I Finally Found a Plastic-Free Replacement for My Beloved Deli Containers

I’ve kept a variety of Mason jars in my apartment for years, mostly for drinking water and smoothies out of. I’ve also used them for quick pickling and infusing. As I started my journey of transitioning away from plastic in the kitchen, I started relying on the odd Mason jar or two for storing sauces, soups, and dressings. The wide mouth is a must — it makes them much easier to clean — but even with the larger opening it gets a bit messy trying to store other types of leftovers.

I was intrigued by Caraway, best known for its easy-to-clean nonstick cookware, when I saw the brand had a similarly nice-looking food-storage set available in either 17 or 28 pieces. I tested out the smaller set, which actually only comes with five containers plus 12 accessories of varying usefulness, like the brand’s signature storage racks. The containers themselves feature ceramic-coated glass, which makes them freezer safe, microwave safe, and even oven safe. I was intrigued most by the oven-safe feature until I realized these are basically shrunken-down baking dishes with lids. If I wanted to bake a lasagna and then immediately store it in the fridge, they would be perfect. But for daily needs, they’re quite heavy and bulky. The other problem? The lids, which are not oven safe, don’t create an airtight seal either, so I can’t travel with them if there’s any liquid stored inside. Not that you would want to take these on a commute because of how heavy they are. I also did the math, and I could buy approximately 720 new deli containers for the cost of this set.

Confession time: I often put my deli containers into the microwave, which is a cardinal sin in the world of microplastics mitigation. So I decided to test out Anyday — a food-storage set specifically designed to go into the microwave — to see how it stacked up. While the bowls are glass, the magic comes in with the lid design. Each silicone-gasket lid has a silicone handle in the center that can be lifted up to allow just enough steam to escape to keep the bowl from exploding while trapping enough to evenly warm your food. Then, once it’s time to store the bowl in the fridge, the knob is pressed down to create a seal. It’s nice knowing that I could put these containers in the microwave without essentially boiling my food in microplastics as I’d done in the past. And this totally eliminates the need to place damp paper towels over all my food before nuking it. The Anyday set is nifty but, once again, the heavy glass bowls are a dealbreaker.

After testing out the Caraway and Anyday sets, I went to spend the weekend at my parents’ house and remembered why Pyrex is an oldie-but-goodie. While there are plenty of Pyrex styles on the market, I love the trusty Snapware lids. Not only are they totally leakproof, but they also are stackable. And while Pyrex is not going to win any points for weight, the glass bottoms can at least be nested together.

Strategist kitchen and dining writer Emma Wartzman (who also happens to be the brain behind Plastic-Free Kitchen Week) turned me on to these. While they are made of glass, they were the lightest of all the glass options I tried and the general size and shape of the organizers feels the most similar to an actual deli container. And, most importantly, they’re the only set I tried that has a universal lid system which is a prime feature of deli containers. While Wartzman mostly uses them to decant dry goods in her pantry, I found them to be just as great for leftovers since the silicone lids form a fairly tight seal. Though not tight enough to be travel friendly. However, I do need to give them a demerit since, while they are stackable, they are not nestable, so they take up more space in the cabinet than I’d like.

I finally realized I would need to rule out from glass if I wanted something lighter in weight which led me to try this stainless-steel set from Black+Blum. While the London-based company has been making products designed to minimize plastics for well over a decade, it was completely new to me. Initially, I thought I wouldn’t like the opaque bowls, but I found they didn’t really bother me much since the lids themselves are clear so I can still see what’s inside each. And, most importantly, where all the others failed, this set met all my expectations when it came to weight, lid design, and storage. They are by far the lightest of all the options I tried. The Black+Blum set was also the most airtight and leakproof thanks to the vacuum-sealed lid lock. The very first night I unboxed them, my roommate made soup and (bravely) took the leftovers to work the next morning. Not a single drop spilled on their commute. The wider, flatter shape, it turns out, is excellent for prepping ingredients and storing all sorts of leftovers. Plus the different sizes nest together nicely, taking up roughly the same amount of space that my deli containers did. And, like the Anyday set above, they are microwavable due to the specific stainless steel used and the rounded shape of the boxes. Though there are some caveats: You can only microwave for two minutes at a time with lid lock open in microwaves that go up to and include 1000W. While they certainly aren’t cheap compared to my deli containers, they are a long-lasting investment I can feel good about having in my kitchen.