View Full Version : beef summer sausage -refrigerate ??
I bought a few of those Hilshire Farms beef summer sausages to take with me hiking...around 4 or 5 inches long....on sale after Christmas...
I am wondering if everyone chances keeping these things a couple days after opening, since it says refrigerate after opening on there......it is too much to eat in one day. Or only use them in cold weather ??
Or do you pretty much need to force feed / share and eat it in a single day ?
Puppy
Jim Adams
01-09-2008, 19:19
won't spoil...no meat!
actually I have used those also while hiking and have saved them for the second day after opening by burying deep in my pack during the second day. no problems yet.
geek
Speer Carrier
01-09-2008, 19:23
I'm no expert, but this past fall I hiked with a group, and one of the members had summer sausage. We ate from it for a week with no problem. The person who brought it said it would keep for quite a few days.
Hope this helps
saimyoji
01-09-2008, 19:29
I'm no expert, but this past fall I hiked with a group, and one of the members had summer sausage. We ate from it for a week with no problem. The person who brought it said it would keep for quite a few days.
Hope this helps
This is my experience also. Have eaten the same sausage for 3-4 days in the summer. One way to keep it cool is wrap it well in a ziplock, stick in your water bottle, add cold water, wrap water bottle in towel or clothes and store in the middle of your pack. Works for other foods too. Each time you re-up on water, check it, change out for cold water if need be.
AT-HITMAN2005
01-09-2008, 19:40
they put refrigerate after opening on a lot of stuff to cover there butts in law suits.
bigboots
01-09-2008, 19:48
they put refrigerate after opening on a lot of stuff to cover there butts in law suits.
This is very true. I have also eaten such meats over several days...no problems yet!
Bigboots
Agree with all of the above. I would however eat it every day till it was gone in the summer. Save the peanut butter and tuna till later in the hike.
Toolshed
01-09-2008, 21:32
When I was stationed on the East German border, we would get them from home. It would take up to 2-3 weeks to get packages and then we woul keep them in our barracks (no fridge) for weeks at a time. Just cut off the end and discard. There are enough preservatives, you just need to concern yourself with any piece that is exposed to oxygen and might grow mold over a few days. Just don't keep pulling the skin back, just pull back as much a you are eating.
BTW, Except for the very brutal hot days of summer, Nights are relatively cool and the sausage will stay cool buried in your pack all day.
Most nights will probably be only slightly warmer than your fridge until you hit halfway through VA anyway......
If anything, I think your more in danger from sodium and preservatives.
Two Speed
01-09-2008, 21:34
Not quite the same thing, but I get a good quality salami from a local Czech bakery. It hangs from hooks in the store; no refrigeration required.
SGT Rock
01-09-2008, 21:53
Wasn't part of the reason they started making sausage so that they would have a form of meat that would keep for a long time?
It should be good for several days. Summer sausage and cheese are the mainstays of a hiking diet. :D Good for any season. Lots of protein and fat... just what a hiker needs.
Wasn't part of the reason they started making sausage so that they would have a form of meat that would keep for a long time?
If I remember what I've read correctly, hard, dry sausage will last the longest.
If it’s a real concern, wouldn’t it be good to use a dehydrator and make some jerky?
I'm a chef, and I also eat summer sausage while hiking, that stuff will last a long time, that's why alot of people take it. You'll know its bad if little white spots start growing on it.
don`t forget the SALAMI :D
Lone Wolf
01-09-2008, 22:22
Spam.......
Toolshed
01-09-2008, 22:31
Not quite the same thing, but I get a good quality salami from a local Czech bakery. It hangs from hooks in the store; no refrigeration required.
When I lived in Rochester, There was an old German Store that made Hungarian and polish sausage from old world family recipes. they hung hundreds of links on strings stretched out behind the counter. You could get fresh, dry, drier and driest. The drier it was the lighter it was and the more it cost per lb. I used to get 2-3 lbs of the very dry sausage and keep it in a paper bag for weeks unrefrigerated (paper bags breathe. If kept in plastic, it rots).
Unfortunately around 2000 the Monroe County Health Dept came in and issued violations stating the sausage had to be refrigerated as it was a health code violation. End of that great dry sausage.... *****ing County Morons.
Check the brands. Some will say refrigeration needed upon opening and others say that it is not necessary. Both last some time without being refrigerated. I always take one with me.
Even if it does go bad you won't die or anything, you'll just stay in the bathroom awhile.
Unfortunately around 2000 the Monroe County Health Dept came in and issued violations stating the sausage had to be refrigerated as it was a health code violation. End of that great dry sausage.... *****ing County Morons.
Isn't government wonderful???
NOT!
turtle fast
01-10-2008, 00:26
Dry salami, the kind that hangs up in the grocery store is perfect. Johnsonville sausage is the prefered brand of dry salami. The other stuff will last a few days if not refridgerated, just remember to keep it cool in your pack and keep ther plastic on it exposing very little to an openning. Their is enough preservatives in there to choke a horse...just remember to eat it up as soon as possible.
Pokey2006
01-10-2008, 00:29
Oh, summer sausage seems to keep forever! Seemed to me it did as well as beef jerky on the trail. I never even knew about it until I started hiking down south. I only just last week discovered a supermarket up north that carries it, and I couldn't be more excited! It's the best thing ever!
Unfortunately around 2000 the Monroe County Health Dept came in and issued violations stating the sausage had to be refrigerated as it was a health code violation. End of that great dry sausage.... *****ing County Morons.
I'm sure you can get the properly shrink-wrapped (name brand) stuff at Wegmans. Might not be that authentic ethnic stuff, but it'll do just fine for hiking. Damn, I wish we had Wegmans in Boston.
orangebug
01-10-2008, 01:03
Fermented sausage like the Czech, real Italian and such can be identified by hanging on a string in the store. Flies and other critters can't get through the wax paper/casing, but Americans can't stand the idea. Like good salt pork and smoked ham, it can last a very long time without refrigeration.
The usual stuff sold in malls and grocery stores aren't quite the same, processed with a lot more chemicals, flavorings and colorings. Plus they seem to be mostly fat and gristle.
Chicken Feathers
01-17-2008, 22:36
I bought a few of those Hilshire Farms beef summer sausages to take with me hiking...around 4 or 5 inches long....on sale after Christmas...
I am wondering if everyone chances keeping these things a couple days after opening, since it says refrigerate after opening on there......it is too much to eat in one day. Or only use them in cold weather ??
Or do you pretty much need to force feed / share and eat it in a single day ?
Puppy
yea I read the label refigerate after opening so I put mine in a seal a bag and placed them in my garage for five days then had them for lunch they tasted fine and no I did not live on the toilet:banana
fiddlehead
01-17-2008, 22:57
Here in Thailand (average temps around 90 deg.) my wife often buys sausage at the flea market type market (local farmers and vendors only) and then hangs it up outside for a few days before we eat it.
Many family's here don't even have refrigerators. Don't know why they don't get sick on some of the things they eat (raw meat, including pork sometimes) but possibly the hot chilies they eat probably have a lot to do with it.
go for it, i sent them in my mail drops on my hike in '96 and packaged them ALL for the whole trip before i started so some were in there 5 months.
just find a good Hungarian store that sales meat and other foods in your area, and you will taste the best dry salami on the planet. salami is just a thicker sumer sausage:D
Thoughtful Owl
01-18-2008, 12:39
I was over at Foodlion the other day and going down the meat isle. In the middle of the isle was a Hillshire Farms Summer Sausage Display. Picked one up and was reading the packaging, curious after reading this thread; and right on the lable is stated "No Refrigeration Required".
I have used this sausage for a long time and have yet to have a problem with it spoiling before I ate it up.
Buy the abunch of the small size instead of one big one. Open them has needed, same for cheese.
It is cured. I don't know how it is cured but, no refrigeration is required.
Lots of meats have been 'cured' and, before refrigeration, it was a method of preserving them. For instance, the best dry-cured Spanish hams (Iberico) are hung in the breeze for three years before it is cut and sliced thin to eat as it is. The cheaper hams are taken down & hung for less time. You can often buy chorizo sausage in the same supermarkets where the beef summer sausage and I consider it consderably tastier. Again, no refrigeration required for ether, ever. Both are outstanding sliced up n a bowl of cous couch or grits:)