Mad Season said:

Another thought to consider is if grains could get truly sterile, why aren't there any grains freshly harvested, then canned? It would be nice af to get fresh, hydrated grains. It would then mean we wouldn't need to hydrate, and potentially if people did things right, wouldn't need to PC. However, it's clear that it won't work. Companies know grains won't last like that.

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how much would you be willing to pay? probably not enough to cover the costs of the lengthy processing time they would need compared to the usual tins of fully submerged food, large tins of food need significantly longer times. There is not much of a market, and as you know some companies do sell PF jars or bags of hydrated grain, for high prices. I had a thread asking about treating dry grains, they would be cheaper to ship as they are not hydrated or in heavy tins. I wondered if they could be irradiated dry, and then a simply hydration and steaming might be enough for us to use. I also wondered if roasted grains might be feasible to just steam and use, I have grown on highly roasted grains before. I was recommending "easy cook" dry rice before as it has already usually gone through a heat treatment so I reckon it would have a better chance.

We already can easily get suitable hydrated grains which are not fully submerged -pouches of cooked rice. I have seen numerous threads of grows with them with some success. I have colonised tinned peas, corn and kidney beans before, I emptied them out and rinsed and microwaved them in jars to both heat them as they were exposed to contams -but also to drive off moisture. Hippie3 grew on tinned hominy. I see other grains in pouches these days, but they would be too expensive for anybody doing a big grow.

I have done quite a few tests of double heat treating, like cooking whole grains fully submerged in water at 15-28psi, when while still hot taking them out and loading jars and reheating them, either steaming but usually microwaving. If you weigh your grains you can calculate what water content you are at. By driving off moisture after the initial heat treating it means they can have higher hydration to begin with so I think it should help.

Some grains are more suitable, like rye grass seed, which is very thin and does not really explode when overhydrated and/or exposed to high pressure. You can cook up a load of it in a PC, then strain it off and load into jars. Moisture can be squeezed out but I find it still stays too hydrated. These could be steamed or microwaved. If you need to drive off moisture they could be placed on heating pads. This is far too much hassle for many people but might suit some people, like myself. It could be used as a test jar as discussed, leave it highly hydrated for a long time and see what happens, then dry it out months later on a heat pad or oven. I have found fully sealed jars which must be over a decade old which look OK.

somebody asked what happens to grain cooked for a long time, or high psi.

this is popcorn in a sealed jar with no filter


after 19hours sitting in water at 97C


and after 115hours at 97C