Julie Bove wrote:
> "Quinch" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Julie Bove wrote:
>>> "Quinch" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>> Quinch wrote:
>>>>> I've got a persisting problem I could use some help with, if anyone has
>>>>> experience.
>>>>>
>>>>> I tend to buy flour in bulk in large paper sacks that would ideally
>>>>> last
>>>>> me about a year or so, if not more. The problem is that, inevitably and
>>>>> usually in the summer, moths manage to crawl inside at which point the
>>>>> whole batch is pretty much unrecoverable. Trying to seal the sack has,
>>>>> at best, only delayed the inevitable, so I'm wondering, does anyone
>>>>> have
>>>>> any advice on how to deal with this?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> A random thought; I don't have the freezer space to freeze the eggs to
>>>> death. On the other hand... would roasting do? It would be child's play
>>>> to
>>>> cycle the flour in a few pans through the oven and into a fresh
>>>> container,
>>>> but the question becomes what would be a high enough temperature to kill
>>>> off the eggs, but not damage the flour?
>>>
>>> I don't think you'd want to roast the flour. Wouldn't that mess up not
>>> only
>>> the flavor but the moisture content?
>>
>> Well, not roasting as in the actual cooking context. Basically... put it
>> in a temperature that would be high enough to kill off any eggs, but not
>> high enough to screw with the flour itself.
>>
>> Or, to rephrase - what would be the highest safe temperature to store
>> flour at for a duration, of say, an hour?
>
> Not being a flour expert or a bug expert, I couldn't tell ya. If you did do
> this though, I would think you could only do a very small amount of flour at
> a time and spread it thinly. If you did too much, the middle of it would
> not reach the right temp.
>
> The only thing I have ever sterilized like that is garden soil. You cook it
> at a very high temp. and for several hours to make sure you have killed off
> all the nasties.
>
>

Yep, same principle, but with less margin for error, probably. Too low,
and it accomplished nothing, too high and the flour is unusable.