Version 3.00 Updated September 1998 Supersedes Ver 2.50 PRUDENT FOOD STORAGE: Questions & Answers From the House at Cat's Green Alan T. Hagan "In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed." Samuel Johnson, 1775, upon completion of his dictionary. Courtesy of James T. Stevens ********* SPECIAL NOTE ***** SPECIAL NOTE ***** SPECIAL NOTE ******** This Version 3.0 update of the Prudent Food Storage FAQ includes a first time event. An increasing number of people have been asking for a printed and bound copy of the FAQ, apparently as a response to the Year 2000 computer problem and other Millennial concerns. With the aid of my partner, Bob Hollingsworth, we have formatted, printed and bound Version 3.0 to honor these requests. Naturally, since we have spent a good deal of our time and a not inconsiderable amount of our cash in doing this we are not giving it away for free, but are charging $15.00 (US) per copy plus $3.00 shipping and handling (US Postal Service Priority Mail). My postal address may be found below and at the end of this file, or you may e-mail me. This print edition will be available for only for a limited time. The reason for this is that I am presently at work on "The Prudent Pantry: Your Guide to Building A Food Insurance Program", my first commercial work. When completed it will contain all of the content of this FAQ plus a good deal more that I don't presently cover such as storage program planning, inventory control, storage locations, the best foods to store, grain mills & other equipment, water storage and purification along with expedient sanitation. At this time I am not ready to give either a firm publication date or cover price for *The Prudent Pantry*, but I am hoping for early spring of 1999. When it is ready to go to press I will stop printing bound FAQ copies. Due to the ever growing size of the work (presently over 300k) I can no longer post the FAQ to the Usenet. I will, of course, continue to make the FAQ updates available online via host sites on the World Wide Web even after the book hits the street. CARPE DIEM! ********* SPECIAL NOTE ***** SPECIAL NOTE ***** SPECIAL NOTE ********** ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Diana Hagan, my wife, and soon to be co-author, for copious amounts of genial tolerance and endless editing; Susan Collingwood for sage advice; BarbaraKE; Gary Chandler; Skipper Clark, author of *Creating the Complete Food Storage Program*; Denis DeFigueiredo; Al Durtschi for resources and encouragement; Craig Ellis; Pyotr Filipivich; Sandon A. Flowers; Amy Gale, editor of the *rec.food.cooking FAQ*; Geri Guidetti, of the *Ark Institute*; Woody Harper; Higgins10; Robert Hollingsworth, for the formatting and publishing of the hard copy edition; Jenny S. Johanssen; Kahless; James T. Stevens, author of *Making The Best of Basics*; Amy Thompson (Saco Foods); Patton Turner; Logan VanLeigh; Mark Westphal; a number of folks who for reasons sufficient unto themselves wish to remain anonymous; and last, but certainly not least, Leslie Basel, editor of the *rec.food.preserving FAQ*, without whom I'd never have attempted this in the first place. Updated: 9/18/96; 4/16/97; 7/21/97; 10/20/97; 9/15/98 Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998. Alan T. Hagan. All rights reserved. Excluding contributions attributed to specific individuals all material in this work is copyrighted to Alan T. Hagan and all rights are reserved. This work may be copied and distributed freely as long as the entire text, my and the contributor's names and this copyright notice remain intact, unless my prior express permission has been obtained. This FAQ may not be distributed for financial gain, included in commercial collections or compilations or included as a part of the content of any web site without prior, express permission from the author. ====================================================================== DISCLAIMER: Safe and effective food storage requires attention to detail and proper equipment and ingredients. The author makes no warranties and assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in the text, or damages resulting from the use or misuse of information contained herein. Placement of or access to this work on this or any other site does not mean the author espouses or adopts any political, philosophical or metaphysical concepts that may also be expressed wherever this work appears. ====================================================================== PLEASE DIRECT CONTRIBUTIONS, COMMENTS, QUESTIONS AND/OR CRITICISMS TO: athagan@sprintmail.com Orders or written material may be sent to the address below: A.T. Hagan P.O.Box 140008 Gainesville, FL 32614-0008 FOREWORD This work is a compilation of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ) concerning long term food storage. Its purpose is to promote an understanding of the methods and techniques used to extend the nutritive and palatability shelf lives of those foods most suitable for use in food storage programs. There is commonality between food storage and food preservation even though they are not precisely the same thing. Some of the information here may be found in greater or lesser detail in the *rec.food.preserving* (r.f.p) FAQ compiled by Leslie Basel. If you want the how-to's of drying fruit, making jerky, canning beans, fermenting pickles or corning beef, I refer you to her work and the good stuff to be found there. In this compendium you will be taken through the ins and outs of how to put away your storage foods and have a reasonable expectation of getting something edible back out of the container when you finally use them. Also covered will be food spoilage -- how to recognize it and how to combat it. A resource list detailing where to find supplies and further information is included at the end. This file is updated as sufficient material becomes available. Be of assistance -- point out mistakes, contribute data or information, write reviews, or provide us with new sources. As a contributor you will be cited in this file, unless you wish otherwise. TABLE OF CONTENTS 0. Acknowledgements, Foreword, and Table of Contents I. Shelf Lives: Time, Temperature, Moisture, Oxygen and Light II. The Techniques of Food Storage A. Grains and Legumes 1. Grain Varieties 2. Legume Varieties 3. Types of Availability of Grains and Legumes - Moisture Content - Cleaning It Yourself 4. Storing Grains and Legumes B. Dry Milks 1. Types of Dry Milks - Buying Dry Milk Products 2. Storing Dry Milks - Shelf Life of Dry Milks C. Canned Goods 1. Canned Milk Types - Shelf Life of Canned Milks 2. Corrosion Prevention of Canned Goods D. Sugar, Honey and Other Sweeteners 1. Types of Granulated Sugars - Storing Granulated Sugars 2. Types of Honey - Buying Honey - Storing Honey Raw Honey and Botulism - Honey Outgassing 3. Types of Cane Syrups - Storing Cane Syrups 4. Corn Syrup 5. Maple Syrup E. Fats and Oils 1. Buying & Storing Oils and Fats 2. Extending Shelf Life By Adding Anti-Oxidants F. Cooking Staples 1. Baking Powder 2. Baking Soda 3. Herbs & Spices 4. Salt 5. Vinegar 6. Yeast G. Infant Formula III. Spoilage A. Insect Infestations 1. Pests of Stored Grains, Legumes and Dry Foodstuffs 2. Control of Insect Infestations B. Molds In Foods 1. Minimizing Molds 2. Molds in Canned Goods 3. Molds in Grains and Legumes - Preventing Molds In Grains and Legumes C. Bacterial Spoilage 1. Botulism 2. Other Bacterial Spoilers of Food D. Enzymatic Action In Food Spoilage IV. Specific Equipment Questions A. Storage Containers 1. What is Food Grade Packaging? - Where Can I Find Food Grade Containers? 2. Plastic Packaging - How Do I Get the Odor Out of Pickle Buckets? 3. Metal Cans - Pooling Resources: The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints 4. Glass Jars 5. Mylar Bags - How Do I Use Mylar Bags? 6. Reusing Or Recycling Packaging B. CO2 and Nitrogen 1. Dry Ice - Dry Ice Suppliers 2. Compressed Nitrogen - Types of Availability - Obtaining the Gas and Necessary Equipment - Putting It All Together - Putting It Into Use C. Oxygen Absorbers 1. What Is An Oxygen Absorber? 2. Where Can I Find Oxygen Absorbers? 3. How Are Oxygen Absorbers Used? D. Desiccants 1. What Is A Desiccant? 2. Types of Desiccants - Silica Gel - Clay Desiccant - Calcium Oxide - Calcium Sulfate - Other Desiccants 3. Where Do I Find Desiccants? 4. How Do I Use Desiccants? E. Diatomaceous Earth 1. What Is Diatomaceous Earth? 2. Where Can I Find DE and What Type Should I Buy? 3. How Do I Use DE In Food Storage? V. Shelf Lives A. "Best Used By", "Use By" and Other Food Product Dates B. Closed Dating Codes Used By Some Food Manufacturers C. Shelf Lives of Some Common Storage Foods VI. Resources A. Books B. Pamphlets C. Magazines D. Phone, voice, non-modem E. Electronic-online - Information sources - Software sources F. Organizations 1. The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - LDS Family Cannery Guidelines G. Food and Equipment Suppliers 1 Mail Ordering Storage Foods What You Should Know 2 Addresses of Suppliers. - Storage Food Manufacturers - Food Preservation Dealers & Suppliers - Food Storage & Preservation Equipment Manufacturers - Diatomaceous Earth Manufacturers & Dealers - Storage Food Retailers ========================================================================= -- I -- SHELF LIVES: TIME, TEMPERATURE, MOISTURE, OXYGEN AND LIGHT ========================================================================= Is your food insurance up to date? Since the entire idea of a food storage program is that it should be available for "you and yours" in times of need, it is important to understand the conditions that can affect the edibles stored in your pantry. A storage program is only as good as the quality of the food that goes into it. It cannot get any better than what originally went in, but it can certainly get worse. In the fullness of time, all stored foods will degrade in nutrient content and palatability until they reach the inevitable end where even the dog won't eat them. It's because of this eventuality that every article, book, and teacher concerned with putting food by gives the same advice: *Date all food containers and rotate, Rotate, ROTATE. The first food in should be the first food out.* This concept is often shortened to the acronym FIFO. The reason for this emphasis on stock rotation is that when discussing the usefulness of foodstuffs there are really two shelf lives to be considered. The first is the nutrient content of the food. This actually begins to fade at the moment of harvest. Three factors dictate nutritional shelf life: The food's initial nutritional content; the processing and preservation steps it underwent; and its storage conditions. Eventually the nutrition will dwindle away to nothing. At some point you will have to decide whether the remaining nutrition is worth the space the food is taking up and if it should be rotated out of storage. The second shelf life is a food's palatability life or the point at which undesirable changes occur to its taste, texture, color and cooking qualities. This is the reason for the "use by" and "sell by" dates on many foods and for shelve lives in general. It will almost always be in excess of good nutritive life. If you don't have anything to replace it with, it's not necessary to throw food out just because it's reached the end of its best palatable storage life. Do, however, keep in mind that advancing age will only further decrease the useful nutrition, increase the foods' unattractiveness and enlarge the chances that something may cause the food to spoil. Within reason, the key to prolonging the shelf life of your edibles lies in lowering the temperature of the area they are stored in. The storage lives of most foods are cut in half by every increase of 18 deg. F (10 deg. Celsius). For example, if you've stored your food in a garage that has a temperature of 90 deg. F, you should expect a shelf life less than half of what could be obtained at room temperature (70 deg. F) this in turn is less than half the storage life that you could get if you kept them in your refrigerator at 40 deg. F. Your storage area should be located where the temperature can be kept above freezing (32 deg. F) and, if possible, below 72 deg. F. Ideally, your storage location should have a humidity level of 15% or less, but unless you live in the desert it's not terribly likely you'll be able to achieve this. Regardless, moisture is not good for your stored edibles so you want to minimize it as much as possible. This can be done by several methods. The first is to keep the area air-conditioned and/or dehumidified during the humid times of the year. The second is to use packaging impervious to moisture and then to deal with the moisture trapped inside. If you are able, there's no reason not to use both. All containers should be kept off the floor and out of direct contact from exterior walls to reduce the chances of condensation. Another major threat to your food is oxygen. Chances are that if you have it sealed in moisture-proof containers then they are probably air-tight as well. This means that the oxygen can also be kept from doing its damage. If no more can get in, your only concern is the O2 that was trapped in the container when it was sealed. Lowering the percentage of O2 to 2% or less of the atmosphere trapped in the packaging (called head gas) can greatly contribute to extending its contents shelf life. The three main tactics for achieving this are vacuum sealing, flushing with inert gas or chemically absorbing the oxygen. Any one or a combination of the three can be used to good effect. Once you have temperature, humidity and oxygen under control, it is then necessary to look at light. Light is a form of energy and when it shines on your stored foods long enough it transfers some of that energy to the food. This has the effect of degrading its nutritional content and appearance. Fat soluble vitamins, such as A, D and E are particularly sensitive to light degradation. It certainly is a pretty sight to look at rows and rows of jars full of delicious food, particularly if you were the one that put the food in those jars. However, if you want to keep them at their best, you'll admire them only when you turn the light on in the pantry to retrieve one. If you don't have a room that can be dedicated to this purpose then store the jars in the cardboard box they came in. This will protect them not only from light, but help to cushion them from shocks which might break a jar or cause it to lose its seal. For those of you in earthquake country, it's a particularly good idea. When "terra" is no longer "firma" your jars just might dance right off onto the floor. Assuming they were properly processed in the first place, canned, dried and frozen (never thawed) foods do not become unsafe when stored longer than the recommended time, but their nutrient quality fades and their flavor goes downhill. Following these rules of good storage will keep your food wholesome and nutritious for as long as possible: #1 - First In, First Out (FIFO) means rotating your storage #2 - Cooler is better #3 - Drier is better #4 - Less oxygen exposure means more shelf life. #5 - Don't shed light on your food. Think of rotating your food storage as paying your food insurance premiums -- slacking off on rotation cuts back on your coverage. Is your food insurance up to date? ========================================================================= -- II -- THE TECHNIQUES OF FOOD STORAGE ========================================================================= In this section will be covered a number of foods that are particularly suited to being included in storage programs along with the various forms they can be found in and specific tips for a number of different food categories. A. GRAINS AND LEGUMES A.1 GRAIN VARIETIES One of the most important decisions in planning a food storage program is what kinds of grains to include, but many people do not give this adequate thought. Some just buy however much wheat or corn or rice they think is necessary to meet their needs and leave it at that. Others rely on pre-packaged decisions made for them by their storage food retailer who put together a "year's supply of food" to buy all at once. Either decision could be a major mistake. There are a number of food storage plans one may use as a guide. Many are based on the so-called "Mormon Four" of wheat, milk, honey and salt, with as many additional foods as the planner found to be desirable. When it was created in 1937, this plan may have been OK, but we've learned a great deal since then. An unfortunate number of people in our society develop allergies to one kind of food or another. One of the more common food allergens is wheat. Even more unfortunate is the fact that many people who have an allergy to wheat don't even know it. They won't become aware of it until they try to live with wheat as a large part of their diet. For this reason you should store what you eat and eat what you store, so that ugly surprises such as this don't come up when it's too late to easily avoid them. A second reason to think about storing a selection of different grains is appetite fatigue. There are those who think providing variety in the diet is relatively unimportant and that if and when the time comes they'll eat what they've got and that will be that. For healthy, well-adjusted adults under ordinary circumstances this might be possible without too much difficulty. However, the entire reason for having a food storage program is for when circumstances aren't ordinary. Times of crisis produce stress -- possibly physical, but always mental. If you are suddenly forced to eat a diet both alien and monotonous, it is going to add just that much more stress on top of what you are already dealing with. If your planning includes the elderly, young children and/or infants they might just quit eating or refuse to eat sufficient amounts and become unable to survive. This is not a trivial problem and should be given serious consideration. Consider the positive aspects of adding some comfort foods. In his book, *Making the Best of Basics*, James Stevens mentions a post-WWII study by Dr. Norman Wright, of the British Food Ministry, which found that people in England and Europe were more likely to reject unfamiliar or distasteful foods during times of stress than under normal conditions. When it's wheat, day in and day out, wheat's going to start becoming distasteful fast. Far better to have a variety of foods on hand to forestall appetite fatigue and, more importantly, to use those storable foods in your everyday diet so that you'll be accustomed to them. [If anyone knows where I may find an actual copy of the study by Dr. Wright, I'd appreciate it if you'd point me to it. Thanks- ed.] ABOUT GLUTEN: As you read through the grains descriptions below you will come across frequent mention of "gluten". Gluten is the protein in grains that enables the dough made from them to trap the gasses produced by yeast fermentation or chemical reaction of baking powder or soda and in turn causes it to rise. The amount of this protein to be found in species of grains and varieties within a species can vary radically. Some grains such as rice have virtually no gluten at all and will not produce a raised loaf by itself while others like hard winter wheat have a great deal and makes excellent raised bread. Whether gluten content is of importance to you will depend upon the end uses you intend for your grain. Some of the common and relatively uncommon types of grains and their varieties are listed below. AMARANTH: Amaranth is not a true cereal grain at all, but is a relative of the pigweeds and the ornamental flowers we call "cockscomb". It's grown not only for its seed, but for its leaves that can be cooked and eaten as greens. The seed is high in protein, particularly the amino acid lysine which is limited in the true cereal grains. It can be milled as-is, or toasted to provide more flavor. The flour lacks gluten, so it's not suited for raised breads, but can be made into any of a number of flat breads. Some varieties can be popped much like popcorn, or can be boiled and eaten as a cereal, used in soups, granolas, and the like. Toasted or untoasted, it blends well with other grain flours. BARLEY: Barley is thought by some to be the first grain ever grown by man. It has short, stubby kernels with a hull that is difficult to remove. Excluding barley intended for malting or animal feed, most of this grain is consumed by humans in two forms. Most common is the white, highly processed "pearl barley" with much of its bran and germ milled off along with its hull. It is the least nutritious form of barley. The second offering is called "pot" or "hulled barley" and it has been subjected to the same milling process as pearled, but with fewer trips through the polisher. Because of this, it retains more of the nutritious germ and bran. Unless you are prepared to try to get the hulls off I don't recommend buying unhulled barley. Although it can be milled into flour, its low gluten content will not make a good loaf of raised bread. It can be combined with other flours that do have sufficient gluten to make leavened bread or used in flat breads. Barley flour and flakes have a light nutty flavor that is enhanced by toasting. Whole barley is commonly used to add thickness to soups and stews. Recently, a hull-less form has become available on the market through a few suppliers. This is whole grain barley with all of its bran and germ intact and should have the most nutrients of any form of this grain available. I have not yet been able to discover yet how suitable it is for long term storage. BUCKWHEAT: Buckwheat is another of those seeds commonly considered to be a grain, but which is not a true cereal. It is a close relative to the docks and sorrels. The "grain" itself is a dark, three cornered seed resembling a tiny beechnut. It has a hard, fibrous hull requiring a special buckwheat huller to remove it. Here in the U.S., it is most often used in pancakes, biscuits and muffins. In Eastern Europe and Russia it is known in its toasted form as "kasha". In the Far East, it's often made into "soba" or noodles. It's also a good bee plant, producing a dark, strongly flavored honey. The flour is light or dark depending on how much of the hull has been removed before grinding. Dark flour is much more strongly flavored than lighter flour, but because of the high fiber and tannin content of its hull it is not necessarily more nutritious. Buckwheat is one of those foods with no middle ground in peoples opinions -- they either love it or they hate it. Like amaranth, it's high in lysine, an amino acid commonly lacking in the true cereal grains. CORN: Corn is the most common grain crop in the U.S., but it is (maize) mostly consumed indirectly as animal feed or even industrial feedstock rather than directly as food. As one of the "Three Sisters" (corn, squash and beans) it was the staple grain of nearly all of the indigenous peoples of the American continents before the advent of European colonization. It comes in an amazing variety of forms with some being better suited for a particular purpose than others. The varieties intended to be eaten as fresh, green corn are very high in sugar content and do not dry or store well. The other varieties are the flint, dent, flour, and popcorns. All of them keep well when they have been properly dried. To a certain extent, they're all interchangeable for purposes of grinding into meal (sometimes known as polenta meal) or flour (very finely ground corn, not cornstarch), but some make better meal than flour and vice versa. As a general rule of thumb, the flint varieties make better meal as they have a grittier texture than the other corns. If meal, hominy and hominy grits (commonly called just "grits") are what you are most interested in, use the flint type. If you intend to make corn masa for tortillas and tamales, then the flour type is what you want, but it is seldom found on the commercial market so the dent type is next best. Popcorn is what you need if you want to pop it for snacks and it can also be ground into meal or flour. It seems to me it makes a very good meal, but it's a bit gritty for flour. It's also difficult to hull it with alkali treatment. Your mileage may vary. Yellow dent corn seems to be the most commonly available variety among storage food dealers and will work fine for almost any purpose but popping. Popcorn is one form of a whole grain available to nearly everyone in the U.S. if they know where to look. It is so popular as a snack food, particularly in movie theaters and events like fairs and ball games, that even the smallest of towns will generally have at least one business selling it in twenty-five or fifty pound bags. Since it's meant to be eaten it's safe for food. To be at its most "poppable", this corn needs to have a moisture content between 13.5%-15.5% which makes it just a little too moist for ideal storage. A small amount of drying will need to be done before it's packed away. If wanted for popping later, it can always be re-hydrated by sprinkling a tablespoon of water per quart of kernels, shaking vigorously and allowing it to be absorbed for a day or two. If you still get too many "old maids" or unpopped kernels then repeat the process once more. Popcorn is harder than the other varieties of corn so if your mill is not of the heavy duty sort you may want to consider cracking the popcorn into coarse pieces first then grinding into finer textured meal. Once you've decided between flint, dent or popcorn, (the flour types are difficult to find commercially) you now have to decide upon it's color: There are yellow, white, blue, & red dried varieties. The yellow and white types are the most common by far with the blues and reds mostly being relegated to curiosities, though blue corn has been gaining in popularity these last few years. It should be kept in mind that white corn does not have the carotene (converts into vitamin A) content of yellow corn. Since vitamin A is one of the major limiting vitamins in long term food storage, any possible source of it should be utilized. For this reason I suggest storing yellow rather than white corn. Additionally, much of the niacin content of corn is chemically bound up in a form not available for human nutrition unless it has been treated with an alkali. This is really of importance only if 85% or more of your daily calorie intake will come from corn, but grits, hominy or corn masa (for tortillas and tamales) are traditional uses for this grain and can go a long way toward increasing the number of recipes you can make with it. Give them a try, they're really quite good. MILLET: Millet is an important staple grain in North China and India, but is little known as a food in the U.S, where we mostly use it as bird feed. The grain kernels are very small, round, and usually ivory colored or yellow, though some varieties are darker. The lack of gluten and a rather bland flavor may account for the anonymity of this grain but it has a more alkaline pH than other grains and makes it very easy to digest. It also has a higher iron content than any other grain but amaranth. It swells a great deal when cooked and supplies more servings per pound than any other grains. When cooked like rice it makes an excellent breakfast cereal. It has little gluten of its own, but mixes well with other flours. OATS: Though the Scots and the Irish have made an entire cuisine from oats, it is still mostly thought of in the U.S. as a bland breakfast food. Seldom found as a whole grain, it's usually sold processed in one form or another. Much like barley, oats are a difficult grain to separate from their hulls. Besides its longtime role as a breakfast food, oats make an excellent thickener of soups and stews and a filler in meat loafs and casseroles. Probably the second most common use for oats in America is in cookies and granolas. A little creative thought can really increase their culinary range. Listed below in order of desirability for storage are the forms of oats found in this country. Rolled and cut oats retain both their bran and their germ. Oat groats: These are whole oats with the hulls removed. They are not often found in this form, but can sometimes be had from natural food stores and some storage food dealers. Oats are not the easiest thing to get a consistent grind from so producing your own oat flour takes a bit of experience. Steel cut oats: Also known as Irish, pinhead or porridge (but so are rolled) oats. These are oat groats which have been cut into chunks with steel blades. They're not rolled and look like coarse bits of grain. This form can be found in both natural food stores (sometimes much cheaper) and many supermarkets. Rolled oats: These are also commonly called old fashioned, thick cut or porridge oats. To produce them, oat groats are steamed and then rolled to flatten. They can generally be found wherever oats are sold. They take slightly longer to cook than do the quick cooking oats, but they retain more flavor, texture and nutrition. This is what most people will call to mind when they think of oatmeal. Quick cooking rolled oats: These are just steamed oat groats rolled thinner than the old fashioned kind above so that they will cook faster. They can usually be found right next to the thicker rolled oats. Instant rolled oats: These are the "just add hot water" or microwave type of oat cereals and are not particularly suited for a storage program. They do, however, have uses in "bug out" and 72 hour food kits for short term crises. Whole oats: This is with the hulls still on. They are sold in seed stores and sometimes straight from the farmer who grew them. Unless you have some means of getting the hulls off, I don't recommend buying oats in this form. If you do buy from a seed supplier, make certain that they have not been treated with any chemicals that are toxic to humans. QUINOA: Quinoa is yet another of the grains that is not a true cereal. It's botanical name is Chenopodium quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah"), and is a relative of the common weed Lambsquarter. The individual kernels are about 1.5-2 mm in size and are shaped rather like small flattened spheres. When quinoa is cooked, the germ of the grain coils into a small "tail" that lends a pleasant crunch. This exotic grain should be thoroughly washed before cooking in order to prevent it from tasting bitter. There are several varieties of quinoa that have color ranging from near white to a dark brown. The larger white varieties are considered superior and are the most common. RICE: Rice is the most commonly consumed food grain in the world. The U.S. is the leading exporter of it, though we actually only produce about 1% of the global supply. The majority of the world's rice is eaten within five miles of where it was grown. Much like wheat and corn, rice comes in a number of varieties, each with different characteristics. They are typically divided into classes by the length of their kernel grains; short, medium and long. Short grain rice: The short grain variety is a little softer and bit moister when it cooks and tends to stick together more than the longer rices. It has a sweeter, somewhat stronger flavor than long grain rice. Medium grain rice: The medium grain variety is not very common in the States. It has flavor like the short variety, but with a texture more like long. Long grain rice: The long grain variety cooks up into a drier, flakier dish than the shorter types and the flavor tends to be blander. It is the most commonly found size of rice on American grocery shelves. Each of the above may be processed into brown, white, parboiled or converted and instant rice. Below is a short discussion of the differences between the various types. Brown rice: This is whole grain rice with only the hull removed. It retains all of the nutrition and has a pleasant nutty flavor. From a nutritional standpoint it is by far the best, but it has one flaw: The essential oil in the germ is very susceptible to oxidation and soon goes rancid. As a result, brown rice has a shelf life of only about six months from the date of purchase unless given special packaging or storage. Freezing or refrigeration will greatly extend this. It's possible to purchase brown rice from long term food suppliers already specially packaged in air tight containers with an inert nitrogen atmosphere or you can do it yourself. In this kind of packaging, (if properly done), the storage life can be extended for several years. Converted rice: Converted rice starts as whole rice still in the hull which undergoes a process of soaking and steaming until it is partially cooked. It is dried, hulled and then polished to remove the bran and germ. The steaming process drives some of the vitamins and minerals from the outer layers into the white inner layers. This makes it more nutritious than polished white rice, but also makes it more expensive. Its storage life is the same as regular white rice. White rice: This is raw rice that has had its outer layers milled off, taking with it about 10% of its protein, 85% of its fat and 70% of its mineral content. Because so much of the nutrition is lost, white rice sold in the U.S. has to be "enriched" with vitamins to partially replace what was removed. Instant rice: The type of rice is fully cooked and then dehydrated needing nothing more than the addition of water to reconstitute it. In a pinch, it's not even necessary to use hot water. It's not particularly suitable for inclusion in storage programs, but it does have a place in "seventy-two hour" and other short-term emergency kits. The white variety is by far the most common, but in the last few years instant brown rice has made an appearance on the market. RYE: Rye is well known as a bread grain in the U.S. It has dark brown kernels longer and thinner than wheat, but less gluten. Bread made from this grain tends to be somewhat dense unless gluten is added (often in the form of a lot of wheat flour) with color that ranges from pale to dark brown. German pumpernickel, made with unrefined rye flour and molasses, is the darkest, densest form. SORGHUM: Sorghum is probably more widely known here in the States for the syrup made from it. Also known as "milo", it is one of the principle cereal grains grown of Africa. Its seeds are somewhat round, a little smaller than peppercorns, of an overall brown color with a bit of red and yellow mixed in. The varieties called "yellow endosperm sorghum" are considered to have a better taste. It is a major feed grain in the Southwestern U.S. and is where the vast majority of the national production goes. Like most of the other grains, sorghum is low in gluten, but the seeds can be milled into flour and mixed with higher gluten flours or made into flat breads, pancakes or cookies. In the Far East, it is cooked and eaten like rice, while in Africa it is ground into meal for porridge. It's also fermented for alcoholic beverages. TRITICALE: Triticale is not a creation sprung from the smooth brows of *Star Trek* script writers. It is, in fact, a cross or hybrid between wheat and rye. This youngest of grains combines the productivity of wheat with the ruggedness of rye and has a high nutrition value. The kernels are gray-brown, oval shaped larger-than-wheat and plumper than rye. It can be used in much the same way as either of its two parents. It will make a raised bread like wheat does, but the gluten is a bit weak so wheat flour is frequently added to strengthen it. Because of the delicate nature of its gluten, excessive kneading must be avoided. Although it is the youngest of the grains, it's been around for decades, but has curiously never achieved much popularity. Whether this is for reasons of agricultural production or public acceptance I don't know. WHEAT: Wheat comes in a number of different varieties. Each variety is more suitable for some purposes based on its characteristics. The most common classifications for its varieties are spring or winter, hard or soft, red or white. The hard wheats have kernels that tend to be small, very hard and with high gluten contents. Low gluten wheat does not produce as fine a loaf as high gluten wheat, though it can still be used for yeast breads if necessary. As a general rule, hard varieties have more protein than soft varieties. The soft wheats have kernels tending to be larger, plumper and softer in texture than hard wheats. Their gluten content is less and are used in biscuits, pastries, quick breads, pastas, and breakfast cereals where a higher gluten content would contribute an undesirable tougher texture. Winter wheats are planted in the fall, over winter in the field and are harvested the next summer. Spring wheats are planted in the early spring and are harvested in the fall. Red wheats comprise most of the hard varieties while white wheats comprise most of the soft. Recently, hard white wheats have been developed that are very suitable for raised bread making. Some feel the hard white varieties make a better tasting whole wheat bread than the hard red. The hard red varieties, either spring or winter, are the most commonly stored because of their high protein and should have no less than 12%. The hard white spring wheats are still relatively new and are not yet as widespread. They have the same excellent storage characteristics as the hard red wheats. A.2 LEGUME VARIETIES Unless you are willing to spend a great deal of money on preserved meats, a food storage program not including a large quantity of legumes is simply incomplete. There are few non- animal foods that contain the amount of protein to be found in dried beans, peas, and lentils. The varieties commonly available in this country have protein contents ranging from 20%-35%. As with most non-animal proteins, they are not complete in themselves for purposes of human nutrition, but become so when they are combined with the incomplete proteins found in grains. It is for this reason that grains and legumes are so often mentioned together. In cultures all over the world, it is common to find the two served together at a meal, making a complete protein, even when those doing the serving have no scientific understanding of nutrition at all. The legume family, of which all beans, peas, lentils, and peanuts are a part, is one of the largest in the plant kingdom. Because of this and the many thousands of years of development and cultivation that man has given them, the variety of edible legumes available to us is huge. Both the appearance and the names of these varieties are colorful and varied. They range from "adzuki beans", a type of soybean from the Orient, to "zipper peas", a commonly found field-pea here in the Southern U.S. Their color can range from a clean white, to deep red, dull green to flat black with thousands of mixtures and patterns of colors. In spite of this incredible variety of names and colors, legumes are largely interchangeable in cooking usage, although some dishes just wouldn't be the same if a different type were used. Below is a partial list of some of the more commonly eaten bean varieties here in the U.S. BLACK BEAN: Also known as "turtle beans", these small, dark brownish-black, oval-shaped beans are well known in Cuban black bean soup. They are very commonly used in Central and South America and in China. They tend to bleed very darkly when cooked so they are not well suited to being combined with other beans, lest they give the entire pot a muddy appearance. BLACK-EYED PEA: Although there is tremendous variation among the many varieties of field-peas eaten throughout the Southern United States, it is black-eyed peas that are the most commonly known nationwide. The coloring of field-peas is as varied as the rest of the legume family, with black-eyed peas being small, oval- shaped with an overall creamy color and, of course, their distinctive black-eye. Dried field-peas cook very quickly and combine very tastily with either rice or cornbread. CHICKPEA: Also known as the "garbanzo bean" or "cecci pea" (or bean), it tends to be a creamy or tan color, rather lumpily roundish and larger than dried garden peas. Many have eaten chickpeas, even if they've never seen a whole one. They are the prime ingredient in hummus and falafel and are one of the oldest cultivated legume species known, going back as far as 5400 B.C. in the Near East. KIDNEY BEANS: Just like the rest of the family, kidney beans can be found in wide variety. They come in both a light and dark red color in their distinctive kidney shape. Probably best known here in the U.S. for their use in chili, they figure prominently in Mexican, Brazilian and Chinese cuisine. LENTILS: Lentils are an odd lot. They don't fit in with either the beans or the peas and occupy a place by themselves. Their shape is different from the other legumes being roundish little discs with colors ranging from muddy brown, to green to a rather bright orangish-red. They cook very quickly compared to the larger beans and have a distinctive flavor. They are much used in Far Eastern cuisine from Indian to Chinese. LIMA BEANS: In the Southern U.S., they are also commonly called "butter beans". They are one of the most common legumes found in this country in all manner of preservation from the young small beans to the large fully mature type. Their flavor is pleasant, but a little bland. Their shape is rather flat and broad with colors ranging from pale green to speckled cream and purple. PEANUTS: The peanut, commonly known outside the U.S. as the "groundnut", is not actually a nut at all, but a legume. They are another odd species not much like the more familiar beans and peas. Whatever their classification peanuts are certainly not unfamiliar to U.S. eaters. Peanuts have a high protein percentage and even more fat. They are one of the two legume species commonly grown for oilseed in this country, and are also used for peanut butter, and boiled or roasted peanuts. Many Central and South American, African and Chinese dishes incorporate peanuts so they are useful for much more than just a snack food or cooking oil. PINTO BEANS: Anyone who has eaten Tex-Mex food has probably had the pinto bean. It is one of the most commonly eaten beans in the U.S., particularly in the Southwestern portion of the country. Stereotypically bean shaped, it has a dappled pattern of tans and browns on its shell. Pintos have a flavor that blends well with many foods. When ground together with white or navy beans they make my favorite home-made version of falafel. SOYBEANS: An entire university could be founded on the culinary and industrial uses of the soybean. It is by far the legume with the highest protein content in commercial production as well as being the other legume oilseed alongside the peanut. The beans themselves are small, and round with a multitude of different shades. Because of their high oil content, they are more sensitive to oxygen exposure than other legumes and precautions should be taken accordingly if they are to be kept for more than a year in storage. Although the U.S. grows a very large percentage of the global supply, we consume virtually none of them directly. Most of them go into cattle feed, are used by industry or exported. What does get eaten directly has usually been processed in some fashion. Soybean products range from tofu, to tempeh, to textured vegetable protein (TVP) and hundreds of other uses. They don't lend themselves well to just being boiled until done and eaten the way other beans and peas do. For this reason, if you plan on keeping some as a part of your storage program (and you should) you would be well served to begin to learn how to process and prepare them now when you're not under pressure to produce. That way you can throw out your mistakes and order pizza, rather than having to choke them down, regardless. A.3 TYPES OF AVAILABILITY OF GRAINS AND LEGUMES Grains and legumes of all types may be purchased in a number of different fashions depending largely on where you live and what time of year it is. The following will cover the various steps in the processing chain where they might be found starting with the forms most immediately suitable for storage and progressing all the way back to the farmer. Each type of availability has its good and bad points. As you might expect, the more processing the product receives, the higher its price is likely to be. The further back along the processing chain you go the cheaper the product should become in terms of purchase price. It will, however, cost you more in time and effort to get it into a condition ready to put it into storage. The easiest and simplest way to incorporate grains and legumes into your storage program is to purchase your items "pre-cleaned and pre-packaged". This is grain or legumes that have been harvested, cleaned and put up in bags or other containers-possibly even going so far as to already be packaged for long-term storage. If you don't live in the area where they are grown, it is probably your only option. If you want to purchase in bulk then you may be able to find "pre-cleaned" which means that it has been passed through fans, screens or sieves to remove chaff, smut balls, insect parts, mouse droppings and other debris. It probably won't be in any form of packaging and you may have to provide your own container. There may be minimum purchase amounts as well. If the moisture content is in the right range then nothing will need to be done other than to put it up in your own storage packaging. Be certain to make sure it is intended for human food use, otherwise read the cautionary text below. Should you happen to live in the area where the type of grain or legume that you are interested in purchasing is grown you may be able to purchase direct from the producer or distributor. If you are interested in doing this, it may be possible to find your product "field-run" which means that it's been harvested and sold shortly thereafter. It will not have been given any cleaning or processing and is likely to be rather dirty depending upon the conditions under which it was grown and harvested. A second form called "field-run from storage" is product that has been harvested and then put into storage for a time. It will have all of the dirt and detritus of field run grain and whatever it may have picked up from the silo as well. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have purchased your grains and legumes from a foods dealer then you needn't worry about hidden mold infections, fungicides or insecticides that are unsafe for human consumption. In the U.S., the products will have been checked several times by Federal and State agriculture departments and probably by the major foods dealers as well, to ensure its quality. This is not necessarily the case when you purchase your grains or legumes directly from the farmer or elevator operator as field-run or field-run from storage grain. Nor is it necessarily the case if you've made the decision to utilize grains marketed as animal feed. Inspection procedures vary from nation to nation, so if you buy outside of the U.S. inquire of your supplier. If you are buying your grains and legumes from some place other than a foods dealer, you need to know the history of what you are buying. There is the remote possibility that field-run from storage or any grade of grain not specifically sold for human consumption may have had fumigants, fungicides or insecticides not certified as safe for human foods added while it was in the bin. It is important to know what it has been treated with before you buy it. Straight field-run grain, other than being dirty, is not likely to have had anything added to it that would make it undesirable for human consumption. There is, however, the also remote possibility it may have been infected with fungi that would make it unsafe for eating. One of these fungal infections of grain is called "ergot". This fungal disease affects the flowering parts of some members of the grass family, mostly confined to rye. Consuming the fungus causes a nervous disorder known as St. Anthony's Fire. When eaten in large quantities the ergot alkaloids may cause constriction of the blood vessels, particularly in the extremities. The effects of ergot poisoning are cumulative and lead to numbness of the limbs and other, frequently serious, symptoms. The fungus bodies are hard, spur like, purple-black structures that replace the kernel in the grain head. The ergot bodies can vary in size from the length of the kernel to as much as several times as long. They don't crush as easily as smut bodies of other funguses. When they are cracked open, the inner broken faces can be off-white, yellow, or tan. The infected grain looks very different from ordinary, healthy rye grains and can be spotted easily. Ergot only rarely affects other grains and will generally afflict rye only when the growing conditions were damp. If you purchase field run rye, you should closely examine it first for the presence of ergot bodies. If you find more than a very few, pass up that grain and look elsewhere. Ergot is typically not a common problem in the U.S and is easily spotted when it does occur. Other grain fungi, however, are much harder to spot and also have serious consequences should they be consumed. The various species of "Aspergillus" and "Fusarium" molds can be a problem almost anywhere and should be kept in mind. *Please see Section III.B Molds In Grains and Legumes for more information concerning this.* Sometimes grain in the form of animal feed or seed grain/legumes is available. Keep in mind animal feeds may have a higher contaminant level than what is permissible for human consumption. Under certain circumstances, the USDA allows the sale of grain or legumes for animal feed that could not be sold for direct human food use. It may even be mixed varieties of one grain and not all one type. Seed grains, in particular, must be investigated carefully to find out what they may have been treated with. It is quite common for seed to have had fungicides applied to them, and possibly other chemicals as well. Once treated, they are no longer safe for human or animal consumption. If you do purchase field-run grain of any sort, examine it closely for contamination and moldy grain. Ask the farmer or distributor whether it has been tested for mold or "mycotoxin" (fungal toxin) content. This is especially the case if you are buying field-run CORN, RYE, SOYBEANS or RICE. When you purchase direct from the field, you may be getting it before it has been checked. Be certain of what it is that you are getting and ask questions if you choose to go this route. Know who you are dealing with. Unless you just can't find any other source, I don't recommend using animal feed or seed grains for human food. *Please see section III.B.3 " Molds In Grains and Legumes" for further information.* A.3.1 MOISTURE CONTENT The moisture content of the grain or legume you want to put by has a major impact on how long you will be able to keep it in storage and still remain nutritious and edible. Some of the available literature states that grain with a moisture content as high as 13% can be safely put up, but there is a risk to keeping it at that moisture level that should be understood. The outside of every kernel of grain and bean you buy or grow hosts thousands of fungi spores and bacteria. This is all perfectly natural and is not a reason for alarm. The problem lies in that at moisture levels between 13.5% to 15% some fungal species are able to grow and reproduce. Aerobic bacteria (needing free oxygen to survive) require moisture in the 20% range. If you have grain with a moisture content as high as 13% you are perilously close to having enough moisture to enable mold growth which could lead to the spoilage and loss of your product. For this reason, I suggest you keep all grains and legumes to a moisture content of no more than 10%. An exception to this is raw peanuts which are particularly susceptible to an Aspergillus mold growth that produces aflatoxin (a type of mycotoxin) and should be stored with an 8% moisture content or less. If you do not have a clue as to what the moisture level of your grain is here are several methods to determine it. The first method requires a great deal more oven time, but is the simplest and has less room for error to creep in. The second method is much quicker, but greater care must be taken to prevent mistakes. Highly precise moisture content measurements generally require equipment and facilities beyond the scope of what can be had by the average person. It is still possible though to make some determinations that will be of real use for our purposes. You'll need some way to measure weight with a fair degree of accuracy. The better the scale you use, the more reliability you'll have in your determinations. Provided that it will weigh accurately to the half-ounce or less, any scale that can be calibrated with a known check weight will do. Even postal scales can be made to serve if they are carefully calibrated against a known weight. Many individuals interested in starting storage programs may have grain weight scales used in ammunition reloading that might serve well. Also necessary is a thermometer capable of withstanding and accurately measuring oven temperatures. As many bakers can tell you, home oven thermostats are often notoriously inaccurate so it is better to rely on a decent thermometer. Most kitchen supply stores can supply one that is oven safe and will accurately measure to the degree Fahrenheit or Celsius. Proper technique calls for preheating the oven for a half-hour or more before starting the dehydrating process so that it will be of a uniform heat throughout. The sample pan should be placed on the middle rack as close to the vertical and horizontal center of the oven as possible. The bulb or dial of the thermometer should be placed next to the pan. METHOD ONE. This method is for measuring moisture content in whole grains and legumes. Grain flours or meals, milk powders and any other finely textured foods should use method two detailed below. To be done prior to measuring -- choose a shallow heat resistant container that has a close fitting lid. Clean it thoroughly and dry it completely in your oven for 10-15 minutes. Allow it to cool and then weigh it carefully. This will give you the tare weight or what your container weighs empty. Depending on how your scale is calibrated you can use a smaller sample size than what is indicated below. Using the twenty-ounce sample mentioned in the following text will allow for fairly accurate readings with the average postal scale. A scale that will measure to the gram could use as small a sample as 20 grams. A powder scale could use even less, but the smaller your sample size becomes the more finicky care you must take not to allow error to creep in. Keep your sample size large enough to easily work with. Allowing for the weight of the sample pan, measure out a weighed twenty-ounce representative sample of the grain or legumes in question. Ideally, you should mix the entire lot thoroughly immediately before removing the sample, but if this is not possible then take it from the middle center of the container. It is important that you use care in this measurement since it will affect all following determinations. Put the sample in the container making sure it is not more than an inch deep. Place it in the oven with the lid off and allow to heat. Below is a table giving the oven temperatures and times per grain or legume type: Time and Temperature Settings for Determining Moisture Contents of Whole Seeds. ------------------------------------------------------ Oven Temperature Oven Time Seed Deg. F C Hours Barley 266 130 20 Beans 217 103 72 Corn 217 103 72 Oats 266 130 22 Rye 266 130 16 Sorghum, millet 266 130 18 Soybeans, peanuts 217 103 72 Wheat, rice 266 130 19 When the dehydration period is over place the close fitting lid on the sample pan and allow to cool in the oven with the door closed. Remove the pan and carefully weigh it. A one ounce loss in weight indicates your grain has a roughly five percent moisture content, 2 ounces indicates that it has a 10% moisture content, etc., etc. You might even be able to cut it as fine as a half oz loss, but I wouldn't try to take it further than that. Obviously, this is only a rough measure, but it works and can be done with postal or dietetic scales that are available virtually everywhere. As I mentioned above, if you have a scale with a finer calibration it is possible to use a smaller sample size and achieve the same result. If anyone has a better way of measuring moisture levels which can be done without a lab or special equipment I'd surely like to hear it. METHOD TWO This method is much faster to use than the first, but greater care must be taken to prevent error. It can be used to determine moisture contents of whole grains and legumes, flours, meals and various food powders. The same equipment as was used in Method One will be required here as well as a low-RPM grain mill or some other device that can reduce a quantity of the grain to a meal consistency with only minimal heating of the sample. If the food to be tested is already at a meal consistency or finer then it can be used as-is. Grind a quantity of product you want to measure the moisture content of. Take care to grind the sample slowly enough to keep friction heat build up to a minimum or else moisture will be lost due to heat evaporation before it can be weighed. Immediately upon finishing the grinding, weigh out your sample so as to minimize unmeasured moisture loss. Place the sample in the oven and dehydrate in the manner used in Method One for a period of two hours at a temperature setting of 275 deg. F (135 deg. C). When the heating period is finished cover with the tight-fitting lid and allow to cool in the oven. Remove and weigh carefully. Moisture determination is the same as above. A.3.2 CLEANING IT YOURSELF If you've chosen to purchase field-run grain or if the pre-cleaned product you've bought isn't clean enough, you can do it yourself. The fastest and easiest method is "fanning", a form of winnowing. This is done by pouring the grain slowly through the air stream of a fan or blower into a clean, deep container such as a cardboard box or trash can. The wind blowing through the falling grain will blow out most of the broken kernels, chaff, smut balls, mouse droppings, etc. If you're losing too much good grain, try turning the fan down or moving it further back from the container. The deep container will cut down on the amount of kernels that bounce out. Repeat fanning as necessary until the grain is clean enough to suit or you've blown all of the lighter contaminants out. If the fanning didn't get the grain clean enough it can be further cleaned by running it through a screen or sieve. This should be made with holes just big enough to pass an average sized grain of what it is you're cleaning. Obviously, the size of the holes will necessarily vary depending upon the kernel size of the grain. Should the kernels still not be clean enough to suit then you'll just have to resort to hand picking out the offending particles. I'd strongly suggest doing this just prior to grinding where it can be done in small batches rather than trying to do your entire storage all at once. It's much easier to do a few pounds at a time than fifty or a hundred. If you have it in mind to wash the grain, this should not be done prior to storage, but, rather, just before use. After it's been rinsed, it should be dried immediately in the oven by placing it no deeper than 1/2 inch and heated at 150 deg. F for an hour. It should be stirred occasionally to improve drying. A.4 STORING GRAINS AND LEGUMES Now that you have properly prepared your grains and legumes for storage, they are ready to be packaged. *For methods and procedures of packaging please see section IV.* IV. Specific Equipment Questions A. Storage Containers B. CO2 and Nitrogen C. Oxygen Absorbers D. Desiccants E. Diatomaceous Earth B. DRY MILKS Got milk? In the refrigerator, right? Milk is a great source of essential amino acids and vital calcium, but in its fresh liquid form it is a highly perishable commodity. Fortunately, milk can be found in several forms that lend themselves to food storage. The various types of dry milks are the best suited to the task. B.1 TYPES OF DRY MILKS NONFAT: This is pasteurized skim milk reduced to a powdered concentrate. It can be found in two forms, regular and instant. They are both made from milk in a spray-drying process, but the instant variety has been given further processing to make it more easily soluble in water than regular dry milk. Both types have the same nutrient composition. The regular variety is more compact and requires less storage space than the instantized variety, but it is more difficult to reconstitute. The most easily found variety is the instant, available in nearly any grocery store. The regular variety has to be sought out from baking and restaurant suppliers and storage food dealers. It takes 3.2 oz or about 3 tablespoons of instant nonfat dry milk added to 8 oz of water to make 1 cup of milk you can drink or cook with just like fresh milk, albeit with a considerable flavor difference. Combining the dry milk with water at least several hours before you plan to use it gives it time to dissolve fully and to develop a fresher flavor. Shaking the fluid milk vigorously will incorporate air and will also help to improve flavor. Add the powder to baked goods, gravies, smoothies, hot cereals, casseroles and meat loaf as a nutrition booster. It can also be used to make yogurt, cheese and most any cultured dairy product that does not require a high fat content. FLAVORED NONFAT: This may be found packaged in a variety of forms from a low calorie diet drink (artificially sweetened) to the other end of the scale, as cocoa mix or malted milk. The key ingredient is the dry milk so buy and store these products accordingly. WHOLE MILK: This is whole dry milk with all of its fat content and therefore has a shorter shelf life than nonfat. Other than that, it can be used in exactly the same way. Dry whole milk is difficult to find, but can sometimes be found where camping and outback supplies are sold. BUTTERMILK: Dry buttermilk is for use in recipes calling for buttermilk. Since it has a slightly higher fat content than nonfat dry milk, it generally does not keep as long. B.1.1 BUYING DRY MILK PRODUCTS (a)- Be sure the dry milk you are buying has been fortified with vitamins A and D. All of the nonfat dry milks I've seen come fortified with these two vitamins. The dry buttermilk does not come this way, at least the SACO brand does not. I don't know if the flavored mixes and the dry whole milk do or not. (b)- There should be no artificial colors or flavors. I believe it is illegal to add preservatives to any dry milk sold in the U.S. so a claim of "no preservatives" on the label is of no consequence. Other nations may be different, however. (c)- "Extra Grade" on the label indicates the manufacturer has held to higher processing and quality standards and the milk is somewhat lower in fat, moisture and bacterial content, is more soluble, and has fewer scorched particles. There are still some manufacturers of dry milk that sell ordinary Grade A product, but they are becoming fewer. Every brand of instant powdered milk in my local grocery store is the Extra Grade, even the generic store brand. This, too, may vary outside of the States. (d)- Try to buy your dried milk in containers of a size that makes sense for the level of consumption in the household. Once it is opened, powdered milk has a short shelf life before undesirable changes in flavor and nutrient content occurs. If you buy large packages and do not use much at one time, consider breaking it down and repackaging into smaller containers at the time of purchase. (e)- As with any storage food you buy, try to deal only with reputable dealers. It is particularly important to do this with dry milk because of its short shelf life and sensitivity to storage conditions. Check expiration dates, then date and rotate packages. B.2 STORING OF DRY MILKS Dry milk products are probably the most sensitive to environmental conditions storage foods there are, particularly to temperature and moisture content. Their vitamins A and D are also photosensitive and will break down rapidly if exposed to light. The area where your dry milk is stored should be kept as cool as possible. If it is possible to do so, air-conditioning or even refrigeration can greatly extend the nutrient shelf life. If the storage container is transparent or translucent then it should be put into a second container opaque to light or stored in a dark room. Dry milk will absorb moisture and odors from the air so storage containers should be impervious to both air and moisture. The drier it can be kept, the better it will keep. The use of desiccants is an excellent idea. Oxygen also speeds decomposition. Powdered milk canned with nitrogen or carbon dioxide to replace air (which contains oxygen) will keep longer than powdered milk exposed to air. Vacuum canning also decreases the available oxygen. If the dry milk purchased was not packaged for long term storage then it should be repackaged right away. I purchase the instant variety at my local grocery and repack it when I get it home. I've seen a number of methods used for this and any of them should work. The method I now use is to pour the powder into clean, dry half-gallon canning jars. Once the jars are filled I add a small desiccant pack and seal. They are dated and stored in the ubiquitous cool, dark place. They must be guarded against breakage, but they offer the advantage of not holding odors, thus allowing for reuse after suitable cleaning. Since they are as transparent the contents must be protected against light. Vacuum sealing and then storing in a dark place may be the best method. Larger jars of 1 gallon size could be used and then re-vacuum sealed after each use. An O2 absorber would take care of any remaining oxygen and would, itself, last longer when used in conjunction with the vacuum sealer. Being glass, the jar can be reused as well as the lid and ring if they're properly cleaned. Clean, sound plastic one and two liter soda bottles can also be used, but probably should be used just once since the plastic is somewhat permeable and will hold odors. If you have access to a can sealer, #10 cans make wonderful storage containers for dry milk, particularly if used in conjunction with O2 absorbers. Another method I've seen used is to remove the paper envelopes of milk powder from the cardboard box they come from the grocery store in and to put them in dated plastic bags. These bags are not sealed. The unsealed bags are then placed in a larger, air tight, opaque container. I've heard of plastic buckets, fifty cal and 20 mm ammo cans being used for this purpose. A healthy quantity of desiccant was also placed in the container. This would be another area where O2 absorption packets should serve well. It's important to remember the containers should be clean and odor-free. *Please see Section IV Specific Equipment Questions for information concerning the proper use of containers, desiccants, compressed gasses, dry ice and oxygen absorbers.* B.2.1 SHELF LIFE OF DRY MILKS From: SacoFoods@aol.com (Amy Thompson) To: Dunross@dkeep.com (Alan Hagan) Subj: SACO Mix'nDrink Instant Pure Skim Milk Date: May 9, 1996 Dear Mr. Hagan: Thank you for your e-mail today and for your interest in SACO Mix'nDrink Pure Skim Milk. Our Mix'n Drink will keep its nutrition value for up to about two years if kept cool and dry, and the only vitamins that actually decrease over time are the vitamins A and D. These are not shelf-stable vitamins and are sensitive to heat and light. A good rule of thumb to follow is that the vitamins A and D will dissipate at a rate of about 20% every year if stored properly. The less heat and moisture the milk is exposed to, the better the vitamins will keep. A freezer could extend the shelf life, as long as the powder does not get moisture in it. If you had to put a time limit on the Mix'nDrink, for rotation purposes, I would date it at two years after the date of purchase. After opening a package of dry milk, transfer the powder to a tightly covered glass or metal container (dry milk can pick up odors from plastic containers) and keep it in the refrigerator. Unsealed nonfat dry milk keeps for a few months; dry whole milk for a few weeks. ------------------------------------------------------------------ From: SacoFoods@aol.com (Amy Thompson) To: Dunross@dkeep.com (Alan Hagan) Subj: SACO Mix'nDrink Instant Pure Skim Milk Date: May 21, 1996 Dear Mr. Hagan: Since vitamins A and D are heat and light sensitive, I would say that your 1 1/2 year shelf life is very reasonable. If you are trying to determine when the nutritional value has been affected more than 40%, as you previously indicated, you should be pretty safe with that time element, as long as it is not exposed to extreme heat. [Eds note: We were discussing the higher average temperatures found in Florida and other hot climates and the effect that it would have on their dry milk's nutrient content] C. CANNED GOODS C.1 CANNED MILK TYPES Preserved liquid milk comes in a number of forms, none of which are very similar to each other. The most common forms of these packaged milks are as follows: CANNED MILKS: These are commonly called UHT milks (Ultra High Temperature) for the packaging technique used to put them up. They come in the same varieties as fresh liquid milks: Whole, 2%, 1% and skim. I've even found whipping cream in UHT packaging (Grand Chef - Parmalat), though this may be offered only in the commercial and restaurant trade. In the U.S. they have vitamin D added. The lesser fat content milks do not keep as long as whole milk and their use by dates are correspondingly shorter term. This milk is packaged in aseptic containers, either cans or laminated paper cartons. It has the same composition as fresh milk of the same type, and can be stored at room temperature because of the special pasteurizing process used. The milk has a boiled flavor, but much less than evaporated milk. The dates are usually for approximately six months. The milk is still usable past its date, but the flavor soon begins to go stale and the cream separates. I am told by a friend who lived in Germany not long after this kind of canned milk began to come on the market there that they were dated for a year. With a six-month shelf life this type of canned milk naturally requires a much faster rotation cycle than other types. The only brand name for this milk I've seen is Parmalat. Recently, I have discovered that it makes excellent yogurt, losing the boiled tasted EVAPORATED: This is made from fresh, unpasteurized whole milk. A vacuum-heating process removes 60% of the water; the concentrate is heated, homogenized, and in the States vitamin D is added. It is then canned and heated again to sterilize the contents. It may also have other nutrients and chemical stabilizers added. A mixture of one part water and one part evaporated milk will have about the same nutritional value of an equal amount of fresh milk. There is generally no date or use by code on evaporated milk Health and nutrition food stores often carry canned, evaporated goat's milk, in a similar concentration. SWEETENED CONDENSED: This milk goes through much less processing than evaporated milk. It starts with pasteurized milk combined with a sugar solution. The water is then extracted until the mixture is less than half its original weight. It is not heated because the high sugar content prevents spoilage. It's very high in calories, too: 8 oz has 980 calories. Although it is often hard to find, the label has a stamped date code which indicates the date by which it should be consumed. Sweetened, condensed milk may thicken and darken as it ages, but it is still edible. C.1.1 SHELF LIFE OF CANNED MILKS Unopened cans of evaporated milk can be stored on a cool, dry shelf for up to six months. Canned milk (UHT) should be stored till the stamped date code on the package (3 - 6 months). Check the date on sweetened, condensed milk for maximum storage. C.2 CORROSION PREVENTION OF CANNED GOODS Some areas have difficulty storing metal canned goods for long periods of time. This is usually caused by very high humidity or exposure to salt in a marine environment. If this is a problem, it is possible to extend the life of metal cans by coating their outsides. I've seen this used on boats here in Florida, especially when loading for a long trip. There are at least four methods that can be used to do this: PARAFFIN METHOD: Using a double boiler, paraffin is melted and brushed on the clean, unrusted cans. Be certain to get a good coat on all seams, particularly the joints. If the can is small enough, it can be dipped directly into the wax. Care must be taken to not cause the labels to separate from the cans. Do not leave in long enough for the can to get warm. PASTE WAX METHOD: Combine 2-3 oz. of paste or jelly wax with a quart of mineral spirits. Warm the mixture CAREFULLY in its container by immersing it in a larger container of hot water. DO NOT HEAT OVER AN OPEN FLAME! Stir the wax/spirits thoroughly until it is well mixed and dissolved. Paint the cans with a brush in the same manner as above. Place the cans on a wire rack until dry. SPRAY SILICONE: A light coating of ordinary spray silicone may be used to deter rust. Spray lightly, allow to dry, wipe gently with a clean cloth to remove excess silicone. CLEAR COATING: A clear type of spray or brush on coating such as Rustoleum may be applied. This is best suited for larger resealable cans, but will keep them protected from corrosion for years. D. SUGAR, HONEY AND OTHER SWEETENERS There are a wide number of sugars to be found for purposes of sweetening foods. Fructose is the primary sugar in fruit and honey; maltose is one of the sugars in malted grains; pimentose are found in olives and sucrose is what we know as granulated or table sugar. Sucrose is a highly refined product made primarily from sugar cane though sugar beets still contribute a fair amount of the world supply. Modern table sugar is now so highly refined as to be virtually 100% pure and nearly indestructible if protected from moisture. Powdered sugar and brown sugar are simple variations on granulated sugar and share its long life. Liquid sweeteners do not have quite the longevity of dry sugars. Honey, cane syrup, molasses, corn syrup and maple syrup may crystallize or mold during long storage. These syrups are chemically not as simple as table sugar and therefore lose flavor and otherwise break down over time. D.1 TYPES OF GRANULATED SUGARS Buying granulated sugar and its close cousins is really a very simple matter. Buy a brand you know you can trust and be certain the package is clean, dry and has no insect infestation. There's very little that can go wrong with it. GRANULATED: Granulated sugar does not spoil, but if it gets damp it will likely cake up or get lumpy. If it does, it can simply be pulverized again until it regains its granulated texture. Granulated sugar can be found in varying textures, coarser or finer. "Castor/caster sugar" is a finer granulation than what is commonly sold as table sugar in the U.S. and is more closely equivalent to our super fine or berry sugar. POWDERED, All names refer to the same kind of sugar, that is CONFECTIONERS, white granulated sugar very finely ground. For ICING: commercial use there is a range of textures from coarse to ultra-fine. For home consumption, what is generally found is either Very Fine (6X) or Ultra-Fine (10X), but this can vary from nation to nation. Not all manufacturers will indicate the grind on the package though. Sugar refiners usually add a small amount of corn-starch to prevent caking. Powdered sugar is as inert as granulated sugar, but it is even more hygroscopic and will absorb any moisture present. If it absorbs more than a little it may cake up and get hard. It's difficult to reclaim hardened powdered sugar, but it can still be used like granulated sugar. BROWN, In the United States brown sugar is basically just refined LIGHT & DARK: white sugar that has had a bit of molasses or sugar syrup and caramel coloring added to it. Dark brown sugar has more molasses which gives it a stronger flavor, a darker color and makes it damp. Light brown sugar has less molasses which gives it a milder flavor, a blonder color and is slightly dryer than the dark variety. For storage purposes you may want to just stock the dark variety. Light brown sugar can be made by combining one fourth to one third white sugar to the remainder dark brown sugar and blend thoroughly. Both varieties need to be protected from drying out, or they will become very hard and difficult to deal with. Nor do you want to allow them to become damper than what they already are. There are granulated and liquid brown sugars available, but they don't have the same cooking qualities as ordinary brown sugars. They also don't dry out and harden quite so readily either. RAW, NATURAL, In recent years, sugar refiners have realized that & TURBINADO: there is a market for less refined forms of cane sugar in the U.S. and have begun to sell this kind of sugar under various names and packagings. None of it is really raw sugar since it is illegal to sell it in the U.S. due to the high impurities level in the truly raw product. All of it has been processed in some form or fashion to clean it, but it has not been subjected to the full refining and whitening processes of ordinary white table sugar. This leaves some of the natural color and a mild flavor in the sweetener. All of these less refined sugars may be stored and handled like brown sugar. Outside of the United States it is possible to buy truly raw sugar and it can be found under names such as "muscavado", "jaggery" (usually a raw palm or date sugar), "demerara" and others. With all of the molasses and other impurities retained it is quite strong in flavor so would not be suited to general use, but there are recipes that call for it. In spite of moisture and impurities it can be stored like brown sugar since its sugar content is high enough to inhibit most microbial growth. D.1.1 STORING GRANULATED SUGARS All granulated sugars have basically the same storage requirements. They need to be kept in air tight, insect and moisture proof containers. For powdered, and granulated sugar you might want to consider using some desiccant in the storage container if your local climate is damp. Since brown sugars and raw sugars are supposed to be moist, they do not need desiccants. Shelf life is indefinite if kept dry, but anything that you intend to eat really should be rotated over time. Time has a way of affecting even the most durable of foods. I've used brown sugar that was six years old at the time it was removed from storage and, other than the molasses settling somewhat toward the bottom, it was just fine. A friend to whom I gave a bucket of the brown sugar finished it off three years after I gave it to her which was nine years after it was packaged and it, too, was fine. D.2 TYPES OF HONEY Honey is probably the oldest sweetener known to man. Its use predates recorded history and has been found in the Egyptian pyramids. It's typically sweeter than granulated sugar by a factor of 25%-40% depending upon the specific flowers from which the bees gather their nectar. This means a smaller amount of honey can give the same amount of sweetening as sugar. The source flowers also dictate the flavor and the color of the sweetener as well. Honey color can range from very dark (nearly black) to almost colorless. As a general rule, the lighter the color and the more delicate the flavor, the greater the price the honey will bring. As you might expect, since honey is sweeter than table sugar, it also has more calories as well -- 22 per teaspoon compared to granulated sugar's 16 per teaspoon. There are also trivial amounts of minerals and vitamins in the bee product while white sugar has none. Raw honey may also contain minute quantities of botulinum spores and should not be fed to children under one year of age. PLEASE READ THE POST FROM GERI GUIDETTI CONCERNING THIS BELOW. Raw honey is OK for older children and adults. Honey is not a direct substitute for table sugar however, its use in recipes may call for a bit of alteration to get it to turn out right. Honey comes in a number of forms in the retail market and they all have different storage characteristics: WHOLE-COMB: This is the bee product straight from the hive. It is the most unprocessed form in which honey comes, being found as large pieces of waxy comb floating in raw honey. The comb itself will contain many unopened honey cells. RAW: This is unheated honey that has been removed from the comb. It may contain bits of wax, insect parts and other small detritus. FILTERED: This is raw honey that has been warmed to make it more easy to filter out small particles and impurities. Other than being somewhat cleaner than raw honey it is essentially the same. Most of the trace amounts of nutrients remain intact. LIQUID: This is honey that has been heated to higher temperatures to allow for easier filtering and to kill any microorganisms. Usually lighter in color, this form is milder in flavor, resists crystallization and generally clearer. It stores the best of the various forms of honey. Much of the trace amounts of vitamins, however, are lost. SPUN or This honey has had some of its moisture content removed to CRYSTALLIZED: make a creamy spread. It is the most processed form of honey. D.2.1 BUYING HONEY Much of the honey sold in supermarkets has been blended from a variety of different honeys and some may have even had other sweeteners added as well. Like anything involving humans, buying honey can be a tricky business. It pays to deal with individuals and brands you know you can trust. In the United States you should buy products labeled U.S. GRADE A or U.S. FANCY if buying in retail outlets. However, be aware there are no federal labeling laws governing the sale of honey, so only honey labeled pure is entirely honey and not blended with other sweeteners. Honey grading is a matter of voluntary compliance which means some producers may be lax and sloppy about it. This can be a real nuisance when producers use words like "organic", "raw", "uncooked" and "unfiltered" on their labels, possibly to mislead. Fortunately, most honey producers are quite honest in their product labeling so if you're not certain of who to deal with, it is worthwhile to ask around to find out who produces a good product. Honey may also contain trace amounts of drugs used in treating various bee ailments, including antibiotics. If this is a concern to you, then it would be wise to investigate with your local honey producer what has been used. D.2.2 STORING HONEY Honey is much easier to store than to select and buy. Pure honey won't mold, but may crystallize over time. Exposure to air and moisture can cause color to darken and flavor to intensify and may speed crystallization as well. Comb honey doesn't store as well liquid honey so you should not expect it to last as long. Storage temperature is not as important for honey, but it should be kept from freezing and not exposed to high temperatures if possible. Either extreme can cause crystallization and heat may cause flavor to strengthen undesirably. Filtered liquid honey will last the longest in storage. Storage containers should be opaque, airtight, moisture and odor-proof. Like any other stored food, honey should be rotated through the storage cycle and replaced with fresh product. If crystallization does occur, honey can be reliquified by placing the container in a larger container of hot water until it has melted. Avoid storing honey near heat sources and if using plastic pails don't keep it near petroleum products (including gasoline/diesel engines), chemicals or any other odor-producing products. D.2.3 RAW HONEY AND BOTULISM From: Geri Guidetti arkinst@concentric.net Duane Miles wrote: >If I recall correctly, honey contains very, very small amounts of >the bacteria that cause botulism. For adults, this seldom causes >problems. Our immune system is capable of dealing with small numbers >of even nasty bacteria, they do it all the time. The problem is when >we get large numbers of bacteria, or when our immune system is damaged >or not yet developed. >That is where the problem with honey comes in. Some people used to >use honey to sweeten milk or other foods for infants. Infants immune >systems sometimes cannot handle the bacteria that cause botulism, and, >of course, those infants became seriously ill. So pediatricians now >advise strongly against using honey for children under a certain age. Yes, raw honey can contain the temperature resistant spores of "Clostridium botulinum", the bacterium that causes botulism. The organism is a strict anaerobe, meaning that it only grows in the absence of molecular oxygen. The problem with infants and honey is that the small, intestinal tract of an infant apparently is sufficiently anaerobic to allow the spores to germinate into actively growing C. botulinum organisms. Essentially, the infant serves the same role as a sealed, airtight, contaminated can of beans as far as the organisms are concerned. There in the infant's body the bacteria secrete the dangerous toxin that causes the symptoms of botulism. There have been quite a few documented infant deaths due to honey. As I recall, the studies identifying honey as the source were done in the '80s. Most pediatricians recommend no honey for the first year. It is probably best to check with your own for even later updates...Geri Guidetti, The Ark Institute D.2.4 HONEY OUTGASSING Q: My can of honey is bulging. Is it safe to use? A: Honey can react with the can lining to release a gas especially when stored over a long period of time. Honey's high sugar content prevents bacteria growth. If there is no sign of mold growth, it is safe to eat. FREQUENTLY ASKED FOOD QUESTIONS, FN250 D.3 TYPES OF CANE SYRUPS. MOLASSES & These two sweeteners are not precisely the same thing. CANE SYRUP: Molasses is a by-product of sugar refining and cane syrup is simply cane juice boiled down to a syrup, in much the same way as maple syrup is produced. Non-Southerners (U.S.) may know it better as unsulphured molasses even if this is not completely correct. Sulphured molasses is also available on the market and very cheap as well, but it's strong flavor is unattractive and generally not desirable. SORGHUM: This is produced in the same manner as cane syrup, but sorghum cane, rather than sugar cane, is used. Sorghum tends to have a thinner, slightly sourer taste than cane syrup. TREACLE: This sweetener comes in varying colors from a rather dark version, similar to, but not quite the same as blackstrap molasses, to paler versions more similar to golden syrup. All of the above syrups are generally dark with a rich, heavy flavor. GOLDEN SYRUP: This syrup seems to be both lighter and paler in color than any of the above three, probably more similar to what we would call a table syrup here in the U.S. TABLE SYRUP: There are many table syrups sold in supermarkets, some with flavorings of one sort or another such as maple, various fruits, etc. A close examination of the ingredients list will reveal mixtures of cane syrup, cane sugar syrup or corn syrup along with preservatives, colorings and other additives. They usually have a much less pronounced flavor than molasses, cane syrup, sorghum or the darker treacles. Any syrup containing corn syrup should be stored as corn syrup. D.3.1 STORING CANE SYRUPS All of the above syrups, except for those having corn syrup in their makeup, have the same storage characteristics. They can be stored on the shelf for about two years and up to a year after opening. Once they are opened, they are best kept in the refrigerator to retard mold growth. If mold growth does occur, the syrup should be discarded. The outside of the bottle should be cleaned of drips after each use. Some pure cane and sorghum syrups may crystallize in storage, but this causes no harm and they can be reliquified using the same method as for honey. D.4 CORN SYRUP Corn syrup is a liquid sweetener made by an enzyme reaction with corn-starch. Available in both a light and a dark form, the darker variety has a flavor similar to molasses and contains refiners syrup (a byproduct of sugar refining). Both types often contain flavorings and preservatives. It is commonly used in baking and candy making because it does not crystallize when heated. Corn syrup is very common in the U.S., but less so in the rest of the world. Corn syrup stores poorly compared to other sweeteners and because of this it often has a best if used by dating code on the bottle. It should be stored in its original bottle, tightly capped, in a cool, dry place. New unopened bottles keep about six months from the date on the label. After opening, keep the corn syrup four to six months. These syrups are very prone to mold and to fermentation so be on the lookout for bubbling or a mold haze. If these present themselves, throw the syrup out. You should always be certain to wipe off any drips from the bottle after every use. D.5 MAPLE SYRUP Maple syrup is produced by boiling down sap of the maple tree until it reaches a syrup consistency and is slightly sweeter than table sugar. Maple syrup is judged by much the same criteria as honey: Lightness of color, clarity and taste. Pure maple is generally expensive and most pancake syrups are corn and cane sugar syrups with either natural or artificial flavorings. Maple flavored pancake syrups should be kept and stored as corn syrups. New unopened bottles of maple syrup may be kept on a cool, dark, shelf for up to two years. The sweetener may darken and the flavor get stronger, but it is still usable. After the bottle has been opened, it should be refrigerated. It will last about a year. Be careful to look out for mold growth. If mold occurs, discard the syrup. E. FATS AND OILS All oils are fats, but not all fats are oils. They are very similar to each other in their chemical makeup, but what makes one an oil and another a fat is the percentage of hydrogen saturation in the fatty acids of which they are composed. The fats and oils which are available to us for culinary purposes are actually mixtures of differing fatty acids so for practical purposes we'll say saturated fats are solid at room temperature (70 deg. F) and unsaturated fats we call oils are liquid at room temperature. For dietary and nutrition purposes fats are generally classified as saturated, monosaturated and polyunsaturated, which is a further refinement of the amount of saturation of the particular compositions of fatty acids in the fats. E.1 BUYING AND STORING OILS AND FATS There is a problem with storing oils and fats for the long term and that is the fact that they go rancid rather quickly. Rancid fats have been implicated in increased rates of heart disease, atherosclerosis and are carcinogenic (cancer causing) so we want to avoid them if possible. Oxygen is eight times more soluble in fat than in water and it is the oxidation resulting from this exposure that is the primary cause of rancidity. The more polyunsaturated a fat is, the faster it will go rancid. This may not, at first, be readily apparent because vegetable oils have to become several times more rancid than animal fats before our noses can detect it. An extreme example of rancidity is the linseed oil (flaxseed) that we use as a wood finish and a base for oil paints. In just a matter of hours the oil oxidizes into a solid polymer. This is very desirable for wood and paint, very undesirable for food. Because of this difficulty in storing fats and oils for any long period of time many books and articles on the subject of food storage make only passing mention of them, if they say anything at all. This is unfortunate because fat contains nine calories to the gram compared to the four calories contained by either carbohydrates or protein. This makes fat a valuable source of concentrated calories that could be of real importance if faced with a diet consisting largely of unrefined grains and legumes. For small children, infants and the elderly, they may not be able to consume the volume of food that would be necessary in the course of a day to get all of the calories they would need to avoid weight loss and possible malnutrition. Additionally, fats play an important role in our perception of taste and texture and their absence would make many foods more difficult to prepare and consume. Furthermore, a small amount of dietary fat is necessary for our bodies to properly absorb fat soluble vitamins like A,D,E and K. Long term storage of fats may be problematical, but it is not impossible. There are some general rules you can follow to get the most life out of your stored cooking oils and fats. #1 Exposure to oxygen, light and heat are the greatest factors to rancidity. If you can, refrigerate your stored oil, particularly after it's been opened. If possible, buy your oils in opaque, airtight containers. If you purchase it in plastic, particularly clear plastic, then transfer it to a gas impermeable glass or metal container that can be sealed airtight. If you have a means of doing so, vacuum sealing the storage container is an excellent idea as it removes most of the air remaining inside, taking much of the oxygen with it. Transparent glass and plastic containers should be stored in the dark, such as in a box. Regardless of the storage container, it should be stored at as cool a temperature as possible and rotated as fast as is practical. Oils and fats with preservatives added by the manufacturer will have a greater shelf life than those without them, provided they are fresh when purchased. #2 Unless they have been specially treated, unopened cooking oils have a shelf life of about a year, depending upon the above conditions. Some specialty oils such as sesame and flax seed have shorter usable lives. If you don't use a great deal of it, try to not buy your fats in large containers. This way you won't be exposing a large quantity to the air after the you've opened it, to grow old and possibly rancid, before you can use it all up. Once opened, it is an excellent idea to refrigerate cooking fats. If it turns cloudy or solid, the fat is still perfectly usable and will return to its normal liquid, clear state after it has warmed to room temperature. Left at room temperatures, opened bottles of cooking oils can begin to rancid in anywhere from a week to a couple of months, though it may take several more months to reach such a point of rancidity that it can be smelled. #3 Although darker colored oils have more flavor than paler colored, the agents that contribute to that flavor and color also contribute to faster rancidity. For maximum shelf life buy paler colored oils. #4 If you have no particular problem with using it, the culinary fat with the most shelf life as it comes from the store is hydrogenated shortening in its unopened metal or metal lined can. The brand most familiar in the U.S. is probably Crisco, but there are many others. Solid shortening is usually composed of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, but there are some that also contain animal fats. Some brands will also contain anti-oxidant preservatives as well. All other conditions being equal, those with preservatives will have a longer shelf life than those without. It is not possible to give an exact answer, but it is reasonable to expect an unopened metal can of shortening to have a shelf life of eight to ten years if kept reasonably cool, particularly if it has preservatives in it. E.2 EXTENDING SHELF LIFE BY ADDING ANTI-OXIDANTS If obtaining the maximum shelf life in your cooking oils is important to you, it is possible to add anti-oxidant preservatives to the fat after you have purchased it. Used in conjunction with a gas impermeable container, either opaque in color or stored in a dark place, and cool storage temperatures (70 F or less) then shelf life can be extended to about five years, possibly longer. The anti-oxidant in question is Butylated HydroxyToluene (BHT). It is used in the food industry to slow the development of off-flavors, odors and color changes caused by oxidation, mostly in foods that are high in fats and oils. BHT is on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) list as a common preservative. The FDA limits the use of BHT to 0.02% or 200 parts per million (ppm) of the oil or fat content of a food product. The directions that I will be giving below will be for the FDA limit, but there are those who choose to use up to ten times that amount as part of their life extension programs. The level you choose is up to you. BHT is available over the counter in the retail trade, but you have to know where to look for it. The only retail distributor of the anti-oxidant that I am thus far aware of is Twin Laboratories (TwinLab), Ronkonkoma, NY 11779. Their BHT comes in the form of 250 mg gelatin capsules. I've been able to find their product in several local health food stores. It is also available through mail order sources, but I don't have any names or addresses for that avenue yet. To get the best results you will need the freshest oil you can find. Purchasing it from a large, busy supermarket will probably suffice. You'll also need containers that are gas impermeable such as glass jars, or metal cans. There may be plastic containers with high gas barrier properties that will also serve, but I cannot knowledgeably say about this. It is important that your containers are food grade and are clean, dry and dust-free. Each 250 milligram capsule is sufficient to treat 47 fluid ounces of cooking oil (as per the GRAS guidelines mentioned above). If you have an accurate means of weighing this works out to be 5.3 mg of BHT crystals to every 1 fl oz of oil. If you're using a scale calibrated in grains, such as a reloading powder scale, you may use the following table. BHT BHT in grains OIL in milligrams --------------------------------------------------------- 0.1 grain 1 fl oz 5.3 mg 0.7 grain 8 fl oz (1 cup) 42.4 mg 1.3 grain 16 fl oz (1 pint) 84.8 mg 2.6 grain 32 fl oz (1 quart) 169.6 mg 5.2 grain 64 fl oz (1/2 gal) 339.2 mg 10.3 grain 128 fl oz (1 gal) 678.4 mg NOTE: The grain weight measurements have been rounded up to the nearest tenth grain since most powder scales will not accurately measure less than one-tenth of a grain. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are using a reloading powder scale, be sure the balance pan is clean and the balance has been calibrated recently with a reliable set of check weights. Remove the BHT crystals from their gelatin capsules and weigh, if you're going to. Once you have the appropriate amount, add the crystals to a pint or so of the oil, shaking vigorously. It may take several hours for the preservative to dissolve completely. Bringing the oil up to a warm, NOT HOT, temperature will speed the process. Once completely dissolved, pour the anti-oxidant laden oil into the rest of the oil and mix thoroughly. Once mixed, the oil can then be poured into its storage containers leaving approximately 1/2 inch of headspace. If you have a vacuum sealer the jars or cans may be vacuum sealed to remove most of the oxygen from the container, otherwise just seal the lid. Store in a cool place and if using transparent jars, be certain to put them in a larger container such as a box to keep the contents in the dark. Don't forget to label and date the jars. There are other preservatives in food industry use that will also work, but I have not yet discovered how they are used or where to get them. I'm currently looking for information on Butylated HydroxyAnisole (BHA), propyl gallate, vitamin E (the tocopherols, natural and synthetic), ascorbyl palmitate (a fat soluble form of vitamin C), citric acid and mono-Tertiary-ButylHydroQuinone (TBHQ). Additionally, certain herbs and spices like cloves, rosemary, oregano, sage and vanilla also have antioxidant properties, sometimes quite strong ones. Being strongly flavored, they are not suitable as preservatives in fats meant for general use, but will lend their protective properties in any recipes that call for them. Before I close out this section on fats and oils, please allow me to reemphasize that no amount of preservatives that can be added to your stored fats will substitute for proper storage and rotation. The more I research the chemistry and physiological effects of rancid fats the more I come to believe they are bad news for long term health, particularly as we grow older. Don't sit on your oil supply for years without rotating it. Just a little bit rancid is just a little bit poisonous. `Nuff said. F. COOKING STAPLES F.1 BAKING POWDER. This powder is a combination of an acid and an alkali with starch added to keep the other two ingredients stable and dry. The powder reacts with liquid by foaming and the resulting bubbles can aerate and raise dough. Almost all baking powder now on the market is double acting, meaning it has one acid that bubbles at room temperature and another acid which only reacts at oven temperatures. Unless a recipe specifies otherwise, this is the type to use. Don't expose baking powder to steam, humid air, wet spoons, or any other moisture. Store in a tightly lidded container for no more than a year. Even when kept bone dry it will eventually loses its potency. To test its strength, measure 1 tsp powder into 1/3 cup hot water. The mixture should fizz and bubble furiously. If it doesn't, throw it out. For those folks concerned with aluminum in the diet, the Rumford brand has none in it and there may be others. F.2 BAKING SODA. This gritty powder is sodium bicarbonate also called sodium acid bicarbonate (NaHCO3), a mild alkali. It is used in baking to leaven bread and other baked or fried foods and does so in the same manner as baking powder. It can also be used to make hominy. When combined with an acid ingredient, the bicarbonate reacts to give off carbon dioxide bubbles which causes the baked good to rise. If kept well sealed in an air- and moisture-proof container its storage life is indefinite. If kept in the cardboard box it usually comes in, it will keep for about eighteen months. Do keep in mind that baking soda is a wonderful odor adsorber. If you don't want your baked goods tasting of whatever smells it adsorbed then keeping it in an airtight container is an excellent idea. F.3 HERBS AND SPICES. It is difficult to give exact instructions on how best to store culinary herbs and spices because there are dozens of different seeds, leaves, roots, barks, etc., we call an herb or a spice. There are, however, some general rules to be followed to best preserve their flavors. All spices, particularly dried, are especially sensitive to heat, air and light. Room temperature is satisfactory for keeping them and refrigeration or freezing is even better, but they should be kept away from heat sources. It is common for the household spice cabinet or shelf to be located over the stove, but this is really a very poor place. Dark opaque glass is best for storage, but failing that, keeping a tightly sealed glass container in a dark place is next best. The cellophane packets some products come in just won't do. Tightly sealed metal containers will work as well. Even dense plastic will do, but glass is best. Where possible, buy spices whole. Whole nutmegs will keep their flavor far longer than ground nutmeg, the same for other seeds and roots. You'll have to use a grater, grinder or whatever, but the difference in flavor will be worth it. If you buy spices in bulk containers (which is certainly cheaper) consider transferring some into smaller containers and keeping the larger one tightly sealed in a cool, dark place. This will prevent unwanted light and air from continually getting in and playing havoc. Included in the suppliers addresses are listings for several spice and herb companies. The one I have personally dealt with so far is Penzey's and their products have been consistently excellent with good prices. It's worth investigating some of these companies as they can really take the sting out of purchasing large quantities. F.4 SALT. Storage life for salt is indefinite. So long as you do not let it get contaminated with dirt or whatever, it will never go bad. Over time, iodized salt may turn yellow, but this is harmless and may still be used. Salt is rather hygroscopic and will adsorb moisture from the air if not sealed in an air-tight container. If it does adsorb moisture and cakes up, it can be dried in the oven and then broken up with no harm done. All salt, however, is not the same. Salt comes in a number of different varieties, and very little of what is produced in the U.S. is intended for use in food. The rest of it, about 98%, has other uses. Therefore, it is important to be certain the salt you have is intended for human consumption. Once you are satisfied it is, you should then determine its appropriateness for the tasks to which you might want to set it to. Below is a partial list of some of the available salts TABLE SALT: This is by far the most widely known type of salt. It comes in two varieties; iodized and non-iodized. There is an ingredient added to it to adsorb moisture so it will stay free flowing in damp weather. This non-caking agent does not dissolve in water and can cause cloudiness in whatever solution it is used if sufficiently large quantities are used. In canning it won't cause a problem since there is very little per jar. For pickling, though, it would be noticeable. If you are storing salt for this purpose, you should be sure to choose plain pickling salt, or other food grade pure salt such as kosher salt. In the iodized varieties, the iodine can cause discoloration or darkening of pickled foods so be certain not to use it for that purpose. For folks who come from areas that are historically iodine deficient a store of iodized salt for table consumption is of real importance. CANNING SALT: This is pure salt and nothing but salt. It can usually be found in the canning supplies section of most stores. This is the salt to be preferred for most food preservation or storage uses. It is generally about the same grain size as table salt. KOSHER SALT: This salt is not really, in itself, kosher, but is used in "kashering" meat to make the flesh kosher for eating. This involves first soaking the meat then rubbing it with the salt to draw out the blood which is not-kosher and is subsequently washed off along with the salt. The cleansed meat is then kosher. What makes it of interest for food storage and preservation is that it is generally pure salt suitable for canning, pickling and meat curing. It is of a larger grain size than table or canning salt, and usually rolled to make the grains flaked for easier dissolving. Frequently it is slightly cheaper than canning salt and usually easier to find in urban/suburban areas. NOTE: Not all brands of kosher salt are exactly alike. Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt is the only brand that I'm aware of that is not flaked, but still in its unaltered crystal form. The Morton brand of Coarse Kosher Salt has "yellow prussiate of soda" added as an anti-caking agent. Morton still recommends it for pickling and even gives a kosher dill recipe on the box so I presume that this particular anti-caking agent does not cause cloudiness in pickling solutions. Whether flaked or in its unaltered crystal form, kosher salt takes up more volume for an equivalent amount of mass than does canning salt. If it is important to get a very precise amount of salt in your pickling or curing recipe you may want to weigh the salt to get the correct amount. SEA SALT: This type of salt comes in about as many different varieties as coffee and from about as many different places around the world. The "gourmet" versions can be rather expensive. In general, the types sold in grocery stores, natural food markets and gourmet shops have been purified enough to use in food. It's not suitable for food preservation, though, because the mineral content it contains (other than the sodium chloride) may cause discoloration of the food. ROCK or ICE This type of salt comes in large chunky crystals and CREAM SALT: is intended primarily for use in home ice cream churns to lower the temperature of the ice filled water in which the churn sits. It's also sometimes used in icing down beer kegs or watermelons. It is used in food preservation by some, but none of the brands I have been able to find label it as food grade nor do they specifically mention its use in foods so I would not use it for this purpose. SOLAR SALT: This is also sometimes confusingly called "sea salt". It is not, however, the same thing as the sea salt found in food stores. Most importantly, it is not food grade. It's main purpose is for use in water softeners. The reason it is called "solar" and sometimes "sea salt" is that it is produced by evaporation of sea water in large ponds in various arid areas of the world. This salt type is not purified and still contains the desiccated remains of whatever aquatic life might have been trapped in it. Those organic remains might react with the proteins in the foods you are attempting to preserve and cause it to spoil. HALITE: For those of us fortunate enough to live in areas warm enough not need it, halite is the salt that is used on roads to melt snow and ice. It, too, is not food grade and should not be used in food preservation. This form of salt is also frequently called rock salt, like the rock salt above, but neither are suitable for food use. SALT These are various other kinds of metal salts such as SUBSTITUTES: potassium chloride used to substitute for the ordinary sodium chloride (NaCl) salt we are familiar with. They have their uses, but should not be used in foods undergoing a heated preservation processing, as they can cause the product to taste bad. Even the heat from normal cooking is sometimes sufficient to cause this. F.5 VINEGAR. There is vinegar and then there is vinegar and it is not all alike. The active ingredient in all vinegars is acetic acid, but how the sour stuff was made can vary widely. The most common vinegar is white distilled which is actually just diluted distilled acetic acid and not true vinegar at all. It keeps pretty much indefinitely if tightly sealed in a plastic or glass bottle with a plastic cap. The enamel coated metal caps always seem to get eaten by the acid over time. It is usually about 5-6% acetic acid and for pickling it is the type most often called for. The next most common variety is apple cider vinegar. There are two kinds of this type. A cider flavored distilled acetic acid type and a true cider vinegar fermented from hard cider. Either will store indefinitely at room temperature until a sediment begins to appear on the bottom. Stored vinegar will sometimes develop a cloudy substance. This is called a mother of vinegar and it is harmless. As long as the liquid does not begin to smell foul it can be filtered out through cheesecloth or a coffee filter and rebottled in a clean container. The mother can even be used to make more vinegar. If it begins to smell bad, however, it's gone over and should be tossed out. The more exotic wine, balsalmic and other vinegars can be stored like cider vinegar. Age and exposure to light and air, however, eventually begin to take their toll on their delicate flavors. Tightly capped in a cool, dark cabinet or refrigerator is best for their storage. F.6 YEAST. Yeast is just not a product you can stow away and forget about until you need it next year. It is, after all, a living organism and if it's not alive at the time you need it, you won't get any use out of it. This ancient leavening, brewing, fermenting agent is a single celled microscopic fungus. When we incorporate it into our bread dough, beer wort or fruit juice it begins to reproduce madly (we hope) and produce several by-products. If you're baking, the by-product you want is carbon dioxide which is trapped by the dough and subsequently causes it to rise. In brewing or vintning what is wanted is the ethyl alcohol and, if the drink is to be carbonated, the carbon dioxide as well. Almost all yeasts used for these purposes are in the same genus ("Saccharomyces" or sugar fungi), but several different species have evolved and some are more suitable for a particular task than others. It's entirely possible to use grocery store bread yeast to brew beer or ferment wine, but the results may leave a great deal to be desired. It's also possible to use yeast from beer brewing to make bread and from what I've read the results were pretty much indistinguishable from bread yeast. Leaving aside the brewing and vintning yeasts which are really outside the scope of this FAQ I am going to concentrate on bread yeast. It comes in two generally available forms; compressed or fresh and dried, sometimes called granular or instant active dry yeast. They are different genetic strains of the same species, and have different characteristics. Compressed yeast is only partly dried (about 70% moisture) and requires refrigeration and keeps even better in the deep freeze. If kept in an air- and moisture-tight container to prevent it from desiccating this type of yeast will keep for a year in the freezer (0 deg. F or less), but only about two weeks (maybe a bit more) in the refrigerator. Unless your kitchen is rather chilly it will not keep on the shelf. It should not have a mottled color or a sour odor. Dried yeast has only an 8% moisture content and comes packed in foil envelopes. The smaller single use packets are not generally vacuum packed, but the larger commercial sized "bricks" of about a pound or two each generally are. They can last for months on the shelf, until the expiration date which should be clearly stamped on the package. If packaged in the same manner as recommended for compressed yeast above and kept in the refrigerator or freezer it can last for several years. The larger packs of yeast should be transferred to an air and moisture tight container after opening. Either type of yeast can be tested for viability by proofing it. This is nothing more than mixing a small amount of the yeast with an equal amount of sugar in warm water (105-115 deg. F for dried; 95 deg. F for fresh). Within about five minutes active yeast will become bubbly and begin to expand (at normal room temperature). Yeast which only slowly becomes active can still be used, but you will have to use more of it. If it shows no activity at all, it's dead and should be thrown out. There is another means of providing yeast for baking besides buying it from the grocery store and that is by using a sourdough starter. I'm not going to address it here, but I will point out that it has a newsgroup all its own (rec.food.sourdough) and several FAQ's devoted to it. You can find addresses for these FAQs in the Resources section. Drop in and read for awhile and you'll learn more than you thought you could ever want to know. G. INFANT FORMULA Since most folks interested in food storage are planning for families, real or as yet hypothetical, I thought it important to include something on infant formula. Most baby food that comes in jars can be treated like canned goods of similar types meant for adults. Formula, though, is something else. I have to admit, that not yet having kids of my own, I've not given this much thought before so the below is taken from the book KEEPING FOOD FRESH, by Janet Bailey (see book list). In the future, if some of you readers will send it to me and/or I come up with more information from my own researches I want to expand this section on infant/child food storage. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Prepared infant formula is primarily water and nonfat cow's milk. Among other ingredients, it contains sweeteners; sometimes lactose which is milk sugar; and sometimes corn syrup or other sugars. Coconut and soybean oils are common; vitamin and mineral supplements are universal. A few brands contain mono- and diglycerides, chemicals that keep the liquid from separating. BUYING AND STORING INFANT FORMULA. Canned liquid infant formula comes either ready to eat or in a concentrate to be diluted with water. Cans and packing cases are clearly marked with a "use by" date. Unopened cans stored in a cool, dry place keep well from twelve to eighteen months (longer than the baby is an infant). After the can is opened, measure out the amount of formula you need, cover the can and store in the refrigerator. It will keep no more than 48 hrs at 40 deg. F. Never return leftover formula from the bottle to the storage container and do not store half used bottles. You can pre-measure the whole can-full into sterilized baby bottles, seal them, and store them in the refrigerator, but forty eight hours is still the limit. To keep full bottles from tipping over in the refrigerator, slip them into a carton from a six-pack of soda pop bottles. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- In examining the offerings at my local grocer I see that infant formula is also offered as a dry powder to be mixed by the parent. I could not come to a ready idea of how long the formula powder might be good on the shelf since it seemed to vary radically depending on exact type and manufacturer. The shortest use-by date was only a year, but some had use-by dates three years into the future. Clearly, this is an area that is going to need much investigation. I hope some of our knowledgeable readers out there will be able to help out. ======================================================================= -- III -- SPOILAGE ======================================================================= A -- INSECT INFESTATIONS A.1 PESTS OF STORED GRAINS, LEGUMES AND DRY FOODSTUFFS Insect infestations can occur in a wide variety of foodstuffs such as flours, meals, pastas, dried fruits and vegetables, nuts, sweets, whole grains, beans, sugars, TVP, jerky, bird seed and pet foods. Naturally, the best way to deal with an insect infestation is not to have one in the first place. Try to purchase from suppliers who are clean and have a high volume of turnover of their products. This will mean the products you purchase will be less likely to have bugs in them. When you buy foodstuffs examine them closely to be sure they are insect free. Check for any packaging or use by dates to insure their freshness. Don't shake the package, most adult insects will be found in the top couple of inches of the product and shaking the package will mix them into the contents and disguise them. If the package does turn out to be infested, return it for replacement. Once you have purchased the product you should store it in an air- and moisture-tight container so it cannot be invaded after you have brought it home. With sufficient time, adult and some larval insect forms can penetrate paper, cardboard and thin plastic packaging. Your containers should be either heavy plastic, glass or metal with tight fitting lids. As with everything in food storage, you should use older packages before newer ones and opened packages before unopened ones. The storage area should be kept clean. Don't allow grain, flour, beans, bits of pasta or other food particles to accumulate on shelves or the floor. Cracks and crevices should be sealed or otherwise blocked. Unless it is a sticky spill, vacuuming is the best method of cleaning since cleaning with soap and water can wash food particles into the cracks. Insects may get their start in chairs, sofas and carpets where food is dropped and not cleaned up. Don't forget to replace the filter bag on the vacuum since some insects can survive and reproduce in the bag after they've been sucked into it. Bags of dry pet food and bird seed can also harbor insect infestation. Decorative foodstuffs such as ears of colorful Indian corn, colored beans and hard squashes can carry insects that can infest your edible food. Even poison baits can harbor flour beetles. A.2 CONTROL OF INSECT INFESTATIONS Should you find that in spite of buying fresh products and using careful packaging techniques you have an insect infestation, you can try some of the following steps: 1. If the food is too heavily infested to try to save it should be disposed of as soon as possible. Remove it from the kitchen or food storage area immediately so it won't infest other foods. 2. Large bugs can be sifted or winnowed out if the food's not too heavily infested and you want to try to save it. Then treat it by placing into a deep freezer at 0 deg. F for three to seven days depending upon the size of the package. Refrigerator freezers usually do not freeze low enough to effectively kill all of the life stages of insects, but if left there, will slow their development. If freezing is not workable then the product could be spread on baking sheets and heated to 150 deg. F for fifteen to twenty minutes, cooled and repackaged. Heat treated foods should be consumed shortly thereafter. 3. The surface areas where the food containers are stored can be treated with an insecticide. This is not a replacement for clean storage habits and good containers, but it can supplement it. This will not control insect infestations already in your stored foods. Spray the shelf surface with 0.5% chlorpyrifos (Dursban), 1% propoxur (Baygon), 0.5 percent diazinon, or 0.25 percent resmethrin. You can find any of these in the hardware store in ready to apply packages. If a sprayer isn't feasible then they can be applied with a paint brush. Allow the solution to dry thoroughly. Cover the shelves with clean, untreated shelf paper and put properly packaged foods back on shelves. READ THE PRODUCT LABEL FOR SAFETY INFORMATION CONCERNING CHILDREN AND PETS. Household bleach, Lysol and other sterilizers will not control insect infestation, though they can be used for mold, mildew and algae. You may continue to find some insects after the cleanup is finished. This could be for several reasons. The first being they escaped from the packages they were infesting and did not get cleaned up. There may be more package