Frequently asked questions
How do I keep food hot in a food jar until lunchtime?
Preheat the jar with boiling water for five minutes, tip it out, then fill it to the line with food that is properly hot. Air cools food, so a full jar stays hot far longer than a third-full one.
What size is the personalised food jar?
630 ml, about 16.5 cm high and 11.8 cm wide, in 304 stainless steel with a wide 11.4 cm mouth, a silicone-sealed lid and a built-in carry handle.
Can the food jar go in the dishwasher?
Hand wash. Dishwasher heat is bad for the vacuum seal between the walls and dulls the printed name. Wash the gasket groove every few days and dry with the lid off.
