Long Term Storage for Medium Grain Brown Rice

11 years ago

I am new to this forum and would appreciate any help you can provide about long term storage of brown rice.

Medium grain brown rice is no longer available at my local grocery stores and it is my favorite rice because it adds a nutty flavor to some dishes that is better than using long grain brown rice. I finally was able to order it from Amazon.com. I got 6 two pound bags of rice and need to store five of them.

Unfortunately, when I was able to just buy this kind of rice at the grocery story, I found it tends to attract moths, so storing it in the cupboard doesn't sound like a great idea.

Some cooking sites say to freeze it cooked .. that's a lot of cooking for storage. Other sites say to freeze the rice, but they do not say whether I should freeze it in it's original package in and then in a freezer bag or open the package and just store it in a freezer bag.

Can anyone tell me the best way to store the rice long term?

Smiles,

Lyn

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Comments (4)

Jasdip
11 years ago
I always keep my raw brown rice in the freezer. In it's regular heavy plastic bag and in another container, just so I can find it! The bag of rice inside a freezer bag is a good idea.

I've never heard of cooking it first and is completely unnecessary IMO.
kathleenca
11 years ago
I agree with jasdip. Your frozen bags of rice will be just fine. I'm not sure you even need to put them in freezer bags unless you're leery of the original bags tearing.
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Oh, no! Bad sentence on my part. Southern California. We had a wonderful Syrian bakery that made brilliant pita. I still miss them. My heart breaks for what has happened there, but I've never been to Syria. You haven't said why you're eschewing "enriched flour" and don't need to, but white flour products are required by law to use vitamin enriched flour, and even most home baking white flour (bleached or unbleached) is enriched and has a little malted barley flour in it as well, which has a lot of an enzyme that's needed for rising. Unless you have a specific problem with one or more of the vitamins or the barley, the enrichment shouldn't be a problem. Maybe you're just concerned that there's white flour in there. White flour is often added to whole wheat flour to make the rise spongier. Sometimes vital wheat gluten is added to strengthen the gluten (the bran in the whole wheat can weaken or cut it). Wheat gluten can be isolated by hand by washing the wheat and kneading out the starch, and has been done for centuries, so it's not a weird industrial product. Anything that's made with white flour in the U.S. uses enriched flour. There may be some places that mill and sift their own flours that do not, but that's an extremely rare exception. Therefore, I would guarantee that the Lebanese pita are made with enriched flour. The thinner thing is probably a lack of leavening. Even in the Middle East, nowadays, the pita have leavening and are a bit spongy. That's not traditional. :) I haven't seen Kontos, and I'd guess it's an East Coast brand. I don't doubt that it's good! Whole Foods might be a better place to get 100% whole wheat, however, unless you can find a Middle Eastern or halal store where people are into the "new" kind of dietary laws (no white flour, pasture raise livestock, etc.). Maybe try stores near the colleges? College kids tend to be into better eating. Turlock is from California. I know they freeze to ship it to avoid preservatives, so you might find it there, but more likely the Whole Foods have something local. Good luck on your quest.
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Not my creations, from a magazine. I hope you enjoy them. I usually keep some cooked rice in the freezer and then find it easy to make a quick meal when necessary.
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grainlady_ks
11 years ago
I also suggest freezing, but vacuum-seal it first using a FoodSaver, OR, in Mylar bags and use oxygen absorbers to remove the oxygen from the bags. Unfortunately, there is really no true "long-term" storage for brown rice - only white rice, but oxygen-free storage AND in the freezer are the best and preferred over room-temperature storage.

Oxygen-free storage helps prevents the oils going rancid and the freezer slows the oils and nutrients from degrading. But it only slows it down - but doesn't completely prevent it. It will eventually go rancid even in the freezer.

You might consider growing your own medium-grain rice in buckets as outlined in the book "Homegrown Whole Grains" by Sara Pitzer (page 121) to assure you have a source for it. Check your local library for a copy.

Bob's Red Mill carries medium-grain brown rice, and I'm sure there are other resources for it on-line. I use short- or medium-grain brown rice for milling into rice flour. Long-grain brown (or white) rice is fine for milling if you want to use it as a thickener or breading, but for baked goods (rice flour is often an ingredient in gluten-free baked goods) short- and medium-grain rice are best.

-Grainlady
roseblush1
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you all for responding so quickly.

jasdip ... I am sooooo glad I don't have to cook the rice ! I almost gagged when I read that.

kathleenca ... Since I am guessing it is going to take a while to use that much rice, I will probably double bag it. I've noticed that if I don't double bag frozen veggies, they tend to get freezer burn ... yes, I do have a good freezer.

grainlady ... I really should get a FoodSaver since I only go grocery shopping once a month. What are "oxygen absorbers"? I've never heard of them. I'll probably use my old fashioned way of removing as much air as possible from the freezer bag using a straw for now. Also, how do you determine if the rice has gone rancid ... the hard way ... cook it and taste it ?

I'll check if I can get Sara Pizer's book on an inter-library loan. Our small library is totally inadequate for finding that kind of reference. It sounds like a good read.

Smiles,
Lyn

Long Term Storage for Medium Grain Brown Rice

Comments (4)

Jasdip

kathleenca

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Long Term Storage for Medium Grain Brown Rice

Comments (4)

Jasdip

kathleenca

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