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Brown and wild rice

10K views 24 replies 15 participants last post by  IamZeke 
#1 ·
Hi,

I'm a new prepper. I've ordered my mylar bags, o2 absorbers and desiccant, but I'd like to know how can I stack brown rice and wild rice and how much time can it still be good considering a 70 degrees temperature. I know some people say white rice is better for storage, but I really think white rice is empty calorie while brown and wild rice will be better. How much time can I keep brown and wild rice? Thanks
 
#2 ·
I don't know about wild rice. But brown rice doesn't store well at all. The oils in it go rancid in short order, even under the best packaging conditions. It'll store ok if kept frozen. But it's not a good long term storage food. The long term storage foods companies don't even offer it. For a reason.

I'm with you on white rice. I think it's a poor choice as the staple grain for food storage. That's why wheat has always been the grain of choice for a lot of folks. Wheat has it's issues, but at least it's a whole grain that stores well. I LOVE rice. But I store less of it than just about any other grain. Barley and wheat are my main staple grains.

Most of the foods the long term storage foods companies have chosen, were chosen specifically because of long storage life. Same with their packaging methods. They have lab tests to prove that they're doing it right. This is why I always suggest doing it exactly like they are doing. It's really easy to do something that "seems like it should work" but doesn't.
 
#3 ·
Balz:

I didn't respond to your first posting about the 8x16 mylar bags, as there seemed to be enough advice and I didn't have anything to add to what was suggested.

Several posters indicated to you in that thread that you should skip the desiccant. You seemed to have an idea that you could wrap it (the desiccant) in foil and it would work better.

In this thread - - you confirm that you received your desiccant (along with the myalr and O2 absorbers). Are you still planning on using them?

As MikeK mentioned to you in this thread - - you might want to consider using the SAME packaging methods used by the big packing houses. They have tried many methods and know what works. They don't use desiccant with rice or grains or beans - - or much for that matter.

Using the right size O2 absorber for the bag, getting a really good seal on it, and storing it in proper conditions will go a long way to providing your food storage years of being good.

Good luck in your preps, and welcome to the network!
 
#4 ·
I grew up on wild rice, being so prevalent in Northern MN. Being a grass, it doesnt have the fats that brown rice has, and won't go rancid like BR. They say it keeps indefinitely and I found several canning jars (packed dry with no O2 absorbers or anything) at my Moms house she put up at least ten years ago and it cooked up just fine.

If you are new to wild rice, I strongly recommend several water changes and it does tend to stink up the house a bit (though not as much as Lutefisk) so be prepared. :)
 
#9 ·
I bought a 6 gallon pail of Bismatti Brown rice about a year and a half ago and I've gone through about 1/3rd of it so far(I love it!!!)
I was told by the outfit I bought it from that the shelf life was 2-6 years,With this in mind I figured that the bulk of my rice storage would from now on,be Par boiled rice..................Got lots of buckets of it and for diabetics like myself there shouldn't(hopefully)be too many Glucose issues with it.
I love Rice!!! Mama and I go through several cups of it a week!!
 
#13 ·
I've stored brown rice for a year or so in its original bag and it was fine. I would bet that if you put it in a bag with an O2 absorber it would probably be okay.

Wild rice is quite different - it is even a different species - and I think it will store as long as white rice, maybe longer. It also has about twice the nutritional value of even brown rice. The big downside is that wild rice is very expensive. I also suggest you try some - it has a significantly different taste. Mostly it is sold blended with white and brown rice and I suggest you consume it that way unless you really like it by itself.
 
#15 ·
I've stored brown rice for a year or so in its original bag and it was fine. I would bet that if you put it in a bag with an O2 absorber it would probably be okay.
Mylar and O2 absorbers doesn't really extend it's storage life all that much. Unlike many grains, the oils in brown rice are fragile and not well protected by an airtight shell. You get 2 years or so with mylar. It's not worth trying to store much of it, in my opinion. Freezing works better, but of course requires power and a lot of freezer space.
 
#16 ·
7 months ago I bought 8 1 pound bags of brown rice and put them in a 2 gallon bucket. I kept them in their original bag and sealed the bucket, no o2 absorbers, no freezing or anything. The last couple of day after seeing a couple of posts wondering about the storage it got my curiosity up.
I opened that bucket this morning and checked on it. Went over all 8 bags and I see no problems whatsoever. Still has the same smell, no discoloration, no bugs.

I'll be getting more brown rice and storing them just like this. I think if it was going to go bad it would have done it by now. Anyway, just my thoughts.
 
#18 ·
I mostly store UB rice (converted Uncle Bens). It has a higher nutritional profile than white rice and stores better than brown.

I have brown rice for storage under a year and UB for long term.

Also, look into other grains, there are a lot out there that you can be growing in a small space, just to keep saving seeds for "just in case".

I am trying Quinoa this year, and probably adding Amaranth next year, and possibly sorghum for the chickens.
 
#20 ·
The converted bran rice is exactly what I would suggest too. It's pretty close in nutrition to brown rice, but it stores like white.

Even white rice isn't a real issue when you consider the number of cultures that use it as their staple grain. They're getting the nutrients that is lacking in white rice, from other foods. Some of those cultures are among the healthiest and longest living people on earth.

My food storage philosophy has always been to research other cultures cuisines, and time periods before modern processed foods. It's a good way to learn a variety of ways to use our staple foods, which helps prevent appetite fatigue and allows for better nutrition.
 
#21 ·
6 Years- Brown rice, chick peas and oats...

Hi All,
Joined today re my almost forgotten stash.
6 Years ago I stored 20l Brown organic rice in Mylar bags with Silica sachets and Oxygen absorbers. These were sucked (by me!) until bag/contents would give up no more air, before I sealed the Mylar with hair straighteners.

I have used under-bed storage bags (that you apply vacuum cleaner to the valve of) and know how firm/dense things like clothes can become...

Well, the various bags of food stuffs were stored in polypropelene barrels with metal clasps. I have just removed all the bags and only two are loose/ saggy. The rest have become rock hard- cannot be flexed of folded. Presumably the oxygen absorbers have slurped up so much oxygen that the volume of the free air has been reduced.


I do recall using tables to work out the quantity of free air space around the various grains (i.e. more free air around chick peas than rice) and I used multiples of 300cc sachets.

So, it's all very exciting and pleasing to see how much has survived in our garage, and endured two house moves intact...

But we now obviously need to replenish the stocks and attempt to eat as much of the Mung beans, chick peas, brown rice, oats etc .

Is there anything more complicated that you can suggest, other than, 'open, sniff, cook if ok, and eat small amounts if it tastes ok??'

We had thought that sprouting was the easy (no fuel) way to make edible the beans.... Surely if it sprouts, it cannot be bad, right?

Thanks for reading, and for any replies.
Mylar.
 
#22 ·
Hi All,
Joined today re my almost forgotten stash.
6 Years ago I stored 20l Brown organic rice in Mylar bags with Silica sachets and Oxygen absorbers. These were sucked (by me!) until bag/contents would give up no more air, before I sealed the Mylar with hair straighteners.

I have used under-bed storage bags (that you apply vacuum cleaner to the valve of) and know how firm/dense things like clothes can become...

Well, the various bags of food stuffs were stored in polypropelene barrels with metal clasps. I have just removed all the bags and only two are loose/ saggy. The rest have become rock hard- cannot be flexed of folded. Presumably the oxygen absorbers have slurped up so much oxygen that the volume of the free air has been reduced.


I do recall using tables to work out the quantity of free air space around the various grains (i.e. more free air around chick peas than rice) and I used multiples of 300cc sachets.

So, it's all very exciting and pleasing to see how much has survived in our garage, and endured two house moves intact...

But we now obviously need to replenish the stocks and attempt to eat as much of the Mung beans, chick peas, brown rice, oats etc .

Is there anything more complicated that you can suggest, other than, 'open, sniff, cook if ok, and eat small amounts if it tastes ok??'

We had thought that sprouting was the easy (no fuel) way to make edible the beans.... Surely if it sprouts, it cannot be bad, right?

Thanks for reading, and for any replies.
Mylar.
There is no sniff and taste test that is guaranteed to work. Only food lab burn tests are proven to tell the state of food.

The key being to store the right foods the right way and past performance shows they will hold up fine.

Speaking of past performance, you need to take 6 year old brown rice and deposit all of it in the trash now. Other than freezing it there is no way to extend the longevity past a long year. Mylar and O2A's won't cut it with brown rice. Rancid oils are unhealthy.

The chickpeas and oats should still be perfectly fine.

I'll let the resident sprouters weigh in on the mung beans.

When packing with O2A's and mylar, there is no need to evacuate all the air. In fact, you might even cause problems if there isn't enough oxygen to activate the O2A's. Then you have leftover oxygen causing damage. Also drawing a bag down too tight risks pinholing the mylar. Better to just toss the right size O2A in a mylar bag and seal it up. The O2A will remove the 20% oxygen and leave the rest of the inert gasses as they do no harm.
 
#23 ·
I've used brown rice past one year, with no problems, and it wasn't even vacuum packed - just in a normal container. YMMV, but I noticed no sign of rancidity. Rancid oils usually smell bad. Also, it is usually oxygen, light, moisture and heat that cause problems with food in storage, so if stored well, the food should last longer than most people seem to think it does.

I have tried to sprout red beans that were stored a long time simply in the sack that they were bought in, and very few sprouted. The beans had dried out so much that they wouldn't rehydrate no matter how long I soaked them in water.
 
#25 ·
I've used brown rice past one year, with no problems, and it wasn't even vacuum packed - just in a normal container. YMMV, but I noticed no sign of rancidity. Rancid oils usually smell bad. Also, it is usually oxygen, light, moisture and heat that cause problems with food in storage, so if stored well, the food should last longer than most people seem to think it does.
One or two years is one thing. Six years is quite another. Unless the oil is frozen the decay just continues, even if you put it into mylar. The oxygen that causes the rancidity is already inside the oil. No O2A is going to pull oxygen out of oil.

As for noticing with smell or taste, that is never a good guide. The ability to do so is all over the map with people. People have an very bad habit of assuming they are one of the gifted types, and I'm not just talking about detecting rancid oil either. Fact is that most here likely think they can tell better than others when the opposite is true. Everyone is special talking to themselves between their ears.

It's smarter just to go by the numbers. A year with brown rice is fine. 2 years isn't the smart move. 6 years is just fooling yourself because no brown rice lasts that long.

So the rice gets tossed. We all made mistakes learning to prep. I tried prepping pinto beans for Y2K and a decade later had to turn pinto rocks into refried beans several times a week for over a year until I finally got tired and pitched the remainder out. Lesson learned. No sense in being a hard head about making a mistake. Toss the brown rice, go to Sams where parboiled rice is cheap, and start fresh.
 
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#24 ·
Rancidity shouldn't hurt you if you eat it short-term. Add a lot of Indian spices and you won't notice it (they over spice everything for a reason over there.) Either way, I'd go with basmati and wild rice. Basmati has the best flavor imo..but I grew up eating curry for Christmas dinner, and am biased haha.
 
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