While using a Home canning machine and using the popular #10 cans is the perfect way to dry pack many of your meals, the fact that you do not have one of those machines should not dissuade you. There are far more people who do not have canners then the ones that do. Dry pack canning will drastically lengthen the a variety of shelf life’s related to meals. This is the perfect method to use to be able to secure a source of long term food in the case of an emergency situation. It is not unusual to discover that dry packs have lasted for up to 20 years or longer.
Food storage using dry oxygen absorber packet methods provide the consumer a longer shelf life for their dried foods in addition to a much simpler way to properly organize and store your food items. Of all of the benefits of dry food the greatest on most people’s priorities into the longer shelf life they can obtain. Sugar that has been properly dry packed can persist for a good 20 years while beans can be stored for up to 8 decades. The powdered milk product will last you for at least 5 decades.
Lucky is the person Who has not only the canning equipment but the ability to can the number 10 cans for these kinds of cans is usually cheap and fairly easy to locate. The cans stack well on your food cupboard or pantry and are well shielded from the insects and related pests.
Although the preferred Method of storage could be dry packaging you should know that not all foods are conducive to the method. Good foods to dry package could be beans, flour, various pastas, Oats and wheat, rice and powdered non-fat milk. Those foods which normally have high moisture content or those made up of oil type products should not be stored in this way. These foods storage methods are likely to exclude any type of nuts, cereals, whole wheat and brown rice. Additionally, brown sugar, common baking powder or oil should be avoided for this way of storage. You would be best to leave these kinds of food in their original containers.
If you are like me you Do not have any canning machine available, in which case you would have to use mason jars with proper lids and oxygen absorbers. Armed with these supplies you will discover the ironic packaging method to be rather easy to accomplish.
Fill out your pint, quart Or what size jar you are planning to use with your dried food. Leave about 1/4th headroom at the peak of the jar, the same as you would if you were canning your home made vegetable soup or applesauce. Put an oxygen absorber on the surface of the food in the jar. Try not to leave your oxygen absorbers from the atmosphere to long or they will be ruined. Put a ring and lid onto the jar and hand tighten it. Last, you should label the jar with what are inside and the date you canned it. Some people also set the expiration date on it also. On the opposite side of this jar I place another tag with directions on the best way best to reconstitute the product.