Question
Jenny Grandbois
I made tortillas recently, the masa seemed old. :( How long should you keep masa flour?
Answer
Um, wow, this is a great question. And, uh, you know, it's, it's, uh, similar to questions we get from time to time around, you know, how long does X last, you know? And, um, so, you know, my, uh, approach to, um, ingredients to food, generally speaking, is to try to use things as quickly as I can. And, um, so, you know, part of the strategy is to buy things in packages that are, um, the best size relative to my usage rate or my cooking volume. Uh, which, you know, might mean small containers. It might mean buying a container, a package, and then sharing it with others so that we can all enjoy the benefits of, uh, this food item. Um, because all things will go bad over time. Um, now the other part here is to consider storage. Okay? And all foods that I can think of benefit from a cooler rather than a warmer storage area. And then, uh, the usual storage guidelines apply, keep it out of direct heat, um, and, uh, control, um, uh, moisture or humidity, uh, you know, which can be, uh, a problem for a lot of food items. And, uh, so in terms of how long should you keep masa flour, again, my answer is as short as you can, uh, try to enjoy those, uh, tortillas and, um, uh, other things that you might make, uh, from Masa, um, you know, uh, to, to provide a, a maximum shelf life is nearly impossible because there's so many, so many variables, okay? Um, in the warmer months, uh, things have a shorter shelf life. If you live in a warmer climate, things have a, uh, can have a shorter shelf life. Um, so you wanna take into consideration, uh, the, the bigger environment that you're in, okay? Um, remember that if you have smaller quantities of things, you can also store them in the refrigerator or the freezer. Uh, those are fine environments, uh, to prolong, uh, the freshness or the, uh, uh, lemme say, prolong the shelf life of an item. What you're doing is you're slowing down the, the, the spoilage process, okay? You're not really, I don't like to use, I don't like to say you're retaining freshness, because freshness is always on the decline, uh, with very few exceptions, okay? Um, and instead, uh, you're just, you're, you're, you're controlling the glide. You know, is it, is it a steep descent or is it a, a more gradual descent in quality? Um, so, uh, the other thing is ma masa, when it gets bad, it, it becomes rancid, right? So the, the oils that are present, um, uh, you know, they oxidize and they, they take on a bad smell and an off flavor. And, uh, you, you'll start to pick that up. And sometimes in the beginning, uh, you may not notice it in its raw state, but it could come through once it's cooked. And if that's what you find, just go ahead and throw the whole thing out, because at that point, um, it, it, you know, it's not good for you either. Uh, you know, eating, uh, foods in that state are just not good for your health, uh, long term, uh, especially. Okay. Um, so anyway, I hope this approach, um, provides some context on, on how to handle these things. Um, I mean, otherwise, um, uh, wow. Uh, enjoy tortillas. You know, we've, uh, we bought a, a 50 pound bag of Masina a couple months ago. We're, we're working through it. We eat a lot of tortillas around here, and, uh, I hope you will, too.
