A few days ago, while on my Korean food kick, among other banchan items, I decided to make scallion pancakes (Pajeon). Made with flour, eggs, water and scallions, it is fried crisp and sliced into wedges.
Well, I made mine and they tasted bad. Turns out the flour I used was years old. Flour, even when properly stored only has a shelf-life of 3-6 months in the pantry. Ours was much older than that. I think we bought a really large bag of it at Costco, thinking: “Hey why not, flour lasts forever.” Not true; it gets rancid.
So we tossed it along with the large container we kept it in. Now we are buying flour in much smaller quantities and storing it in an air tight container in the freezer. Just thought you should know. Go smell your flour, you can definitely tell if it has become rancid.
Think I will try making the scallion pancakes again. If they turn out well, I’ll share the recipe.