I was heling clean out a house of a deceased couple.

Who were hoarders/preppers and not very good at it.

Just piles and piles of stuff.

Any why there were several totes of various pasta products.

Left in original packaging store in a damp musty basement. Best used dates from 2005 to 2015.

Opening the totes one received a very musty smell. But other wise looked fine.

I thought bear bait maybe.

I got around to them a year later.

I decided to just trash them.

Well inquiring mind decided to do some testing.

I opened up and dump out a packaged of elbow pasta into a bowl.

Stilled smelled well let's try cooking it.

Cooked it normally no smell tasted just like normal.

Dished out a bowl of it favored it with salt and butter ate it.

Tasted like any other pasta.

Still alive a week later.

Got to thinking what would happen if I heated it.

Removed some from the packages placed the contents on a cookie sheet and placed it the oven.

On warn for 20 minutes removed from the oven no smell, let it cool no smell cooked some flavor just fine.

I would think if it was kept dry it would be fine. Something I do is empty packages of pasta, flour, beans, rice etc into large glass jars for storage.

THANKS.....good & useable information.

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
I would think if it was kept dry it would be fine. Something I do is empty packages of pasta, flour, beans, rice etc into large glass jars for storage.

It would have kept better in Glass jars I believe.

It's never too late to start using them!

I have 2 kitchens full of glass jars along with all the 7.5 gal. buckets w/ silica gel packs that we bought before W2K. Still good though. I know, I bought into it (kinda) with the thought that no matter what happens, I will always need the food regardless on down the pike.

I have been purchasing 50 pound bags of rice and storing them in plastic screw on buckets. Should I add some of the gel packs? Have not thought of this.

quote:

Originally posted by Capt.Purvis:
I have been purchasing 50 pound bags of rice and storing them in plastic screw on buckets. Should I add some of the gel packs? Have not thought of this.

I'm going the vac seal route for storage since my area is humid in the summer. If there are extensive power outages and no A/C available that could affect stored dry goods. I've been looking for a large vac chamber device that will accommodate gallon/half gallon pickle jars but have not seen anything yet that looks promising.

One can use the typical table top vac sealer with a few inexpensive components to seal smaller jars. It's just hard to find a way to seal these large jars where one could use a standard canning lid to run the vacuum to seal them.

Ann, that's true but remember last year when we had a shortage of lids. I have NEVER been of the school of thought (well, that will never happen again) + I am in a position to know that right now we are still in a major metal shortage straight across the board. Just a wod to the wise.
Capt. Purvis, by all means, do so. You remember how we used to keep our stamps (back when we licked our stamps) in a mason jar with rice to keep them operational? Same theory applies, just in reverse. Do the same with your beans but when after being a year old that they become crunchy, use distilled water + that should fix it.

I just recently saw the wide mouth lids priced double at a local grocery store. Over $5 for a dozen of those flat pieces of metal. Insane.

Got caught short last fall and could only find lids made in china. Checking the pantry found 4 of 12 jars had become unsealed. will replace the lids on the sealed ones and reprocess. The others went to the compost.

I hope you find quality lids.

There is no quality control in China. I learned my lesson when buying Federal primers during Obama, they were outsourced to China + had a phenomenal failure rate. I won't buy Federal primers to this day.

The vacuum machine makers offer devices which can fit over the mouth of a Mason Jar. You just place the lid on the jar and attach the device. It vaccuum seals the jar holding the lid tight. Then you screw on the lock ring. The vaccum bags are great for preserving pasta and rice too.

https://www.amazon.com/FoodSav...a-310503692075&psc=1

Yep, I have the jar device. You can also use those to seal smaller jars inside the larger jar. So if you have something small like herbs you can vac them in a small jar by placing it inside a larger one and then running the vac machine.