Rice Storage

[PA PATRIOT]

I need a simple, cheap way of storing about 50lbs of basic super market purchased white rice which can be done at home with items that can be obtained from local sources.

[Colter]

It depends on how long you want to store said rice...

Less than 5 years:

Clean, sealed 5 gallon food grade plastic bucket. Try to avoid storing them in areas that get overly hot (85 degrees) or have large temperature swings. A basement or cellar is ideal.

More than 5 years:

It will be worth the investment to use the same food grade bucket with a similar sized mylar liner. I would also recommend an oxygen absorber or two. To seal them either use a mylar sealer or a household iron.

I find a well packed 5 gal bucket holds around 35-40 lbs. of rice.

Avoid storing brown rice for more than 5 years, it does not store as well. For a little variety you can also store "jasmine" rice along with the standard long grain. I think it tastes better too.

Here are a couple of good resources:

Wendy Mae:Not sure about the bay leaves or the bibles, but good anyway.
http://www.buildanark.net/index.php?videos/Packing%2520Buckets%2520With%2520Wendy%2520Mae.html

PAW Productions: Longer videos, but this guy has been doing this a while.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW7_cTn6YpE


Good Luck.

[chadbag]

Brown rice has the problem due to higher oil content.

I have however spoken to several people locally who have stored brown rice for 15 years or more and when they opened it said it tasted fine and was not rancid...

So I am kind of torn. I am thinking to store 30 or 40 pounds of brown short grain rice in mylar with oxygen absorbers etc and see how it lasts... I like to mix brown and white rice together -- we eat a lot of rice and the wife does this for me. She prefers normal white short or medium grain rice. (She is from Japan).

Chad

[Vic303]

Get the heavy duty food grade 5 gal buckets from a local bakery, with lids. You'll want 3-5 for 50# rice. You can get the 20x30" mylar bags online but they are a bit pricey, though they work well. The less costly alternative is to use good quality vacuum-seal food bags. Bag your rice in about 4cup lots, and vacuum seal. If you want you can 'double bag' and vacuum seal the lot that way. 4C bags are a good size and allow you to have a couple days worth of rice unpacked without exposing the entire store to the elements. If you store the 50# rice this way, it will not be as efficient a use of the bucket space as if packaged in a single large mylar bag. But you will gain in storage-preservation. Then once everything is in vacuum bags, fit it all into your buckets & put the lids on. Label and date them and you are done.

[PA PATRIOT]

five years max storage life only, don't need extreme long term. Rice is white fancy long grain which is a common retail shelve item in a clear plastic bag. So if I was shopping for the items to accomplish this storage task what would be a recommended NON-Internet common retail source to procure what is needed?

[chadbag]

five years max storage life only, don't need extreme long term. Rice is white fancy long grain which is a common retail shelve item in a clear plastic bag. So if I was shopping for the items to accomplish this storage task what would be a recommended NON-Internet common retail source to procure what is needed?

We have shops dedicated to home kitchen, food storage, people who cook around here. They have interesting pots and pans, ingredients, as well as buckets, gamma lids (these are great for your buckets), O2 reducer packets, etc. They often will have one or two sizes of mylar bags. Look in your yellow pages for cooking / coking supply . restaurant supply stores

[JB2000]

If you go the vacuum pack method you can buy a quality vacuum packer at most retail stores. Costco usually has them and you can buy the rice at the same time.

Vacuum packers can also be used for other items like clothing, guns, or other things that need to be protected from the elements.

You don't have to vacuum either. You can simply use the heavy duty bags to group things together and protect them.

Finally, if you vacuum pack, you can store the bags in cardboard boxes rather than buckets. The boxes protect the bags and stack well.