Food Is flour okay if it doesn't smell rancid?

[nomifyle]

I found some bags of flour that I had stored in a drawer in my office that is a good three years old. Its smells fine, it is still good?

Judy

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I found some bags of flour that I had stored in a drawer in my office that is a good three years old. Its smells fine, it is still good?

Judy

Judy, before I began storing all of my flour and corn meal in my freezer, I had some that was stored in sealed bags in my pantry. I found that after a couple of years, the flour and corn meal had gone flat. Each time I pulled some out of those bags, I had to add a bit of baking powder to it to get it to rise properly. It worked well enough for me.

 

[summerthyme]

Judy, before I began storing all of my flour and corn meal in my freezer, I had some that was stored in sealed bags in my pantry. I found that after a couple of years, the flour and corn meal had gone flat. Each time I pulled some out of those bags, I had to add a bit of baking powder to it to get it to rise properly. It worked well enough for me.

Must be talking about self-rising flour? Yes, baking powder looses its "oomph" over time.

The plain flour should be fine to use. You might need to adjust your moisture levels within a recipe... the flour probably has absorbed a bit of moisture in storage, but it should be fine. I would suggest tasting a bit before using (or at least start with a small batch of biscuits or similar to taste... rancidity usually shows up as a bitter taste, or can cause a tingling sensation on your tongue, before the characteristic odor appears).,you don't want to use it in a recipe with expensive ingredients ad then discover it's gone bad...

Summerthyme

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Yeah, Summerthyme, I only use self-rising flour, except when making homemade bread. I use bread flour for that. I don't keep a lot of it stored, since I don't make bread that often. I'm not very good at it.

 

[naturallysweet]

I taste, rather than smell flour to see if it's good. But don't try this if you have a bad immune system. It's the flour, not the eggs, that gets people sick with food poisoning in cookie dough.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I taste, rather than smell flour to see if it's good. But don't try this if you have a bad immune system. It's the flour, not the eggs, that gets people sick with food poisoning in cookie dough.

I do the taste and smell test, too. Sometimes, my sense of smell can be off.

 

[nomifyle]

Thanks all, I'll taste it and no, its not self rising flour, I don't bake. Heck, I also don't know much about frying anything either. Always figure I'd weight an additional 100# if I did either. I can make tortillas from scratch though, pretty much flour and water, mix up and roll out. I lived in a farming commune for a little while and learned it there.

Judy

 

[China Connection]

As soon as you grind grain etc the vitamins become divide quickly. Old flour will provide just carbohydrates for energy etc. You don't loose the minerals. The fats will also be useless.

 

[nomifyle]

As soon as you grind grain etc the vitamins become divide quickly. Old flour will provide just carbohydrates for energy etc. You don't loose the minerals. The fats will also be useless.

I never looked at baking as something very healthy anyway, just filler.

Judy