Keeping meat options, Freezer or Cooler

[MaineHunter]

Any input on keeping meat for an extended trip. We will be in Idaho October 16 to 30 with at least three days travel to Maine. We will no doubt see every type of weather on our travel. I want to bring a small chest freezer with a suitcase generator, the other guys think coolers are all we need. Assuming half of the coolers are ice we would need several to get the meat packed on one animal. Any suggestions?

 

[ElkScout]

In my opinion, you will be fine with coolers as long as you keep the ice in good shape. I transferred elk meet from WY to MI several years ago by putting the de-boned meat in cardboard boxes and then into coolers. Just kept good ice on top of it in the coolers and it was fine for just over 24 hours. You are going a bit further, but I would think the same would work for you.

 

[DallanC]

LAST EDITED ON Sep-13-05 AT 01:58PM (MST)[p]Coleman electric coolers. They will frost up inside just off 12volts. I like them now instead of normal coolers & ice as you dont have meat vs moisture problems. You can bring them inside when you stop for the night and plug them into the wall 120volt outlets to keep'em frosty.


-DallanC

 

[kilowatt]

Dallan,
Who or where did you get yours, I have never seen any of them before??

Brian

 

[Shootwice]

We are borrowing coolers from friends. Heck who wants to store 5 large coolers between elk hunts? Do check out threads on aging your meat. One thing is don't overweight meat on the bottom of the cooler. ie. don't put hind quarters on top of your backstraps and weight the whole thing down with ice. It will be easier to get dry ice out West so if you have extra cooler room fill it up. If you bring a freezer, leave the generator home and ice it like a cooler. If you plan on aging your meat a couple weeks, a bunch of dry ice on the bottom of your freezer should keep it cool enough. Keep a thermometer in there. You're good 34 to 50 degrees (or even 60 for a couple days).

 

[Chef]

If it gets really cold at night, dont forget to open up the ice chests and re-freeze the melted ice. Close em up early in the morning.

Chef
"I Love Animals...They're Delicious!"

 

[DallanC]

LAST EDITED ON Sep-13-05 AT 03:58PM (MST)[p]>Dallan,
>Who or where did you get
>yours, I have never seen
>any of them before??
>
>Brian


Really? They have been around for 6 or so years now at least. We bought ours at Target (had a deal on them, like $30 including the AC adaptor). Love it for trips... but it will seriously build up frost inside if you put it in a cool place / out of the sun.

Did a couple fast google search and heres the one we bought:

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.htm...2?_encoding=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B00005OU8W

Walmart lists having them as well. Spiffy if you are around 12DV or 120AC power.


***EDIT: one more thing on these coolers, you can reverse the polarity and it will HEAT instead of cool (by design it does this)... so going camping and want to keep some hot food ready to eat? This'll do it... Just be DAMN sure when you put those lovely elk backstraps / hinds or whatever in it you have it in "cool" mode and not heat mode. I lost some pronghorn frontquarters once (not a huge loss but still... it was semi cooked the next morning when I checked on it LOL).


-DallanC