Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Storing Pinto Beans, Long Term.

I've talked about this in the past, but it's important to come back to this from time to time.

Food storage. You can't eat bullets, and using bullets to take someone else's food isn't a good way to go. It's a good way to come across the wrong person just one time and get killed.

So store your own. I'm doing pinto beans today. They are capable of being stored for long periods of time and are very versatile with cooking. They do not have oils to worry about going rancid.

Go to Sam's Club and get you some pinto beans:

Then go online and get you some one gallon Mylar bags:

Get some 300cc oxygen absorbers:

Get your wife's flat iron. Or your own:

And the rest is easy:

To seal the bags, it only takes a few seconds of the flat iron. Make sure there are no wrinkles, or if there are, it's sealed well. One 300cc oxygen absorber per gallon bag. I have about six pounds of beans in each bag. Leave some space in the bags, and only seal the top inch or so. If you have to cut it open, it can be resealed.

Finished product:

Use a sharpie to label contents and date. My research tells me these beans should be useable for 25+ years of packaged correctly, like above.

Storing white rice is exactly the same steps. Salt and sugar are the same, EXCEPT YOU WILL USE DESSICANT MOISTURE ABSORBERS AND NOT OXYGEN ABSORBERS. Why is that in all caps? Because oxygen absorbers will turn your granulated salt and sugar into a rock.

One 300cc oxygen absorber (you can see one sticking out of the pinto beans a couple pictures above) is good for a one gallon Mylar bag. You'll need 5gm of dessicant moisture absorbers for the same size Mylar bag of salt or sugar. Either a single 5gm dessicant packet, or five of the little 1gm packets. I've done both.

I prefer to then put the sealed Mylar bags into HDPE2 five gallon buckets with sealing lids. That will protect the bags from damage.

Note: After some years, maybe 12, pintos can become hard to cook. Literally, they'll be a bit hard and crunchy. Pressure cooking with some baking soda should solve that issue. Also, making refried beans is a way around that eventual hardness.

I've also been informed by IamZeke at Survivalist Boards that lentils can be put through the exact same packaging process described above, with "softer" long term results.

6 comments:

  1. Your process looks perfect to me. Very professional.

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  2. My beans are stored dark and cool. I had no oxygen eaters and relied on vacuum seal with high quality plastic bags. Pinto beans after ten years cooked normally after overnight soak come out perfect. I made 2 lb. bags for individual serving, been rotating the ten year stuff out and replacing it with new. Nothing fancy, it just works.

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    1. If you're using a vacuum sealer and high quality bags, you probably have little need for the O2 absorbers. I have no vacuum sealing, I just push as much air out as possible, and drop in the absorber. Both methods should the same effect.

      Thanks for letting us know your ten-year pintos are still cooking well. That's a concern many have with pintos, specifically.

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  3. OMG...being a southern boy, all I need is a pork bone or bacon strip or two, pinto beans, and a diced onion to put on the beans after cooking and I'm good to go. That's a damn fine meal to me and would never be turned down.
    I keep several types of beans stashed at all times for eating in front of starving liberals in a SHTF situation.

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    Replies
    1. Heh. Just make they're not armed, or friends with a lot of people who are armed. No one is too lucky not to catch a bullet from a lucky novice.

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