Sugars and Long Term Food Storage
(Taken from be prepared.com)
There are several types of sugar that are suitable for long term storage. Sugar is particularly sensitive to moisture so it is critical to keep it dry. Aside from that it’s important to store it with the usual guidelines: Cool, Dark, and Dry. Sugar has an indefinite shelf life, though some folks say to use it within two years. Microbes can’t grow in it and it doesn’t mold or anything. Good stuff!
Granulated Sugar
This is what you see all over the place at the store and is the cornerstone of your storage plan. It won’t spoil and if you store it dry and cool it will store forever and a day. If you happen to get it wet it will cake up and get all hard and crusty. Just smash it up again and voila, you’re in good shape!
Powdered Sugar
This is good stuff and a cornerstone for icing, frosting, and the like. It’s actually the exact same stuff as granulated sugar which has been ground even finer. Sometimes the refinery adds corn starch to prevent caking. If you let moisture in, it will cake up and you won’t be able to get it back to then fine powdery condition you’re used to. Life goes on. Since you now know it’s the same stuff as granulated sugar, just use it for that instead!
Brown Sugar
I gotta say, this is one of my favorite kinds of sugar. It’s basically granulated sugar with molasses and a bit of caramel coloring. It comes in Dark and Light variants. Dark has more molasses and thus a darker color and a stronger flavor. Brown sugar is different from other sugars in that it is supposed to be moist. That means you can’t dry it out. Best bet is to store it the same as other sugar but leave out the desiccant.
Honey and Long Term StorageI love honey. I think it’s one of the ultimate long term storage sweeteners. It’s natural, you can easily produce it yourself, it’s healthy, and it keeps forever. And it tastes so darn good. The only problem is figuring out what to buy. My preference is to buy local honey if I can’t produce it myself. If you can’t find local honey, look at the store but be careful. You MUST buy honey that is labeled pure. You want to get filtered honey if possible over liquid honey as the process to liquefy the honey after initial filtering destroys most of the nutrients.
Honey stores forever, just keep it dry and away from air. Over time honey can darken which can intensify the flavor but is otherwise nothing to be concerned about. Store it with your other food and you should be fine.
There are several places on line that you can buy bulk sugars.
BePrepared.com
BulkSuger.net
Costco.com
As always watch your local stores for the sales on sugar. Be sure and storage it in air tight containers. Dry, dark place works the best! Remember that sugar if it's not stored in an air tight container it will absorb the smells around it. So if you storage it in your garage it might taste like car fumes, motor oil or something that you keep in side of your garage.
You can also buy air tight containers at several places on line and locally.
BePrepared.com
Amazon.com - has great prices for air tight containers
Have a great Labor Day tomorrow! Stay Cool!
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