I found gold in that thar dollar store

There they were: a bunch of 5-lb Gold Medal unbleached flour packages up high on a shelf for 99 cents each. I started shoveling them all into my cart, which attracted a woman of foreign extraction.

"Are they wheat flour?" she asked in a Middle-Eastern accent. "Are you going to take them all?"

"Yes," I said. "But how many do you want?"

"Four."

I had to climb up on the shelf to get them, but she got four and I got the rest: fourteen. I feel like a prospector who hit paydirt. Woo-hoo!

Bread flour, Larry?

It was nice of you to share...

Not quite "bread" flour in protein, but unbleached all-purpose flour, which works just fine.

Well, she was nice and not pushy. But she wasn't going to get any more. I had my eyes on clearing the shelf and I had to do it fast without attracting too much attention.

I seem to draw other shoppers: "Hmm, I wonder what he's looking at." Women, in particular, don't seem to have any qualms about pushing me out of the way when they want something. "Am I in your way?" I usually ask. They never get it.

You must go through it pretty fast. If not, how do you prevent it from getting bugs when storing it over a lengthy period?

I keep all my flour products in the refrigerator. The freezer would work, too. I couldn't store 14 bags though.

I've never had bugs in my flour, but Mormons have a trick of placing a bay leaf and a stick of peppermint gum in their storage container. Plus, you can freeze flour for a few days to kill any eggs. Not enough room? Do it incrementally.

But, freezing is a moisture inducing process. If you freeze some of it, you must have to use it pretty quickly to prevent mold or other kinds of parasitic development. I put all my flour, cornmeal, sugar, etc into air tight sealed containers immediately upon purchase to prevent that. But, I have once or twice had bags of flour that, upon inspection, had worms or other bugs developing (I had bugs in a bag of peppers too, once) -- not an experience I want to revisit. Just curious. Let us know your luck with 14 lbs (or were they 5 lb bags?) of flour.

Don't faint Jo, but....we keep about 70kg (150lb) of bread flour at any given time. I have a couple of good mates who are millers, and they keep me stocked in 25kg bags. They told me to keep it in the fridge or freezer - they store the flour in coolrooms once it's bagged up. Weevil eggs are in all flour (but too tiny to see), and they won't hatch if the flour is kept below 28 deg C (82.5F). We've been storing our flour in a dedicated flour freezer for 2 years and never ever had a problem with mould.

I actually thought freezing was a drying process rather than one that added moisture - can one of our brilliant chemists clear the confusion up for us? I was always told that it was therefore ok to freeze chocolate, but not to store it in the fridge (which I do anyway).

Cheers, Celia

Don't faint Jo, but....we keep about 70kg (150lb) of bread flour at any given time. I have a couple of good mates who are millers, and they keep me stocked in 25kg bags. They told me to keep it in the fridge or freezer - they store the flour in coolrooms once it's bagged up. Weevil eggs are in all flour (but too tiny to see), and they won't hatch if the flour is kept below 28 deg C (82.5F). We've been storing our flour in a dedicated flour freezer for 2 years and never ever had a problem with mould.

I actually thought freezing was a drying process rather than one that added moisture - can one of our brilliant chemists clear the confusion up for us? I was always told that it was therefore ok to freeze chocolate, but not to store it in the fridge (which I do anyway).

Cheers, Celia

Thx, Celia
Yes, I'm interested in knowing much more about this process. I purchase flour no more than 5 lbs at a time in order to avoid some of the problems. The eggs don't bother me (nor do the parasites in fish), unless I see them moving. Then, I am down to almost fasting for about a week.

Thx, Celia
Yes, I'm interested in knowing much more about this process. I purchase flour no more than 5 lbs at a time in order to avoid some of the problems. The eggs don't bother me (nor do the parasites in fish), unless I see them moving. Then, I am down to almost fasting for about a week.

I am so with you there, Jo. I bought a second hand freezer specifically for the purpose of avoiding crawling things in my flours and grains - it was cheaper than constantly throwing out the contents of my pantry. I'm so freaked out by them that Pete's actually contemplated converting a small room we have outside into a coolroom for me. I've never understood people who tell me just to sift them out...ugh...

Celia

We store our flour in the freezer as well (just not industrial amounts like Celia ) and never have had mold or crawly issues.

The only way freezing or cold induces moisture is when you get condensation after removing an item from the cold. Our resident lemon farmer deals with this when his lemons are removed from cold storage for shipping.

Otherwise, as stated on the other thread, cold air holds very little moisture, and thus will dehydrate anything you put in a freezer. Flour is around 10% moisture, though in a 5-lb bag it would take a while to dehydrate. Honestly, I'd worry about the flour losing moisture and throwing off the water content of a bread.

The fridge is fairly humid compared to the freezer, but still dry.

Walt

Maybe it's the altitude or lack of humidity here, but I usually have 50 lbs or more of flour at any time (abt 100 lbs right now) w/o any bug problems. I've had kitchen weevils or whatever they're called in the past and had a helluva time tracking them down. Guess where I found them. In some packages of dried chiles and, on occasion, in boxes of macaroni and cheese.

I've had kitchen weevils or whatever they're called in the past and had a helluva time tracking them down. Guess where I found them. In some packages of dried chiles.

Ditto. Eeeekkkk!!