Any good online sources of bulk flour?

[Artdeco]

Looked at Amazon, Jet, Boxed, all seem pretty expensive.

I think the 5lb bags are alternator sized, looking for 25 lb bags, so, bigger than an alternator?

 

[deadlyapp]

Costco or sams club? A restaurant supply store?

Wait - why online?

 

[dphantom]

We get 25# bags from Sam's. Costco probably has same

 

[Kaido]

See if you know anyone with a business license, then you can shop at a local restaurant supply store. I mooch off my friend who goes once in awhile. I just bought a 50-pound sack of patent flour for $14. I store them in 5 or 6-gallon food-grade pails with gamma-seal lids, then keep a smaller pop-top container in the kitchen & just refill it as needed from my pails. I do the same thing with rice, oatmeal, etc.

 

[DrPizza]

25 pounds of flour is to bulk flour as a family pack of hamburger is to bulk hamburger. It's not bulk. It's just that so few people take the time to bake their own bread, cake, and pizza dough from scratch, that it seems like a lot. 50 and 100 pound bags of flour are pretty common. That reminds me - time to stop by the pizza shop and have them order me some bulk stuff from one of the food service companies.

 

[cbrunny]

solid parody.

 

[Artdeco]

LOL, serious parody, I have a bread maker and now a spaghetti maker, I burn through a bag in short order. Picked up a 25 lb bag locally, and am almost through it.

 

[Kaido]

LOL, serious parody, I have a bread maker and now a spaghetti maker, I burn through a bag in short order. Picked up a 25 lb bag locally, and am almost through it.

Don't forget RideFree's bread recipe!

http://catch42.pbworks.com/w/page/91703094/Ridefree

Makes excellent toast :thumbsup:

 

[Artdeco]

Don't forget RideFree's bread recipe!

http://catch42.pbworks.com/w/page/91703094/Ridefree

Makes excellent toast :thumbsup:

Nice, have used a bread machine for years, that recipie is what I've morphed a white bread recipie into, I do use honey instead of brown sugar. I add gluten as well.

 

[Kaido]

Nice, have used a bread machine for years, that recipie is what I've morphed a white bread recipie into, I do use honey instead of brown sugar. I add gluten as well.

Well don't be shy, post your recipe!

 

[Artdeco]

Well don't be shy, post your recipe!

LOL, it's the same as the one you posted, I just took a white bread recipie and modded it till it's almost identical to the one you posted.

 

[CraKaJaX]

What machine did you get? I've had a Cuisinart a few years now:

https://www.cuisinart.com/share/pdf/manuals/cbk-200_recipe.pdf

Some notables:
Date Nut Bread is delicious, except it's basically cake and not bread :awe:
Whole Wheat is standard, but good. It's my go-to. Extra delicious with some almond butter on top!
Rosemary bread is a great dinner addition

 

[Artdeco]

What machine did you get? I've had a Cuisinart a few years now:

https://www.cuisinart.com/share/pdf/manuals/cbk-200_recipe.pdf

Some notables:
Date Nut Bread is delicious, except it's basically cake and not bread :awe:
Whole Wheat is standard, but good. It's my go-to. Extra delicious with some almond butter on top!
Rosemary bread is a great dinner addition

I think it's a 2 lb Kenmore, rebadged Breadman, IIRC. I use it for whole wheat bread and pizza dough, have owned a handful, no big differences I've found.

 

[CraKaJaX]

I think it's a 2 lb Kenmore, rebadged Breadman, IIRC. I use it for whole wheat bread and pizza dough, have owned a handful, no big differences I've found.

Oh yeah.... forgot the pizza dough. Super fast, super easy. I'm all about it.

 

[Miramonti]

http://shop.honeyville.com/

20% flash sale right now, 7/20-7/21, which is very rare. Holiday sales are usually only 10-15% off.

 

[Jaepheth]

Bulk anything is usually measured in pallets, not pounds.

 

[glenn1]

See if you know anyone with a business license, then you can shop at a local restaurant supply store. I mooch off my friend who goes once in awhile. I just bought a 50-pound sack of patent flour for $14. I store them in 5 or 6-gallon food-grade pails with gamma-seal lids, then keep a smaller pop-top container in the kitchen & just refill it as needed from my pails. I do the same thing with rice, oatmeal, etc.

If you're not using it up reasonably quickly how do you keep the pests out long before you use it all up? We've tried most 'airtight' products that you can think of and nothing seems like a 100% solution against those bastards.

 

[Kaido]

If you're not using it up reasonably quickly how do you keep the pests out long before you use it all up? We've tried most 'airtight' products that you can think of and nothing seems like a 100% solution against those bastards.

I use food-grade buckets (5 or 6-gallon) with gamma-seal lids. The lids have a seal:

https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/emergency-supplies/food-storage-equipment/gamma-seal-lids

Usually, food buckets have a hammer-on lid & you need a big metal tool to pry them off. I always ended up hurting my fingers, they were terrible! It was easy to bend them funny too. With gamma seal lids, you hammer on the outside ring, then just use your hand to spin on the lid into the ring. The lid & ring are plastic, plus there's a sealing gasket on the inside of the lid to keep bugs out. They work great! I use them for rice (basmati, sushi, jasmine, Carolina Gold), flour (just patent flour for now, I buy brown & cake flour in smaller quantities), oatmeal (regular oats, I buy steel-cut in smaller quantities), sugar (white, I buy smaller quantities of brown), all kinds of stuff.

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/files/specsheets/GSL_Flyer.pdf

I don't keep those in my kitchen tho (too big), those live under the stairs. In the kitchen I have the older version of the pop-top containers. The new ones are even nicer. Scroll down for the OXO POP containers:

https://www.google.com/#q=oxo+pop+top

Similar idea to the gamma-seal lids, but in a more compact form. You simply push a button down to seal them, super easy. So once a week or a few times a month I'll refill the sugar, flour, etc. as needed from the large pails to the small containers. Oh yeah, one tip if you have brown sugar - aside from being super easy to make (white sugar + molasses), you can use a wet terra cotta stone to keep the brown sugar moist for months. I used to use bread, but I'd have to remember to change that out because it'd dry out so fast:

https://www.amazon.com/JBK-Hummingbird-Terra-Cotta-Brown/dp/B000H7AFU6

 

[Sho'Nuff]

25 pounds of flour is to bulk flour as a family pack of hamburger is to bulk hamburger. It's not bulk. It's just that so few people take the time to bake their own bread, cake, and pizza dough from scratch, that it seems like a lot. 50 and 100 pound bags of flour are pretty common. That reminds me - time to stop by the pizza shop and have them order me some bulk stuff from one of the food service companies.

I do the same thing - but through the store at my seasonal camp. Last year I purchased 25lbs of pre-cooked, rough chopped bacon from Sysco food . One of the best food purchases I've made in my life (though not perhaps for my health).

 

[WHAMPOM]

If you're not using it up reasonably quickly how do you keep the pests out long before you use it all up? We've tried most 'airtight' products that you can think of and nothing seems like a 100% solution against those bastards.

Flour has a six month shelf life. Store the bulk in your freezer, nuts, whole wheat flour any other product that may go rancid or attract pests is a good idea too.

edit: if you have a pest problem better look to any dry pet food bag as the problem source.

 

[Artdeco]

If you're not using it up reasonably quickly how do you keep the pests out long before you use it all up? We've tried most 'airtight' products that you can think of and nothing seems like a 100% solution against those bastards.

Ziplock bag put it in the freezer.

 

[WHAMPOM]

We have an Amish store five miles away, they sell in bulk, flour, sugar, oat meal, rice, beans in fifty and 100 pound bags, country store style in about everything else too.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

See if you know anyone with a business license, then you can shop at a local restaurant supply store. I mooch off my friend who goes once in awhile. I just bought a 50-pound sack of patent flour for $14. I store them in 5 or 6-gallon food-grade pails with gamma-seal lids, then keep a smaller pop-top container in the kitchen & just refill it as needed from my pails. I do the same thing with rice, oatmeal, etc.

That's not even worth the hassle. How much flour do you go through in a year to bother with saving a couple of bucks?

 

[Kaido]

That's not even worth the hassle. How much flour do you go through in a year to bother with saving a couple of bucks?

I bake a lot - pizza, bread, cookies, pasta, etc., so it's not just a cost savings, but also having sufficient flour on-hand at all times. Just finished my new outdoor gas-fired pizza oven & sometimes do pizza up to three times a week (usually rotate between red sauce pizza, white pizza, and naked pizza). I do bread almost daily (either with my bread machine or no-knead). Cookies are at least once a week. Price comparison:

5 pounds flour = $5 at the grocery store ($1/pound)
25 pounds flour = $14 at the restaurant supply store (56-cents per pound)
Savings = nearly 50%

Procedure isn't hard:

1. Go to restaurant store with friend & buy big bag of flour
2. Dump flour into 6-gallon pail
3. Refill my pop-top countertop storage bin as needed

It all depends on if you'd use it or not. I needed a good solution to my problem of having a giant sack of flour that got messy whenever I used it & attracted bugs. Same deal with rice...I buy rice from the local Asian & Indian markets in big 20-pound sacks for super cheap. Like you said, not a huge cost savings, but $20 here & $20 there adds up! (and lets me feed my kitchen appliance addiction, haha)

 

[Imp]

At 25 lb, that's not really bulk... Most of my "loser" local supermarkets sell 10 kilo / 22 lb bags. Looking at my local Wal-mart site, it's $7 for 10 kilos of Great Value flour, $14 for 10 kilos of Robin Hood.

Restaurant supply or wholesaler would probably be cheaper.