Confirmed Food Life - Personal Experience In Long Term Storage

Did some baking last week.

Also Fleischmans Yeast from 2012 still 100% good for making bread. Stored as bought on shelf.

That's good to know. I always thought the shelf life on yeast was only 6 months, and that is the reason why I haven't purchased any cans of wheat for food storage.
 
I have the vacuum sealed mylar bag ones. They look like small vacuumed coffee bags. You're supposed to refrigerate after opening. I just took mine from the bag I opened and put it in a Ball Jar on counter to see what happens.

Worst case in summer you bake a shit ton of bread at once and bake it into croutons for longer storage.

0075471502191_A.jpg
 
I have the vacuum sealed mylar bag ones. They look like small vacuumed coffee bags. You're supposed to refrigerate after opening. I just took mine from the bag I opened and put it in a Ball Jar on counter to see what happens.

Worst case in summer you bake a shit ton of bread at once and bake it into croutons for longer storage.

View attachment 229965
I have one of those from Costco. I opened and put in a ball jar as well, about 3-4 years ago. I keep the jar in the freezer. Yeast wakes right up in warm water. I make a real simple bread with it. Flour, yeast, water, and salt.
 
I dehydrated 3 dozen eggs last night. Mason jarred them and going to store for a year to see how they hold up. Apparently you can store them for quite sometime. Hoping it works well. My chickens are laying a lot of eggs.
 
20180913_095906.jpg Looking for opinions regarding store bought canned tomatoes. Diced, crushed, etc. I thought I heard somewhere that tomatoes are acidic and dont store well for longer periods. I was digging through my canned food storage and found some that are quite a bit past expiration, which usually doesnt stress me too much, but some of these we're talking like 3-4 years past the best by date. Any rule of thumb people go by? SHould I toss them? Best by dates are written in sharpie on the labels. Month/year.

On an unrelated note, have 4 cans of beans that I bought yesterday. I usually go a good job ob checking for dents before I buy. Got them home and all four are dented, either near or on the top rim. Possibly from the bagger or jostling on the way home or just me not checking. Anyway, should I use up these fairly quickly or can they keep for a while?

Thanks
 
Thoroughly wisk eggs. Pour onto fruit trays. 140F for 16hrs. It will look like yellow peanut brittle. Pour into blender and blend till powder. Place immediately in mason jars with O2 absorber.

Dumb question, but how do you use them in the other direction? Can you take that powder and reconstitute it into something like scrambled eggs?

-Mike
 
View attachment 246792 Looking for opinions regarding store bought canned tomatoes. Diced, crushed, etc. I thought I heard somewhere that tomatoes are acidic and dont store well for longer periods. I was digging through my canned food storage and found some that are quite a bit past expiration, which usually doesnt stress me too much, but some of these we're talking like 3-4 years past the best by date. Any rule of thumb people go by? SHould I toss them? Best by dates are written in sharpie on the labels. Month/year.

On an unrelated note, have 4 cans of beans that I bought yesterday. I usually go a good job ob checking for dents before I buy. Got them home and all four are dented, either near or on the top rim. Possibly from the bagger or jostling on the way home or just me not checking. Anyway, should I use up these fairly quickly or can they keep for a while?

Thanks

Tomatoes are acidic, amd that is what helps preserve them. When canning tomatoes using the boiling water bath method as opposed to pressure canning, you have to add two tablespoons of lemon juice to increase the acidity of the tomatoes.

Now, on the canned stuff in metal cans, the best by date is meaningless.........as long as the can isn't swelled or leaking and it appears to have a vaccum, the contents should still be edible many years past the BB date.
Best you can do is open, look, smell then taste.
I have a case of Pastene tomatoes that are dated 2011. Opened one the other day and still good.

The BB date is a sales gimmick......disregard it completely.
 
Dumb question, but how do you use them in the other direction? Can you take that powder and reconstitute it into something like scrambled eggs?

-Mike

Yup, I did it once to see what would happen. Made scrambled eggs just fine. Only let it sit for like a month though, just wanted to test it out. I think it was like 2 parts water to 1 part egg but this was a few years ago so I may be off on that.
 
View attachment 246792 Looking for opinions regarding store bought canned tomatoes. Diced, crushed, etc. I thought I heard somewhere that tomatoes are acidic and dont store well for longer periods. I was digging through my canned food storage and found some that are quite a bit past expiration, which usually doesnt stress me too much, but some of these we're talking like 3-4 years past the best by date. Any rule of thumb people go by? SHould I toss them? Best by dates are written in sharpie on the labels. Month/year.

On an unrelated note, have 4 cans of beans that I bought yesterday. I usually go a good job ob checking for dents before I buy. Got them home and all four are dented, either near or on the top rim. Possibly from the bagger or jostling on the way home or just me not checking. Anyway, should I use up these fairly quickly or can they keep for a while?

Thanks

I'd throw the beans into a chili and be done. Why gamble with what you now KNOW is a compromised seal?

As far as the tomatoes, even though they lean to the left of Mussolini, the Pastene tomatoes are our favorites. While they my be FIT for consumption 4 years past the the BB date, the acids in them will make the product inside start to taste metallic. At least that's been our experience once they are 2-3 years past.
 
the wife was food prepping for the week, as she's hitting the gym/training etc. Says 'nuts, we're out of rice'. me: hang on.
I open a HD bucket dated Oct 14, pull out a sealed mylar bag of 5 cups of rice and hand it to her. Cooked it, tastes like rice. :)
 
the wife was food prepping for the week, as she's hitting the gym/training etc. Says 'nuts, we're out of rice'. me: hang on.
I open a HD bucket dated Oct 14, pull out a sealed mylar bag of 5 cups of rice and hand it to her. Cooked it, tastes like rice. :)

Now go put 10 cups of fresh stuff back.:D

I've done that same scenario......its nice having a well stocked "pantry".
 
the wife was food prepping for the week, as she's hitting the gym/training etc. Says 'nuts, we're out of rice'. me: hang on.
I open a HD bucket dated Oct 14, pull out a sealed mylar bag of 5 cups of rice and hand it to her. Cooked it, tastes like rice. :)

and with that correct packaging would likely taste like rice for the next 26 years, and beyond. I can it from 50# bags into mason jars with o2 absorbers and back when the LDS people in Worcester allowed it, in those big ? #10 ? cans.
 
So I had put up some Tuturossi tomatoes with 2014 expiration dates. I left some of them in the cardboard case they came in. the cans that were in contact with the cardboard rusted and the seals failed. The same cans on the second layer are fine. The cardboard must have absorbed moisture from the relative humidity in my storage. Cans are getting shit-canned
 
Still using 2013 PB. Store brand (BigY) creamy. Smells and tastes like new. Just opened last jar from that year.

You'll know if PB is bad as soon as you open it. It will smell rancid. If it smells ok then its likely good.....might have to stir the oil back into it though as it settles out over time.
 
2013 canned Mandarin Oranges. Still good. Can says best by Jan 2016. They still taste as good as canned fruit will.
 

Attachments

  • 20181117_204005.jpg
    20181117_204005.jpg
    109.3 KB · Views: 15
used some of my last 7-2012 expiration date Pastene ground crushed tomatoes. they're OK, but there was a slight bitter taste to the resultant sauce. Very slight.

missing a FIFO rotation, I also used some 7-2014 of the same type for pizza sauce last week, and they were fine.

also used some canned beans with 2012 expiration dates, chick peas, kidney beans and black beans in a chili. Perfectly fine
 
So apparently 2012 was a bad FIFO rotation year for me.

Pastene Italian Bread Crumbs. If you've bought them, they're in a cardboard container. Best Buy date was in 2012. Breaded chicken with them to make chicken parm....delicious and the 2012 and 2019 crumbs were indistinguishable from each other.

I didn't even realize they were 'past' until after I was cleaning up.
IMG_4883.JPG
 
Old Fashioned Oats. Big Y brand. Bought September 2012. Stored on shelf in basement in only the original can. Not in a bin. Just opened and made some cookies. Still good, can't tell the difference from the fresh ones we made with brand new ingredients at same time.

ETA - bottom of container says best if used by Jan 22, 2014

20190105_134612.jpg
 
In 1968 and 1969, we ate C rations almost exclusively, In Nam. The date on the cans ranged from 1941 through 1944. They were fine. I was still buying the cinnamon nut rolls from 1941 to 1945 at the Army /Navy store in Hyannis for chuckles and they were still good, in the late eighties. As I look back, it comes to my attention, that C rations, never contained tomatoes.
 
Reminder to check cans for bulging! Found a tuna can 2013 bulged. Was in middle of a stack. All other cans in stack were good. Sometimes you just get a dud.

View attachment 283882 View attachment 283883
That is important, and it is something I sometimes forget to do. I always hear the can hiss when I start to open the can, but I don't know if it is a suction sound or a pressure release sound if I forget to look at the can. They sound the same.
 
Last edited:
I did not open the can because I didnt want my house smelling like rotten fish, lol. 100% sure whatever is left in there is no bueno.

This is only the 3rd can in all my storage I've had bulge in 8 years. So it is pretty rare.

On a different note my homemade powdered eggs seem still good. Made two jars if you recall. I'll open one in a couple weeks, make scrambled eggs and report back results. If they're good to go, I'm going to start storing larger Ball jars. I have 9 mature laying now, but we also have 20 new Brahmas that are now 2 months old. I'm going to have a lot of eggs rolling around late fall and want to store them.
 
I'm looking into storing more food in the house. But I don't know if I'm prepared to get buckets,mylar and oxygen absorbers etc..what other products can be kept in their original container for long periods like canned goods?
 
I'm looking into storing more food in the house. But I don't know if I'm prepared to get buckets,mylar and oxygen absorbers etc..what other products can be kept in their original container for long periods like canned goods?

I've gotten 2-3 years out of instant mashies, in the mylar bags..Idahoan, IIRC Idahoan® Original Mashed Potatoes 2oz
 
Back
Top Bottom