View Full Version : Fresh Food shelf life on the trail
What are your experiences with food shelf life? What techniques do you use to minimize spoilage besides eating it the first day?
I'm not asking about dehydrated or preserved food.
For example:
Eggs
Bacon
Cheddar cheese
Fresh Fruit
What other "luxury" foods do you take?
Has anyone tried a vacuum sealed steak?
Tuckahoe
06-29-2010, 17:14
Fresh eggs, especially when bought from a local farmer and not washed, are stable for a number of weeks (as long as 5 weeks). When eggs get washed it removes a protective membrain that requires eggs then be refridgerated. In the US eggs produced for retail are washed and must be kept cold.
Properly preserved bacon too, can be stable for many weeks.
Fresh fruits like apples have a pretty long shelf life as well.
Old Hiker
06-29-2010, 17:28
Pre-cooked bacon seems to last about 3 days, max, mostly because we have eaten it all by then. Cheddar cheese seems to get greasy and soft after a couple of days. String cheeses (mozzarella) seem to last a lot longer. Have not tried eggs yet.
Tuckahoe, Thanks for the info on eggs.
Old Hiker, I agree about cheddar cheese. Do you use the individually wrapped string cheese my kids love so much or can you get bigger quantities?
Any other good cheeses for hiking, I guess swiss would be better but I don't like it as much as others.
Old Hiker
06-29-2010, 17:38
[QUOTE=TexasEd;1027848]
Old Hiker, I agree about cheddar cheese. Do you use the individually wrapped string cheese my kids love so much or can you get bigger quantities?
QUOTE]
What we have done is get the string cheese sticks - probably not as cost effective as we could do, but we only do a week at a time. We use those, some pepperoni and pita bread to make a lunch. They seem to hold up well over several days. I'm looking at flatbreads, etc. this time around. I see threads here in WB that say the harder cheeses are the way to go. I'm playing with an IMUSA 9.5 inch frying pan that's only 1/4 inch high. It weighs a bit, but after taking the handle off, it may do pretty well for frying things up for the section hike. The wife has agreed to carry it, so I'll be taking fresh eggs for the first 2-3 days for breakfast.
Tuckahoe
06-29-2010, 17:59
Also on eggs, if you are unsure whether they may be good or not, you can check them by placing the eggs in a bowl of water. Those that sink are good, and those that float are bad.
Tipi Walter
06-29-2010, 18:10
I do long trips and sometimes carry a dozen eggs in a little plastic suitcase. The thing is, with all the jostling and stuff, the eggs develop little hairline cracks so it's hard to keep a fresh egg from cracking. Egg life can be determined, in my mind, by the smell. Crack it open and give it a whiff--unless it has an obvious spilling crack--then feed it to your dog.
Cheese never goes bad though it may get very greasy or moldy. I eat around the mold, etc. You gotta triple ziploc it sometimes. Now butter on the other hand can spoil fast in this heat, and gets too drippy, etc. For this reason some people take ghee. I like coconut oil.
A loaf of good whole wheat bread can last about 12-16 days, depending on the kind of bread. I took out a loaf of seed bread which molded up after a week.
Apples and some fruit can last a long time, longer than you'll want to carry them.
chiefiepoo
06-29-2010, 18:43
I have found the Cabot Vermont super sharp cheddar to hold up well on the trail. Buy it on line or at retail. Travels much better than cracker barrell which turns to slime at higher temps. Harder the cheeese, better long term survivability. Don't think swiss would keep too well. Summer sausage I carried seems to keep forever inspite of the "refrigerate after opening" warning. Used to have canned bacon, but haven't seen it in years.
Pedaling Fool
06-29-2010, 18:54
I can never keep cheese long enough to go bad, it just gets greasy, but never had a problem. I dehydrate everything because I can carry a lot. However, I've found that garlic is a waste of time to dehydrate, it lasts a long time and the weight/bulk is near zero.
Cheese is my only luxury food.
Consider those individually packaged, vacuum sealed ham steaks. They last a couple of days ok, longer in cool weather, and they are great on the trail.
Just wipe the slime off most any hard cheese in hot weather and enjoy. Later in the trip, cut the mold off the outside, and enjoy the rest.
Summer sausage lasts a week or so, never had any go bad.
Fresh fruits/veggies have always lasted as long as I wanted to carry the weight - they get eaten fast.
Also, bagels pack well and last. Can get moldy if it's humid out - helps to get them out of the plastic bag you pack them in, set them out in the sun to dry out for a couple of hours every other day or so. English muffins hold up pretty well too.
modiyooch
06-29-2010, 22:02
It's been my understanding that colby cheese last the longest.
This last time I carried babybel cheese which had a good taste.
I usually manage to eat all my food before it expires.
Panzer
Don't get me wrong, I am only talking about 3-4 days.
Thanks for the leads on cheese that holds up better than others. I took regular cheddar last hike and it pretty much melted into vegetable oil or whatever they had in it.
Hikes in Rain
06-30-2010, 12:07
Another cheese option might be parmesan, romano or asagio, in increasing order of sharpness. These are grating cheeses, so they're harder and have a lower moisure content than "regular" cheeses. Thus, they keep longer and weep or mold less. But they still slice nicely for sandwiches, or just bite off the chunk. And they're tasty!
My cheese is always gone before I ever have a chance to worry about it, though.
ShelterLeopard
06-30-2010, 12:12
What are your experiences with food shelf life? What techniques do you use to minimize spoilage besides eating it the first day?
I'm not asking about dehydrated or preserved food.
For example:
Eggs
Bacon
Cheddar cheese
Fresh Fruit
What other "luxury" foods do you take?
Has anyone tried a vacuum sealed steak?
I find that cheddar cheese lasts ages, it gets a little oily and gross, but it still tastes pretty good. Bacon I carry only in the cooler weather- though I'm sure it'd be okay for a couple days in the summer, it's get all melty and all over the place. Fresh fruit lasts a pretty long time, but I've never carried it longer than four days (because it is a little heavy, and it gets bruised after a while). Eggs I have carried for five days, raw, in a protective case. Worked fine. (Carried eggs, bagels, olive oil and swiss cheese out of Damascus and made breakfast sandwiches every morning).
Other luxury foods- jam, real milk (only in the winter- I'd rather have it get a little icy than go bad), fresh vegetables for stir fry, pancakes, etc... Carried all of that in the first month of my thru this year.
Although after I while, I really just end up eating ramen. And loving it.
FlyPaper
06-30-2010, 16:13
Fresh eggs, especially when bought from a local farmer and not washed, are stable for a number of weeks (as long as 5 weeks). When eggs get washed it removes a protective membrain that requires eggs then be refridgerated. In the US eggs produced for retail are washed and must be kept cold.
Properly preserved bacon too, can be stable for many weeks.
Fresh fruits like apples have a pretty long shelf life as well.
I frequently take eggs bought from major grocery store chains on the trail for 3 or 4 day hikes. I usually eat the eggs sooner rather than later because they are heavy, but often have them unrefrigerated for at least 3 days. I have heard that eggs were good for a week unrefrigerated, but that was not qualified by whether they were washed or not. Perhaps I am in need of more research, but so far they've turned out okay.
Appalachian Tater
06-30-2010, 20:08
The enemies that cause fresh foods to spoil when hiking are heat and motion--jostling and crushing.
Hard cheese doesn't really go bad, it just oozes fat. Preserved meats like salt ham or summer sausage or cured bacon should be fine for at least a week--think about how they are preserved. Anything preserved with salt, sugar, or acid are fine.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are fine if they don't get bruised. Avocados and mangoes have too much seed to be efficient. Apples and citrus do fine. Peaches, pears, tomatoes, bananas--the fruits that get bruised on the way home from the grocery store--you have to be very careful with. I have good luck tucking bananas in my rolled-up tarptent with the pole in the bag on the outside of my pack to protect them.
A piece of fresh fruit a day on the trail is a nice treat and well worth the weight as a luxury item in my opinion. Just eat the heavier pieces first.
If you can keep eggs from cracking they are fine for a week between resupply--they have their own little package to keep them from spoiling. How hot is a hen's @55?
Another luxury food for me is a retort-packaged Indian meal to be served with rice or couscous, because they are saucy and thus heavy.
THINK "hard" AND "low moisture".
Cheese, the harder it is, the less it will spoil and be a hassle. Pick the type of cheese by the hardness. Experiment. you will find a type you like. Put it in a zip lock and rubber band it. I use a "mouse box". Peanut butter jar. Cut it into chunks, wrap it with baggie or zip lock, rubber band it so that it is packed tight and jam it into the peanut butter jar.
Pepperoni. Do the same. Cut it into chunks that can be wrapped in plastic and jammed into peanut butter jar. Critters will never know its there, let alone get into it.
Carrots and raw potato. Dice these up as you go and add to your whatever.
Fruit. Go hard. Means a few days away from ripe. Green bananas.
soulrebel
07-01-2010, 10:36
"Vacuum Sealed Steak" hahahhahahahhahahahahha, hehe, woooooo!
Dear Brother,
Goto the nearest butcher shop get the biggest T-bone you can buy. Walk into the woods, make a fire, sear the meat to perfection directly on the fire turning it by hand by grabbing the bone, then enjoy the best steak of your life.
Best wishes and Happy Trails,
brother
I might seriously do the steak this time.
Last year was our first section trip of 4 days and eating like we were on a long journey was kind of novel.
This year if there isn't a fire ban I think I will take a steak and maybe some small potatoes wrapped in foil to put next to the coals. I can pre-season and vacuum seal them before the trip.
I'll definitely take carrots since they are pretty much indestructible and easy to eat while walking.
Teeah3612
07-01-2010, 14:58
Pepperoni rolls are great! They taste good whether fluffy or flat and all you have to do to "fix" dinner is open the ziplock bag. Just buy a dozen the day before you leave and throw them in the top of the pack.
Kiwi fruit are great on the trail a good punch for their weight and will last much longer than you will carry them. Apples (Granny Smith are best IMHO), green hard pears will rippen over a couple days, bananas at the trail head.
I like whole grain pita breads and some sort of "hunter sausage" they are small and use 1 at a meal last forever.
If you don't like the oily film from cheeses in warm weather buy a hard dry cheese and take along a mini grater or just chunk it up fine on a sandwich, drop some in a hot bowl of noodles or rice and it will melt down nicely.
I love to take off with a frozen steak at the start of a hike and cook it the first night out, it makes others at the camp area drool with envy. LOL
BigHodag
07-01-2010, 22:18
I bought some bananas when I resupplied at Henicle's Grocery outside Caledonia. I stuffed them inside my closed cell foam pad atop my pack. Stuffed my pack cover and a large trash bag inside the ends. Enjoyed fresh, firm banana up the trail. I also did this with a Pepsi earlier and a bottle of OJ later.
I also picked up some small oranges and just tossed them into a side pocket.
I bought some hard salami (lower water content) and stored the wrapped salami inside a $2.99 Bubblope. Padded envelopes not only keep trail food hot, they also keep trail food cool. I ate the salami over a 48-hour period. [hat tip to Absent, who had the idea to use the Bubblope as a trail fridge]