# Use for old flour?



## GaryS (Nov 15, 2011)

I missed cycling a bucket with four 5# flour bags and now I have 20# of unbleached bread flour that is no longer good for bread. I tried one loaf and it didn't rise properly and had an off flavor, so I'm hoping someone can give me an idea what I can make with it. I hate to put it all in the compost pile, but I can't think of anything else to use it for.


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## moondancer (Dec 21, 2013)

It's great to keep for putting out fires


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## lazydaisy67 (Nov 24, 2011)

Maybe noodles or pie crust? They don't need to rise, anyway.


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## IlliniWarrior (Nov 30, 2010)

flour paste for pig food ....


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## Tacitus (Dec 30, 2012)

moondancer said:


> It's great to keep for putting out fires


I don't believe this is true. Flour is flammable, and throwing flour on a fire could cause an explosion (wheat powder causes grain elevator explosions).

Burn rate of flammable materials is all about surface area: the more surface area per mass, the quicker the burn rate. (Easier to light paper, than a twig, than a log, right?) Slow burn rate = fire; fast burn rate = explosion. Flour has a very high surface area to mass ratio, and therefore a fast burn rate. Granted, the flour must be suspended in air to ignite (to expose the surface area on all sides), so it is not much of a danger sitting there, but I wouldn't throw it through the air into a fire.

You may be thinking of baking soda, which is not flammable, and which is good to use to put out grease fires.


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## Navajo (Mar 4, 2013)

throwing flour on fire...not a good idea


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## Navajo (Mar 4, 2013)

Make biscuits for your dog, chickens, 

add to compost heap


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## moondancer (Dec 21, 2013)

Thanks you are right I was thinking baking soda . I love this site everyone keeps each other on the straight path on correct info ( good save )


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## Outpost (Nov 26, 2012)

Tacitus said:


> ... the flour must be suspended in air to ignite (to expose the surface area on all sides), so it is not much of a danger sitting there, but I wouldn't throw it through the air into a fire.


*VERY* good advice!

It was the first thing that came to my mind when I read the original recommendation.....

I remember doing that experiment in 7th-grade science class.... it involved a paint-can, a candle, and about 1 teaspoon of flower blown into the can through a rubber tube.....

...blew the lid off the can and made a wicked-loud bass-noise!
:eyebulge:

...always made me *real* timid of dusty environments with flames present....


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

GaryS said:


> I missed cycling a bucket with four 5# flour bags and now I have 20# of unbleached bread flour that is no longer good for bread. I tried one loaf and it didn't rise properly and had an off flavor, so I'm hoping someone can give me an idea what I can make with it. I hate to put it all in the compost pile, but I can't think of anything else to use it for.


How old is this flour?,white flour in the pantry will last for about 6-8 months properly store and in a vacumm pack container 5 years at least but in a survival situation you will never think of disposing it,I can guaranty you that,make hardtack crackers,they last forever.


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## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

You could make dough bait for fishing.

I remember as a kid my mom was really into crafts and stuff, we'd bake "cookie" cristmas ornaments and she'd paint them, it looked better than stuff you'd buy in the store, I still have some, and that was... well I dont want say how long ago it was


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## bigg777 (Mar 18, 2013)

Atleast bake it into hardtack and use it to feed/bait wildlife.


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## Watchingandwaiting (Jan 25, 2014)

So is it not a good idea to use old flour? I had some in a sealed mylar bag down in the basement that I recently discovered had a small hole poked in the bag. So I brought it upstairs to use & put in my flour container but it has a strange smell...kind of a basement smell or "dusty" smell..... it looks fine, no bugs, no clumps of any kind, just an off smell.... should I not use it like I would normally use flour for??


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

If you have animals that you can feed something baked to, you might consider making baked goods from it and using it for feed. I was thinking of something like baking bread and feeding it to chickens.


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## Tacitus (Dec 30, 2012)

Outpost said:


> I remember doing that experiment in 7th-grade science class....


When I was in high school, I did a research paper on, of all things, safety in grain elevators...I had to give a presentation on it! I remember there being a fair amount of doubt that dust was an explosive problem. I certainly had never heard of such a thing. Who would have thought?


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## Outpost (Nov 26, 2012)

Watchingandwaiting said:


> So is it not a good idea to use old flour? I had some in a sealed mylar bag down in the basement that I recently discovered had a small hole poked in the bag. So I brought it upstairs to use & put in my flour container but it has a strange smell...kind of a basement smell or "dusty" smell..... it looks fine, no bugs, no clumps of any kind, just an off smell.... should I not use it like I would normally use flour for??


"a small hole"?

About the only time I've seen holes in stuff like that it meant something chewed its way in.... *IF* that's a possibility in your case, I'd recommend heaving the whole batch.... You're nose knows.... you be the judge, but to my way of thinking, nothing smells "musty" unless something got into it that shouldn't be there (be it moisture, rodents, bugs, mold, or whatever....)


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## Watchingandwaiting (Jan 25, 2014)

thanks Outpost, think I will throw it out, not worth getting sick over a couple dollars worth of flour.


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## BillM (Dec 29, 2010)

Make biscuits for your unwanted guests .


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## GaryS (Nov 15, 2011)

Lots of good suggestions...especially Bill's idea to make biscuits for unwanted guests!

My livestock raising days are over, so it looks like the suggestion to make dog biscuits wins. At the price of dog food today, every little bit helps and at least I won't have to throw it away...unless the dogs won't eat them. There's always the compost pile if that's the case.

FWIW, the flour is two years old. I try to rotate that type of product every six months, but in the confusion of building a new house and moving 150 miles, a few things got mixed up and missed. Now that we're settled in, I'm catching up on my storage tasks.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Outpost said:


> "a small hole"?
> 
> About the only time I've seen holes in stuff like that it meant something chewed its way in.... *IF* that's a possibility in your case, I'd recommend heaving the whole batch.... You're nose knows.... you be the judge, but to my way of thinking, nothing smells "musty" unless something got into it that shouldn't be there (be it moisture, rodents, bugs, mold, or whatever....)


When I tried to put garbanzos and lentils in mylar, they poked holes in the bags. Not all of the bags got holes, but it was not due to some critter. That is not to say that it was not a critter that got in the flour, however, my experience with mylar has not been super wonderful.


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## millertimedoneright (May 13, 2013)

Best hog bait you can buy


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## Outpost (Nov 26, 2012)

weedygarden said:


> When I tried to put garbanzos and lentils in mylar, they poked holes in the bags. Not all of the bags got holes, but it was not due to some critter. That is not to say that it was not a critter that got in the flour, however, my experience with mylar has not been super wonderful.


I can certainly understand that!

"MYLAR" seems to have an almost cult-like following in some regards. It's great for a lot of things, but frankly, I have just as much use for regular food-grade bags (thick ones, of course) and.... (and I'm about to get pounced-upon I'm sure...) in a lot of things, the good ol' ziplock....

Here's something that a lot of people give me weird looks for... I use heavy mylar bags (like the ones box-wine comes in) to freeze a couple gallons of milk! It actually freezes well, keeps for quite a few months, and thaws nicely. Of course, I've only done that with store-bought milk. *Real* milk may be a little more problematic due to separation and such.

...hasn't killed me yet....


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

When I was little, my mom used to shake a layer of flour on her green bean leaves for bugs. I don't know if it worked. I was young and stupid and didn't pay attention. You could save it for your garden this year and try it.


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

This week for a school activity we'll be using flour and dropping different sized objects into it to make craters, measuring the objects and the craters, does the size of the crater change if the object isn't round, or if it's dropped from a higher elevation, etc. Old flour would be good to use for that.

But that's probably not a suggestion you're looking for.


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## Outpost (Nov 26, 2012)

You could always make up a pant-load of ziplocks full of the stuff and take them to the range!

Not _quite_ as good as a binary explosive, but I'll be it would be cool!


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

Jeff, I was going to say the samething. You can dust veggies in your garden with it. You could do a search for the exact ones. I am sorry I can't remember.


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