Dry Ice and Keeping Meat Frozen

[bigjake_888]

I have a back pack hunting trip. I want to be able to keep meat frozen for two to three days. If I put dry ice in a collapsible cooler will it do the trick?

I probably want to keep four large steaks frozen.

How much dry ice should I use?

[DogZilla15]

Steaks will keep for several days without being frozen as long as they're kept cold like they would at home in the fridge.

[Bloom]

At this time of year, I think you could get by with wrapping the steaks with insulating foam and butcher paper, saving you a little weight.

[Turnerjo13]

We used those collapsible coolers this year on a September horse packing trip and they worked really well even with out dry Ice. They have the foil lining. We surrounded the meat we took with frozen veggis and it stayed frozen for at least three days and cold enough for at least one more day. I think by the fourth day we made sure to have all of the meat that could go bad used up I was really supprised how well they worked. We made sure to keep them in the shade during the heat of the day.

[bigjake_888]

Appreciate the input, but I want to keep things frozen or hard for two to three days.

[stickflicker]

Most place sell dry ice in 10# blocks If you used 5# or less and don't open the packing that you put the steaks in you should easily last 3 days.You must be very careful what you put underneath because the dry ice even in it's own package will freeze what ever is underneath it.I use this stuff daily at work for icecream to keep frozen any more ? feel fre to pm me

[Catch 22]

Insulate the dry ice by wrapping it up with newspaper. You want to keep it dry as much as possible. Wetting dry ice activates it into steam and evaporates it. Also know that if you put a can of pop into a cooler with even a little uninsulated dry ice, it will explode. Your cooler will be more of a freezer than a fridge.

So insulation of the dry ice itself determines how long it will last and how cold the cooler is. No insulation of the ice will freeze the heck out of everything but shorten the life of the ice. Heavily insulating (and keeping it dry) will lighten the freeze factor and extend the life of the dry ice.

Hope this helps. I used to deliver foods to restaurants and used dry ice everyday for delivering some perishables like icecream. I would reuse the dry ice in the warm weather for my lunch. So, I'm kind of an expert. LOL.

[bigjake_888]

Nice info!

[jnicholson]

The last two years I've had two day delivery of antelope from Wyoming. The processor freezes the hamburger and choice cuts solid and puts a small bag of dry ice in with the box. The meat is still frozen when it gets here. The dry ice is gone.

Cost some $$$ but not as expensive as flying it home now.

John

[Critter Getter]

My son and I went to New Mexico last year for an elk hunt. The end of Oct. got 1 elk , boned out all the meat and hung in quarter bags over night to cool off good. Loaded up the next morning splitting the elk meat between 2 150 qt. coolers . Put about 50# of dry ice , didn't have a clue as how much to use. Split the dry ice in both coolers and put a couple of sheets of cardboard over the meat so there was no direct contact with the meat. Drove 1/2 way home that day , checked it the next morning and it was all frozen solid. After getting home it still took 5 days to thaw enough to cut it up. We thought it worked great. Maybe a little heavy on the dray ice but otherwise perfect.