Section One Version 2.00 Updated April 1997 Supersedes Ver 1.01 PRUDENT FOOD STORAGE: Questions and Answers. Section One How do I store the foods I've chosen? 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 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 concepts, methods and techniques of long term food storage. This is a work of several sections; the part you are now reading is SECTION ONE. 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 one of the nine sections of 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 then I refer you to her work and the good stuff to be found there. I will delve a bit more deeply than Leslie into 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 do use it. Also covered will be food spoilage -- how to recognize it and how to combat it. A resource list of where to find supplies and in-depth information will be included at the end. From time to time this file will be updated as sufficient relevant information becomes available. Be of assistance -- point out mistakes, write sections and reviews, provide us with new sources. All contributors, if you wish, will be cited in this file. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Diana J. Hagan, for a *lot* of valuable assistance, Susan Collingwood for sage advice, Al Durtschi for resources and encouragement, Sandon A. Flowers, Mark West, Pyotr Filipivich, Denis DeFigueiredo, Jenny S. Johanssen, Woody Harper, Higgins10, Kahless, Amy Thompson(Saco Foods), Geri Guidetti, and last, but certainly not least, Leslie Basel, without whom I'd never have attempted this in the first place. Updated: 9/18/96; 4/16/97 Copyright 1997 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 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 website without prior, express permission from the author. PLEASE DIRECT CONTRIBUTIONS, COMMENTS, QUESTIONS AND/OR CRITICISMS TO: athagan@sprintmail.com Written material may be sent to the address below: A.T. Hagan P.O.Box 140008 Gainesville, FL 32614-0008 TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION ONE: How Do I Store The Foods I've Chosen? O. Charter and Foreword I. Shelf Lives: Time, Temperature, Moisture and Light. II. The Techniques of Food Storage A. Grains and Legumes 1. Grain Varieties 2. Legume Varieties 3. Types and Availability of Grains and Legumes - Moisture Content - Cleaning It Yourself 4. Storing Grains and Legumes - Moisture and Desiccants - Dry Ice - Compressed CO2 and Nitrogen - Oxygen Absorption Packets B. Dry Milks 1. Selecting and Buying Dry Milks - Types of Dry Milks - Buying Dry Milk Products 2. Storing of Dry Milks - Shelf Life of Dry Milks C. Canned Goods 1. Liquid Milk - Canned - Evaporated - Sweetened Condensed 2. Corrosion Prevention of Canned Goods - Paraffin Method - Paste Wax Method - Spray Silicone D. Sugar, Honey and Other Sweeteners 1. Buying and Storing Granulated, Powdered, Brown and Raw Sugars 2. Selecting and Buying Honey - Storing Honey - Raw Honey and Botulism - Honey Outgassing 3. Molasses, Cane, Sorghum and Table Syrups 4. Corn Syrup 5. Maple Syrup E. Fats and Oils Y. Cooking Staples 1. Baking Powder 2. Baking Soda 3. Salt 4. Vinegar 5. Yeast Z. Infant Formula SECTION TWO: How Do I Keep It From Going Bad? III. Spoilage A. Insect Infestations 1. Pests of Stored Dry Grains and Legumes 2. Control of Insect Infestations B. Molds In Foods 1. Minimizing Molds 2. Molds in Canned Goods 3. Molds in Grains and Legumes C. Bacterial Spoilage 1. Botulism 2. Other Bacterial Spoilers In Food D. Enzymatic Action In Food Spoilage SECTION THREE: What Equipment Do I Need? Where Can I Find Information and Supplies? IV. Specific Equipment Questions A. Storage Containers 1. Plastic Containers - What Makes A Plastic Container "Food Grade"? - How Do I Get the Odor Out of Pickle Buckets? - Where Do I Find Food Grade Containers? 2. Metal Cans 3. Glass Jars B. CO2 and Nitrogen C. Oxygen Absorbers D. Desiccants E. Diatomaceous Earth V. Other Sources (besides this FAQ) A. Books B. Pamphlets C. Magazines D. Phone, voice, non-modem E. Electronic-online VI. Appendices A. Shelf Lives of Some Common Storage Foods B. Dating Codes Used By Some Food Manufacturers C. Food and Equipment Suppliers - Mail Ordering Storage Foods What You Should Know - Addresses of Suppliers. ========================================================================= I -- SHELF LIVES: TIME, TEMPERATURE, MOISTURE AND LIGHT. ========================================================================= 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 desirable to gain an understanding of those conditions that can affect the edibles stored in your pantry. Your storage program is only as good as the original quality of the food that goes into it. It cannot get any better than what originally goes 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. It is important to remember when discussing the usefulness of various foodstuffs that there are really *two* shelf lives to be considered. The first shelf life is the nutrient content of the food. This actually begins to degrade from the moment the food is harvested. Three factors dictate nutritional shelf life: the food's initial nutritional content, the processing steps the food underwent before it was placed into storage, and its storage conditions. Eventually the nutrition will dwindle away to nothing. At some point it will have to be decided the remaining nutrition is not worth the space the food is taking up and it should be rotated out of storage. This is the reason for the "use by" dates on many foods and for shelf lives in general. The second shelf life to consider is a food's absolute useful life or the point at which you just can't gag it down. This will almost always be far in excess of its nutritive life. We've all heard of people eating many year old preserved foods such as jellies, MRE's and the like. 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 nutritive shelf life. Do, however, keep in mind that increasing age will only further decrease the useful nutrition and increase the likelihood that something may cause the food to spoil. Within reason, the key to prolonging the storage life of your edibles lies in lowering the temperature of the area in which they are stored. The storage lives of most foods are cut in half by every increase of 18 F (10 degrees Celsius). For example, if you've stored your food in a garage that has a temperature of 90 F then you should expect a shelf life less than half of what could be obtained at room temperature (70 F) which in turn is less than half the storage life that you could get if you kept them in your refrigerator at 40 F. Your storage area should be located where the temperature can be kept above freezing (32 F) and, if possible, below 72 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 so you'll have to do the best that you can. 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 your storage location air-conditioned during the warm and humid times of the year. The second is to package the goods in storage containers impervious to moisture and then to deal with the moisture trapped inside. If you can, there's no reason not to use both. All storage containers should be kept off the floor and out of direct contact from exterior walls to reduce the chances of condensation. Once you've gotten temperature and humidity under control, it's 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. That energy 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's 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 a jar. 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 that it was 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. ========================================================================= II -- THE TECHNIQUES OF FOOD STORAGE ========================================================================= A. GRAINS AND LEGUMES A.1 GRAIN VARIETIES One of the most important decisions in planning your long term food storage are the kinds of grains you are going to store. Too many people do not give this adequate thought, and just buy however much wheat they think is necessary to meet their needs and leave it at that. Others rely upon pre-packaged plans made for them by the storage food retailer who put together the food package they've purchased. For many, either decision could be a major mistake. There are any number of food storage plans to be found by those who take the time to look. Many of them are based on the so-called "Mormon Four" of wheat, milk, honey and salt, with as many additional foods as the planner finds to be desirable. Back in the thirties, when I believe this plan first got its start, this may have been OK, but we've learned a great deal since then. An unfortunate number of people in our society have developed allergies to one kind of food or another. One of the more common food allergens is wheat. Even more unfortunate is the fact that of those with an allergy to this most common of grains, many of them are not even aware of it. They won't become aware of it until they try to live with wheat as a large part of their diet. This is the 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 providing a variety of grains in your food storage is appetite fatigue. There are many people 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 *long term* 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 that is 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 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, then wheat's going to start becoming distasteful pretty 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.] Below is a list of some common and uncommon grains presently available in the marketplace. Because wheat is by far the most common directly consumed grain in the United States I've put it at the head of the list. WHEAT: Wheat comes in a number of different varieties. Each variety is more or less suitable for a given purpose based on its characteristics. The most common classifications for wheat varieties are spring or winter, hard or soft, red or white. The hard wheats have kernels that tend to be small, and very hard and have a high gluten content. Gluten is the protein in grains that enables the dough made from them to trap the gasses produced by yeast fermentation and raise the bread. Low gluten wheat does not produce as good a loaf as high gluten wheat, though they can still be used for yeast breads if necessary. As a general rule, hard varieties have more protein than soft varieties. The soft varieties have kernels tending to be larger, plumper and softer in texture than hard wheats. Their gluten content is less and these are used in pastries, quick breads, pastas, and breakfast cereals. 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 suitable for raised bread making. Some feel the hard white varieties make a better tasting whole wheat bread than the hard red. The most commonly stored are the hard red varieties, either spring or winter, because of their high protein. They should have a protein content of no less than 12%, with higher the better. The hard white spring wheats are still relatively new and are not yet widespread. They have the same excellent storage characteristics as the hard red wheats. AMARANTH: Amaranth is not a true cereal grain at all, but is a relative of the pigweeds and the ornamental flowers we know as cockscomb. It's grown not only for its seeds, but for its leaves that can be cooked and eaten as greens. The grain is high in protein, particularly the amino acid lysine which is limited in the true cereal grains. The grains can be milled as-is, or the seeds can be 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. The most common is the white, highly processed "pearl" barley that has had most of its bran and germ milled off along with its hull. It is the least nutritious form of barley. The second form it's found in 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 barley still in the hull. Barley can be milled into flour, but its low gluten content will not make a good loaf of raised bread. It can be combined with other flours that have sufficient gluten to make good raised 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 of barley 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. BUCKWHEAT: Buckwheat is another of those foods 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 that requires 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 far superior nutritionally as you might expect, but it also much more strongly flavored. 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 commonly grown grain in the U.S., but it is mostly consumed indirectly as animal feed or even industrial feedstock rather than directly as food. Nevertheless, it comes in an amazing variety of forms and, like wheat, some of them are better suited for a particular purpose than others. The varieties intended to be eaten as fresh, sweet corn are very high in sugar content and do not dry or store well. The other varieties are the flint, dent, 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 or flour, 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 dent corns which make better flour. If meal, hominy and 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 dent type is what you want. 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 just a bit gritty for flour. Your mileage may vary. Popcorn is one form of a whole grain available to nearly everyone if they know where to look. Since it's so popular as a snack food, particularly in movie theaters and events like fairs and ball games, 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 small amount of water on the kernels, shaking vigorously and allowing it to be absorbed. Once you've decided between flint, dent or popcorn, 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 vitamin A content of yellow. Since vitamin A is one of the major limiting vitamins in long term food storage, any possible source of it should be utilized so 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. If grits, hominy or corn masa are not a part of your diet and you're storing corn, it is a very good idea to begin to develop a taste for some or all of these alkali treated forms of corn foods. MILLET: Millet is an important staple grain in North China, and India, but is little known as a food in the U.S, mostly being used 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 here, but it's alkaline content is higher 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. Though it has little gluten of its own, it mixes well with other flours. OATS: Though the Scots and the Irish have made an entire cuisine from oats, they are still mostly thought of in this country as a bland breakfast food. It is seldom found as a whole grain, usually being sold processed in one form or another. Much like barley, oats are a difficult grain to separate from their hulls. Besides their longtime role as a breakfast food, where they can be made very flavorful with a little creative thought, 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 this country is in cookies and granolas. Listed below in order of desirability for storage are the forms of oats most often 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: 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 and many supermarkets. Rolled oats: These are also commonly called "old fashioned" or "thick cut" oats. To produce them, oat groats are steamed and then rolled to flatten. They can generally be found wherever oats are sold. They take longer to cook to suit than do the quick cooking oats, but they retain more flavor 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 regular or old fashioned kind 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 at all suited for a long term food 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. RICES: Rice is the single 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. It is my favorite grain and in the form of brown rice, we eat a great deal of it here at the House. 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: Short grain rice 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: Medium grain rice is not very common in this country. It has flavor like short grain rice, but with a texture more like long grain rice. Long grain rice: Long grain rice cooks up into a dryer, flakier dish than the shorter grains and the flavor tends to be blander. It is the most commonly found size of rice on the grocery shelves. Each of these may be processed into brown, white, parboiled or converted and instant rices. Below is a short discussion of the differences between the various types of rices. Brown rice: This is whole grain rice with only the hull removed. It retains all of the nutrition to be found in rice and has a pleasant nutty flavor when boiled. From a nutrition standpoint it is by far the best of the rices to put into storage, but it has one flaw: The essential oil in the germ of the rice 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 processing. Freezing or refrigeration will greatly extend its storage life. It's also possible to purchase brown rice from long term food suppliers specially packaged in air tight containers with an inert nitrogen atmosphere. In this kind of packaging, (if properly done), the storage life of brown rice can be extended for years. Converted rice: Converted rice starts as brown rice which undergoes a process of soaking and steaming until it is partially cooked. It is dried 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. 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 of the rice is lost, white rice sold in this country has to be enriched with vitamins to *partially* replace what was removed. 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, yellow in color. 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 the cooked product 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 found. RYE: Rye is a well known bread grain in this country, though not as popular as wheat. 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 blackest, densest form. Rye makes for excellent variety in the diet. What I am about to say in the following is for those who may be interested in buying field run rye straight from the producer or distributor before it has been cleaned. If you purchase your rye from a food store *after* it has been cleaned, it is not much of a concern. There is a fungal infection of grain called "ergot". It is attracted to rye more so than other grains, particularly if the growing conditions were damp where it was grown. This fungus causes a nervous disorder known as St. Anthony's fire. When eaten in large quantities the ergot alkaloids can 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 fungal disease affects only the flowering parts of many members of the grass family. 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 are 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. 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. SORGHUM: Sorghum is probably more widely known in this country for the syrup made from the juice squeezed from the canes of one of its many varieties. Also widely called "milo", it is one of the principle cereal grains grown in Africa. Its seeds are somewhat round, a little smaller than peppercorns, with an overall brown color with a bit of red and yellow mixed in. The varieties called "yellow endosperm sorghum" have a better taste. Sorghum is a major feed grain in the southwestern part of the country and is where the vast majority of the national milo production goes to. 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 in meal for porridge. It's also commonly brewed into alcoholic beverages. TRITICALE: Triticale is not a creation sprung whole from the foreheads of Star Trek script writers, tribbles notwithstanding. It is, in fact, a cross or hybrid between wheat and rye. This youngest grain combines the productivity of wheat with the ruggedness of rye and has a high nutrition value. Triticale kernels are gray-brown, oval shaped larger-than-wheat kernels and plumper than rye. It will make a raised bread like wheat flour will, 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. This grain can be used in much the same way wheat or rye is. Although it is the youngest of the grains, it's been around for some years now. For reasons I've never understood, triticale has never achieved much popularity. Whether this is for reasons of agricultural production or public acceptance I don't know. A.2 LEGUME VARIETIES Unless a person is willing to spend a great deal of money on preserved meats, a food storage program not including a 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 understanding of nutrition at all. The legume family, of which all beans, peas, lentils,and peanuts are a part of, 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 legume varieties are colorful and varied. The names range from "adzuki" beans, a type of soybean from the Orient, to "zipper" peas, a commonly found field pea here in the South. The color of the beans 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 was 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 probably best known to us 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 and 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, 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 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 beans and have a distinctive flavor. They are much used in Far Eastern cuisine from Indian to Chinese. LIMA BEANS: In the South, they are also commonly called butter beans. They are one of the most common beans 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 is not actually a nut at all, but a legume. Peanuts are another odd species not much like the more familiar beans and peas. Whatever their their classification they 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, they are also used for peanut butter, boiled and 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. It is stereotypically bean shaped with 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 producer alongside the peanut. The beans themselves are small, and round with a multitude of different shades. Although the U.S. grows a very large percentage of the global supply of these beans, we actually consume virtually none of them directly. Most of them go into cattle feed or are used by industry. What does get eaten directly has usually been processed in some form or fashion. Soybean products range from tofu, to tempeh, to textured vegetable protein and hundreds of other uses. Although they are very high in protein, 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 the time of year. If you should 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, you may be able to find what you want at any processing step along the way. The most basic form is called "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 basic form called "field run from storage" is grain 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. If you want cleaner grain you should look for "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. For those of us who don't live in an area that produces the grain and legumes that we're interested in, we have to resort to the last type which is "pre-cleaned and pre-packaged". This is grain that's 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. Each of the above types 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. If you don't mind doing a little cleaning and you need to be frugal with your cash, then field run grain is the way to go. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have purchased your grains and legumes from a food store or a foods dealer then you needn't worry about hidden mold infections, fungicides or insecticides that are unsafe for human consumption. The products will have been checked at least several times by the Federal and state agriculture dept's and probably by the major foods dealers as well, to insure its quality. This is not *necessarily* the case when you purchase your grains or legumes direct 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. If you are buying your grains and legumes from some-place other than a food store then you need to know the history of what it is you are buying. 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 small possibility it may have been infected with molds that would make it unsafe for eating. Field run from storage and any grade of grain not specifically advertised for human consumption may have had fumigants, fungicides or insecticides not certified as safe for human foods added to it while it was in the bin. It is important to know what it has been treated with before you buy it. 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 government allows the sale of grain or legumes for animal feed that could not be sold for direct human consumption. If that feed is to be fed to non-lactating (non-dairy animals), they will sometimes allow an aflatoxin content of five times what is permissible for use in human foodstuffs. 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 maybe other chemicals as well. 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 content. This is especially the case if you are buying field-run corn, rye, soybeans and 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. A.3.1 MOISTURE CONTENT The moisture content of the grain or legume you want to purchase or grow has a major impact on how long you will be able to store it and have it remain nutritious and edible. Some of the information I have found says that grain with a moisture content as high as 12% can be safely put into long term storage, but there is a risk to storing grain at that moisture level that should be understood. The outside of each and every kernel of grain or bean you buy or grow may host thousands of fungi spores and bacteria. This is all perfectly natural and is not a reason to panic. The problem lies in that at moisture levels between 13.5% to 15% some fungal species are able to grow and reproduce. Other species require a moisture level in the 16-23% range. Aerobic bacteria (oxygen using) require a moisture level of about 20%. Thus, if you have grain you want to store with a moisture content as high as 12% you are perilously close to having enough moisture to enable mold growth which could lead to the ruin of your grain. For this reason, I suggest keeping all grains and legumes to a moisture content of no more than 10%. If you do not have a clue as to what the moisture level of your grain is here is a rough method to determine it. Take 20 ounces of the grain or legumes in question from the middle of its bag or container (this needs to be an actual weighed twenty ounces and not estimated.) Spread the grain in a large baking dish making sure it is not more than an inch deep. Heat at 180 F for about two hours, stirring occasionally. Allow the grain to cool where it won't readsorb moisture, the oven will do. Once cool, reweigh the grain. A one ounce loss in weight indicates the grain had roughly a 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 I don't have a better idea that could be used by an individual in the home. 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. 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 to suit you, 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 then 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 F for an hour. It should be stirred occasionally to improve drying. A.4 STORING GRAINS AND LEGUMES A.4.1 Moisture and Desiccants The key to storing grains and legumes for the long term is dry, dry, dry. Available oxygen and storage temperature also play roles, but it is moisture content that determines whether you get usable food out in five years or not. Therefore, the idea here is to have the food you want to put into storage as dry as possible before it goes in and then take steps to deal with any moisture trapped, generated or leaked into your storage containers. Ideally, the clean grains and legumes you have on hand will be no more than 10% moisture. If this is the case then you can go ahead and seal them into your storage containers using the packaging method of your choice and have a reasonable expectation of your food staying in good condition. If your storage grains aren't sufficiently low in moisture content then you'll need to reduce the water they contain. Wheat has been taken out of Egyptian pyramids where it had lain for several thousand years. It was the bone dry desert air and the cool interior temperature of the pyramids which kept it from rotting away. We can approximate that Egyptian climate by several methods. The least involved method is to wait until the driest time of year for your location. I typically wait until January here in Florida. If this doesn't suit, then turn your air conditioning on a little high. Bring in your buckets, lids, and the storage food. Let everything sit in a well-ventilated place where it's going to get plenty of cool from the a/c. I'd avoid anywhere near the kitchen or bathroom areas, as they put out a lot of moisture. Stir the grains or legumes frequently to maximize moisture loss. About three days of cool, constant air flow and low humidity ought to dry things out a bit. If this won't do, you can place a large quantity of desiccant in your storage containers. Fill the remaining space with your food product and seal on the lid. After about a week, unseal and check the desiccant. If it's saturated, change it out with dry desiccant and reseal. Continue to do this until the contents are sufficiently dry. If it doesn't become saturated the first time, change it anyway before sealing the bucket permanently. You'd hate to find later it saturated in storage. I use silica gel for practically everything. Keep in mind that it is not edible and you don't want it getting mixed into your food. My usual procedure is to save or scrounge clear plastic pill bottles such as 500ct aspirin bottles. Fill the bottle with the desiccant (remember to dry the gel first) and then use a double thickness of coffee filter paper carefully and securely tied around the neck of the bottle to keep any of it from leaking out. This way whatever moisture does inadvertently get trapped inside can be safely absorbed. It won't dry out a *lot* of moisture -- you still need to take steps to get everything as dry as possible before you pack it -- but it will take care of what little is left. Once you've dealt with the moisture problem, then you can decide whether you want to displace and/or absorb the oxygen out of your storage container. There are three common methods of doing this. The first two use relatively inert gasses, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, to displace the oxygen. The third uses an oxygen-absorbing chemical to remove very nearly all of the gas from the container's atmosphere. Some folks use inert gas displacement and oxygen absorption together. A.4.2 Dry Ice Using dry ice to displace oxygen from food storage containers is a very straightforward affair. To prevent leaching plastic chemicals from the container into your food over a long period of time I recommend lining the bucket with a brown paper bag before filling the bucket with your product. Be sure to wipe any accumulated frost off of the ice and wrap it in a paper towel or something similar so you don't burn anything that comes into contact with it. Put the dry ice at the bottom and fill the container. Shake or vibrate it to get as much density in the packing as possible and to exclude as much air as you can. Put the lid on, but do not fully seal it. You want air to be able to escape. Ideally, the dry ice should slowly evaporate and the cool CO2 should fill the bottom of the bucket, displacing the warmer, lighter atmosphere and pushing it out the top of the container. About four ounces of dry ice per five gallon bucket is plenty. Do not move or shake the bucket while the dry ice is sublimating. You want to keep mixing and turbulence to a minimum. After about three hours go ahead and seal the lids, but check on them every fifteen minutes or so for an hour to be certain that you're not getting a pressure build up. If you don't have to let any gas off, then put them away. A *little* positive pressure inside the bucket is a good thing, but don't allow it to bulge. WARNING: Dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) is *extremely* cold and can cause burns to the skin by merely touching it for only a couple of seconds. Because of this you should wear gloves whenever handling it. Also, dry ice evaporates into carbon dioxide gas, which is why we want it. CO2 is not inherently dangerous, but you should make sure the area you are packing your storage containers in is adequately ventilated so the escaping gas will not build to a level dangerous enough to asphyxiate you. A.4.3 Compressed CO2 or Nitrogen Using compressed gasses calls for a slightly different technique. You'll need some plastic bags that are a bit larger in internal volume than the bucket, and some brown paper bags to fit inside the plastic bags. Additionally, you'll need a tank of the compressed gas that you've chosen, a hose to attach to it and a length of straight stiff tubing just longer than the bucket to attach to the end of the hose. Last you'll need a pack of matches or a cigarette. Line the interior of the container with the plastic bag and then line the plastic bag with a clean brown paper one. Fill the bucket with grain, shaking to get it as full as possible. You don't want any pockets left between the plastic bag and the container. Once you have gotten it full to just short of not being able to fully put on the lid, gather the top of the plastic bag together. Take the hose with the copper tubing on the end and insert it to the bottom of the grain, (take care not to tear the bags), and close the top of the bags around it. Turn on the valve and begin to fill the bags with gas. You want to fill it *slowly* so you can minimize turbulence and mixing as much as you can. I generally will just gradually crack the valve until I can hear it begin to hiss out and then put my hand over the end of the probe to feel how fast it's flowing. It'll take a little while to fill each bucket -- about five minutes per bucket. Just as with the dry ice above, the idea here is for the cool gas to displace the warmer atmosphere from the container. The bags should puff just a bit. When I think it's full I'll hold a lit match just above the bag in the air that is escaping from it. If it snuffs right out then I figure the oxygen has been displaced, I let it run for a minute longer and remove the probe. Tie the bag off and seal the bucket. Again, you want to have the bucket as full as possible so that there'll be only minimal air space. IMPORTANT NOTE: I want to insert a note of caution here about packing foods with nitrogen or CO2. Either gas will do very well for oxygen displacement inside the bucket, but the technique that you use is very important. Dry ice is extremely cold and if there is much moisture in the air trapped in the container with it, and your food, then it will condense. If there's enough of it, it's going to cause you problems. If you are going to put the dry ice in the bucket, you'll really want to do this on a day when the humidity is very low. The temperature of the gas coming out of the tank has concerned me, also, since it is rather cold. I like to use as long a hose as I can get to allow the gas to expand and warm as much as possible before it goes into the bucket. An idea that I've had, but have not yet tried is to hook the hose to a copper coil (like with a moonshine still) and have the gas go through it to warm before putting it into the container. The next time we do any experimentation with this I think I will. Whether you use dry ice or compressed gas, I would add about four ounces of desiccant to a five gallon bucket of stored food. A.4.4 Oxygen Absorption Packets If all of this messing about with gasses sounds like too much trouble, you can try using the oxygen absorption packets that have come onto the market in the last ten years or so. Please see Section Two, IV.C Oxygen Absorbers for specific instructions in their use. Be certain that you do, in fact, have an air tight seal or you'll just deplete your packets over time to no positive effect. Once I started using the method above with the drying out of the containers and foodstuffs, the *careful* atmospheric displacement with inert gasses and the desiccant, I've never lost a container of storage goods due to mold. If you've done a proper job with the gasses, you'll kill any insects or insect eggs as well. After that, it's just age and storage temperatures that degrade the nutritional contents of the foods. You should have a rotation plan to deal with this before it becomes a problem. Take care in your technique, use only quality goods and you'll have food you can eat when you open those containers. B. DRY MILKS 1 SELECTING AND BUYING DRY MILKS B.1.1 TYPES OF DRY MILKS NONFAT DRY MILK. 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 about 3 tablespoons of instant nonfat dry milk added to 8 ozs of water to make 1 cup of milk you can drink or cook with just like fresh milk, albeit with a considerable flavor difference. Combine the dry milk with water at least several hours before you plan to use it to give 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. I don't care for the stuff to drink, but instead add the powder to baked goods, gravies, smoothies, hot cereals, casseroles and meat loaf as a nutrition booster. FLAVORED NONFAT DRY MILK. 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. DRY WHOLE MILK. This dry milk has a higher fat content and therefore 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. DRY 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.1.2 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. (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.2.1 STORING OF DRY MILKS Dry milk products are especially sensitive to storage conditions, particularly temperature and light. Vitamins A and D are photo sensitive 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 dryer it can be kept, the better it will keep. 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 well enough for the relatively short nutritive shelf life that this product has. The method I use is to pour the powder into clean, dry one liter soda bottles. I use these rather than the two liter bottles because I don't use a lot of dry milk at any one time and the last half of the bottle would get old before I could use it. I purchase seltzer water this way so the bottles start clean. Once the bottles are filled I then add a small desiccant pack and seal. The bottles are dated and stored in the ubiquitous cool, dark place. We do not reuse the bottles. Once the milk they contain has been used they are recycled. I haven't tried this yet, but you could also add an O2 absorption packet to each bottle. This might be too expensive to do with the one liter bottles, but should be relatively inexpensive for the two liter variety. They also would help to keep the milk from going stale before it can be used. 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. Glass canning jars could also be used for the repackaging. While they must be guarded against breakage they offer the advantage of not holding odors, thus allowing for reuse after suitable cleaning. Since they are as transparent as the soda bottles, the contents must be protected against light. If desiccant and/or O2 packets are to be used they will have to be placed inside the jars themselves. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- B.2.2 From: SacoFoods@aol.com (Amy Thompson) To: Dunross@dkeep.com (Alan Hagan) Subj: SACO Mix'n Drink 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'n Drink 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'n Drink, 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- B.2.3 From: SacoFoods@aol.com (Amy Thompson) To: Dunross@dkeep.com (Alan Hagan) Subj: SACO Mix'n Drink 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 (METAL CANS AND GLASS JARS) 1. LIQUID MILK 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 milk are as follows: C.1.1 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. It has vitamin D added. For reasons I have not yet discovered, the lesser fat content milks do not seem to keep for as long and their "use by" dates are shorter term than the whole milk. 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 on the label seem to vary. I buy the whole milk and the dates are usually for three months, but I've found them for as much six months. The milk is still usable past their dates, but the flavor soon begins to go stale. I am told by a friend who lived there that in Germany not long after this kind of canned milk began to come on the market that they were dated for a year. With only a three to 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. It's a lot of bother, but to me it's worth it to have whole, fluid milk. C.1.2 EVAPORATED. This is made from fresh, unpasteurized whole milk. The process removes 60% of the water; the concentrate is heated, homogenized, and 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. C.1.3 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. 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. 2. CORROSION PREVENTION OF CANNED GOODS Some areas of the country 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 three methods that can be used to do this: C.2.1 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. C.2.2 PASTE WAX METHOD: Combine 2-3 ozs 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. C.2.3 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. D. SUGAR, HONEY AND OTHER SWEETENERS Sugar 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 mostly from sugar cane though some may still be made from sugar beets. 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, 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 a long period of time. D.1.1 BUYING AND STORING GRANULATED, POWDERED, BROWN AND RAW 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 SUGAR. 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. POWDERED SUGAR and CONFECTIONER'S SUGAR. Both names refer to the same kind of sugar, that is white granulated sugar very finely ground. For 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). 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 SUGAR. In the United States brown sugar is basically just refined white sugar that has had a bit of molasses 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 or TURBINADO SUGAR. In recent years, sugar refiners have realized that there is a market for less refined forms of cane sugar here 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 this country due to the high impurities level in truly raw sugar. 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 should be stored and handled like brown sugar. All granulated sugars have basically the same storage requirements. They need to be kept in air tight, insect and moisture proof containers. For powdered, granulated and raw sugar you might want to consider using some desiccant in the storage container if your local climate is damp. Since brown 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 towards the bottom it was just fine. D.2.1 SELECTING AND BUYING HONEY Honey is probably the oldest sweetener known to man. It 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, it's use in recipes may call for a bit of alteration to get the recipe 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. This 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 slightly 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 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. CRYSTALLIZED or SPUN: This honey has had some of its moisture content removed to make a creamy, spread. It is the most processed form of 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. You should buy and store honey 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 HONEY STORAGE 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 engines), chemicals or any other odor-producing products. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- D.2.3 From: Geri Guidetti 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, 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 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.3.1 MOLASSES, CANE, SORGHUM AND TABLE SYRUPS. Molasses and cane syrup are not precisely the same thing. 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 may know it better as "unsulphured molasses" even if this is not completely correct. Sorghum syrup is produced in the same manner, but sorghum cane, rather than sugar cane, is used. Sorghum tends to have a thinner, slightly sourer taste than cane syrup. All these syrups are generally dark with a rich, heavy flavor. There are many "table syrups" sold in supermarkets, but close examination of the ingredient lists will reveal mixtures of cane syrup, cane sugar syrup and corn syrup. They usually have a much less pronounced flavor. 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.4.1 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. They are commonly used in baking and candy making because they do not crystallize when heated. Corn syrup is a poor storer compared to the other common sweeteners and because of this it often has a "best if sold 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. I don't recommend corn syrup as a storage food since it stores so poorly. D.5.1 MAPLE SYRUP Maple syrup is probably the only sweetener that has developed a cult-like following (OK, cane syrup has its ardent fans too). Produced by boiling down maple sap until it reaches a syrup consistency, it 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. 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. Flavored pancake syrups should be kept and stored as corn syrups. 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 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, but this is just 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. There are some general rules you can follow to get the most life out of your stored cooking oil. #1- Although darker colored oils have more flavor than paler ones, they don't last as long in storage. Therefore, for longer shelf life, buy paler colored oils. #2- Heat, light and exposure to oxygen are the greatest factors in rancidity of cooking oils. If you can, refrigerate your stored oils. If possible, buy your oils in dark, opaque, airtight containers. Cooking oils should be stored in a cool, dark area. #3- Unless they have been specially treated or packaged, cooking oils have a shelf life of about one year, with a few specialized oils having a shorter life. If you don't use a great deal of it, try not to buy your fats in large containers. This way you won't be exposing a large quantity of oil to the air after you've opened the container. It seems to me that buying oil in large containers and then repackaging it into smaller, opaque, perhaps more airtight containers would be a good thing to do. I haven't found any data on this yet so I do not know if it would actually accomplish any useful extension of storage life or not. If anyone reading this should happen to have any good data on this, I'd surely like to see it. Additionally, I'm also looking for information about the usefulness of possibly adding anti-oxidants to slow down the oxidative rate, such as butylated hydroxyansiole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoleune (BHT), propyl gallate or vitamin E. Y. COOKING STAPLES BAKING POWDER. This powder is a combination of an acid, an alkali, and a starch to keep the other 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 bone dry baking powder 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 the baking powder out. 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 does so in the same manner as baking powder. 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 absorber. If you don't want your baked goods tasting of whatever smells it absorbed then keeping it in an airtight container is an excellent idea. 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, 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 fine for keeping them, 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 for storage. 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, same for other seeds and roots. You'll have to get 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 is a listing for Penzey's. I have never dealt with them myself, but they consistently get many good reviews in the rec.cooking newsgroup for the quality and price of their herbs and products. It might be worth your while to order a catalog. SALT. Storage life for salt is indefinite. So long as you keep it dry and 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 it 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, each with its own purpose. Very little of the salt 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. I hope to make it more complete as I find better information. 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 absorb 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. In the iodized varieties, the iodine can cause discoloration or darkening of pickled foods so be certain not to use it for that purpose. 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. Kosher Salt: I'm not precisely sure what makes kosher salt different from canning salt. I'm presuming that it must have been processed in a particular manner in accordance with the kosher dietary laws of the Jewish faith because it is used in preparation of kosher foods. It is generally larger in grain size than table or canning salt and may have even been rolled to produce "flaked" kosher salt. Grain size can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. 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 very 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 Cream Salt: This type of salt comes in large chunky crystals and 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. It is used in food preservation by some, but none of the brands I have been able to find label it as food grade 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 far enough south to 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. Salt Substitutes: These are various other kinds of metal salts such as potassium chloride used to substitute for the ordinary sodium chloride salt we are familiar with. They have their uses, but should not be used in foods undergoing a heated preservation processing, they can cause the product to taste bad. Even the heat from normal cooking is sometimes sufficient to cause this. 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 what the sour stuff is made from can vary widely. The most common vinegar is the white distilled variety 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 vinegars, balsalmic and other types all 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. 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. Almost all yeasts used for these purposes are in the same genus (Saccharomyces or "sugar fungi"), but many 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, but 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 degs 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, up till 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" them. 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. Drop in and read for awhile and you'll learn more than you thought you could ever want to know. Z. INFANT FORMULA Since most folks into preparedness of one sort or another 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 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. ===================================================================== Please direct comments, questions, contributions and criticisms to: athagan@sprintmail.com Postal mail address: A.T. Hagan P.O. Box 140008 Gainesville, Fl 32614-0008