Kitchen

Reply to: Here are the lessons to be learned.... -Fresh is best. ;-) -When possible, mill your own flour. Most whole grains store very well for extremely long periods of time (wheat will store well for decades), but once the bran (the protective coat) is removed or cracked (from milling), the germ oil is exposed to oxygen, which is when the oil begins to go rancid. -Rancid oils don't have to smell rancid to be rancid. If it gets to the point where they smell rancid, they have been so for a very long time. -I purchase the bulk of the nuts I have on hand just after the holidays when new-crop nuts go on sale for at least 50% off. I might need to supplement that with bags of nuts I purchase from Sam's Club (who have a large turnover of the product and good prices), but I generally avoid nuts from bulk bins. -I process all nuts (as well as raw pepitas and other seeds) by soaking them overnight in lightly-salted water (which activates the enzymes), a method you can read more about in "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. Then I dehydrate them until they are crispy dry. This not only makes them easier to digest and increases the available nutrients, they also keep longer. I store the "crispy nuts" in canning jars in the food storage room of the basement (dark and cool storage conditions). The only exception are walnuts, which I freeze after they are soaked/dehydrated. Walnuts contain large amounts of triple unsaturated linolenic acid and are more susceptible to rancidity. -Freezing will only slow down the oils in whole wheat flour and nuts from going rancid, not prevent it. Whole wheat flour begins to degrade within 3-hours of milling it. Add to that the time it was warehoused, trucked, warehoused again, then it sat on the store shelves --- you have little left of any of the nutrients, which is why we tend to choose whole grain flours. If you purchase commercial whole wheat flour, at best you are only getting a little more fiber since the nutrients begin to degrade quickly. -The enemies of all foods are oxygen, light, heat, moisture, and insect infestation. Foods that can be stored in an oxygen-free environment (vacuum-sealed with a FoodSaver) will last longer. -If you decide to vacuum-seal flour, it should be in a canister or jar where it is free-flowing, not in tightly-sealed plastic bags. There is enough moisture in flour that if tightly-sealed in a plastic bag, it can start to smell and taste moldy. Under the right conditions, that mold can also be a harmful, or even deadly, aflatoxin. I would destroy all rancid foods, not try to feed it to anything. -Before going gluten-free I would mill my own whole wheat flour, and now I mill my gluten-free flours. If I have any freshly-milled flour left from that baking day I freeze it, but I also use it within the week after being frozen. It just degrades too fast - even in the freezer. -Grainlady

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