# Storing beans and rice question



## Kodeman (Jul 25, 2013)

Food storage is the one subject I am least knowledgeable with. I have a good supply of canned and dry goods stored. I would like to put up beans and rice in mason jars. I do not own a pressure cooker and was wondering if I could simply, tightly pack the beans or rice in the mason jars alone with an oxygen absorber.
Thanks for any input.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Yes...................................................


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## mojo4 (Feb 19, 2012)

Another option is to vacuum seal them. A good sealer isn't too expensive and will keep them good and airtight for a long time.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

I store all of my beans and rice in old 2-liter soda bottles, and drink/juice bottles. Our Mason jars don't get wasted being used to store dry goods like that, we need them for "real" canning chores! 

Plastic bottles are free and will do what you want just fine.


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## rawhide2971 (Apr 19, 2013)

Short answer is yes there are several ways you can store rice and beans using just oxy absorbers and a good food grade container. You can check out this link for a favorite youtuber I follower.




I put up a good bit of rice in the large containers that we get Pretzels in. Its a large food grade container and it has a good seal on it and once I put a couple of oxy absorbers in it and put it in the dark spaces of my storage area I expect the rice to keep for years. Beans I like to put up in Vacumn bags and then in a varmit proof container to keep them from being knawed on.(5 gallon buckets are great for this and I get them at the local grocery store bakery for free). Good luck


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## GrinnanBarrett (Aug 31, 2012)

Yes you can but the drawback is the number of jars required to contain any substantial amount may hold you back. If you are planning on buying Mason Jars you need to remember the cost of the bucket(s) may be offset by the number of jars you have to buy. A five or six gallon food grade bucket is less than $10 and a gamma lid is about $6 or $7. Mylar is also cheap and easy to seal with a standard clothes iron. 

Whatever you decide to do remember you are way ahead of the crowd and I applaud your efforts. GB


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## bunkerbob (Sep 29, 2009)

Kodeman said:


> Food storage is the one subject I am least knowledgeable with. I have a good supply of canned and dry goods stored. I would like to put up beans and rice in mason jars. I do not own a pressure cooker and was wondering if I could simply, tightly pack the beans or rice in the mason jars alone with an oxygen absorber.
> Thanks for any input.


I assume you are storing these dry. I have been storing dry goods since the mid 70's, beans, rice, TVP etc in containers, first ones are in square metal tins with round lids, and a plastic bag liners, that's all that was available back then. I then use CO2 injected with a small copper tube attached to a CO2 cylinder. These have been opened every couple of years and tasted, still good to this day.

BB


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## Kodeman (Jul 25, 2013)

GrinnanBarrett said:


> Yes you can but the drawback is the number of jars required to contain any substantial amount may hold you back. If you are planning on buying Mason Jars you need to remember the cost of the bucket(s) may be offset by the number of jars you have to buy. A five or six gallon food grade bucket is less than $10 and a gamma lid is about $6 or $7. Mylar is also cheap and easy to seal with a standard clothes iron.
> 
> Whatever you decide to do remember you are way ahead of the crowd and I applaud your efforts. GB


Thanks for the bucket idea. I have an huge amount of mason jars from my "shining" days that have been collecting dust for years. Those days a long over but with new lids they should do the trick.
Another question; Would it be advisable to give the jars a hot water bath until the lids pop down?


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## Kodeman (Jul 25, 2013)

rawhide2971 said:


> Short answer is yes there are several ways you can store rice and beans using just oxy absorbers and a good food grade container. You can check out this link for a favorite youtuber I follower.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thank you for the Youtube video, I enjoyed it and will follow more of his videos in the future.


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## TheManComesAround (Jun 18, 2013)

My wife and I have been pestering local grocery stores and whole foods places for any food grade pails they have. They average 3-6 gallons, and so far, have been free. They just usually need a good washing in a mild bleach solution - well rinsed - and left in the sun a bit. Home Depot in my area sells food grade lids for about $2.50ea (when you buy a bunch). We're breaking our Rice & Beans into Gallon sized Mylar, and once opened, sealed in Mason Jars for every day use. This will hopefully keep things in rotation without having to eat 5 gallons of beans or rice at a time, and also offer the ability to put together "care packages" if necessary for trade or help. 

We're also experimenting with "Meals in a Jar" in Mylar as well as Mason Jars. Next, I hope to experiment with pressure canning home made MRE's and/or meats and such in Retort Pouches (think Tuna Pouches). I haven't found enough convincing info yet to show this can be done without the Chambered Vacuum Sealer ($$$$), even though one of the manufacturers I've spoken with insists it's safe.

HTH


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Kodeman said:


> Thanks for the bucket idea. I have an huge amount of mason jars from my "shining" days that have been collecting dust for years. Those days a long over but with new lids they should do the trick.
> Another question; Would it be advisable to give the jars a hot water bath until the lids pop down?


Be very careful about your canning methods. A hot water bath does not work for all foods. Some need pressure canning.


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## rawhide2971 (Apr 19, 2013)

Careful here, lets not get confused. I dry can with jars both beans and rice. I have pressure canned beans, thats with a complelty different process and the beans are cooked and done with the pressure canner and you have to take a lot of precautions with pressure canning. I dont know of anyone trying to do that with RICE. I dry can rice. Lots of people do that with the jars and other ways. No water invovled. Make sure the jars are good and clean. Jars are more expensive but the upside is they are reusable. I like using the jars but there is a lot to be said with using the vacumn bags and 5 gallon or smaller buckets, with oxy absorbers and sealed lids. I do use the Gamma Lids when I can get them at Home Depot but they sell out of them pretty often and I am not going to order them online, to costly, at HD they are usually $6.99 or so before tax and I can handle that. I also, becasue I am a big scrounger have a number of gray bins with lids that I can put the sealed bags directly in and have multiple items in. These are good to keep varmits out and are great to stack and in case of major floods, highly unlikely in my area but one never knows, are semi water tight, a good way to store my stash. But almost every grocery store I have gone to and struck up a conversation with the ladies at the bakery are more than happy to give you any buckets they have prior to them throwing them away assuming they dont have a recyle program taht they have to adhere to. And if you buddy up to them and butter them up they will tell you the best time to come by. Most of them are happy to chat with anyone that shows them any attention.
If I think about it when I get home tonight I will snap a pic of my gray bins and how I have them stacked just to show what I am talking about. Nothing special about them.
Update 8-1-13 AS I mentoned I uploaded some pictures of my Gray bins. Nothing special about them but I wanted to show that they are a viable alternative to using buckets and jars. Main thing is to keep varmits out of your supplies and these are industrial bins that I scarffed up when our plant shut down operations and moved manufacturing to China and Europe. I see these from time to time in the Habitate stores and online for sale. These are very heavy duty plastic, easy to stack and once they are stacked no critter is going to get into them. You can vacumn seal a ton of items and then have a multi item storage bin, I keep beans, rice, sugar and salt just to menton a few things in them.


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

mojo4 said:


> Another option is to vacuum seal them. A good sealer isn't too expensive and will keep them good and airtight for a long time.


I don't have a good sealer--$50, brand name Wolfgang Puck, honest! from the HSC network(online),
and it does the job for me.
Regular jar lid attachment $10 anywhere and I was set to go.:flower:
I have cases of jars filled with flour, pancake mix, and meal and lots of my dehydrated in sealed jars.

I also have buckets of these items;
1) I had lots of unused jars just stacked
2) jars can't be chewed through
3) a jar is just the right size for a family of two and can be reused
4) the jars return to the mason jar box bought in and stack beautifully


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

My wife keeps rice in the kitchen in a blue-tinted 3 gallon water bottle. Not sure why, but she's been doing it for years - since before I met her. I store wheat in blue plastic 55 gallon drums. I have a flour mill that uses electricity, or runs by hand crank.


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## dixiemama (Nov 28, 2012)

I vacuum seal and dry can ours. Since we are only a family of 3 (for now), I have small jars of each and some totes full of each, about a pound, vacuum sealed in bags for trade.


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## Kodeman (Jul 25, 2013)

rawhide2971 said:


> Careful here, lets not get confused. I dry can with jars both beans and rice. I have pressure canned beans, thats with a complelty different process and the beans are cooked and done with the pressure canner and you have to take a lot of precautions with pressure canning. I dont know of anyone trying to do that with RICE. I dry can rice. Lots of people do that with the jars and other ways. No water invovled. Make sure the jars are good and clean. Jars are more expensive but the upside is they are reusable. I like using the jars but there is a lot to be said with using the vacumn bags and 5 gallon or smaller buckets, with oxy absorbers and sealed lids. I do use the Gamma Lids when I can get them at Home Depot but they sell out of them pretty often and I am not going to order them online, to costly, at HD they are usually $6.99 or so before tax and I can handle that. I also, becasue I am a big scrounger have a number of gray bins with lids that I can put the sealed bags directly in and have multiple items in. These are good to keep varmits out and are great to stack and in case of major floods, highly unlikely in my area but one never knows, are semi water tight, a good way to store my stash. But almost every grocery store I have gone to and struck up a conversation with the ladies at the bakery are more than happy to give you any buckets they have prior to them throwing them away assuming they dont have a recyle program taht they have to adhere to. And if you buddy up to them and butter them up they will tell you the best time to come by. Most of them are happy to chat with anyone that shows them any attention.
> If I think about it when I get home tonight I will snap a pic of my gray bins and how I have them stacked just to show what I am talking about. Nothing special about them.
> Update 8-1-13 AS I mentoned I uploaded some pictures of my Gray bins. Nothing special about them but I wanted to show that they are a viable alternative to using buckets and jars. Main thing is to keep varmits out of your supplies and these are industrial bins that I scarffed up when our plant shut down operations and moved manufacturing to China and Europe. I see these from time to time in the Habitate stores and online for sale. These are very heavy duty plastic, easy to stack and once they are stacked no critter is going to get into them. You can vacumn seal a ton of items and then have a multi item storage bin, I keep beans, rice, sugar and salt just to menton a few things in them.


I understood weedygardens concern but I only mentioned the hot water bath as another measure to seal the jar along with the o2 absorber, not as a means of preserving.

Thank-you rawhide for clarifying the issue for someone who may confuse the two situations.

Kodeman


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*hot water bath*



Kodeman said:


> I understood weedygardens concern but I only mentioned the hot water bath as another measure to seal the jar along with the o2 absorber, not as a means of preserving.
> 
> Thank-you rawhide for clarifying the issue for someone who may confuse the two situations.
> 
> Kodeman


Actually, Kodeman, if you just want to seal your jars, I wouldn't use a hot water bath due to a concern of water accidently getting in the jars. However, you can fill your jars and put them in oven and heat them up. It is a method I have read about, maybe on here, but I have never done this. Maybe someone else who has can speak about this.

I googled it and found this link that seems to be someone who has done this. It is a clear description of materials and methods.

http://theprepperproject.com/oven-canning-for-long-term-storage/


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

How to store rice and beans:

1) pour into a clean container
2) put the lid on 

That's it. No need to complicate things!


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

LincTex said:


> How to store rice and beans:
> 
> 1) pour into a clean container
> 2) put the lid on
> ...


Hallelujah--Amen!!:congrat:


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

***Actually, Kodeman, if you just want to seal your jars, I wouldn't use a hot water bath due to a concern of water accidently getting in the jars. However, you can fill your jars and put them in oven and heat them up. It is a method I have read about, maybe on here, but I have never done this. ***

I have and as far as cost efficiency--get a $50 food saver(wolfgang puck, online, HSN) that has a hose attachment and then a $10 jar lid sealer.
I love my sealer attachment for jars I use with my food saver.
Cheaper than the oven method.

http://www.hsn.com/products/wolfgang-puck-food-sealer-kit/6891960
on sale, I paid $50 for mine!! Lucky you.


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## Kodeman (Jul 25, 2013)

JayJay said:


> ***Actually, Kodeman, if you just want to seal your jars, I wouldn't use a hot water bath due to a concern of water accidently getting in the jars. However, you can fill your jars and put them in oven and heat them up. It is a method I have read about, maybe on here, but I have never done this. ***
> 
> I have and as far as cost efficiency--get a $50 food saver(wolfgang puck, online, HSN) that has a hose attachment and then a $10 jar lid sealer.
> I love my sealer attachment for jars I use with my food saver.
> ...


I didn't realize you could buy a food saver for $50-$60. I will be buying one of these real soon.


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## Moby76065 (Jul 31, 2012)

Great youtube channel

http://www.youtube.com/results?sear...j0j1.9.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.WdvZfbGQHI4


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## smaj100 (Oct 17, 2012)

I recently discovered an issue with my dry good preps that I will be working to remedy quickly. I have alot of beans and rice in vacuum bags inside of 5 gallon buckets with gamma lids. So far they have held up nicely. I realized though have having 20-30lbs of beans in a giant bag isn't practical at all.

We were putting together some food buckets for our daughter and realized these bigger qtys wont do anyone any good if you cant reseal them during shtf. So while it is alot easier to fill a big bag inside the bucket, we are going to repackage these bigger bags into smaller portions easier to manage and cook with. Depending on who shows up and when during a shtf situation it likely will be the wife and I until the kids can work their way home. I doubt seriously we would be eating 30lbs of beans fast enough.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

smaj100 said:


> bigger qtys wont do anyone any good if you cant reseal them during shtf..... I doubt seriously we would be eating 30lbs of beans fast enough.


I do not see the need for them (beans and rice) to be resealed.

Canned chicken needs to be opened the same day you open the jar. Beans and rice - - - do not need to be resealed.


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

Kodeman said:


> I didn't realize you could buy a food saver for $50-$60. I will be buying one of these real soon.


You can't ---it's now $30!!!artydance:

And I'm thinking about getting another--and a brake bleeder from Harbor Freight for sealing without power.


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## rawhide2971 (Apr 19, 2013)

When I first got serious about building an inventory of items for long term storage I did a lot of research and viewed a lot of Youtube prepper stuff and the first thing I noticed was the "trap" I saw of using the bag in the 5 gallon bucket method and having all of /the beans and rice sure would make it difficult to share it out and / or trade with others for needed items with out showing my hand with what I have in stock. So What I did and continue to do is put a percentage of my beans, rice, sugar, salt and other dry items up in vacuum bags and then into the buckets or my other containers and that way I can pull them out for building a trade pile, or more importantly for the interim years I can inspect my stuff easily and make sure none of the bags are leaking or have been compromised in any way. Big is not always better when it comes to being prepared for food storage, now of course this is just my $.02 cents worth which is free and we all know what free advice is worth so take it at face value and go forth and do battle in the great war of being prepared.....knowledge is power but knowing what knowledge is worthwhile is the real power.


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

I can get food grade 5 gallon buckets with lids.
The lids have small holes in them where the operator punched to let air in for easy pouring.
I can get 40 or so bucket a month, but they have to be washed out before reusing them.
Dose anyone live here in South Carolina or close enough to drive down, who would like to get them free send me a PM.
I sometime can get 30 gallon plastic food drums, again they have to be washed.


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

crabapple said:


> I can get food grade 5 gallon buckets with lids.
> The lids have small holes in them where the operator punched to let air in for easy pouring.
> 
> You do know you can purchase lids at Lowes or Chinamart??


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

crabapple said:


> I can get food grade 5 gallon buckets with lids.
> The lids have small holes in them where the operator punched to let air in for easy pouring.
> I can get 40 or so bucket a month, but they have to be washed out before reusing them.
> Dose anyone live here in South Carolina or close enough to drive down, who would like to get them free send me a PM.
> I sometime can get 30 gallon plastic food drums, again they have to be washed.


Google says about 4000km from here so I think I might have to pass I would think that some people on here would be all over that offer, like JayJay mentioned you can buy regular or gamma seal lids if needed.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

crabapple said:


> The lids have small holes in them where the operator punched to let air in for easy pouring.


That is VERY easy to fix with a $3 soldering iron and some strips of plastic to use as "welding rods".

Incidentally, learning to do such a thing is a good skill to learn when "fixing it is easier to do than replacing it" (re: Great Depression).


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## smaj100 (Oct 17, 2012)

Linc a hot glue gun works wonderful to plug those holes....


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## rhiana (Aug 5, 2013)

Can you use the Orange Home Depot buckets? For short term storage? 3-6 months?


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*mylar bags*

I use canning jars when I have odd bits of things that I do not want to use a mylar bag for. I like the ease of filling, oxygen absorber, lid and label.

I have some 5 gallon buckets and have tried breaking things into gallon mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and sealing with my seal a meal. Then I keep these in 5 gallon buckets. I find that I get holes in close to half the mylar bags. It my just be me. But, the 5 gallon buckets are a good second layer.

However, no all of my stuff in 5 gallon buckets is in mylar. When I took a food storage class 3 decades ago, there was no such thing and it was dry ice.


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

***I use canning jars when I have odd bits of things that I do not want to use a mylar bag for. I like the ease of filling, oxygen absorber, lid and label***

Or, fill, lid on, use jar sealer attachment with your dehydrator.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

weedygarden said:


> When I took a food storage class 3 decades ago, there was no such thing and it was dry ice.


Still do it!


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## Kodeman (Jul 25, 2013)

JayJay said:


> You can't ---it's now $30!!!artydance:
> 
> And I'm thinking about getting another--and a brake bleeder from Harbor Freight for sealing without power.


Thanks JayJay, I just ordered one, can't beat the price. I don't believe it comes with a jar sealer and HLN didn't list one for sale. Does anyone know if the big box stores carry jar sealers and if so are they universal to most food savers.
Thanx in advance. Kodeman


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

Kodeman said:


> Thanks JayJay, I just ordered one, can't beat the price. I don't believe it comes with a jar sealer and HLN didn't list one for sale. Does anyone know if the big box stores carry jar sealers and if so are they universal to most food savers.
> Thanx in advance. Kodeman


Amazon is where you get the jar sealer, regular and wide, $10, free shipping.
The accessory hose is with the sealer, just not the jar sealer.

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i:aps,k:jar sealer

***Like the dehydrator I bought, why don't they just make the trays mesh?? Would save us $14, but they wouldn't make more money!!:gaah:***

My next purchase is this for sealing plastic jars and such:
http://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-T02...d=1375804579&sr=8-3&keywords=Vacuum+Seal+Jars


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

JayJay said:


> The accessory hose is with the sealer, just not the jar sealer.


You can buy vacuum hose of nearly any size at the auto parts store. Pretty cheap, too.


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

LincTex said:


> You can buy vacuum hose of nearly any size at the auto parts store. Pretty cheap, too.


thanks--I am thinking of having two of everything.
I saw my vacuum sealer (food saver) on sale for $30 and think I'll get another one.
Another hose as you mentioned is good too.
I actually duplicates of lots of things around the house.
I checked today for extra trays for my dehydrator and it's actually smarter to buy the cheap on sale dehydrator like mine for $35 than spend $26 for 4 trays.
I'll have a second dehydrator and 8 trays.


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## Kodeman (Jul 25, 2013)

JayJay said:


> Amazon is where you get the jar sealer, regular and wide, $10, free shipping.
> The accessory hose is with the sealer, just not the jar sealer.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i:aps,k:jar sealer
> ...


Thanks for the info, I just order both the regular and wide jar sealer from Amazon.


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