Food Prep: Mylar bags, Jars and Vacuum

[AmserGwely]

I'm looking at seriously increasing the variety and amount of food that I have prepped. My concerns are increasing, with all of the conflicts etc.

At the moment I have tins, jars and packets of pasta/rice/noodles. I store under the beds in plastic Really Useful Boxes.

I've ordered small Mylar bags, and intend to decant the pasta/rice into these with oxygen absorbers. I want to have a much longer life span of these. I've ordered the small (15×15cm 400ml bags)

Does anyone else use mylar or vacuum packing and have you got any tips?

What are you storing and how?

What do you store the mylar bags/vacuum packed food in? Are you using the buckets that you can buy?

Does anyone use a dehydrator, and do you think its worth investing?

Has anyone made their own pantry, I live in an old stone house and would like to have a cold pantry!

Look back on the board to about ,2019. There were dehydrator tips and threads. I know a few people really rate them.

I put the mylar bags of rice or beans and absorbers into catering food containers, usually 5L or 10L. A 5L container will hold about 4KG of rice or 2-3KG of beans depending on type, Pinto are my go to. I then seal that container and write on it what it contains and the pack date. I can fit 12 x 5L onto a single garage racking shelf so it is pretty dense storage wise.

The main thing when sealing the mylar is to make sure nothing is in the bit that is being sealed. You can bulk buy food containers on Amazon, square/rectangle ones are easier to store.

Thanks @BlackeyedSusan , will look for the dehydrator threads.

I will have a look on amazon @TheNoonBell. I think I'll go for the 5L as they fit quite a bit in them. I haven't got a garage, but will have a think about th3 vest place to store them.

I have food in mylar!

There are some really good YouTube videos from a channel called The Provident Preppers. They do all sorts of food storage and they've been doing it for decades so they have done videos on things they stored in the early 90s to see how they fared and all sorts.

The big game changer for me was learning that a lot of foods' best before dates were actually down to inadequate packaging not decomposition of food.

You also need to check which foods can be stored with oxygen absorbers as some have too high moisture content (some you would not believe). The FDA's nutrition information tells you the moisture content for foods. If you stick to "proper" foods, their info is comparable to UK nutrition information but more readily available.

I started with bags of rice as it has an indefinite shelf life. I put it in a mylar bag, filled it most of the way, added oxygen absorber, clicked the bag closed, sealed with hair straighteners (so much easier than an iron). If the bag starts to look deflated after about half an hour you've done it right. If you check the next day and the bag is still puffy there's too much oxygen for extreme long term storage.

Once the food is in a mylar bag, I put it in a food grade sealable bucket. I wait until the bucket is full then I seal by pushing the lid down. Then I write on the bucket's lid what's in it. I found a normal biro would write on the buckets quite easily. With the mylar bags, I labelled them with sticky labels that came with some bags, and paper and sellotape with the other bags that didn't come with labels.

I have 11kg of rice stored this way and I've also done moong dhal lentils as well as coffee (freeze dried instant coffee), Bachelors Bigga dried peas (Home Bargains sell them), soy mince (usually in the foreign foods section of Tesco, or failing that, Holland and Barrett also sell it), cocoa powder, cous cous and yellow soya beans (to make soya milk with a pressure cooker).

As for the dehydrator, I haven't bought one yet but I've learned you can dehydrate things in your oven on low (some things work a lot better than others). It's less efficient than an electric dehydrator but we are imminently moving house across the country so I don't have the space for another kitchen gadget for the quantity of things I dry. I'm thinking of growing heritage borlotti beans once we buy our next house so I might get one then! 🤣

@UndergroundPenguin that's fab info, thanks! I will have a look at the videos. Thanks for the info about how to seal/check if it's worked properly.

When the mylar bags get here, and the buckets I'm going to make a start!

Excellent @AmserGwely keep us updated. Love a good "prepper porn" thread.

Good luck @AmserGwely and yes, would love to hear about what you store (if you want to share, I know some people are careful about listing what's in their house just in case)!

I've made a start, and have packaged what I've got in the house. I'll think the bags I've bought are too small really, 15 x 15cm.

I bought 100 bags with oxygen absorbers. And have used more than half. Have a shop arriving in the morning, so will finish off tomorrow.

So far I've packaged Pinto beans, bulgar wheat, quinoa, peas, yellow split peas, rice, pepper corns, chickpeas.

I'm going to get bigger bags for the oats and pasta. I also need to check how to store the salt and sugar that I've bought.

I opted for 17 litre rectangle containers, as these will fit under my bed if needed. And may also fit on top of the cupboards on the landing.

Sounds like a great start. Pinto beans sound yum! Haven't had those for ages.

Just checking, you've put the rest of the oxygen absorbers in a ziplock bag or other airtight container for overnight, haven't you? They'll absorb the oxygen around them if not, which means they won't do their job in the mylar bags tomorrow.

Yep, I've wrapped the bulk of them in a plastic bag in a jar. And there's a small amount in a baby food jar.

Thanks for checking - as I'm new to this and glad of tips and advice!