September 18, 2023 - 2:56pm
Flour Storage
I vacuum sealed a few 5 lbs bags of KA bread flour and put them in the freezer. The vacuuming process turns the bags of flour into a hard lump. In a year from now, when I use a bag of this flour, will it return its original consistency? Will I have one big hard lump?
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Just sealed some coffee beans. The sealed beans made a pretty stiff package. But I’m confident that they’ll behave normally when I open the package in a few weeks. Have also bought Italian rice that comes in vacuum sealed bricks. Open the brick and the rice flows as you would normally expect. Removing the air from granular material seems to remove the voids that allow them to shift around normally. Likewise reduced air pressure inside the package allows ambient air pressure to compress the entire package.
I suspect your flour will be ok. Maybe try sealing up a few hundred grams as a test. Opening the test package should allow you to observe compressed and uncompressed states.
Good luck,
Phil
It’ll be normal soft flour when you break the seal. It’s like the one pound packages of yeast you can buy; they’re hard as a rock, but when the packaging is cut open, they turn completely loose again. Nothing changed except the removal/reintroduction of air.
If you don't mind me asking - what's the reason of doing it with a flour that's widely available?
I live in Alaska. KA flour is the only brand I like to use. There have been a few occasions in the past 2–3 years when I have found the shelves empty.
I called KA's help line this morning. They confirmed what others have said. I will be fine. They mentioned the vacuumed packed yeast as an example.
Thanks all for the help.