I've been pouring through the threads this morning looking for comprehensive information on grain storage. I've come up with as many questions as I have answers. I'd like to put together a complete list of items/methods for storing grain and make it a sticky so anyone that wants/needs the info can find it all in one place. The information here has been collected from other posts and around the net.
Type of grain to store:
Wheat:
* Durum — Very hard, translucent, light colored grain used to make semolina flour for pasta.
* Hard Red Spring — Hard, brownish, high protein wheat used for bread and hard baked goods. Bread Flour and high gluten flours are commonly made from hard red spring wheat. It is primarily traded at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange.
* Hard Red Winter — Hard, brownish, mellow high protein wheat used for bread, hard baked goods and as an adjunct in other flours to increase protein in pastry flour for pie crusts. Some brands of unbleached all-purpose flours are commonly made from hard red winter wheat alone. It is primarily traded by the Kansas City Board of Trade. One variety is known as "turkey red wheat", and was brought to Kansas by Mennonite immigrants from Russia.
* Soft Red Winter — Soft, low protein wheat used for cakes, pie crusts, biscuits, and muffins. Cake flour, pastry flour, and some self-rising flours with baking powder and salt added for example, are made from soft red winter wheat. It is primarily traded by the Chicago Board of Trade.
* Hard White — Hard, light colored, opaque, chalky, medium protein wheat planted in dry, temperate areas. Used for bread and brewing.
* Soft White — Soft, light colored, very low protein wheat grown in temperate moist areas. Used for pie crusts and pastry. Pastry flour, for example, is sometimes made from soft white winter wheat.
Hard wheats are harder to process and red wheats may need bleaching. Therefore, soft and white wheats usually command higher prices than hard and red wheats on the commodities market.
Raw wheat berries can be powdered into flour, germinated and dried creating malt, crushed and de-branned into cracked wheat, parboiled (or steamed), dried, crushed and de-branned into bulgur, or processed into semolina, pasta, or roux. They are a major ingredient in such foods as bread, breakfast cereals (e.g. Wheatena, Cream of Wheat, Shredded Wheat), porridge, crackers, biscuits, pancakes, cakes, gravy and boza (a fermented beverage).
Corn:
The varieties intended to be eaten as fresh, green corn are very high in sugar content and do not dry or store well.
* Flint - Makes a better meal as it has a grittier texture than the dent corns which make better flour. If meal, hominy and hominy grits (commonly called just "grits") are what you are most interested in, use the flint type.
* Dent - Best for making make corn masa for tortillas and tamales. Also best for making corn flour.
* Popcorn - Best for popping for snacks and it can also be ground into meal or flour. Extremely hard and difficult to grind.
All of the corns listed keep well when they have been properly dried. To a certain extent, they're all interchangeable for purposes of grinding into meal (sometimes known as polenta meal) or flour (very finely ground corn, not cornstarch).
Oats:
Listed in order of desirability for storage
* Oat Groats -These are whole oats with the hulls removed. They are not often found in this form, but can sometimes be had from natural food stores and some storage food dealers. Oats are not the easiest thing to get a consistent grind from so producing your own oat flour takes a bit of experience.
*Steel Cut Oats (1) - Also known as Irish or pinhead or porridge (but so are rolled) oats. These are oat groats which have been cut into chunks with steel blades. They're not rolled and look like coarse bits of grain. This form can be found in both natural food stores (sometimes much cheaper) and many supermarkets.
* Rolled Oats (1) - These are also commonly called "old fashioned", "thick cut" or "porridge" oats. To produce them, oat groats are steamed and then rolled to flatten. They can generally be found wherever oats are sold. They take longer to cook than do the quick cooking oats, but they retain more flavor and nutrition. This is what most people will call to mind when they think of oatmeal.*Quick Cooking Rolled Oats - These are just steamed oat groats rolled thinner than the old fashioned kind above so that they will cook faster. They can usually be found right next to the thicker rolled oats.
* Instant Rolled Oats - These are the "just add hot water" or microwave type of oat cereals and are not at all suited for a long term food storage program. They do, however, have uses in "bug out" and 72 hour food kits for short term crises.
* Whole Oats - This is with the hulls still on. They are sold in seed stores and sometimes straight from the farmer who grew them. Unless you have some means of getting the hulls off, don't buy oats in this form. If you do buy from a seed supplier, make certain that they have not been treated with any chemicals that are toxic to humans.
(1) Rolled and cut oats retain both their bran and their germ.
Rice:
* Short Grain Rice - Short grain rice is a little softer and bit moister when it cooks and tends to stick together more than the longer rices. It has a sweeter, somewhat stronger flavor than long grain rice.
* Medium Grain Rice - Medium grain rice is not very common in the States. It has flavor like short grain rice, but with a texture more like long grain rice.
* Long Grain Rice - Long grain rice cooks up into a dryer, flakier dish than the shorter grains and the flavor tends to be blander. It is the most commonly found size of rice on the grocery shelves.
Each of these may be processed into brown, white, parboiled or converted and instant rices. Below is a short discussion of the differences between the various types of rices.
* Brown Rice - This is whole grain rice with only the hull removed. It retains all of the nutrition to be found in rice and has a pleasant nutty flavor when boiled. From a nutrition standpoint it is by far the best of the rices to put into storage, but it has one flaw: The essential oil in the germ of the rice is very susceptible to oxidation and soon goes rancid. As a result, brown rice has a shelf life of only about six months from the date of purchase unless given special packaging or storage processing. Freezing or refrigeration will greatly extend its storage life. It's also possible to purchase brown rice from long term food suppliers specially packaged in air tight containers with an inert nitrogen atmosphere. In this kind of packaging, (if properly done), the storage life of brown rice can be extended for years.
* Converted Rice - Converted rice starts as brown rice which undergoes a process of soaking and steaming until it is partially cooked. It is dried and then polished to remove the bran and germ. The steaming process drives some of the vitamins and minerals from the outer layers into the white inner layers. This makes it more nutritious than polished white rice, but also makes it more expensive.
* White Rice - This is raw rice that has had its outer layers milled off, taking with it about 10% of its protein, 85% of its fat and 70% of its mineral content. Because so much of the nutrition of the rice is lost, white rice sold in this country has to be enriched with vitamins that only partially replaces what was removed.
