For those of you who bake alot of bread or use flour in your cooking in general, I thought I would share my technique for storing flour.
I like to store food and have it on hand so I purchase at least 25 lbs of all purpose or bread flour at a time. I like to keep a minimum of 25 lbs on hand at a time. For long term storage of flour you are always running the risk of weevils. There are those who like to freeze their flour for 3 days or so before storing but I have also read that that is hit or miss. From what I understand the eggs exist in every bag of flour you purchase and that is why the longer you store the better the chance of bugs in your flour. Best way to prevent is to remove the oxygen from the bags and store as airtight as possible and keep as dark as possible.
I have and continue to use mylar bags and oxygen absorbers and then vacuum seal the bags and place in a food safe bucket. However, sealing a mylar bag with a vacuum sealer can be challenging. The best technique I have found is to cut two small strips of a sealer bag and place in the opening and then seal the mylar bag. This works fairly well but is still a little tricky.
By far my favorite technique is to use brown paper bags, pour the flower into the bags with an oxygen absorber and then vacuum seal. Works perfectly and is a great way to remove the air and seal the bag. Note, I would not try to store flour for a long term this way. However, I have stored flour for nearly a year using this method and it works great.
Thought I would share and am of course interested in learning other methods.
I like to store food and have it on hand so I purchase at least 25 lbs of all purpose or bread flour at a time. I like to keep a minimum of 25 lbs on hand at a time. For long term storage of flour you are always running the risk of weevils. There are those who like to freeze their flour for 3 days or so before storing but I have also read that that is hit or miss. From what I understand the eggs exist in every bag of flour you purchase and that is why the longer you store the better the chance of bugs in your flour. Best way to prevent is to remove the oxygen from the bags and store as airtight as possible and keep as dark as possible.
I have and continue to use mylar bags and oxygen absorbers and then vacuum seal the bags and place in a food safe bucket. However, sealing a mylar bag with a vacuum sealer can be challenging. The best technique I have found is to cut two small strips of a sealer bag and place in the opening and then seal the mylar bag. This works fairly well but is still a little tricky.
By far my favorite technique is to use brown paper bags, pour the flower into the bags with an oxygen absorber and then vacuum seal. Works perfectly and is a great way to remove the air and seal the bag. Note, I would not try to store flour for a long term this way. However, I have stored flour for nearly a year using this method and it works great.
Thought I would share and am of course interested in learning other methods.
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