Storing Instant Potato Flakes in Long Term Food Storage

hey everyone this is jenny from homestead corner and today we are going to be putting some instant potatoes into long-term food storage [Music] i don't know about where you guys are but around here these instant potatoes are getting to be slim pickings they're pretty low in the store i haven't seen lots of them for a while i'm sure people are stocking up on them because they are super easy and i like to have them for quick easy meals i mean i love real mashed potatoes but i don't always have time so these are super handy for those quick weeknight meals or to add into other foods and beef up different kinds of stuff soups stews things like that so these are great to have on hand and they are a great belly filler so um they don't last all that long in these boxes i'm not sure if you can see these dates on here but this was manufactured in august of 2020 and their expiration date their best buy date is 2021 so um so i don't want to leave this in the box because these aren't in a bag or anything they are just flakes inside this box air gets in there if i seal this up it's going to last for many many years indefinitely pretty much i have never heard of instant potatoes going bad as long as they're sealed up you're not going to get anything in it you'll be able to keep the critters out bugs whatever you don't want that so i just i like to vacuum seal these up and keep them in a container a bucket or a tote or whatever wherever i have space for them so today i thought you i would bring you along and i'm going to show you two different ways that i do this depending on if i have bags because vacuum sealer bags they're getting hard to find the rolls are hard to find and but if you have excess jars that is another way to go um because i know like i have a lot of jars i've been canning for a really long time so we have tons of jars so that is super handy but i like to do these in bags because of space and uh i think it's a little easier personally for me jars are good though but i like to keep those for my meats and veggies and things like that so all i'm going to do this is really quite simple i'm going to use these paper bags when the vacuum sealer sucks the air out it pulls the potatoes up we don't want to clog our machine and we don't want to mess up having a good seal on this either so both of those are really important a good seal and keeping our machine in good condition because oh my god these machines are not cheap and they are they're a lifesaver i don't know what i would do without a vacuum sealer honestly i just i don't know how i lived without it before so i'm just going to measure out in our family we use eight servings at a time that's what i cook there's usually a little bit left over and i can use them to make potato cakes or whatever the leftover potatoes so i'm just gonna put eight servings worth right in this bag and that is on this brand two and two and a two thirds of a cup i believe yes two and two thirds so we got two cups one third and another third so there we go that's our two and two-thirds cup and then i'm going to take this bag and i'm just gonna fold it over like this and just kind of roll it that's all i'm going to do nothing hard and then i'm going to take this and stick it inside my vacuum bag i've got a couple of these small bags left i'm hoping this will fit in there if i roll it tight enough it should and get this nice and tight if you have bigger bags you don't have to get it quite so tight you can just put it in there but i want to get this kind of tight because these bags are a little bit on the small side and there we can fit it in perfect and then i'm just going to take this and vacuum seal it i'm just going to put it right in i like to push it in the little tray i know it's in there and when it's done the light goes off that's it and it just all sealed up perfect ready for the pantry so i pre-make these labels because i know what we're gonna what sizes we're gonna use so i just use a little cheat labels and i put on there what it is you could use a piece of tape for this i've done that too if i don't have labels handy and just on my flat spot i'm going to put this is potato flakes and this is how you make it and this is going to survey people just so if anybody else gets in there and needs to make potatoes if i'm sick they can still my kids can make potatoes my husband can anybody can do it this way or if i want to trade these with you know somebody for something else if i want to barter with these this has got the instructions on it whoever lands up making these can make them without any questions and they'll come out great so that is it for these little bags in this i'm just gonna i'm gonna do the rest of them up and we're going to toss them right into our food storage into a bucket or tote i think i have potatoes in a tote right now because of space and limited buckets you know all right so if you're not able to get a hold of the vacuum seal bags or you have an excess amount of mason jars you can also vacuum seal them in here and this is going to do the same exact thing i'm just going to fill this up this is uh i think it's a one liter jar i'm just going to fill this up with potatoes i'm going to shake this down so i can get some more in there and get as much air out of there as i can get that packed in that way i can get the most in there you can use half gallon jars pint size any size for this really i just have an excess of quart jars right now so i do have a few extra of those ask around to your friends ladies if you don't have extra jars oh and gentlemen good lord i got a couple hundred jars from a friend just given to me because i asked on social media i said hey if anybody has extra jars i would love them and one of my friends showed up with over 300 jars one day so hey they might have them in the garage all dusty and crazy ask you never know you never ever know it's not going to hurt to ask the worst they're going to say is no or i don't have any and that's okay all right so i'm gonna get this filled right up as far as i can so once i get this all packed with my potatoes as full as i want it i'm to put this cupcake liner right in the top here and this is just going to help hold the potatoes down so they don't get sucked into the seal we don't want them getting sucked into the seal so i'm just going to push that right in there like so and this is just going to keep those potatoes from coming up when it's sucking the air oh and then i'm going to take a moist paper towel you don't want this dripping wet you don't want any water inside but just moist and it will take off any debris that's on the rim you want to make sure you get a good seal then we're going to add our lid and i find your old lids if you can get them off without bending them they are amazing for this you don't have to use new lids as hard as they are to find you don't want to be wasting any of those new lids then we're just going to use our jar sealer and we are going to go ahead and seal our jar and once you have your jar all sealed you can see this is ready to go so once i get these all sealed up i just will take the back of the box cut it out and stick it right to one of the jars i will label the top if i have any others if i have five or six of them i'll usually um tape this to one jar if they're all the same kind and just keep them together and keep the one with this on the shelf until last that way i have the instructions as long as i need them and just label the top of my jar and they're ready to go in the pantry once you seal these up getting these airtight really is going to make them last and last and last in your pantry you don't have to worry about them going bad and you'll have potatoes for all kinds of stuff which i like that if you like this video give us a thumbs up subscribe we'll see you in the next video [Music] bye [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Homestead Corner

Views: 28,354

Rating: 4.9879208 out of 5

Keywords: Homestead, Corner

Id: FszCy4CwH_I

Length: 11min 9sec (669 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 11 2020