Storing flour in tubs

[gpalexiades]

Hello,

I bought two 50 pound bags of flour. One is Bread Flour and one is Raised Donut Mix. I would like to buy two plastic tubs with lids to put the flour in. I would like to know what size gallon tubs I would need.

Thank you

 

[jennyema]

It's hard to convert weight to liquid measurements.

But according to the King Arthur Flour website, a tub 12" by 15" tall holds 25 pounds.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/

 

[gpalexiades]

Thank you for the link.

 

[expatgirl]

As an added tip and if you want a cheap solution to keep the wee beasties out that amount of flour I would recommend adding a few bay leaves to your flour------they really are effective for repelling flour beetles and don't impart a flavor to the flour. My grandmother used to keep her flour in a huge metal container as she baked bread twice a week and always had bay leaves in with it.

 

[Andy M.]

Point of information.

The bugs you find in your flour came with the flour, they didn't crawl into the container in your home.

The milling and sifting process in the flour mills cannot sift out the bug larva, they're too small. So they end up in your flour and under the right conditions, they can grow into real live bugs.

The solution is to freeze the flour for at least 72 hours (three days) as soon as you get it home. That permanently detroys the little bad guys. Then you can store it anywhere.

 

[expatgirl]

Totally agree with you, Andy M., but if you already have them in your pantry to begin with and they are in other grain sources (rice, spaghetti, cereals, other pasta products, cornstarch, even found the darn things in cayenne pepper, etc, that you haven't frozen and most of us don't ) believe me they will travel to your flour whether you've frozen it or not--the freezing just kills what is already there---doesn't give immunity to future invasions unfortunately) no matter what container you have them in. Freezing the flour is definitely a great solution----I do it myself with 5-10 bags of flour and rice----however, it's not going to protect it if you have the wee beasties in other grain products in your pantry to begin with----for most people it's too late when you discover that. So as a preventative measure, freeze your grain products and then add a bay leaf----then you're doubly protected.

 

[skilletlicker]

I like to store flour, rice, and corn in gallon freezer bags. They're air tight and hold about 5 lbs.

 

[Chef_Jen]

Ive never had an isssue with bugs maybe good luck i dunno

 

[Michael in FtW]

I bought two 50 pound bags of flour. One is Bread Flour and one is Raised Donut Mix. I would like to buy two plastic tubs with lids to put the flour in. I would like to know what size gallon tubs I would need.

Problem: The Weight of the flour does not directly equal the Volume of the flour. That is why in baking, flour is generally measured by weight, not volume. As you pour the flours from the sacks into the storage containers their volume will increase due to aeration (anywhere from 7-12%) depending on how you pour.

IF you take the time to pour about 10-lbs of flour (at a time) and then shake the container to "compact" it and remove the air encorporated during pouring from the bag - 10-Gal/40-Qt should work. I just tested this with a 5-lb bag of bread flour into a well marked 6-qt container ... it was just under 4-qts; when I shook to compact it for about 10-seconds - it reduced down to about 3.75-qts.

So, you could probably get away with something like a 40-qt bucket - if you jostle it a few times as you add the flour. If you want to go with a different shape - rectangle instead of round and have a little wiggle room without having to jostle it ... then you have a 13-Gal (52-Qt) option like this one.

If you have a restaurant supply store in your area you might check with them to see if they have any other options in their catalogs. The links I posted are from the restaurant supply store in my area where I shop.

Hope this helps.

 

[Chef_Jen]

Or if your buying the flour from a purveyor like sysco etc they generally carry the tubs as well

 

[YT2095]

if you`re going to store it at room temp for a very long time, put a couple of Vitamin C tablets in it (not the glassed or flavoured sort, just the plain Vit C).
it helps prevent oxidation

I store my "Flour" as the wheat itself and grind as required, even so, I keep a few vit C tabs in the metal container.

I never knew about the Bay leaves, I`ll try that too!

 

[attie]

I buy flour in 25kg bags and use 80ltr [about 18 gal US] drums, something close to that, depends on what you can get.