How To Store Flour and Grains #AskWardee 149

[Music] so you've got big bags of grains or flour how do you store them so they don't go bad so they stay healthy to protect that investment that's what we're answering on today's ask 40 today's question comes from Tara Kay she says can you provide some suggestions for storage of larger amounts of flours grains etc the stores seem to be hit and miss on the five-pound bags but some still have the 20 pound I'm just not sure how to store that much flour grain rice etc I'd be especially thankful if you can show visuals of storage vessels pantry countertop etc so I can visualize what to do to store this amount product and still have a usable pantry cabinet etc thank you so much for your question Tara to say thank you for submitting a question that I answer on ask warty you're getting a free gift from us and that's a free ebook and video package so our team will be in touch to give that to you today's episode is piggybacking on last week's episode ask 41 for 8 where I showed you where to buy your flour and grains you get them home though what do you do well there's some rules about flour and grain storage and I'm gonna go over those today as well as give you examples of how to do that with vessels and such be sure to visit the show notes ask for DTV look for episode 1 for 9 for all the links details of what I'm sharing today first let's talk about whole grains so your whole berries to make flour your rice and things like that whenever you're buying whole grains in bulk when you get home you should freeze them for 10 days to kill any critters or bugs then you can move into short-term or long-term storage how does this work here's an example of a bulk rice bag this one's 12 pounds but there are bags 15 pounds 20 pounds 25 pounds 50 pounds whenever you get it home you want to transfer it into packages that will fit in your freezer so not many of us could put a 25 pound bag in the freezer now you can if you have a chest freezer that's mostly empty but a lot of times freezer space is at a premium so you have to split it up so split it up into Ziploc bags like this or recycled bread bags or paper bags it really doesn't matter as long as the brain goes into small enough bags that you can fit it in your freezer and then these go in your freezer for 10 days when the 10 days is over now you have your critter free grain or whether it's rice I'm or nor whatnot and you want to let it come to room temperature to avoid any condensation issues before you proceed with storing it for short-term and long-term now these bags can actually stay in the freezer if that works for you they don't have to come out of the freezer if you have the space but if you've got a big quantity 25 or 55 pounds you might actually want to move them in two buckets or jars or something so that you can open up that freezer space so here is some einkorn grain that has been after freezing for ten days has been moved into a glass jar or larger quantities can go in five-pound buckets these are our long-term food storage we have a stack of these in the garage depending on your house where you can put them but they are food grade buckets that we got at like Home Depot and Lowe's and then we bought these gamma seal lids but it's a two-piece and you can easily get in and out of your buckets because of this screw on lid and this actually transform your bucket into essentially airtight and so you can pack your grains back in these buckets if it's longer-term storage I would actually recommend investing at that point in my lower bags and oxygen absorbers but if you're going to use things within a few months and your temperatures are fairly stable then your grains are going to be find at that room temperature ish or cool and dry location in buckets or glass jars like you can take your bucket storage further by using mylar bags and desiccants you can take your glass jar storage further by if you use canning jars you can actually get a vacuum sealer and they have these vacuum seal jar attachments there's a hose here that hooks up to your vacuum sealer and actually suck all the air and seal up tightly and so this jar has act this jar of einkorn has actually been vacuum sealed so it's even more stable in the pantry so let's talk about that cool dry place so I literally me cool as in room temperature or less I also mean an even temperature temperature fluctuations is what cuts down on the shelf life of food so if it can be even and cool also dark and critter free then you could actually your grains can last for years and years and years anything less than the ideal will shorten the shelf life of your dry goods like grains now let's talk about flour because once a grain has been ground into flour you really reduce the shelf life so I just ground this this morning for sourdough English muffins and I'm planning to make them very soon so this flour is fine because I'm about to bake with it when you mill your grains into flour and if you're keeping it at room temperature you want to bake with it within three days of grinding otherwise it needs to go in the fridge or freezer in the fridge you've got up to seven days and the freezer use flour within six months now why do we have these use by dates well one is the health of the flour and second is even grains have a little bit of oil and it's been burst into this flour so everything is just kind of opened up and exposed and so you do have an issue with flour going rants and due to the fat content in the grain even a little less it is and so that's why you want to use it within three days of room temperature seven days stored in the refrigerator or up to six months if stored in the freezer and again you're talking about putting this in storage containers like glass jars or Ziploc bags finally what about sprouted grains or sprouted flour so when you sprout a grain it actually becomes a little more shelf stable according to what I've read but I still follow the same rules as for un-- sprouted so if it's berries I follow the same storage rules and timelines if I've ground the sprouted berries into flour I follow the same rules and guidelines for fresh ground flour unspread it and that just means that I'm on the safe side and since I'm already following the same rules for all of these things why not just throw these into the mix keep it simple don't complicate it with additional rules so Tara that's pretty much it I think it's pretty simple and I hope you can accommodate some of these containers and/or spaces in your pantry and your kitchen remember everyone to check out the show notes a squirty TV episode one four nine four all the particulars and links to things that I've mentioned or shared today and also a link to last week's episode on sources for grains and flour from small farms and online merchants that may be in better shape than your local stores if you're interested in more information about whole grains milling whole grains using fresh ground flour in your baking then be sure to get my home grain milling 101 ebook it's completely free and you can claim it at tract cook school comm / milling 101 mi ll ing 101 thanks for joining me everyone I'm so glad you made it and I hope to see you again in about a week same time same place bye bye god bless you [Music]

Channel: Traditional Cooking School by GNOWFGLINS

Views: 38,063

Rating: 4.8134923 out of 5

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Id: J7svWR8INzQ

Length: 7min 25sec (445 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 22 2020