Food storage for long trips

[4x4junkie]

... I'd try and find one of those fridge freezers that I could afford, which to be honest I would love to get one if I could find one less than $500.

http://www.amazon.com/43-Portable-Compact-Refrigerator-Freezer/dp/B0012EGZ9S

 

[emtmark]

Walmart has a newish yeti like cooler about a third of the price I'm sort of waiting for an opportunity for


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[STANG302]

Seems like every one is knocking off the Yeti coolers. I looked into a bunch of the off brand coolers this winter. And wound up buying a 60 QT cooler from Polaris. It is built every bit as well as the Yeti and is certified bear resistant. But what won me over was the mounting options. You actually have places to strap it down and still be able to open the lid. We'll see how well it works this summer.

http://www.polaris.com/en-us/rzr-side-by-side/shop/accessories/polaris-northstar-cooler-60-qt/pid-2881259

 

[wrooster]

Dehydrate meats. You can reconstitute them in water. Unless you are planning on eating a t bone every night, there are a lot of recipes that work just fine with reconstituted meat, fruit, and vegetables.

 

[thefishhawk]

I'll throw out one more thing I didn't see mentioned, that's making your own ice. The ice blocks you buy at the grocery store are pure garbage. They aerate the ice during the freezing process, faster for them, melts quicker, you buy more ice. Freezing your own solid blocks makes a huge difference. For my particular cooler the 2.5 gal cubes with the spigot you can buy at the store fit perfectly, I always have one or two in my stand alone freezer. Tupperware, ammo can, you can use whatever you can think of to make blocks. If I'm gearing up for a long rafting trip I'll start bagging cubes for awhile beforehand. Cubes get used to go in between all the little layers and gaps. The other advantage is using ice blocks in a container is you run a dryer cooler so things don't get waterlogged, and you can use it for drinking water later if it does melt. Or you can just cut the container open and chip off chunks for drinks the last couple nights if it didn't melt. Lots of good tricks, really for one week keeping ice should be a chip shot with a decent cooler and some good management.

 

[WeLikeCamping]

Like above, I've turned to filling used plastic bottles, like Poweraid and large Lipton tea bottles with fresh water, then freezing them. Every food item I can will be frozen before the trip. I'm planning a four-day trip in a couple of weeks where I will be working from a small, poorly insulated picnic cooler. For days two and three, I'll be dining on Mountain man Freeze-dried food, with add-ins like pre-cooked and frozen cubed steak and ground beef. Breakfasts will be oatmeal. Easy to make, stores dry. Lunches will be fruit and nuts, maybe dried meats.

 

[STANG302]

Another random thought. Has any one pre-cooled there cooler?
If one has room in there freezer toss it in to drop its temp. Pull it out and load it and off you go?
Would help prevent wasting ice getting it to temp.

 

[mep1811]

I'll precool my cooler the night before a trip. I stick a couple of Artic Ice Yukon freezer packs inside. The next day the cooler is ice cold ready for the dry ice and frozen food.

 

[punisher1130]

Ok so then I'll need hotel room for a day or 2 before I hit the trails when I get up to PA, unless my passenger joins then ill just have her get things ready while I'm driving up lol.

 

[thefishhawk]

Another random thought. Has any one pre-cooled there cooler?
If one has room in there freezer toss it in to drop its temp. Pull it out and load it and off you go?
Would help prevent wasting ice getting it to temp.

If you have a heavy roto-molded cooler this is a pretty important step for extended trips. It takes a lot of energy to cool down all that insulation initially. If you have access to a walk in freezer awesome, or if you have a smaller cooler you might be able to do it in a stand alone. Using ice works ok, but I'll generally use dry ice, put it in the night before I load it in the morning. -109 deg F is kind of hard to beat lol

Outfitters on the Grand will use a walk in freezer, then add an inch or so of water each day until the cooler is a third or so solid ice in the bottom. Do it an inch at a time to prevent cracking the cooler.

 

[punisher1130]

Yeah that's not available for me to do, I don't have access to walk ins and the coolers I use are way too big to fit in freezers.

 

[workingonit71]

tired of fighting meltdown while camping; nothing beats the heat (or the cool?)

... I've turned to filling used plastic bottles, like Poweraid and large Lipton tea bottles with fresh water, then freezing them. Every food item I can will be frozen before the trip....

• I've also started freezing everything I can, before a trip. I remove the frozen food and frozen bottles (I use 20 oz-33 oz drinking water bottles) from the freezer on the evening before I leave, pack them in my coolers, and cover them with ice. Next day, I shake the coolers down, packing the ice, and drain off some meltwater, then add more ice. I also used two frozen ice packs, in the cooler with the food, as a comparison to the frozen bottles.
• I use a small Igloo Maxcold?, a large Igloo Ice Cube, and a large Coleman Extreme; the Cube is 5 years old, the others are 10-15 years used, so they're not high performance. I didn't open the Cube for two days, but even in 55-80 degree weather, all the ice had melted, the six frozen bottles were half-frozen, and the frozen meat was just cold. The two ice packs sitting on top, in the cooler, were almost warm. The small Igloo had half ice, and three mostly frozen bottles, and the not-pre-frozen water bottles were quite cold. The Coleman Extreme fared best, 80% ice, and all frozen bottles inside were also 80% frozen (the entire cooler was stocked with frozen bottles). By the end of the third day, only the Coleman still had partial ice, and the bottles were cold into the middle of the fourth day. The weather was only in the 50's for the third day, and 70's on the fourth. Normal camp weather is usually in the 70's (low) to mid 90's (high) on most trips, so I fared better than I would normally expect.
• I'm thinking of getting an Engel 30 quart to replace the Igloo Ice Cube, which I consider worthless, for food storage, and make do with the other two, until I can buy more "modern" coolers. I can drink cool or warm water, but I need to keep perishables cold, at least for 3-4 days.

 

[perterra]

• I've also started freezing everything I can, before a trip. I remove the frozen food and frozen bottles (I use 20 oz-33 oz drinking water bottles) from the freezer on the evening before I leave, pack them in my coolers, and cover them with ice. Next day, I shake the coolers down, packing the ice, and drain off some meltwater, then add more ice. I also used two frozen ice packs, in the cooler with the food, as a comparison to the frozen bottles.
• I use a small Igloo Maxcold?, a large Igloo Ice Cube, and a large Coleman Extreme; the Cube is 5 years old, the others are 10-15 years used, so they're not high performance. I didn't open the Cube for two days, but even in 55-80 degree weather, all the ice had melted, the six frozen bottles were half-frozen, and the frozen meat was just cold. The two ice packs sitting on top, in the cooler, were almost warm. The small Igloo had half ice, and three mostly frozen bottles, and the not-pre-frozen water bottles were quite cold. The Coleman Extreme fared best, 80% ice, and all frozen bottles inside were also 80% frozen (the entire cooler was stocked with frozen bottles). By the end of the third day, only the Coleman still had partial ice, and the bottles were cold into the middle of the fourth day. The weather was only in the 50's for the third day, and 70's on the fourth. Normal camp weather is usually in the 70's (low) to mid 90's (high) on most trips, so I fared better than I would normally expect.
• I'm thinking of getting an Engel 30 quart View attachment 397939 to replace the Igloo Ice Cube, which I consider worthless, for food storage, and make do with the other two, until I can buy more "modern" coolers. I can drink cool or warm water, but I need to keep perishables cold, at least for 3-4 days.

That Engel is mediocre at best, sweats like nobodies business but makes a great dry box.

 

[SGNellett]

Some great info here guys, thanks a ton! I think we will be implementing a few of these for our upcoming scout trips!

 

[Offroadmuch]

Like above, I've turned to filling used plastic bottles, like Poweraid and large Lipton tea bottles with fresh water, then freezing them. Every food item I can will be frozen before the trip. I'm planning a four-day trip in a couple of weeks where I will be working from a small, poorly insulated picnic cooler. For days two and three, I'll be dining on Mountain man Freeze-dried food, with add-ins like pre-cooked and frozen cubed steak and ground beef. Breakfasts will be oatmeal. Easy to make, stores dry. Lunches will be fruit and nuts, maybe dried meats.

I have my own variation of this method which I have been using for years and works perfectly:
I get Crystal Geyser or similar 1 gallon water bottles at the grocery store and freeze them solid. Last trip we had about 10. Then stick them in the igloo with stuff to keep cold. Due to the massive size they thaw very slowly. Even after several days I have ice in each bottle and some ice cold water as it thaws. I oversee water and ice use as the days go by (for my kids) and make sure we pace our consumption. No loose ice or water sloshing around, no electrical hassles with second batteries and no $500-800 offroad fridge to buy or store. If you go for more than 10 days you would probably run out of cooling power with my method. Inside of that you are good. Everytime I go on a trip I use this method. Use this along with some smart planning and prep like all the good tips from everyone posted here and you are good to go. I think dry ice is awesome also but with water jugs frozen you drink the water as it thawes so you kill two birds (water supply and ice cold storage).
Good luck!