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Evening All

I make batches of mixes, Cajun, KFC, White Pudding etc

I use a lot of onion powder in my blends and find it clumps up the blends in a solid lump.

Is there something I can add to stop this clumping?

Thanks

Finer/coarser powder?

Dogfish wrote:Finer/coarser powder?

Unfortunately no, the powder is shop bought and as ground as fine as it can be

I find that, even with anti-caking agents, fine garlic powder tends to clump and go solid. For this reason, I use granulated garlic, which is a little coarser and tends not to clump.

I have found that too..is there a natural anti caking agent or are they easy to buy (in small quantities)

I make my own mixes too, and the ones that have onion/garlic powder that don't cake, also have salt, dried herbs and paprika. There is a commercial seasoning that I use from the New Orleans School of Cooking called Joe's Hot Stuff that never cakes on the shelf. It contains no artificial ingredients or preservatives. It does have a lot of salt, paprika and dried herbs (plus dehydrated garlic and onion).

G'day,
When my onion powder clumps, I give it a wizz in my spice grinder, then it's as good as gold again.
Damo

Damo the butcherman wrote:G'day,
When my onion powder clumps, I give it a wizz in my spice grinder, then it's as good as gold again.
Damo

Thats quite interesting...does it then re-clump at a later date or stay un-clumped ( if those are real words )

salumi512 wrote:I make my own mixes too, and the ones that have onion/garlic powder that don't cake, also have salt, dried herbs and paprika. There is a commercial seasoning that I use from the New Orleans School of Cooking called Joe's Hot Stuff that never cakes on the shelf. It contains no artificial ingredients or preservatives. It does have a lot of salt, paprika and dried herbs (plus dehydrated garlic and onion).

Unfortunately this is not the case with me..my Cajun seasoning is a case in point...clumps like friggin cement...

johnfb wrote:I have found that too..is there a natural anti caking agent or are they easy to buy (in small quantities)

People used powdered cellulose, silicates (e.g., calcium silicate), gums (e.g., guar gum), rice, silica packs. I don't know how well any of these work. I've never put additives in my mixes.

I would try rice flour.

NCPaul wrote:I would try rice flour.

Interesting...does it act as an anti caking agent?
Any idea of % to use

If your container is airtight (which I assume it is) and you have a shaker top, you might try putting some grains of rice in the container, I've found that the rice acts to absorb moisture. When I do this, I just pour a small amount in.

Thanks TJ sounds like a good idea

Try freezing the mixes in plastic bags in pre measured amounts. If you store in the freezer in very large quantity, let the sealed large quantity container come back to room temp completely before opening, then put smaller amount in a use container, reseal the large container and re freeze. Allowing the container to come to room temp first before opening insure no condensation moisture will get in. If your using any semi refined sugars that have high moisture content, leave those out of the mix and add later. Also store the clumping ingredient in the freezer, and treat the same as described above. We use a shallot powder that is notorious for clumping, so first thing we do is take it out of the original container and freeze in pre measured smaller quantities in plastic bags.