rice and other foods

[ncmtns]

How long will cooked rice keep in a backpack at room temp without growing funky? Can you think of other foods like eggs that may keep without cooking for a couple days?

[Hikes in Rain]

Zattaran's now makes a variety of rice in the bag, just heat and eat. No worrying about spoilage, and tastes good, but it looks pretty heavy. Boiled eggs keep a good long while, too. Bagels keep and son't get squashed, as do pitas. Are you looking for no-cook cold food options? There's a lot here, if you do a forum search.

[gsingjane]

"Keep" is a relative term. When your daytime temps are in the '60's and nighttime temps in the 30's or 40's, unpackaged food will keep considerably longer than when daytime temps are in the '90's. I have had tortillas keep for a week at a time (opened package) in the spring; had sandwich wraps mold in two days in the summer. In moderate temps, since rice doesn't involve animal or dairy products, 48 hours might be an outside guess. Remember that anything that comes from an animal, though, and isn't fermented or preserved (such as cheese or sausage) is going to start posing problems sooner rather than later. I would put eggs in this category... again in moderate temps you could keep them out maybe 3 days without cause for concern, but longer than that, no. Personally, particularly with the inherent sanitation issues involved in cooking and just generally living outdoors, I play it as safe as possible when it comes to potential food poisoning.

To sum up, I feel much safer taking unpackaged food in the spring or the fall than I do in the summer. In summer, if I really wanted fresh foods, I'd stick to really safe stuff like vegetables or hard cheese. The heat just isn't kind to most other types of unpackaged foods.

Jane in CT

[Skidsteer]

How long will cooked rice keep in a backpack at room temp without growing funky? Can you think of other foods like eggs that may keep without cooking for a couple days?


http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8519

There is some information on this thread you might find helpful.

[fiddlehead]

I am now living in Asia and have learned a lot about rice. My Thai wife never refrigerates leftover rice. She yells at me for doing so. And she only keeps it one day and then if we haven't eaten it, she feeds it to the dog or cat.

[Shiraz-mataz]

I've always kept my uncooked eggs in the refridgerator so you can imagine my culture shock surprise when I visited Australia a few years ago. It seems that every grocery store I went into, the eggs were usually kept at room temperature out on a shelf or aisle display stand. You might want to do a little more research than simply taking my advice on this but I'd say eggs might be ok for at least a couple of days as long as they don't get too hot. Does anyone know more about this? (I'll stick with powdered eggs for the trail!!!)

[wilderness bob]

ncmtns,
A little trick or two I learned about rice. The true problem I discovered was the ammount of fuel consumed to cook it. Recomendation? Pre-soak your rice for a few hours before you put a flame to it. This way you are only heating it, not cooking it. Be carefull of the amount of rice you use because as it soaks it expands. A large mouthed plastic bottle is recommended when doing so. This way you can carry uncooked rice with less worry about spoilage (getting your moneys worth out of the large volume rice purchase is a plus as well). Test the technique out well before you start your hike, I hope this helps. WB

[sarbar]

I've always kept my uncooked eggs in the refridgerator so you can imagine my culture shock surprise when I visited Australia a few years ago. It seems that every grocery store I went into, the eggs were usually kept at room temperature out on a shelf or aisle display stand. You might want to do a little more research than simply taking my advice on this but I'd say eggs might be ok for at least a couple of days as long as they don't get too hot. Does anyone know more about this? (I'll stick with powdered eggs for the trail!!!)

Most countries do not wash their eggs, in the US they do for grocery stores. This weakens the egg shell, and how long it can be kept. If you get your eggs locally, from a hen house, go for it. If from a store I wouldn't be so sure......

[Seeker]

if you re-coat them with oil (olive or veg) to replace what the USDA makes producers wash off, they'll keep for a week or more at room temp. when i was a kid, my grandmother (who lived in southern brazil) kept guinea hens... they don't really like to nest the way chickens do, and you had to go out and hunt for their eggs... sometimes, you'd miss one a couple days in a row, but they were always fine, even in sub-tropical heat.

for hiking, if i was using eggs, i'd go with dehydrated... fresh ones are just too heavy for me to bother with, not to mention keeping them from breaking.

i just remembered a trick one of my old sergeants told me about... he'd been stationed in alaska, and loved to hunt. he said that he would take a couple dozen eggs or so and beat them. then he'd put them in a thermos bottle in the freezer with the stopper off, overnight, before a trip. they'd freeze, but would thaw out slowly over time... he said that he could pour out a small amount each day for breakfast, and they'd last the whole trip, unspoiled. adding a little salt would probably help too.

[weary]

.... I would put eggs in this category... again in moderate temps you could keep them out maybe 3 days without cause for concern, but longer than that, no. ....CT
When I was growing up in the 30s, eggs were routinely kept on grocery shelves without refrigeration. My grandmother raised four of my cousins in a house without electricity, storing eggs for many days in a cool pantry.

As a result I routinely buy several dozen eggs when they are particularly cheap and keep them in a cool back hall for several weeks. None, as yet, have ever shown signs of spoiling. It's my belief that boiling fresh eggs makes them spoil more rapidly. I know it is popular wisdom. But by destroying the natural egg coating, I suspect boiling hurts, rather than helps.

Remember, a broody hen will collect eggs for a dozen days before beginning incubating them, which suggests that two weeks is long enough to keep an egg viable enough to produce a chick. I forget, most of you are not farm people. But you catch my point, I'm sure.

Weary