long term storage of raisins

[stonewater]

got a question about how to store raisins long term. I have a 30 LB box of them. they are just in a bag unsealed. do i put them in a bucket wtih mylar liner with a dessicant, or nitrogen? or do they not need anything other than being sealed up?
stone

[antishot]

I have no clue but I would also like to know.

[Lowdown3]

Standard like store bought raisins? Feel like greasy to the touch raisins?

Eat them. Use them up over the next year or so.

A DRIED fruit product is not the same as a DEHYDRATED fruit product. I think I'll start a post to this end as this has come up a couple times.

[monkeybird]

Two years ago I bought a very large box of raisins. I put them in canning jars and using a Food Saver jar sealer, I sealed them. I opened on of the jars just last week, the raisins were fine. I resealed the jar. I'll let you know two years from now if they're still good.

[stonewater]

so vacuum packing then, that seems like a good idea. I have eaten 5 year old raisins that were vacuum packed, and yes they are just the plain old "raisins" you get from the store, I happen to get a 30 lb box from bobs red mill. guess you would use that size box if you did a lot of baking, I could not pass up the price it was soooo inexpensive. time for a seal a meal......

[MustangGal]

I forget where I saw it, but one video suggests cutting the raisins in half and using your dehydrator to finish dehydrating them.

[monkeybird]

You must vacuum seal them in JARS. If you use a bag, you'll end up with a big fat blob. Yuck!

[crossbow]

Two years ago I bought a very large box of raisins. I put them in canning jars and using a Food Saver jar sealer, I sealed them. I opened on of the jars just last week, the raisins were fine. I resealed the jar. I'll let you know two years from now if they're still good.

exactly what he said except, i might add, keep them in a cool dark place also

[sewbeit221]

I found a box of raisins on the shelf that was over two years old they were hard and the natural sugar had kind of cyrstalized on them. I was making oatmeal cookies and had just gotten home and did not feel like heading back out so I poured boiling water over them and proceeded to make the rest of the recipe. When I got to the add the raisins part I checked them and the raisins had plumped up and look fine I tasted one they tasted fine so I blotted off any excess H2o and in they went. Cookies tasted just as good as always!

[overbore]

Slightly off point but close enough, we just purchased peanuts, raisins, peanut butter, honey and jerrky-- and we are making???
Pemican! Going to vacuum seal it and put it in the Safety Room. Not a fatty as the real deal but it works well.

Laus Deo
overbore

[Briar Wabbit]

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http://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/18772

[BAK]

After reading that many had survived on raisins and bread in Middle east I bought 30lb of raisins from LDS. I decided to store it in 5 gal bucket with a mylar bag. After sealing it with 2 O absorbers I did not get the sucked-in vacuum-like look that I always get. I figured that there was a hole somewhere I replaced the O absorbers and resealed the bag. Same result. I figured that raisins keep releasing Oxygen or some other gas and closed the bucket. It will be a good experiment to see how long they will last

[Lacey]

Briar Wabbit, thank you so much for that link. I bookmarked it!

[claymore]

Slightly off point but close enough, we just purchased peanuts, raisins, peanut butter, honey and jerrky-- and we are making???
Pemican! Going to vacuum seal it and put it in the Safety Room. Not a fatty as the real deal but it works well.

Laus Deo
overbore

Just got around to reading your reply to Stonewater, I'm intrigued by your pemican making. I would like to try this myself. Have you guys done this b4 ? The stuff I've read about has a very high fat content and is actually covered (dunked) in fat to seal the pemican ball. If you could spare some more info or instructions (recipe) it would be much appreciated.