# Pasta



## A-WAX (Mar 8, 2012)

Can anyone give me any pointers on how to store pasta long term? Can't really find much on it.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

A-WAX said:


> Can anyone give me any pointers on how to store pasta long term? Can't really find much on it.


Are you asking about store bought or home made? Store bought is a little easier, just put it in a glass jar and vacuum seal it then store it in a cool dark place. If you cant vacuum seal it and/or dont/cant use o2 absorbers, the next best thing is just sealing it in jars. Some may suggest that you freeze it for a while to make sure any "critters" that may take up residence in it are killed, I would do this after it is in jars so it wont pick up any moisture.

With home made pasta, we only make up batches for about 3 or 4 meals at a time and keep it in a ziplock bag until needed.

Many items that are not intended for long term storage that you cant find info on, the old standby is vacuum seal it or pack it with O2 absorbers and put it in a cool dark place.


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

we stored ours in vac sealed large mouth mason jars, just keep it in the dark, what we're eating now was put up in Oct,08.


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## Oldpagan (Jun 5, 2012)

Put it in an air tight container and put it in your freezer for 4 weeks, then remove it and let it return to room temperature before opening. You can then place it in any other air tight container if you need or leave it in the first one unopened. I have stored pasta for ten years this way.
NOTE: egg noodles will not keep longer than 6 months.


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## jazygirl (May 2, 2012)

I put macaroni noodles in a mylar bag with of OA and put them down in the basement. I do have some noodles with sharp edges in mason jars.


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## Beaniemaster2 (May 22, 2012)

Wow, I have never found a bug in my pasta in over 40yrs??? I do freeze my flour first though... Since I got my Foodsaver, I put them in a ziplock bag and then into the foodsaver bags (yes, because of sharp edges, I double bag, just be sure to leave the inner bag open alittle, this way it gets the air out of it too) Any fragile pasta that breaks easily, I vacuum pack in jars. I don't think pasta is really a long term item and haven't eaten it older than 4yrs, so can't advise how long it actually keeps.


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

I have my pasta in a 5 gallon bucket..nothing but bay leaves added and DE.
I just retrieved a huge container full from a bucket from 2009 for use...seems to be okay.
I have egg noodles I pull from all the time from 2009. They are fine, and in no sealed bucket, just in their bag, in a cardboard box, on a shelf in a cool room with other stored items.

Oh, I just made spaghetti sauce with a packaged spaghetti sauce envelope w. 'use by' date of Dec. 2009---it was great!! Of course I used beef, mushrooms, and onions with the packaged sauce.:2thumb:


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

JayJay said:


> Oh, I just made spaghetti sauce with a packaged spaghetti sauce envelope w. 'use by' date of Dec. 2009---it was great!! Of course I used beef, mushrooms, and onions with the packaged sauce.:2thumb:


We have about 20# of pasta with a "best buy" of 10-09. It's in the original box, in 2 gallon zip-loc baggies and stuffed in a plastic tote. AuntJoe used a box to make dinner yesterday and yep, it was just fine.


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

UncleJoe said:


> We have about 20# of pasta with a "best buy" of 10-09. It's in the original box, in 2 gallon zip-loc baggies and stuffed in a plastic tote. AuntJoe used a box to make dinner yesterday and yep, it was just fine.


Oh, I have canned sauce, jarred sauce, and envelope, which in my mind will succumb to age first---so, I choose the envelope.
I am learning things now never would I have bothered about before prepping.
Did I eat stuff past 'use by' date before prepping?? You know I did.


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## mojo4 (Feb 19, 2012)

My wife makes our pasta. Its only egg, flour, water and salt I think. It is beyond amazing and since I have wheat and salt in storage all I need to score is some eggs and we plan on having chickens so.....fresh pasta at my house!! Just bring some wine and come on over for dinner. Now about fresh sausage......


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*or some egg powder?*



mojo4 said:


> My wife makes our pasta. Its only egg, flour, water and salt I think. It is beyond amazing and since I have wheat and salt in storage all I need to score is some eggs and we plan on having chickens so.....fresh pasta at my house!! Just bring some wine and come on over for dinner. Now about fresh sausage......


I know that egg powder is not the most desirable. Many people probably have powdered egg stories, but I think if you add them to noodles, they are more palatable.

And with homemade noodles, you can add other things like powdered vegetables (spinach, tomatoes, etc).

I grew up eating homemade chicken and noodles. Yum, yum!


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## LongRider (May 8, 2012)

What they said, Best way is to store grain, grind the grain and make your own as needed


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## thumper347 (Jun 21, 2012)

We put up pasta in 1 gallon mylar bags. We do put a piece of paper on either side xo the bag doesn't get punctured then throw in an OA and seal it up.

If the pasta is hollow ( like macoroni) then we put in 2 OA's just to make sure there is no O2.


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## Jim1590 (Jul 11, 2012)

I have used the wet dry method to store eggs. Done several dozen so far and they taste pretty good when rehydrated. The cook dry method is very gritty though.

As for pasta, we just rotate the store boxes.


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

duplicate post..sorry


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## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

JayJay said:


> I have my pasta in a 5 gallon bucket..nothing but bay leaves added and DE.


I'll assume the bay leaves add some flavor, but what does the DE do? Does that mean no O2 absorbers?


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

Bay leaves repel little buggers, DE kills them.


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## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

Ah, thanks, but no O2 absorbers?


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

Immolatus said:


> I'll assume the bay leaves add some flavor, but what does the DE do? Does that mean no O2 absorbers?


Bay leaf..rids little critters..but so does DE..I've read DE rids the critters and on one sight, rids of moisture.
I don't know to believe the moisture, but yes on the baby critters.

55 buckets with not one OA or mylar bag in any of my buckets--5 gallon and 2-3 gallon.
tea, pancake mix, flour, instant milk, pasta, macaroni, salt, sugar, rice, instant potatoes, beans, oats.....
I also used the oven method with lots of flour, meal, and pancake mix in quart jars.
And I'm testing crackers with the ziplok in bucket method.

Honestly??? I'm 62 next month--I'm not preparing for long term storage..25 Years???NOT!!


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

goshengirl said:


> Bay leaves repel little buggers, DE kills them.


Thanks I didn't know about the bay leaf.
And the bay leaf doesn't bother the flavor --at least I haven't noticed in any stores I've used.


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## LongRider (May 8, 2012)

Immolatus said:


> I'll assume the bay leaves add some flavor, but what does the DE do? Does that mean no O2 absorbers?


DE is Diatomaceous Earth. It stops insect infestation in stored foods. It is a natural safe non chemical substance that is often used as an insecticide, especially effective against hard shelled insects like ants, fleas and ticks. Can be safely ingested and is a often used as a intestine and colon cleanser. This applies to ONLY food grade DE. DE is also used as a pool cleanser and can be toxic.
Pure Earth, Dirtworks, Wolf Creek Ranch are three reputable sources of FOOD GRADE DE be sure to check prices as they vary greatly from one vendor to the next. It is supposed to absorb moisture but I do not rely on it for that so can not attest to how well it works alone. It does prevent flour and such from caking.

I put some in all stored food. Use it on my dogs, their bedding and kennel. We also use it to worm the dogs cats and livestock. On new construction I coat all the insulation with it and use it as an interior insecticide. Every spring I spread some around under the house and in the attics.

About once a year we eat a couple tablespoons a day to clean out our system. Some folks experience some real vile smelling bowel movements as it scrapes off the crude that has been stuck decaying on the walls of your intestines and bowels.


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## Onebigelf (Sep 17, 2011)

I've got a ton of pasta in 5 gallon buckets, vacuum sealed in double bags. Mostly Muellers from a year or so ago when they put out $1 off coupons without limiting them. Publix had it on sale BOGO at the same time. Every 2 pounds of pasta, Publix took 21 cents off of the rest of the stuff I bought. I was picking up pasta 60 lbs at a time!

John


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## Zonation (May 4, 2012)

mojo4 said:


> My wife makes our pasta. Its only egg, flour, water and salt I think. It is beyond amazing and since I have wheat and salt in storage all I need to score is some eggs and we plan on having chickens so.....fresh pasta at my house!! Just bring some wine and come on over for dinner. Now about fresh sausage......


Give us the recipe bro!!!


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## neldarez (Apr 10, 2011)

Zonation said:


> Give us the recipe bro!!!


I 2nd that!!


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

> all I need to score is some eggs and we plan on having chickens so.....


Mojo, do so, they are so much better than store bought ones. I was never able to eat store bought eggs, no one had an explanation why they made me so miserable. Then after our son started working at a feed store, and we had chickens, we found out that the caged hens (the most common source of eggs in all parts of the country) were fed a daily dose of a coccidiastat, obviously because their living conditions are not clean and require it...well when we treat our chickens once a year with this, we DO NOT eat the eggs, and this is exactly the problem. Now I can eat eggs without being sick. This speaks volume for our commerical food sources and how it affects us.

So, for all who can, get some hens...for those who can't, make friends with someone who has hens!!LOL

And...as for those fresh eggs. Store bought ones have just yellow yolks..ours have dark orange yolks. Great inidicator of the level of nutrition they have (ours are free range, they have an entire secured field to themselves, clean water, natural feed, plenty of vegetable scraps...).

Sorry, back to the storage of pasta...

I would vote for DE as a way to preserve it, you can consume food grade DE, it is good for your insides.....



> Some folks experience some real vile smelling bowel movements as it scrapes off the crude that has been stuck decaying on the walls of your intestines and bowels.


This is probably true, which puts the folks out there trying to sell people their colon cleansing products out of business. Food grade Diatomaceous Earth is cheap, and very useful. I even made a paste out of it to scrub my face with!


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

Diatomaceous Earth at Tractor Supply....20 lbs for $11.

online I gave $11 for 5 lbs and $8 shipping..live and learn, huh!


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

Yeah JayJay, feed stores cannot be beat for this kind of stuff. I even saw an ad online for some company selling it as a special food additive for your pets teeth. Said it contained "special marine plants"....DUH, the algae that turns into DE in fossilization..They were trying to sell this jar of nothing more than DE for about $40, maybe it was about 6 ounces or so.


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## LongRider (May 8, 2012)

JayJay said:


> Diatomaceous Earth at Tractor Supply....20 lbs for $11.
> 
> online I gave $11 for 5 lbs and $8 shipping..live and learn, huh!


Be sure it is food grade. The other stuff is toxic. Always good to check prices

At Wolf Creek Ranch
DE 50 lbs. (Double lined paper bag) Continental US Orders Only - $26.99
Shipping $34.00
Total $60.99


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

Wow longrider, thats a lot for DE...Try a local feed store, you can certainly get it cheaper, then no shipping.


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## LongRider (May 8, 2012)

HoppeEL4 said:


> Wow longrider, thats a lot for DE...Try a local feed store, you can certainly get it cheaper, then no shipping.


Thought I had said


LongRider said:


> Always good to check prices


Meaning it is always good to check prices, no matter where you buy it and be sure you are comparing apples to apples


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