Cooking with rancid flour
I baked some cookies and did not realize the flour might have been too old. It has been stored in my canister on the counter. Can rancid flour make anyone sick?
Best Answer
How "old" are we talking about?
If the flour was white all purpose flour, was stocked in an airtight container, and your house gets not too hot in the summer I doubt the flour could have gone rancid. Rancidity is the deterioration of fats, and in wheat only the germ contains fat; white flour has been stripped off of wheat germ and therefore is very unlikely that it becomes rancid (anyway rancid flour is unlikely to make you sick)
Most flour deterioration comes from pests like meal moths, but you cannot miss them.
Nevertheless, if the cookies smell and/or taste bad you should throw them
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Quick Answer about "Cooking with rancid flour"
If you happen to bake once or twice with rancid flour, you probably will not have any harmful health side effects but your food will definitely suffer. Flour that has gone bad will give your food a sour or musty taste. Even though the food you made is fresh, it will not smell or taste fresh.What happens if you bake with rancid flour?
Eating expired flour generally doesn't have significant consequences. \u201cMost of the time, nothing happens other than that your baked goods don't taste good,\u201d Knauer says. However, there is a small chance that eating expired flour might make you sick.What can I do with rancid flour?
Fresh flour has a neutral smell, but bad and decomposing flour has a rancid smell....We will look at ten ways you can use old flour in your home.Can you cook with expired flour?
While the flour itself remains stable, its added baking powder gradually loses potency \u2014 just like the can of baking powder in your cupboard does. Yes, you can bake with self-rising flour after its best-by date; but your baked goods may not rise as well.Can you use flour 2 years out of date?
So, does flour expire? Long story short, yes. If your flour is really expired, the molecular structure of the powder changes and can potentially produce harmful compounds. But like many other foods, flour will remain good long past its "best by" or "better if used by" date that can be found on the original container.Making bread with 5 year old out of date flour - PrepRS
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Answer 2
Flour goes rancid primarily from the small amounts of fats present. At best rancid flour will contaminate the taste of anything you make with it. Worst case someone could experience a reaction from toxins introduced by different strains of bacteria.
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