Ratio of Rice to Beans

[SKR8PN]

I toss Oxygen absorbers in my buckets of rice and flour. I double freeze the flour but not the rice. So far so good.

 

[lnm03]

I just toss all rice and dried beans in the freezer and leave it there....is that ok?

 

[k0xxx]

FWIW, we have more rice than beans stored, since we use rice for more than beans. We'll use rice with gravy from meat drippings, chicken pudding, etc.

We have somewhere around 400 lbs of beans stored, but about 250 lbs more of rice. All of our beans/grains are either nitrogen packed or have oxygen absorbers added.

 

[Mackay]

I have one bucket of red beans that is on year number 4 with no special sealing, I even open it once in a while to get some out.
No signs of any problems.
I love those gamma lids.

what is concerning me a little bit is some beans I have in a gamma lid bucket that are still in their plastic bags. The plastic bags are starting to look old, stiff...

Plastic is weird stuff.
I'm taking them out of the bags today.
I wonder if I should throw those beans out.
Their only about 2 years old.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I opened a freshly bought 15 pound bag of rice last night and it was FULL of bugs. I'm very disappointed in that.

I normally buy 25 pounds of white Japanese rice and use it for my meals. I keep it in a plastic canister and never have had bugs in it.

I guess it can get full of bugs quickly. Now I have to check everything else in that cupboard and see if they got into anything else.

I haven't started storing for any long term or disaster. I just buy stuff when it's cheap and try to keep plenty on hand. If no money comes in I can eat for a LONG time.

I do store dry pintos, red kidney beans, black beans, and great northerns, as well as black-eyed peas, since those are what I like. I have kept some for years sometimes with no problems. I also keep canned refried beans and refried black beans.

I should store rice too I guess. I just never find the kind I like any cheaper and normally buy 25 or 50 pounds at a time for cooking. Since moving here I've only found it in 10 and 15 pound bags though.

 

[Icu4dzs]

When I first started out in preparedness food storage, I read somewhere that many long-term storage folks have a dry ice solution. It not only kills critters, but it helps remove oxygen from the container, which increases storage time. They use white food grade puckets with screw on lids, fill the containers to about two inches from the top, and then fill that last two inches with dry ice. Seal the container with the screw on lid, and almost immediately the critters and their evil spawn are frozen to death. As the dry ice reverts to a gas, it replaces any remaining oxygen in the container.

Thought that was a cool idea, and might be of benefit to someone !

although it is a cool idea I'd never use this.

If you guess the wrong amount of dry ice in a bucket with a screw on lid you've just made a bomb. As the ice converts back to CO2 it expands... and if there is any sort of moisture in there... poof!

We used to make fish bombs with a couple of mason jars (quart and jelly) with the inner jar packed with dry ice. When the water finally hit it, the concussion from the explosion would stun the fishes and they'd float up to the top.

On the same sense, we've tossed a brick of dry ice into a cooler full of ice water put the lid on tight, then ran. Buddy wasn't too happy in the condition he found the rest of his beer!

Oxygen absorbers are better and safer than dry ice imo

Just a few comments on the above recommendations.
I agree about just putting the dry ice in the container and sealing it. Too much gas in the sealed container provides a rather unsettling result.

Dry ice however can be used very nicely for this purpose if Food Grade Nitrogen gas can not be obtained.

To do this a number 10 can or paint can can be used. Drill a hole in the lid big enough for a hose barb which can be attached to some tubing.(1/2' plastic tygon tubing works well) Seal the hose barb with something that makes it air tight and you have a fine CO2 generator. No chance of blowing up because the tubing allows for egress of the gas.

Put the dry ice in the can, add a little water for speeding up the reaction, secure the lid back on the can and place the tubing with or without a rigid piece of tubing (at the end of the tubing) like a wand down into the bottom of the bucket or can you are using to store your product.

The gas (CO2) will flow into the food container and displace the oxygen...(the desired effect here) and make your food safe for a longer period of time. The whole purpose of this use of gas is to displace air which contains 21% oxygen and stop the spoilage by oxidation. Most restaurants, grocery stores and pharmacies get things shipped with dry ice regularly. They usually throw it away after they unpack their frozen products so if you ask them, they will probably give it to you at no cost.

The same method is done with food grade nitrogen gas. The displacement of air with nitrogen gas will generally give a t least a 10 year shelf life to most if not all dried products that have a tendency to oxidize.
Hope this helps.
Trim sends

 

[DuppyDo]

I have much more beans than rice stored, probabley closed to a half ton of beans.
I spent a fairly good amount of money on this stuff, and stored for the long term.
Wanting to keep it in good condition, i stored my beans & rice in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers,some DE, then heat seal.I then store the mylar bags in food grade 5 gal buckets with lids on tight.I use steel garbage cans and lids for bigger mylar bags of stuff.These help keep rodents out.I keep it all in my cool dry dark basement.I started storing a couple yrs ago and don't plan on touching my stash until i really have to at some point in the future.
One never knows what will be availble for how long as far as food goes in this crazy world.I figure when i can afford to, i'll keep buying more while beans and rice are still fairly cheap.I have a big assortment of beans, as well as hard red, soft white wheats, stored the same way...I may never need to use it in my life time,( i'm almost 60) but i will pass it on to younger struggling family members when it's my time to kick the bucket, hopefully of natural causes..
Yep. in view of their long shelf life when properly stored, beans and rice, wheat, etc are money in your bank..!

 

[TanksHill]

You know I was just thinking yesterday about those Mylar bags. If I use the bags do I need food grade buckets? The bags are so inexpensive. The bucket costs are killing me.

Any advice?

gina

 

[k0xxx]

You know I was just thinking yesterday about those Mylar bags. If I use the bags do I need food grade buckets? The bags are so inexpensive. The bucket costs are killing me.

Any advice?

gina

I would recommend sticking with only food grade buckets.

Check with local bakeries, a lot of them will give you, or sell you used food grade buckets fairly cheap. We get the locally for about $2 on average, and then buy new lids. We use the Gamma Seal lids only on what buckets we happen to be using from at the time.

 

[TanksHill]

Thanks, I use the gamma seal as well. I got lucky for a while and Home Depot was carrying food grade bucket. But my 6 gallon ones come from Emergency Essentials.

I will find a bakery near by and ask.

gina