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Storage of flours

I recently purchased several types of KAF flours. What is the best way to store these flours, yeast, etc.?

Thanks, Lee

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omaria
  • Reply by omaria on February 11, 2012 at 10:30 pm
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Lee, I see that no one has responded yet, so I will give you my way.I have a big food-safe plastic container that holds about 7 lbs. 0f flour' I put some bay leaves on the bottom and the flour goes in.that is All purp. flour. Wheat flour goes into the freezer. If I have room.,otherwise the fridge will do.I leave it in the paper bag, but wrap that in plastic and aluminum foil. Hope this helps.

tarrka1089
  • Reply by tarrka1089 on February 11, 2012 at 10:52 pm
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Hi Lee - At the holidays I purchased 3 5-lb bags since I wanted to make sure I had enough to make cookies. Long story short, the other two bags, I transferred into glass jars and put in the freezer since I didn't think I'd be using them any time soon.

Well, 20lbs later since the end of January, I ordered Rubbermaid containers that I could stack in the pantry. Since I'm going through flour so quickly, I'm not concerned about is staying fresh past three months. Heaven knows that the 20lbs of unbleached didn't last last one month. : )

As for the yeast, as long as it is stored in a nice cool, dry area and not exposed to light, I've read the instant yeast can last up to 3 months. If it's going to be longer, it can be frozen - as it will go dormant until you take it out and let it warm up.

Hope this helps.
Hazel

lda124
  • Reply by lda124 on February 12, 2012 at 7:53 pm
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Hi Lee,
According to KAF online chat, they said the yeast will last up to a year if stored in the freezer. I just purchased some yeast and inquired before I bought it.
Just an FYI.

ZenSojourner

If you buy in quantity, a food grade 5 gallon bucket is my favorite method. Lacking that, when I buy in bulk I repackage into FREEZER GRADE heavy duty one gallon zip-locs. These can be stored either in a 5 gal bucket, or any sort of container, even a cardboard box. As long as it's protected from heat and humidity it should last a good long while.

WW and Rye, etc, have more natural oils still in the flour - those won't last as long. They have a tendency to go off, even rancid, much more easily than regular flour. I store mine in the fridge in the heavy duty freezer ziploc's as above. I only buy 5 lbs at a time, as I don't use it nearly so often as I do the AP.

Since the Costco membership ran out and there's an Adis in town now, I won't be buying in those quantities anymore (with the Aldis being closer and really about comparably priced for most things, I can't really justify a $50 membership and driving all the way across town to get to Costco), so there isn't any likelihood that I'll be buying in those quantities again any time soon, but it has been nice to know I'm not going to run out of flour in the middle of a recipe, LOL!

As for yeast - yeast will last virtually FOREVER in the freezer, not just one year, as long as you tightly wrap it up and seal it well after taking out your working quantity. I keep an old bread machine yeast jar in the fridge that I use yeast out of and keep the rest wrapped up tight in the freezer. Just refilled it the other day, as a matter of fact.

Mike Nolan
  • Reply by Mike Nolan on February 13, 2012 at 6:52 pm
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There isn't a 'one size fits all' answer to the original question.

It depends on what the product is, how much of it is being bought, and how long the buyer expects it to last. Climate issues can also play a factor, what works well in Minneapolis may not work as well in Miami.

tarrka1089
  • Reply by tarrka1089 on February 13, 2012 at 11:28 pm
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ZenSojourner - YIKES! Didn't realize that rye flour doesn't have as a great a shelf life like the others. Well that just means I need to be crackin' on that rye bread.....now if only my new stove would be delivered!

lennycubfan
  • Reply by lennycubfan on February 14, 2012 at 12:23 am
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I store my flours in food safe plastic buckets in the basement, where it tends to be cool. The bags that I'm using I store in plastic containers or zip lock bags in the kitchen.

The yeast should be good for 2 years from the date of manufacture but I think it will last longer if stored in the freezer. I always have a pound in the freezer and the pound I'm using is stored in the fridge. My yeast sometimes goes past the expiration date with no problems.

There is a discussion of yeast in these threads http://community.kingarthurflour.com/content/why-has-my-yeast-stopped-wo... and http://community.kingarthurflour.com/content/really-really-really-old-yeast.

HerBoudoir
  • Reply by HerBoudoir on February 14, 2012 at 7:40 pm
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I have a bunch of rubbermaid containers. For most flours and regular sugar, I keep them in the large cereal-style containers that I label both on the top and on the side that faces out with a sharpie so I know what's in it. I have smaller rubbermaid containers that hold 2 lb quantities for things like cake flour, dry milk, and specialty sugars (brown, 10x, 4x). Again, everything is labeled with a sharpie. Finally, I keep 2 sizes of smaller screw top containers (ziploc I think?) in 2 cup and 4 cup sizes for things like corn starch, salt, etc.

Instant yeast is kept in one of the 4 cup screw top containers in the freezer. Right now, I just have a smaller jar of AD yeast from the grocery so that's in the fridge.

If you change the purpose of the container, the sharpie ink will come off with nail polish remover. Obviously you'd want to clean the container REALLY WELL after using NPR on it.

I keep an extra AP flour and an extra bread flour on hand, but for wheat flours, I just buy another when I'm nearly out.

Mike Nolan
  • Reply by Mike Nolan on February 14, 2012 at 8:13 pm
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I have a Dymo RhinoPro1000 label maker with plastic water-proof labels. (It's what our electrician uses to label the wiring in our house.) The labels stick to all my canisters very well, I can even wash them.

It also makes 'flag' labels (two copies of the same information) that you can wrap around things like cables (You stick the two identical parts of the label to each other, so it sticks out like a flag on a pole.) I use them to label what's in my tomato cages, much easier to read than those dinky stakes in the ground.