Merat in a cool bag.

[Hello... I'm Johnny Cash]

Does any one know how long meat is gonna keep in a decent cool bag?

I'm gonna jam it full of ice and ice packs and the meat will be coming out of the freezer on Wednesday morning. The ice bag itself will be surrounded by at least 3 or 4 other cool bags full of ice and frozen drinks.

Am am being a bit optimistic in thinking that it might go the full 5 days? I went camping last weekend and 1 considerably cheaper cool bag with about 1/3 of the ice that I could have got in it kept my beer at a temperature that you could have safely kept meat at for 2 days.

Anyone tried it before?

[Hello... I'm Johnny Cash]

Shit. You can't edit titles can you?

[Lucanesque]

Merat: Cultural Learnings of Sausages for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Glastonbury.

Personally I wouldn't risk it past a couple of days.

[Hello... I'm Johnny Cash]

Merat: Cultural Learnings of Sausages for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Glastonbury.

Personally I wouldn't risk it past a couple of days.

[puppetmode]

we have 5lb of bacon every year in a rigid cool box. We freeze it and take frozen ice packs which last a day or so. We have eaten the bacon on the Monday morning, although it didn't look at its best.

btw, we usually get there on the Thursday morning so one day less than you. Were going Wednesday morning this year so not expecting it to last til Monday

[Hezza-S]

Personally I wouldnt risk the five days.

Trial run it with a thermometer. The temperature of the meat should not go above 5C, so when it does don't eat it!

[siman]

I personally think if everything is frozen solid and packed with ice it'll be OK until Saturday at least.

So long as you cook everything very well then wouldn't worry to much.

[nina3d]

Shit. You can't edit titles can you?

[toooldtoknowbetter]

If there's still ice cubes in your coolbox, the meat may be ok, but you can't be certain.

I'm afraid the 'if you cook it well, you'll be ok' policy is flawed: bacterial or fungal exotoxins persist in the meat even after destruction of the organism that produced them, and such exotoxins are often heat-stable. And some of them can make you very ill indeed. Not worth the risk.

[Salt_On_Everything]

A full 5 days is HUGELY optimistic if you ask me... I normally only do a BBQ on the first night of a festival, don't trust it after that. Remember, Glasto is the LAST place you're gonna want the shits! I guess variety of meat might vary too - bacon is surely gonna last longer than say, chicken?

[Hello... I'm Johnny Cash]

Think the thermometer idea is the winner

I'm gonna get Mythbusters on this and do some tests... I've put all my ice blocks in the freezer and filled a load of bottles with water for freezing. Will start a trial run tomorrow. I might even be able to lay my hands on a food probe so I'm checking the meat temp not just the temp in the bag (can't see it being different though).

I'll post again when the meat gets to 3.5 degrees (playing it safe) hopefully in 5 days time!

[StoneCircle]

Does any one know how long meat is gonna keep in a decent cool bag?

I'm gonna jam it full of ice and ice packs and the meat will be coming out of the freezer on Wednesday morning. The ice bag itself will be surrounded by at least 3 or 4 other cool bags full of ice and frozen drinks.

Am am being a bit optimistic in thinking that it might go the full 5 days? I went camping last weekend and 1 considerably cheaper cool bag with about 1/3 of the ice that I could have got in it kept my beer at a temperature that you could have safely kept meat at for 2 days.

Anyone tried it before?

[lofichic]

I clicked on this link because I was intrigued about merat. I had nearly clicked on it twice previously but didn't.

I am disappointed.

I think you should change your entire post to reflect what I thought it might be. Either a random Eastern European spirit made with herbs and potions that doesn't keep well in the heat, or some new fangled drug reference I am now too square to get.

[Salt_On_Everything]

I clicked on this link because I was intrigued about merat. I had nearly clicked on it twice previously but didn't.

I am disappointed.

I think you should change your entire post to reflect what I thought it might be. Either a random Eastern European spirit made with herbs and potions that doesn't keep well in the heat, or some new fangled drug reference I am now too square to get.

[George Saguna]

Try to google it. I did it myself and a lot of good information came up. It seems that if the meat is cooked and closed in airtight plastic bags that should help it to last for much longer. Have a look for your self.

[scappaflow]

Probably 5 days would be pushing it a bit.

I took a BBQ last year with stuff for our tea on the Wednesday. We also managed to cook some stuff on the Thursday morning on a neighbours BBQ.

Personally it was a bit of hassle and I wouldn't bother with it again. Just take some snacks, cereal bars, crisps etc and buy food there, is my plan.

It's def decent value for a festival.

[pie_and_a_pint]

On camping holidays we've taken (frozen) bacon and sausages well packed in a cool box and eaten it for two days (as in, we packed it on Friday morning and ate it for breakfast on Friday night and Saturday morning), but I wouldn't risk it after that. Also, bacon is salty so lasts longer - I definitely wouldn't risk stuff like chicken for more than a day.

On the plus side, I can confirm that marg/spread, cheese and freshly-squeezed OJ is fine for at about four days in a cool box.