In this video, we bake bread out of flour that is 28 years old, 19 years old, and fresh white flour. The bread mixer that I use is a Bosch Universal Mixer and I seriously LOVE it! You can find it here shrsl.com/4lluv. I'm not a fan of the blender attachment but the food processor attachment works great. Learn more about this experiment at TheProvidentPrepper.org. Food Storage: The Actual Shelf-Life of White Flour theprovidentprepper.org/food-storage-the-actual-shelf-life-of-white-flour/ You may also be interested in these articles: Selecting the Right Grain Mill for Emergencies and Everyday Use theprovidentprepper.org/selecting-the-right-grain-mill-for-emergencies-and-everyday-use/ Food Storage: How to Store Wheat So It Is Still Delicious 31 Years Later theprovidentprepper.org/food-storage-how-to-store-wheat-so-it-is-still-delicious-31-years-later/ Food Storage: What is the Actual Shelf Life of Granulated or White Sugar theprovidentprepper.org/food-storage-what-is-the-actual-shelf-life-of-granulated-or-white-sugar/ Food Storage Experiment - Are 29-Year-Old White Beans Edible theprovidentprepper.org/food-storage-experiment-are-29-year-old-white-beans-edible/ Packaging Dry Foods in Glass Jars for Long Term Food Storage theprovidentprepper.org/packaging-dry-foods-in-glass-jars-for-long-term-food-storage/ How to Package Dry Foods in Mylar Bags for Long Term Storage theprovidentprepper.org/how-to-package-dry-foods-in-mylar-bags-for-long-term-storage/ Salt: Why It Is Essential and How to Store It Right theprovidentprepper.org/salt-why-it-is-essential-and-how-to-store-it-right/ Thanks for being part of the solution! Follow us! *Instagram - theprovidentprepper instagram.com/theprovidentprepper/ *Facebook - The Provident Prepper: Building Your Family Ark facebook.com/ProvidentPrepper *Pinterest - The Provident Prepper www.pinterest.com/TheProvidentPrepper/
Love your show. Caution to viewers: When you find a product with mold after opening, gently escort it outside and don't stir it into the air. The mold spores easily go airborne, and it will really stink to cross contaminate your 'clean' flour with spores from the vintage mold that would love to find a new home.... or pollute your work area.
TO ALL CONTENT MAKERS Please use actual DATES not words like Yesterday, Lastyear, ect. not 1994, 2003, and yesterday. They should use, 1994,2003,&2022 THANK YOU!!!
No expert but a BS in microbiology. Mold spores are prolific in the air, wouldn't stress about a couple old colonies of pennicilium. That first old can had some moisture in it.
The old flour could be used to make play dough or Christmas ornaments great for the grandkids to paint for a tree even if for outside tree. A wreath made of dough for the a back or side door. Can be used for modeling clay. Works for making a glue and paper mache.
So I already commented that this was a great video, but I wanted to add another regarding some KA AP flour from 4/2011 that I just used from my freezer. It was still in original packaging and I sealed it in a freezer bag (most of the air removed). Used it yesterday. I got same smell, texture, and baking texture as a new bag of flour. Was excited with the results.
If you prep and deep store continuously, then when a lot of flour hits a set age , say 20 years, bake it into hard tack and seal it up...it could be used later as part of " iron rations" for specific uses and needs. Hard tack has been known to keep for very long periods.
@@nude_cat_ellie7417 it was a very common food in the old west days. Pioneers and cowboys often had it carried it with them because it lasts a very long time. Because of how hard it is, it was often dipped in their coffee. It’s a great prep for long term storage.
Anything can happen, so checking smell and structure of foods should take place every time we open any food, from home preserved methods and commercially packaged. Thanks for the time and effort you've gone to so we can see what can happen.
Yes, just today I dumped out a pint jar of canned turnips that I canned back in 2013. I was like "Do I really need to even eat this very strong smelling brown things at this point?" Gotta do a better job of working through things.
I wash all the pre-washed salads because of listeria/salmonella/ecoli recalls. I still buy the pre-wash/prepackaged because of the convenience (cut up) and that I don't have to buy so many veggies that won't stay fresh ( good for single people). I have a salad spinner to re-wash and keep remaining veg in the spinner (also acts as a crisper) in the frig. EASY.
@@TheProvidentPrepper I can chicken legs/backs/wings for my dogs' food supplement. I prepare and can just as I would for my consumption. The other day I opened a year old jar, mixed it with white rice for them and the smell was just a little off, it wasn't "bad" smelling. I ended up dumping it and tossing away. I reasoned there's no reason to feed spoiled food even to my companions, getting severe digestive distress and end up with a massive vet bill for the effort. A jar worth a dollar isn't worth it. So yes, I check all preserved foods.
Very cool experiment with valuable information! I don't go through much flour, so I have always stored mine in the refrigerator. Now that I've expanded my flour supply, I froze the flour for a week to kill any eggs, let it sit at room temp for a week, to dissipate any moisture, then sealed it in mylar bags with O2 absorbers. Glad to know it will be good for many years. Thanks for your time making this video!
@@virtuousdesignsbyyessi1717 I don't think it makes a difference either way. It depends on what size bag I buy....25# bags are portioned out and smaller bag are just placed in mylar.
I love videos like this. I’ve got some #10 cans of flour and it’s nice to know that they last. I agree we should be rotating our stock, but nice to know it’s still edible after 20 years.
Something to keep in mind when you make a one-to-one comparison with flour of different brands and from different years (let alone types of flour) the flour itself and the end product will likely be of different quality because the quality of the flour depends on where the grain was grown, the growing conditions (i.e. moisture and sun exposure) it experienced plus how it was processed (for what purpose.) The flour you purchased was bread flour and the cans only stated "white" flour. Nonetheless, I highly appreciate how you examined the quality of the canned flour! I'm with your hubby: might not be as crazy about the taste but if it was all I had ...
You know, it’s true about the brands of flour tasting different. I really only like King Arthur if I am to buy flour at the store. My flour snobbery will have to end in TEOTWAWKI, or some long event. We will all be blessed with our food storage, and be happy we can eat.
Agree you have to compare 'Apples to apples'! But also, to me, the bottom line is don't store White flour any longer than recommended. It needs to stay apart of your _Working Pantry_ that is rotated and perhaps not so much as an item in the _'Long term'_ pantry.
FYI when I was in USMC out in the field if we got M&M in the MRE it was a welcome treat. About 2010 I put up a 5 Gallon bucket of M&Ms in a mylar bag and Oxygen Absorbers food grade bucket 2021 I open the bucket and they tasted Great my 82 yr old mother filled two Glad bags full and eats them! so I put up Another 5 Gallon bucket and it cost me About twice $$$ this time
I was ridiculed on another channel for stating I had around 15 can openers and planned on buying a few more top quality ones again. Some were trying to act like all I needed was a slab of concrete and so on. I'll stick with a good opener any day.
Great Video on comparing the age of white flour. Thank you so much. My favorite bread I bake for our family is half whole wheat and half white. It turns out beautifully. I also store my flour in Half gallon Ball Jars for long term use. I like the glass jars because there would be no "off" taste as it is vacuumed sealed and an added oxygen absorber. :)
I miss Thursday morning wake ups to grandma's bread baking. The smell of fresh breads and rolls and other goodys. All from scratch. That lady could cook and bake. Miss you Grandma.
I really think rotation is the key, even for the longterm stock. Luckily, I found LDS here in France, they don't sell canned goods here, but they sell mylar bags for a more interesting price than elsewhere. That will help me to keep my stock rotating. The year's stock of flower I bought will be doubled and I'll put that into mylarbags with O2 absorbers, using the older one up, and before I go into the new one, I make sure to have the next at hand... And I learn to stretch wheat flower with rice flower for cookies and shortbread, with cooked potatoes for bread...the recipes are out there. Much love!
Absolutely fascinating study. I'm thinking the older flour, while it may not be quite as tasty or pretty baked as straight white bread, would perhaps be more suitable as something more flavored or disguised. Chocolate pancakes, for example? Or maybe a cranberry nut loaf? Something that would cover up its age.
Good point, & if you make bread & don't like the flavor, you can also turn it into seasoned croutons, bread crumbs for meat loafs, or homemade panko for frying. 👌
I love yalls videos. I am rotating through 5 year old flour now. Almost done with that one and will move on to the 4 year old one. I also made bread with bag of new flour because it ripped open and I didn't have any sealer bags. I seal it in a seal a meal bag then put it into mylar. I think the bread was about the same in taste.
I have been looking for this practical information for a while . Bless you for illustrating it so nicely! Addressed every one of my concerns! BTW, I am learning lots from your channel!!
this was extremely informative and very well done. who wouldn't rather have fresh But there are times when people would kill for bread made with that 28 year old flour. thankyou for the video.
Thanks for the effort to evaluate the 28yo, 19yo and fresh flours. I buy and use King Arthur Bread Flour 14% protein. It's nonbrominated, not bleached and enriched (US law for milled flours). It's just good pure flour. I store in sealed mylar bags within with oxygen absorbers. I was expecting 5 years from the mill expiraton date but now may consider a couple years maybe beyond that. As I use/buy I rotate and will do so as long as I can buy new. Although now I am stocking more than usual and have laid in a supply of King Arthur All Purpose 11% flour for basic baking and also because if SHTF I'm sure I'll have neighbors or friends who didn't stock as much as me and I can share the AP flour with htem. I do have wheat berries in buckets and white AP flour in #10 cans. Thanks for the test and confirmation of my thinking. I bake 2 loaves per week, basic white using my Zorjirushi Virtuoso breadmaker.
You should put the flour into zip-lock bags & freeze that flour, and when you dump out the flour remove any mold spots before putting it in the Zip-lock bags.
My up north Minnesota cabin has all the storage food frozen or near 32 degrees F for six months. I can not believe how much longer storage food keeps in my cabin, off the grid, not heated, while I am in Florida all winter. Cold, dark, really extends food life.
Wonderful experiment, thanks! I usually add a cup or two of white bread flour to my batch of whole wheat bread as a “glue” so it doesn’t fall. I might use old flour for that.
Great demonstration. I have hyperosmia, or as my family says a “super snoot.” That metallic smell would have been overwhelming for me. I have to aerate oats stored in # 10 cans regardless of age. Thanks so much for sharing!
This was a great video..very informative. Surprised me a lot. Outstanding job in the flour testing and analysis. The testers had me laughing. The girls were so cute. I think you were all brave to test the 1994 flour..OMG 28 year old can of flour. I really believe this video helped a lot of people who are preppers..it certainly helped me..I better start in the rotation of my cans right away..thanks for a great show. 🥰
*I CONCUR!* My bulk bags of flour go into my chest freezer for 10 days. (to kill bugs) Next, it's put into 5 gallon pails lined with Mylar bags. I then add _'over'_ the recommended amount of oxygen absorbers, and I seal the 5 gallon pail. I recently opened a pail that's been there for *8 years, and it's PERFECT!* Great bread, and SUPER pastries!
Love the video. Always doing very important and practical experiments. You guys have the best knowledge on the actual shelf life of things. I loved when you made rice and beans that were decades old. So happy you did one about flour, as I have a few hundred pounds stored in Mylar and buckets. Now I know how long I have to eat it.
every time i see a good can opener (good for my hand) and i have the spare cash? i buy it. now that doesnt hapen incredibly often, but i want one can opener AT LEAST stored in each of my main food storage areas...
I have been thinking about that very subject for YEARS, and this is the first video I have seen that nails it! The only thing I would have done differently is to have the persons write down their own thoughts separately first before anyone said a word, then have them read the responses, then talk about it. Conversations have a tendency to sway each other and evolve. I would particularly have been interested in Grandma's(?) comments. Also, I agree your observation regarding the first opened container, there likely was a contaminant in the can that may have spread and affected the flour! However, do not take this as a criticism! This was and excellent video! Thank you for sharing it! It would be fantastic to see if a lab could determine how much the nutrition actually degraded.
Great comparison. First let me say I only store flour for short term (1 year +/-) As mentioned, not all flour is the same for Bread and storing whole wheat berries as mentioned is best as long as you have a grain mill stored away with them. AP with lower protein and High protein wheat flour. Bread Flours can also be a blend of different grains. To really compare you would need to know the specific berries used and the milling method plus the sifting. Mom & Grandma used to always sift flour before use to aerate it and possibly to get any bugs out. All in all... Do the best you can with what you have.
Based on what you showed the bad can signs were all on the bottom of the can, you turned it upside down. So I would suggest completely emptying all the cans to likewise look at the bottom lid condition. The 2003 may not have been as fine a grind when new, how would you know?
You are so right. As an aside, I'm finding that the tops of just my cans of cannery milk that were canned like in 2012 are getting rusty for no apparent reason.
The first can openers were either a hatchet or a hammer and chisel. The can existed a hundred years before the first can opener. Flour usually has bug eggs in it when it is fresh. It is almost impossible to long store without rather extreme packaging methods. Even vacuumed seal dosent last that long. I just sift out the critters. It wont kill you if it is not moldy and moist.
I heard somewhere if your flour is old chances are it may clump, all you do is aerate it by putting it through a sieve as long as it is not contaminated and it should be good to go. Guess you can always try to cook a bit first just to make sure.
Excellent comparison! We store very little pre-ground. Nothing better than bread from just ground! We have a very good grain grinder with flywheel and handle, which makes it eady to operate. Do be aware that burrs (which grind grain) can wear out over time. Replacement burrs are a good idea. Also, keep your grinder covered to keep it free of dust and dirt.
Sourdough bread is my favorite. I make it weekly for a few years already! A no. 10 can needs a different kind of can opener. I learned that when I was given two cans of can tomatoes and could open it.
This was actually very informative. Thank you for this video. I was just going through my long-term pantry today and have whole wheat berries that are about 12 years old and flour that is about two years old. All in Mylar with oxygen absorbers. I was curious to know how good it would be and how long it will last so I’m glad I found this video! thank you.
Kyleen and Jonathan: The flour may have been a less finely ground in one batch of the cans. Different mills have slightly different texture in their flours. When you compare the difference between stone ground flour and flour produced using a method that uses high powered grinding that explodes the grain into flour there will be a definite difference in texture. The difference in the two lids indicates that the sealing process on that can may have been faulty. Even the tiniest space in a seal seam would allow microscopic organisms in especially over that period of time. No canning process is 100% another reason for placing batch identification on home canned foods so that in the event one jar goes bad you know which units to keep an eye on in the future. My favorite kind of bread is sprouted whole white winter wheat bread made from freshly milled wheat. Lots of good info!
What a great experiment!!! I store flour in half gallon jars that are vacuum sealed. Never more than 3 or 4 years old in a climate controlled environment. I have never had a problem. I don't store baking goods more than 3 years passed their date. I always wonder about these freeze dried or dehydrated foods we buy in #10 cans. I hope for the best. But, I guess it depends on the ingredient. That's why I only store ingredients and not meals with prepared food. Thank you so much for the great comparison videos.
My current favorite bread to bake is a super easy sour dough I learned on a different channel. The starter is super easy, the recipe is super easy. My favorite to eat will always be a cinnamon swirl sweet bread.
Well, that was an interesting experiment and it is something you can learn from it gave you some result at the end. And i think it is important to do some experiments to see if you can store it for longer than normal shelf life. It is really cool actually thanks for sharing much appreciated and now i have learned something new.
Thank you for the information I use flour for thickening garvey and a few other things. Usually before I can use a bag up it gets clumps. I am going to buy some mylar bags and put half they bag in that
Yes! One of the most useful things I've come across has been people sharing info about failed long-term storage. It takes decades and commitment to get that info and if you do it wrong you won't have any food, so it's so generous for people to share with younger or newer preppers
Same with oats,bran and flour. I not only had stored for over a yr or two. It smelled,felt,looked good,and was. I ate it and am fine.Mainly check worms. Hard to tell. As you say look thoroughly. Thx for showing that little passed expiry is NOT garbage.Pretty soon ppl will be hungry enough to use,bake eat
Just took my homemade loaf of white bread out of the large Zoe bread machine and I have to say I love that recipe! When we went to buy flour, some kind person at the LDS store advised us to buy the whole berry wheat, instead of flour. He also advised that we do not buy the red wheat, but the white wheat was tastier, unless you really like whole wheat bread. We love the not very nutritious, but great tasting, Wonder Bread! So, we got the white wheat berries. That experiment you did was really interesting and a great learning experience. Thank you for that. People that don’t bake might save their flour and use it a year later for a celebration dinner, only to find it is not very tasty. I wouldn’t keep my milled flour over 6 months as it gets stale, much like stale saltines do. My husband, who asks me to burn some cookies for him probably wouldn’t care, or notice for that matter, but someone who bakes all the time will. Hubby is just not a taste-tester! Again, that was really interesting. Thank you so much. Always enjoy your videos.
Excellent video. I learned a lot. I have a couple of cases of number 10 cans of flour. The rest I'm putting up is in vacuum sealed bags. Frozen for a week first.
Thank you for doing this comparison. This reenforced my belief that it is better to store wheat grain and then grind it into flour, as needed, instead of storing white flour. Plus, the freshly ground wholewheat flour has much better nutrition than white flour. My favorite kind of bread is southern buttermilk biscuits, followed by flour tortillas, followed by any of the savory or sweet quick breads. I just am not patient enough to wait for dough to rise twice or to do hand-kneading of bread dough. Okay, I would knead pizza dough, but not do that much work for a regular cottage loaf or a stick of French bread.
1c whole milk mixed with 1T vinegar, add 1/3 stick of butter. 2 cups then to more to right texture of flour. Scoop for drop bisuits or roll out. Bake in a hot oven til golden.
my favorite bread is a good sourdough, but my favorite EASY bread is a "quick setting" zojirushi bread made with half red and half white whole wheat flour. i also tend to use honey (not sugar) and i often use flax seed (like toss it in whole and it gets broken up in the kneading process) instead of oil
Our favorite is honey oat bread: AP and whole wheat flour plus oats, using honey instead of sugar. A loaf is gone in no time: it toasts beautifully, is good with butter or jam, and exceptional for sandwiches. Subway Sandwiches used to have a honey oat bread - the one I make is close! I'll have to google zojirushi bread - I have hard red wheat berries in storage and have been wanting to grind it to make bread. It's a denser bread?
@@gsdalpha1358 zojirushi, my apologies, is the brand of bread machine I use! The quick whole wheat recipe in their starter booklet is the one I use, BUT I only use whole wheat flour-half red half white- and sometimes I will substitute a bit of flour for oats or rye...not often. Honey instead of sugar And I don't put butter in the bread machine, just on the finished bread!
@@TheProvidentPrepper the basic question is: is your bread rising TOO FAST (like are you using instant yeast when the timer is set for an active dry yeast? are you using too much sugar?) and then falling because it has over proofed... or is your bread just not developing enough gluten to HOLD the bubbles? i suspect strongly its the lack of added gluten and oil. when we make bread "by hand" (or in a machine but on our own controls) we can work the flour to develop the gluten enough. if you dont want to add gluten you can try using less sugar...(trying to slow the yeast just a tad) or more salt (ditto) or start with a sponge (let some of the yeast ferment overnight in some of the flour)
@@TheProvidentPrepper PS... i can tell you that if you double check the basics and still need to call?... the Zojirushi USA customer service is pretty darn nice. at least their twitter folks and facebook people are
It would be interesting to see a similar experiment with wheat berries. Older wheat berries ground in to flour vs newer wheat berries. I graduated from high school in 1995, I can't imagine using flour that was older than that lol.
@Kelly S A couple of years ago, I opened and used wheat that my parents stored in metal cans back in the early 70s. I am considered “gluten sensitive “ to all new flours. That old wheat grinder well and did not make me sick when I baked with it. I know I’ve read that new wheat has more gluten that wheat our parents used, and I believe it!
@@idahofmegal821 I believe it too! They've done all kinds of stuff to modify wheat, make it more gluteny, more resistant to pests, etc. It's hard to find wheat that hasn't been modified at all.
@@idahofmegal821 its probably not the gluten, but the glyphosate. Back then the practice of "preharvest" spraying to ripen and dry the grain faster was unknown or not common. Glyphosate destroys gut biome among other things...causing all manner of stealth diseases to slowly develop. I do fine on wheat flour if its Organic, and also if not enriched. There are problems with adding iron filings to food...screws up ceruloplasmin and deranges metabolism!
now, if any object with food in it is placed upon a cement or ceramic tile floor, or dirt floor, it's possible for the magic of moisture to condense on the inside of an object without it being compromised in seal. Similar to the rotting effect of the scrolls found in clay jars in dry caves. The lower half of the scrolls were compromised over the 2000 years prior to their being found. The Location of that one can in storage as well as the possibility that the can was not perfectly clean could lay into the micro fungi. Only way to find out what fungi is to test it. good that you did not eat it, could cause hallucinations and kidney failure.
So interesting. Thanks for sharing this. I've been wondering about this. I have mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. Think I will be doing my flour that way. Excellent video!
All the more support for having a mill and making your own flour fresh from wheat berries. Another point is that fresh ground flour loses most of its nutrition in as little as 72 hrs. after milling. Great video.
