How to store / preserve flour (for up to 2 years)
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
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In my country, we sift the flour and baked it, like it was nothing. If we don't do that, we will never be able to eat.
That's really interesting - which country are you from?
@@EnglishCountryLife Morocco 🇲🇦
@@EnglishCountryLife 😂 it's very hard to keep it fresh, so no matter what, we find bugs, so we sift and bake bread, we've been doing it like this all my life, no one got sick or anything, it's just gross in beginning but after it's normal
@@aichabousalem4010 Thank you. Do you bake the flour to kill eggs or does it always have flour weevils in?
@@EnglishCountryLife we sift the flour, with one that has the smallest mesh, we have different sizes in Morocco, we choose the smallest, we sift, we find small maggots, small black insects, it catches all, since it's a a sifter with smallest mesh, so we make the dough and bake bread. In Morocco we eat a lot bread, we make bread daily. We just store our flour in bins.
first time subscriber from the USA
Hi Wanda - welcome 🤗
@@EnglishCountryLife thank you
Perfect tutorial! I don’t understand why people go through the extra steps and spend more money when they can preserve this simple way.
Thanks Lisa!
Very informative video and I'm in the process of looking at more options for long term storage. I'd like to store without the use of my freezers like my parents and grandparents did it. Freezing the flour before you vacuum seal it is pretty common knowledge for people who have been doing preserving for years, like myself. But for those who have decided to depend on their own skills, your video is a great tool for beginners. I like seeing videos that inform and help people who didn't grow up on a farm and have no idea how to go about preserving their own food.
Thank you!
P/S I was engaged to a Englishman and when he visited me in the states he would take bottles of our Louisiana hot sauce back to the UK with him lol. He grew up very privileged and didn't know how to do much of anything but a little cooking. I hope he never has to depend on his skills to survive in a world wide famine.
Thank you Mary 🙂. As you say, most things that were common 50 to 100 years ago in most homes (making soap, curing bacon, drying vegetables) are becoming rare skills now. We home to get s few more people interested in practicing them. Oh and we grow chillies & make hot sauce too 😉 ua-cam.com/video/5fVd-7eaHWg/v-deo.html
Thank you for sharing from Chicago, IL USA Southland. Happy New Year!😃😍😷
Happy New Year to you 🎉
Great Vid! Love the honesty in all your videos, both cons as well as pros! Looks as though you've had a tidy as well!
Every now& again Fiona shears me!
Thank you for sharing
Glad you enjoyed it Annette 🙂
I like the manual grinder. Learning to be less dependent on electric is good.
Couldn't agree more!
Hi Hugh, glad to see you got a hand grinder. They will allow you to access grains, beans and herbs when the power goes out. One thing I do is to grind the grain at 1/2 cup intervals. When you go through the last stages of the successive grinds, pour only a few ounces into the grain hopper at a time so the burrs don`t generate so much heat and jam up on you. Much easier on the arms and your work surface. Excessive heat may de-vitalize the end product. And, these grinders can be fitted with electric motors. Mine can be retrofitted with stone burrs. They`re not solid stone, but a food grade carborundum.
We do have another somewhat larger grinder which foes have stones rather than steel plates & gives a finer finish. I wanted to show an entry level model here (the food saver cost is enough of a shock to the system). One day I would love a good size belt driven mill (so that I could have a variety of power sources), but alas, that is still a dream. If I'm honest the small grinder gets used mostly for cracking maize, wheat & peas for fodder these days. What type of mill do you use?
@@EnglishCountryLife We were in touch about that. Remember I sent a link to my Corona grinder? It is probably near exact looking to yours. The model I have has got a plastic shroud that goes over the burrs and directs the material downwards, instead of flying upwards. Keep in mind, that those burrs should never go much past 75-10 RPM`s, or they will generate enough heat to possibly de-vitalize the grain. My old mentor showed me all about doing these sorts of things. It is not hard at all to engineer a system that will do the job. Just use some sort of gear reduction like a jack shaft and use at least a 3/4 horsepower motor.
Of course, sorry it slipped my mind for a minute! I do hanker for really good grain mill, but honestly, what we have works okay for now
@@EnglishCountryLife That`s the whole idea behind self-sufficiency, I guess. Have you seen the prices of the high end mills? It`s terrible. They are good investments, for the long haul and make excellent flour, though. Oh, well, we can dream can`t we?
awesome video! more like this please!
Will do, anything particular?
BRILLIANT INFO.
Thanks Michael!
Hi Hugh, we did the same last weekend. We bought a 25kg bag during the first lockdown off eBay as we could not buy any from the shops. Towards the end of the first lockdown, Asda put on special 16kg bags reduced to five pounds, so we bought 2. Last weekend we had already frozen the bags the week before and defrosted. We bought cheap brown paper bags from a local Chinese whole sale store where we got 125 medium sized bags for £4.75 - this is much cheaper than eBay or Amazon who wanted £14-17 for 100 bags. I then decanted 1kg into each bag, made a suitable size bag from my food saver and then vacuums packed it. In the end we have 42kg stored in a thick black plastic trunk which we have put in the barn. That should keep us sorted for flour for a good couple of years. Cheers John
When you do the maths you've saved a lot of money there! Well done!
We found freezing tomatoes and courgette work really well as long as they are frozen singly first on a tray, and when cooked take out the freezer and put in a real hot pan, if they are out the freezer for more than a couple oh mins they start to turn to mush
Interesting! I must admit I am not that keen on courgette (although we eat a lot of tomato)
Thank you for this very helpful and detailed content. Living on a small island where we have to rely on offshore deliveries can sometimes leave store shelves empty of the more popular products . Like you said everyone’s taking up bread making and baking which leaves our shelves empty. Now I can store flour, this will be of great help. Thank you🌾
That's perfect Dorry, I'm so glad you found it useful! Which island are you on if I may ask (love islands)!
@@EnglishCountryLife moved to Jersey nearly 6 yrs ago from Derbyshire. Grew up living the country life. Jersey country life not quite the same, but trying to keep some of the country ways ( not always easy when you’re married to a city man). My fella thinks I’m getting further behind the times as he loves his technology and I’m getting further behind on technology and happy. I love to wind him up about how one day there’ll be so much reliance on technology that if there was an overload and electricity blackout , there would be mass panic like the world ended. Good to keep a hand in the old ways of living, one day we could need that knowledge.
I did n'tthink of freezing when Ibought 16kg of flour during first lock down, could find big enough air tight container that wasn't mortgaged! Still OK in the bag in cold area of the dining room. Never had soilder bettle sized bugs before more like half size of fruit fly in flour in the past. I have to travel to Boston on the 4th Feb wonder if can get some flour while I'm up? Google here I come..
take care and stay safe, Mike.
Hi Mike! You definitely should be able to, there's plenty around at the moment. Maud Foster flour is available in the food hall of Johnson's garden centre, Howsams feed and the mill itself! Happy New Year
FYI: i just recently found a 5 gallon bucket of winter wheat i had bought for chicken fodder. I honestly forgot about it. It was almost full. I grew fodder to see if it was good and the fodder grew well. The wheat did not smell bad and without any oxygen absorbers. I ground some up and it smelled and tasted fine. Going to try a baking experiment soon.. the wheat has been in that bucket for at least 5-6 years in a pretty sunny bedroom so make of it as you will. I was pretty amazed after watching preservation videos. 😊 i live in Memphis Tennessee
Whole wheat does last amazingly well - but I've never experimented as to just how long!
@@EnglishCountryLife Well now you know 😂 except I haven’t made biscuits yet.
I get so much pleasure in breaking apart the 'block' of vac-pac'd flour when it's finally released 😆
Oh, you use a sieve. I bash it with whatevers handy 😂
I either crush or sieve depending on intended use. Plain flour for cake usually gets sieved. Bread flour sorts itself in the kneading.
Awesome tips. Oh the hand grinder. Takes me back to the days grandma used to do it. Vacuum sealing is always a great idea for any food freshness. Thanks for the tips!
I'm glad it brings back memories 🙂
Thank you,. For sharing all the information on flour and preserving it.
You are welcome Carmen
Love windmills
Me too Donna 🙂
Good to know!
Thank you. Its simple, but it works
This was perfect. Exactly what I was looking for.
Thank you - I'm using that flour 18 months later - its absolutely perfect
I always put a bay leaf in my bag as extra precaution for any grain. Tx.
It certainly couldn't hurt
Thanks for the video. Really enjoyed it even though we never eat whear flour as have gluten free family 🤣 yes more food preservation vids particularly what to do with veggie gluts in the summertime (when it arrives). I made your tomato powder and that's a total life win. Thanks again
Will do then Harry, I gave a few in mind!
Sorry to bother, Harry M, but I'm actually quite curious with the gluten topic since the boom of products announcing with boldest typeface possible they do not have gluten in them, especially funny it looks with i.e. rice and corn products (naturally gluten free, btw).
So I digress, do you *whole* family has actual trouble with digesting gluten or you just follow the fancy trend?^^
@@BLAQFiniks Dr's advice mate.
@@EnglishCountryLife looking forward to it!
Thank you I was just looking for a way to preserve flour. 🌻
So glad that it was helpful 🙂
@@EnglishCountryLife can't manage a vacuum sealer unless you can advise on a cheaper one but getting kilner jars tomorrow 🌻
@@lesleysterritt4123 It doesn't have to be vacuum packed, wrap in a plastic bag, freeze, then seal up in anything airtight 🙂
@@EnglishCountryLife thanks. Looking forward to checking out your posts🌻
Hi Hugh and Fiona, Lovely comprehensive and informative guide, perfectly pitched as a lot of people do not know how to keep pantry these days. I do think that they ought to bring proper Domestic Science lessons back into the schools. i was lucky as we used to have about five hours cooking per week over two lessons and Mum taught me to cook as well as part of me earning my pocket money contract with my parents! I have "twenty" questions. Where did you get your hand grinder, and do you have experience of electric grinders Do you have any views as to whether electric grinders - are they are worth their money or not. Where do you get your wheat berries from. Do the Mills near you sell the wheat berries as well as the flour. Been interested in this for a long time and your post is very timely from my point of view. It looks as though I am going to have to invest into a similar vac pack system as the one you use. I have an ancient one from about 30 years ago somewhere, but it does not remove all of the air. I did look at prices before am going to have to save up for this me thinks unless I can persuade OH to treat me. Fingers crossed. Take care the pair of you (and Mum) Tricia x
Hi Tricia! Sorry for the late reply your comment got stuck in UA-cam!
Okay, our hand mill and vacuum packer are in this list
www.amazon.co.uk/shop/englishcountrylife?listId=1BHW6XF1G48GF&ref=inf_list_own_englishcountrylife_cp
We get wheat from the local mill which also supply us with corn, maize, peas, chick crumb and more. You need high gluten Winter wheat for bread and lower gluten Spring wheat for plain flour for cakes.
A good place online to look is Hodmedods mills & grains (yes to a powered mill for regular use)
hodmedods.co.uk/collections/home-milling
I really learned a lot by watching your video. I had no idea that flour could be preserved in that way and for 1/2 years. Amazing!
I wonder if you could share how you could preserve fruits and different veg in season. Thank you😊
Thank you so much! We have a playlist on food preservation that might interest you
ua-cam.com/play/PLDluIIoNPsleRQ-tuwg_FHRqmu9UPuhb7.html
@@EnglishCountryLife Thank you so very mufor your kindness. I shall watch and see what I can Iearn. Blessings upon you😊
May I ask, would there be any problems with my flour if I leave it in the freezer longer than you have stated?
@@jennibenjamin616 None at all, if you have the space it's fine. We only have five freezers. That sounds a lot, but it isn't when you grow your own food
@EnglishCountryLife I am so happy to hear that as I haven't been able to purchase some good seal storage jars yet.
It is wonderful to hear that you are able to grow your own food stuff and use your freezer to store them.
I can imagine how much effort has to go into growing food, but the blessings of the bounty make it all worth it.
Thank you so much for your kind reply 😊
Put a dried bay leaf with the flour this also kills and prevents flour weevils
That's a good tip to do as well!
I had that weevil problem with some rice years back and they got EVERYWHERE in the kitchen cupboards. Anything not in airtight jars or sealed non paper type packets was infested and it was weeks before I managed to erase all the bugs.
It's awful if they hatch isn't it. Freezing is well worth doing if you aren't going to use cereal products quickly
Freeze rice, flour, beans, & Oats for long term storage. If you buy wheat berries, just store them until needed. No need to grind them for storage.
Good old Maud Foster flour .
Absolutely love it - but did you know Sibsey trader mill is just finishing the refit after the "Beast from the East" and will be fully operational come Spring?
@@EnglishCountryLife now thats exciting I knew they were haveing work done but didn't know they plan on milling flour I thought it was just for folk to visit like a museum, thanks for the info.
@@pericraigbichons Pre "Beast" it was our local mill but it was badly damaged. It now has new onion, sails etc. They are just completing interior works before restarting - as you say - exciting!
I wounderd were you where when I was young I lived on the broiler site on the same road as the mill ,now I live just off the A52 small world as they say .
@@pericraigbichons It is indeed - we are in a little cottage near the Wash between Boston & Skegness
My grand mother sifted her flour and if there was any weavers she dumped them out she didn’t throw her flour out
Weevils are not intrinsically harmful and certainly sailors would simply tap ships biscuits to get weevils out. We are more fussy these days.
Great vid !!
Thanks Selma!
Just canceled Disney
Am I the new Snow White? 😂
Great 👍
@@maryleeq2015 🙂
Oh, I didn't know the hand mill like yours existed lol, at first I thought it was a meat grinder (we had one at home when I was a kid, though no one ever used it, since there was an electric one available 😜)
I saw only some that operated like salad spin dryer (with top handle) with two round stones stuck together... and I think it was the size of pizza~
There are a large number of handmills and domestic powered ones too. Ours is entry level to be honest
I’m in the states and I bought mine at a hispanic store as they are used to grind nixtmalized corn for masa for tortillas or for tamales.
I have been dry canning flour in the oven. I would be worried about getting frost and damp into the flour when defrosting it. 😊
If it's vacuum packed its dry frozen & moisture can't get in 😉. Dry canning is clever. Very low oven I assume?
@@EnglishCountryLife I have the oven on 100 degrees celcius, and leave it for an hour.. They vacuum seal when I put the lids on after the canning process. 😊
Thanks for the video! I really enjoyed your tomato glut video. Any suggestions for what to do with a surplus of apples would be much appreciated!
Hi Michael! With ours we make
Dried Apple rings
ua-cam.com/video/HIbULyNxVNc/v-deo.html
Cider
ua-cam.com/video/0hAJ5XkWtLM/v-deo.html
Vinegar
ua-cam.com/video/jxvhgM16eXk/v-deo.html
or Pectin
ua-cam.com/video/JKW9PcdaXNQ/v-deo.html
Hope that helps? Hugh
Excellent video . Joe's been grinding flour by hand with out antique mill. He's loving making breads. This year we are planting up a hectare of wheat to give us flour. Should be fun.
How much do you pay for the wind mill flour. In Hungary we have to.pay over £2 for organic flour from big retailers.
Hi Scarlet! Windmill flour can be the same price here (£2 a kilo). What was interesting us the local mills and feed stores ensured supply during lockdown so there's certainly hidden advantages to shopping local. Will you be growing high gluten Winter wheat?
@@EnglishCountryLife that's great. I've got to look Into which wheat j can source locally and organically to grow. I would like to make a bread flour for sure.
After the 48 hours leave it at room temp for 24 hours then refreeze for another 48 hours. The first freeze kills the adults the second freeze kills the eggs that hatched in the 24 hours at room temp
Interesting technique. Here fresh flour doesn't have adult grain weevils in - they are obvious to the naked eye and consumers wouldn't be happy if there were insects in flour. the flour can though contain weevil eggs that would eventually hatch. The purpose of the freezing is to kill the eggs, so a single freeze & thaw cycle is sufficient
www.247pestcontrol.co.uk/blog/tiny-brown-bugs-in-kitchen-cabinets/
So, after vac sealing, do you just need to freeze for 48 hours? Is this to kill off weavils? Then you take the flour out of the freezer and keep in your storage location?
😨😞 oh u did answer my question. Sorry!
Exactly that! Its really simple, but I promise that it works!
Insects die without oxygen. Why freeze?
@@marchesa2u I freeze mine first.
Hi Hugh, thank you for this lovely video. What is the best way to preserve whole wheat grain for a good few years? I am talking about big amount of grain 50+kg.
Hi! All you need to do is to keep the grain dry, cool and preferably air tight. Perhaps the easiest way is in something like a 5 gallon bucket in an unheated outbuilding. To ensure that it stays completely dry, you could vacuum pack it or seal it it Mylar like this
ua-cam.com/video/DA_u5sCosfU/v-deo.html
My Vaccum sealed flour had black speckles after 6 months.
How very strange, did you freeze the flour after sealing?
@@EnglishCountryLife Froze it for 3 days before. And left out 2 days after.
Also do it with legumes like chickpeas, freeze them to kill weevil eggs or you will have, like I did, masses of hatched eggs and fying creatures and a hot pack of chickpeas.
I've never had a problem with legumes so that's good to know
Freezing chickpeas against weevils is a necessity too. Don't ask me how I know it...
Now I didn't know that - thank you!
Can you leave the vacuum sealed flour in the freezer until you’re ready to use it, say, in 12 months ?
You certainly can, it works well if you have the freezer space
Can you do the same for rice?
You can indeed
I put several bags of flour in the freezer in its original packages. Now I know I should have put it in plastic bags first. what can I do now to remove that moisture that may have been absorbed into the paper and flour?
Honestly, not much, but it shouldn't have absorbed too much. I would bag it now (frozen) with minimal air in the bag, return to the freezer for 24 hrs tgen carry on as normal
@@EnglishCountryLife thank you so much for your quick reply.
I though you can preserve flour last for 20 years if you put bay leaves in about 6 cups of flour inside of brown paper bag and fold down from top of brown paper bag n insert into vacuum bag and seal them and put them in 5 gallons bucket with BPA food grade bucket n with rubber seal lid will last longer in cool n dark or dim room. Stay away from sun. This is what I though it will last longer. ?
That's not a method that I've ever tested - have you ?
Hello! This video is very interesting and helpful! Thank you very kindly for posting it! I was looking for the mill you used but it does not seem to be in your amazon store. Can you help me? Thanks again!
Hi Milli - this is the type that we use ( a slightly more modern version). There are far more sophisticated (and expensive) types but this works for us
amzn.to/3wSCJXV
@@EnglishCountryLife Thank you!!!
And reuse the bag
Always - we cut ours a little large for that reason
You can also kill the critters buy baking for an hour in the oven at 120 degrees Fahrenheit...
Interesting. Seems logical. Does it affect subsequent flavour or use?
@@EnglishCountryLife Nope. You can process rice and beans that way as well.
@@george217 Interesting. I process rice & beans differently, but alternatives are goodm
@@george217 here in Southern California we get these small moth when it gets warm every year and ruins alot of my food so I freeze everything for 24 hours. No bugs last year. Because of some food shortage, I brought 20 pounds of flour and 100 pounds of rice. I will be freezing this also and using a food saver.
Where can I buy wheat/beans/lentils in bulk in the uk? In the USA we had feed stores
There are plenty of feed stores here too for grains (I currently pay around £7 for a 25 kilo sack of wheat). They also carry some pulses - dried peas, dried maize etc. Its probably a matter of talking to local farmers & smallholders to find a good one (If you find yourself in Lincolnshire, ask me). Beans and lentils are more tricky, but there are these guys in the next county over (Norfolk)
hodmedods.co.uk/
Hugh
Thanks so much for helping me. How do I find them in Northern Ireland?
Asian/Indian shops are usually a good source for bulk lentils and grains.
@@angelicinspirations thanks! I’m in NI and it’s hard to get stuff delivered here sometimes.
Have you ever encountered any problems with moisture forming as a result of the flour defrosting? If that happened wouldn’t it spoil the flour or is the vacuum sealed flour not affected by this?
I'm currently using early 2020 flour preserved in this way. I've had no moisture issues at all.
@@EnglishCountryLife Thanks for the quick reply, very much appreciated. Love the channel
@@garethmccaig8674 Absolutely no problem, love to gear people questioning what they see - we are currently testing multiple ways of egg freezing because people "say" it works. I can definitely say tgat " people" are full of it!
I'm pretty sure humans began to 'sift' flour to get undesirable critters out of the flour. NOT to make it light and airy for baking.
That's an interesting idea
Will wrapping the flour in glad wrap do?
I imagine so - it certainly works with Ziploc bags 🙂
@@EnglishCountryLife can we keep the flour in the freezer until we want to use it? Like frozen for 12 months or more? Sorry I’m new you this and trying to prep for food shortage.
@@jaymac7907 You can indeed, but once it's been frozen for 24 hrs you've killed any weevil eggs, so if you need the freezer space, take it out and store it in a clip top box etc. in the ziploc. Its important to keep it as dry, cool and airtight as possible
How long does whole grain flour last in the freezer?
Do you mean if you leave it frozen?
@@EnglishCountryLife yeah 👍
Hi I want to store flour ..but where I live gets really hot in summer round 30 to 35 Degrees. I could leave it in the freezer but sometimes we get power cuts .
Any advise ? Thanks 👍
I would leave it, vac packed, in the freezer, the odd power cut won't hurt it 🙂
Thank you ,I will give it go .
@@samanthaostermann2 I'm using stuff packed in 2020 and you honestly wouldn't know the difference other than it needs sieving for cakes because of the vacuum packing. I suspect it would be totally fine in 35 degree heat stored in an outbuilding tbh. Grain silos get HOT and wheat takes no harm
Would you put an oxygen absorber into my flour in gallon buckets? Thank you
Are you freezing the flour in the gallon buckets Arch and are they completely air tight?
@@EnglishCountryLife , I’ve not frozen them but I have them in complete, well as much as is possible, air tight containers
What kind of hand mill is that ,and where did you get it from?
Hi! It's a basic economy mill but it works fine for us. This is the newer version
amzn.to/3uzL1m6
🌸🇿🇦💃🏻
make model of machine ???? no link to it
There is a link to our Amazon storefront in the description. If you look in there you can find both the vacuum sealer and flour grinder 🙂
meat preservation! please.
Righto Jason!
nice video and very nice topic! i know a recipe for flour that can stays up to 10 years, if you want i can write to you and send to your email? I feel obliged to tell, because you are very nice and polite man. also i wanted to tell you to make more videos on diy creams for skin, health, pain and etc, if you know оf course :) Greetings
Thank you, would love to see your method!
@@EnglishCountryLife it's very simple. A soon as im free i will send to you
@@sasemirevski Hi, may you share this recipe with all of us, please. I am very interested.
@@galkuyum9514 yes of course 🙂 it is difficult for me cuz i don't know english to much with all termins and names of plants so when i have time(i hope this days) i will translate and send to englishcontrylife and he can make a video of it 🙂 good idea right? Greetings to all