This morning I went through the pantry and took out things like oats, grits, panko, cornmeal . . things that we always keep. I dumped it all into jars and vacuum sealed them.
I use the old pressure canner that Vince made into a vacuum chamber and can vacuum seal 7 quart jars at once. I had a couple of half gallon jars of wheat that had been opened, some used and re-sealed, so I combined two partial jars of wheat into three quarts. The wheat is from 2008 and is still fine. Vacuum sealing really prolongs the life of grains and grain type foods.
In this load of the canner, I have quick grits, steel cut oats, quick oats and wheat. Once I open a jar, I can either re-seal it with the hand held sealer that’s attached to the FoodSaver (which I find doesn’t seal quite as well as the vacuum chamber) or I can wait til I have several that needs to be resealed and put them all in the vacuum chamber. I can also just put a screw on lid on the jar if it’s something I’m going to be using within a few weeks.
Having food in storage is only a good idea if we can keep it fresh and safe to use.
Susan Nixon says
The only thing I ever have trouble with is the tomato powder. I’ve only bought it in the small pantry cans, because I never manage to get all the way through a can without it sticking together and becoming hard as rock. Now my can of beef bouillon did that, too. They are both so handy when I want to flavor something without pouring in a whole can of tomatoes or making a whole pot of soup.
Susan says
This is interesting. How does this work? I’m assuming you put the lids on and they don’t seat until all air is out of chamber.(?) I’ve only used the countertop vacuum sealers for freezing bags.
Judy Laquidara says
Yes. The air is sucked out of the jar and then, it continues “sucking” and seals the jar.