Don't Throw Out Peanut Butter Jars: Repurpose Them With This Pro Hikers' Hack

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Peanut butter has long ranked as one of the best high calorie foods to bring camping and hiking. But it isn't just the calorie-to-weight ratio (roughly 100 calories per tablespoon) that makes it a backpacker's staple: The empty jars serve as a free, durable, and water-tight container or built-in serving dish. Clean plastic pb jars are perfect for a host of backpacker necessities: medications, lighters, matches, food, first-aid supplies, cash, and small electronics. Some backpackers even repurpose one as a "pee jar," to avoid the risks of leaving their tent during severe weather. The most committed ultralight backpackers will repurpose a PB jar as a cold-soak dinner jar, rehydrating dehydrated or freeze-dried meals over the course of the day to render them consumable. Cold-soaking eliminates the weight and space of bringing a stove, a gas canister, and a pot.

Not all peanut butters and their jars are cut out for this hack. YouTuber MothMom12 Hikes prefers organic peanut butter because pure ground peanuts don't stick to the container the way most commercial peanut butters, with added sugar and hydrogenated vegetable oil do. However in terms of jar design, she likes Skippy's. So she transfers her organic peanut butter into the Skippy jar when she brings a full peanut butter jar on the trail. 

Some backpackers think they need to save every empty PB container just in case, but Redditor GringosMandingo on the forum r/AppalachianTrail re-uses a single jar for cold soaking and writes, "I've had the same jar for 12 years now." This is helpful, because cleaning peanut butter jars requires some elbow grease. Our first round of cleaning is our dog; somehow, she gets it nearly squeaky clean without any bite dents. Next, scrub with dish soap and hot water. Finally, a final round of the dishwasher usually does the trick.

Saving a few ounces may seem like splitting hairs, but backpacking becomes more enjoyable and safer by choosing the right pack for you, bearing a low pack weight. Shaving off excess ounces from your food, sleep, shelter, and clothing systems adds up to pounds off your back. For example, a super‑ultralight canister stove like the BRS‑3000T weighs 25 g (0.9 oz). A small 100g fuel canister weighs about 7 ounces when full. An ultralight titanium pot by Toaks tacks on roughly 3.6 oz. So the lightest possible hot‑meal setup will weigh 11.5 ounces or ¾ pound. Alternatively, an empty 16-oz PB jar weighs only 1.3 ounces. Over the course of hundreds of trail miles and thousands of feet in elevation up and down mountains, weight savings like this changes the game. And while dry bags are a sturdy, waterproof option for dry goods and supplies, they're still heavier, more expensive options compared with the humble peanut butter jar. A 2-liter Torrent PVC dry bag weighs 3.2 ounces and costs $40 as part of a three-pack with two larger-sized bags at REI.

Heavy packs increase fatigue and can exacerbate overuse injuries such as blisters and inflammation while navigating rough terrain. Personally, I've hopped off the Appalachian trail for this very reason. In fact, injuries are a common reason people bail on long-distance hikes. Suddenly, saving weight by using a peanut butter container that weighs just over an ounce doesn't seem so odd. Likewise, getting caught in a torrential downpour, or toppling over while crossing a stream, can put a lot of your supplies at risk. It's why stashing matches, campground passes, and phone chargers in something you can easily grab from the kitchen becomes a similarly attractive comfort hack that seasoned hikers swear by.