Sealing Dry Foods in Mason Jars Without Electricity

[Nor'Eastah]

Originally Posted by bigpaul

dosent the fact that your filling the jar displace the oxygen, a bit like water displacement? or is that too simplistic??

It could be the same, depending on what the item is, and how much you fill the jar. But if you're sealing stuff like pasta, rice, cereals, etc, they tend to trap a lot of air within the jar. The O2 absorber removes most of this extra air. Also, remember, "air" is 75% nitrogen; if you get rid of the oxygen (which spoils food), you have a medium in the jar (nitrogen) which does not spoil foods.

[bigpaul]

I saw a program a while back, they found an old stone cistern in the ground, from the remains found they reckoned it was filled with some form of grains which although thousands of years old were still viable, they reckoned that filled up the void excluded the air and once the top was put on the grains became dormant.

[Nor'Eastah]

Oxygen, moisture, heat and light are the main elements that cause spoilage. Obviously, our dried foods may be exposed to more or less of each of these. The less the exposure, the longer the food will keep.

Even if the dry foods are sealed perfectly in the jars, they should be kept in a cool, dark place. If you store them in a warm, sunny location, they won't last very long. That old stone cistern in the ground was cool and dark. Just because a grain is still viable, doesn't mean you'd want to eat it!

[bigpaul]

that goes for most anything, the cool dark place I mean. when I was with the first wife we used to store all our surplus home grown food in an old chest of drawers in the cool, dark back bedroom, used to keep for months!!