Posted: 1/5/2009 6:31:30 PM EDT
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I haven't seen it mentioned often in suggestions for preps.
I know it has a pretty long shelf life as is. Good for carbs plus adding to other stuff for filler. I don't think the tube type pastas would be good for storage because of the air volume but spaghetti, linguini, etc. would pack nicely. Vacuum sealing can extend storage life. What say the hive mind? |
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Spaghetti packs the best, 2 layers and its nearly solid with hardly any air, linguini is the same. Keep it in the plastic wrapper to keep it from poking the mylar and add cardboard liners to the bottom.
I also have a lot of mac, we normally run through a lot of this stuff with the kids, so whats another 15 pails of it 
I did a lot of research on the stuff, I never found a good date at which it expires, but I have read many people eating 20-30 yo pasta that said it tasted like they just bought it-good enough for me. |
I love pasta and store lots of it. I store it similar to the other posters and have never had any go bad.
| I use angel hair pasta whenever I can get it on sale. I didn't do any exhaustive research but I believe it is the fastest cooking pasta ( 3 to 5 mins or something like that) because it is so thin. Something to consider if your fuel resources are limited in a SHTF situation. |
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I just picked up another 6lb bag of elbow mac at Sam's yesterday. for under $6 it's hard to beat. throw in a bucket, plastic jar, whatever...I don't even bother vac sealing it.
Speed ETA: On the angel hair pasta; it most certainly is the fastest cooking; I plan on stocking some, but I never really cared for it  I'm more of a penne/rigatoni kinda guy. And pasta can be cooked w/o constant heat, just like beans or rice. just heat up the water it's in every few minutes till done
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You did this thread just to bug me huh Bang? 
Yeah, old Tj still has a bunch of pasta I need to put up for long-term storage. 
Hey, I've been meaning to get around to it. 
My method is a little different than the norm. I use mason jars with O2 absorbers. I like the advantage of the smaller package size which has some advantages in actual periodic use such as servings size and easily resealed as well as should there be some sort of long-term event the mason jars can be used for canning. As for vacuum sealing extending the life of pasta, of course it would over say an open package or cookie type jar, however I don't know in regards to standard packaging. The plastics used are two different types of plastic, vacuum sealers using a more poly type plastic. All plastic is not considered hermetic. Meaning eventually they will allow oxygen to pass through. Different plastics will pass oxygen at different rates, but I guess I'm into fine points here. Obviously it would help. Adding 02 absorbers would also help, but obviously it wouldn't be as good as a hermetic seal such as glass, metal, or mylar. Tj |
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I just picked up another 6lb bag of elbow mac at Sam's yesterday. for under $6 it's hard to beat. throw in a bucket, plastic jar, whatever...I don't even bother vac sealing it. Speed The 6lb bags from Sam's are hard to beat. I put them in mylar with O2 absorbers, then in a bucket for really long term storage. I also just vac seal a bunch as well. I bought several pounds of cheese powder from MREDepot, and sealed it up as well. Mac n cheese is a great comfort food! |
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Along the pasta lines, Has anyone made AND stored their own pasta for long periods and if so did the homemade pasta have a long life like store bought? I make my own pasta from time to time but I always cook it right away. I don't know what nastiness might be wrought from long term raw egg storage. I guess you could make it without eggs but there is still going to be a good amount of moisture in fresh pasta. Maybe canning it would be a possibility? |
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I've got pounds and pounds of pasta vacuum packed. Lots of jarred tomato sauce, lots of cans of white clam sauce, and extra cans of chopped clams as well. Dry cheese like the Kraft Romano and Parmesian store really well too vacuum packed.
Staple food for a half Ginny like me. Hey, it's not like my homemade, but it's survival food, it'll do....
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Not to thread jump but was thinking about the pasta sauce being mentioned. What would last longer or does it matter, canned sauce or jarred sauce?? My understanding is that the high acid content in pasta sauce causes it break down the lining, then the can (giving it a "metal" taste). Thus, doesn't store well in cans. Jars would seem theoretically better. Someone probably knows the definative answer and can correct me if I'm wrong. |
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I have some Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce in cans from Y2K!Quoted:
Not to thread jump but was thinking about the pasta sauce being mentioned. What would last longer or does it matter, canned sauce or jarred sauce?? My understanding is that the high acid content in pasta sauce causes it break down the lining, then the can (giving it a "metal" taste). Thus, doesn't store well in cans. Jars would seem theoretically better. Someone probably knows the definative answer and can correct me if I'm wrong.  , and so far they are okay,ie haven't leaked or bulged, but I check the can very very carefully for integrity before eating. I guess jarred would be much better in terms of flavor and legivity, but I was thinking that glass would break and the metal tin cans would be a bit stronger if it tumbled off a shelf or otherwise dropped. I also think canned spaghetti sauce is okay because it probably doesn't have 100% tomatoes in them, which dilutes the acid content quite a bit. I have had those small cans of 100% tomato sauce leak, and of course they were promptly discarded.
BTW: It would be good idea to vacuum pack with 02 absorbers because I had some raw pasta from Y2K that vermin got into. They hatched from eggs in the pasta. If it had been SHtF, I would've boiled them up and ate it, but since it was not, it was discarded. brutus1776: Nice amount of food, but I would definitely store them in a vermin proof containers. Rats, mice, ants are very clever, and they can gnaw throw through cardboard boxes and plastic bags very easily. Also I have heard that rats and mice have gnawed through those aluminized MRE pouches, don't know for sure though, but sounds pretty plausible to me. I store my food in 50lb sheet metal lard cans. Maybe heavy plastic containers from Wall-mart can also do? Do your best to protect your food stash from vermin. |
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what can i say, i married an italian. i've been eating down my food stores as we are moving in the next couple months. im gonna be re stocking and storing properly when i get moved. whats left after eating down since june....http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/supersoer/DSC_0361.jpg Hey, De Cecco 
thats all my family uses
Speed |
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Not to thread jump but was thinking about the pasta sauce being mentioned. What would last longer or does it matter, canned sauce or jarred sauce?? My understanding is that the high acid content in pasta sauce causes it break down the lining, then the can (giving it a "metal" taste). Thus, doesn't store well in cans. Jars would seem theoretically better. Someone probably knows the definative answer and can correct me if I'm wrong. Theoretically, the acid in the tomato sauce could eat into the metal cans. But, most of the canned tomatoes I buy for regular consumption have a liner of some kind in them (polymer/plastic I think). There's still the seam in the can that's somewhat exposed, but I'm not sure how much that compromises the can. At any rate, I store the Classico Italian tomato sauce. It comes in Ball-type glass jars. I just wait until my local Publix grocery store has a buy-1-get-1 free deal, and I stock up (that buy-1-get-1 free deal is great for lots of staple foods). |
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My mom loved to buy stuff on sale, still does, and then pack it away.
When they moved to their new house a decade or so ago I kind of got left at the old house to clean it out and I found lots of old glass jars of spaghetti. Every jar was good unless its little pop top was popped up. And only one had its pop top popped up. That one jar looked bad and was never opened by me. I prefer glass jars for storage of almost anything. I just like the fact that glass is something mice can't chew through and glass can be washed and boiled and reused for all sorts of stuff. As far as old pasta goes, I found some pac man mac and cheese by kraft in its original cardboard box and while hard to cook up it eventually cooked up almost as good as new. It was still a tad tough and or chewy to some extent. But it had been in a factory cardboard box for years and years and years so I was impressed it cooked up at all. The bags of powdered cheese can be tough to reconstitute but if you work on it in a seperate container you can generally get it to resemble something acceptable. I need to stock up on parmesian cheese, never really looked into storing it but I do like my cheese. |
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brutus1776: Nice amount of food, but I would definitely store them in a vermin proof containers. Rats, mice, ants are very clever, and they can gnaw throw through cardboard boxes and plastic bags very easily. Also I have heard that rats and mice have gnawed through those aluminized MRE pouches, don't know for sure though, but sounds pretty plausible to me. I store my food in 50lb sheet metal lard cans. Maybe heavy plastic containers from Wall-mart can also do? Do your best to protect your food stash from vermin. definately. once i get relocated i'll be storing whats left properly as well as adding more pasta. trying to eat down what i have to ease moving pains. no problems over the past 6-8 months. *knock on wood. |
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Quoted: You are right. My research has shown that the acid in tomatoes will react over time with the metal cans, affecting both taste and can integrity. I don't have a length of time though. You are better off buying tomato sauce in glass jars. Also, there is much less risk of botulism with tomato products as the acid is not a good enviromment for botulism to grow (Wikipedia).Quoted: Not to thread jump but was thinking about the pasta sauce being mentioned. What would last longer or does it matter, canned sauce or jarred sauce?? My understanding is that the high acid content in pasta sauce causes it break down the lining, then the can (giving it a "metal" taste). Thus, doesn't store well in cans. Jars would seem theoretically better. Someone probably knows the definative answer and can correct me if I'm wrong. |
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My few cents worth....
constitutionlvr - we've made our own pasta, but like sjohnny, I'm not too sure how it would fare as far as storage goes. So we just eat what we make at the time, and I'll pack away the pasta that is factory-produced. As far as the pasta sauce goes, we stock up on the canned variety, going with Hunts, Delmonte, etc., picking up several cans worth when it goes on sale, then rotate the 'storage stock' up to the 'everyday usage' pantry when the 'Best if used by' date gets close. Not that I don't think it wouldn't be good for quite a while longer, but just making sure that the storage stock stays as fresh as possible. I'm anal about making sure that any cans that go into storage do not have any dents, etc., so that's not a worry about compromising. Since most jars of sauce, and canned, are usually 28oz, you're getting the same amount of sauce, for usually about the same $$. In my mind, I'll go with the canned, and take the possibility that push come to shove, the sauce might have a slight metallic taste if it's been stored past it's 'Best use by' date. The can's durability and ability to survive being knocked over, dropped, etc. is better than the jars. |