Food/Drink: What worked - what didnt

[jasonryan]

3 cooler setup worked very well. 75 pounds of dry ice in a 150qt marine cooler kept water ice and steaks frozen for several days. I had ice for the other 2 coolers through Thursday.

When did you buy the dry ice? Ie. how many days did you get out of the 75 pounds? I've read that it sublimates at 10lbs/day, but it sounds like you got 4-5 days? 30lbs lasted about 3 days for me. Next year I want to make it last as long as possible.

-Jason

[Theraplst]

I had figured 5 for the week and had already comitted to dropping off 2 to a burner coming in on the bus so I ended up buying 4 packages (20 gals). I left 3 in the Hotel Rug camp and ended up with an excess of 1 and a half containers (even with washing my hair daily) on Sunday.

Thank you very much for that btw! I wanted to come see you on playa but of course forgot where you camped. Couldn't remember if you said where anyways. All the water got put to good use at hotel rug!

[FIGJAM]

I started with 70 pounds of dry ice on saturday for the trip to the playa.

It was gone by the following saturday, but the effect lasted till monday when I took out the strawberries for the shortcake and they were still a little icey.

[delle]

Dammit!!! I knew I'd spaced something important!!!

THE SHORTCAKE!!!!

[Patsh]

I scored a dose of that strawberry shortcake, and, what a welcome treat it was!!
Thanks again, FIGJAM!! YUM!

[TomServo]

best playa bike Ive ever had.

I'd agree, and add that they aren't much good for anything else

not true. are great in muddy fields and flooded streets. I will be changing the rear sprocket, however, for next year.

[tatonka]

I started with 70 pounds of dry ice on saturday for the trip to the playa.

It was gone by the following saturday, but the effect lasted till monday when I took out the strawberries for the shortcake and they were still a little icey.

we bought 4 bricks for a cooler that had 1 gal ice jugs in them , we were going to switch them to the other 7 day cooler when its ice was low , by wed the dry ice was gone but the 1 gal ice jugs was still good.

[TT120]

3 cooler setup worked very well. 75 pounds of dry ice in a 150qt marine cooler kept water ice and steaks frozen for several days. I had ice for the other 2 coolers through Thursday.

When did you buy the dry ice? Ie. how many days did you get out of the 75 pounds? I've read that it sublimates at 10lbs/day, but it sounds like you got 4-5 days? 30lbs lasted about 3 days for me. Next year I want to make it last as long as possible.

-Jason

I got about 4 days out of the dry ice. Each 10 pound slab was wrapped in several layers of paper which helped insulate it.

I bought 75 lbs of dry ice on Saturday and still had little pieces left on Tuesday morning. By Wednesday morning the dry ice was gone but the water ice and steaks were still frozen solid. Thursday morning revealed the steaks had almost thawed and the water ice had just started to melt but still had frozen 2 liter bottles of water on the bottom.

I only opened that ice chest once a day in the mornings when it was cooler. Grab a couple bags of ice for the other 2 coolers and close it right up. I could have made it the full 8 days with what I had but standing in the ice line is it's own unique experience so I did buy ice once.

[Soylent Queen]

Hello, Food Burners, from a recovering Virgin! Nice to meet you! Lovely thread! Great tips.

Lots of food that a low-carber can't eat, but plenty of ideas for de-carbohydratification, as well.

OK. So. What worked from the perspective of a Virgin Burner, Type 1 diabetic, very low-carb eater:

1. heavy cream in shelf-stable boxes, Trader Joe's. Was sumptuous poured on top of fresh strawberries.
2. Eggs. I wound up cooking a lot of eggs scrambled with vegetables, most notably sauteed onions and jars of roasted red peppers, along with various cheeses. I had ghee, but I wound up instead using that delicious Irish butter—Kendricks, is it?—after learning how it would be easy to keep things chilled.
3. Evaporated heavy cream. This stuff's the bomb. Cremora was plentiful at camp, but that mouth-dust is little more than corn syrup. Bleh! Bleh! I put out a huge jar of dried heavy cream at camp, assuming that everybody would be, like, "Hello, YEA! Real food!" Sadly, I was instead mystified to see people using can after can of dehydrated corn syrup or whatever that Cremora coffee lightener stuff is, rather than real cream. I found one cream-loving comrade, explained to her where it was and what it was, and was glad that she, at least, started glomming onto it. In the future, I'll try to do more education to ensure that people know there's an option.
4. Peanuts.
5. Macadamia nuts.
6. Sun tea: peppermint.


What I didn't use:
1. dehydrated eggs
2. dehydrated cheddar cheese
3. ghee

All that "doesn't need refrigeration" stuff seemed like a good idea before I left, but I soon realized that icing things wouldn't be an issue, due in great part to the incredible gifting of ice-taxi service at our camp, Poly Paradise. Bless you, ice taxi people!

At this point, I have lots of dried food. I'm going to combine all my dried food—cheddar, eggs, cream—and experiment with making crustless quiches or some such.

Future burns:
1. I'm hoping to get to know like-minded people who want to cook low-carb. It was great to have meals cooked by fellow campers, and to cook for them on our day, of course, but honestly, I couldn't eat most of what they cooked. Too many carbs. I'd love to be in a camp where many of the meals are low-carb, and I'd like to set up some gifting for that type of food, as well. Fresh strawberries with heavy cream, anyone?
2. Going to research the feasibility of gifting vinegar foot baths. I think it would be a welcome addition to similar gifting, such as the Human Carcass Wash at Poly Paradise, or the adjacent Hieney Hygiene Station.

[unjonharley]

What worked? Bought four (very cheap very thin) one gallon containers.. Froze then and had bock ice in the food cooler.. When the ice was gone The water was poured into the Iglo drink dispenser. Good clean usable water and no soaked food...

The containers were found at WalMart where food canisters are displayed.. There are also two gallon suitcase style water dispensers..

Not to waste.... I refilled the one gallon containers (adding two more) and placed them in the cooler.. Adding six gallon to the emergency water supply.. I have a small vintage cooler(picnic size) that will hold two of the two gallon dispensers.. So am going to add these and they can go to Burning Man too.

[asr9754]

Worked: mini cans of tuna and chicken salad w/ crackers
Apples w/ Nutella
Carrots and snap peas
Hard boiled eggs
Leftover pizza slices in a tupperware box (not a ziplock) in cooler. Saved my life a few nights!
Clif bars
Ensure drinks
VIA instant coffee from that big seattle coffee chain. Works for hot or iced coffee.
Thai Iced Tea-- Store-bought Thai tea bags, brewed a bunch at home then put in a milk jug and chilled. Drank on playa over ice w/ coffee creamer and sugar. AWESOME gift in the desert!

Didn't
Poptarts pouch in my back pocket--crumbled into dust by the time I remembered to eat them
Brocolli--smells horrible after a few days in the heat
Raw eggs-broken in cooler is a graywater disaster
Ziplock bags in a cooler--does not keep water out of food even when sealed tightly
Bagels, got moldy very quick ?

[TT120]

Cans of ravioli were excellent late night comfort food. Maybe it was the Playa dust but they tasted better than I remember.

A Jetboil with the french press attachment made the best 2 cups of coffee ever and it only takes about 2 minutes to almost boil the water.

Kippered snacks and Ritz crackers were just awesome anytime.

Home made pickles from Maryanimals garden were the BOMB! (Mary, I need more!)

[maladroit]

Single serving instant coffee and one or two flavored Horizon milks (vanilla or chocolate are best, obviously) and some ice. I earned so many points with this...my girlfriend would treat me like some kind of magician when I'd disappear into the hexayurt and emerge with one of these. They tasted a lot better than most of the premixed iced coffee drinks I've tried, and it helps your mix-n-match variety because you can just have hot coffee or milk without any extra thought.

[remi]

I like to eat like a king. The year I went I really enjoyed BBQ. I bring a full size BBQ. I pull out my meat for the next day right after dinner, marinade over night. Steaks, chicken and salmon. Next year I'm going to try to bring my steamer. I love steaming broccoli and zucchini. I also cooked my asparagus on the bbq... grilled tomatoes with feta crumbled on it was another good one. Like most other people mentioned, I brought canned food, but I think I ate one can of ravioli all week... Trail mix was rad!

One thing I need to bring more of next time is beef jerky. My campmate became addicted and raided everyones jerky stash. Understandable... we all go a little crazy sometimes.

[maladroit]

I pull out my meat for the next day right after dinner

Ha

[HappySarah]

I live in the East Coast and I cooked, vacuum sealed, and froze all my meals and shipped them as checked-in luggage in a cooler with ice packs. The airlines charged me as much as if I shipped a suitcase (I think it was $35).
What worked:
- Steaks in chimichurri sauce (frozen and vacuum sealed)
- Chicken fajitas (frozen and vacuum sealed)
- Zucchini bread (frozen and vacuum sealed)
- Bolognese sauce (frozen and vacuum sealed)
- Pesto (frozen as cubes and vacuum sealed)
- Bacon (frozen and vacuum sealed)
- Veggie stir fry with tofu (frozen and vacuum sealed)
- Tortilla (was the only type of bread we had and it stayed fresh all week)
- Pickles in a jar
- Boil-in-bag rice
- Pastas

What sort of worked, but wasn’t perfect!
- Quinoa tabbouli (it didn’t taste as fresh after thawed but it was ok)
- Baby frittata baked in mini muffins size (worked but didn’t taste as good as when first came out of the oven, I will probably still make them again)

The only cooking we did was boiling water and making either pasta or rice for dinner, with any of the sauces or meats already made.

P.S. we were in an RV so we had a fridge and a freezer. I am going to build a yurt and use the two cooler method this year!!

[bluemiragemi]

HappySarah - OMG your post made me SO HAPPY. I was thinking of canning homemade vegetable soup and somehow shipping it out there, but I heard glass on the playa is frowned upon due to potential breakage MOOP.

Tell me more about how you got it out there? I'm travelling from Michigan, flying to Reno, hoping for a rideshare or taking the Burner Express to BRC.

I'm a damn good cook and I kill, grow, freeze and can most of my own food. Veggies = needed.

[VultureChow]

You can absolutely bring glass. It's frowned upon as a beer container, partly because of breakage, but mainly because it creates heavier bulkier trash.

I've brought homemade pickles that I can. Plenty of other people bring jars, etc.

ETA: I bring frozen chili and thaw it for our chili cookoff. I just double bag it, wrap a sweatshirt around it and put it in the middle of a checked bag. Stays absolutely rock solid for a good 8 hours somehow.

[unjonharley]

I use "glass" in camp only.. Pyrex and so forth..

[TT120]

I use "glass" in camp only.. Pyrex and so forth..

As long as your meth lab doesn't explode, there is no moop.

[theCryptofishist]

I use "glass" in camp only.. Pyrex and so forth..

As long as your meth lab doesn't explode, there is no moop.

Simon? Is that you?

[Savannah]

HappySarah - OMG your post made me SO HAPPY. I was thinking of canning homemade vegetable soup and somehow shipping it out there, but I heard glass on the playa is frowned upon due to potential breakage MOOP.

Right. It's frowned upon, not banned. Most good booze comes in glass bottles, so careful use is tolerated. So, opt for other containers wherever possible, keep control of what do you bring in, & don't give out individual glass bottles of beer. (If someone accepts a bottle from you, and breaks it a block away some poor fool will step in it, or (best case scenario) a member of DPW will be on their hands and knees picking it out of the playa.)

Be ready to transport it out and recycle it, and sweep up every bit of it, if it breaks. You know--regular good citizen stuff.

[unjonharley]

When out mooping, I carry a dog pooper scooper and tiny rake just for glass..

It is hard for me to get down and up.. So I get off my ride, get the two canes,get the rake and scooper out.. By then I have some one shamed into picking the glass out of the dust.. It all go's to show

[theCryptofishist]

By then I have some one shamed into picking the glass out of the dust.. It all go's to show

*nods wisely...*

[bluemiragemi]

Frozen chili in luggage sounds awesome. Crazy awesome.

Thanks for the pro tips on the glass! Yeah, I'd keep mason jars in my tent and haul them out. And then...shelf stable veggies. Hell yeah.

[Ashtar]

What worked:

• Frozen, vacuum-sealed meals (pot roast, red beans & rice)
• Muffin-cup sized frittatas (shredded potato, wilted greens, garlic, bacon in a muffin tin, topped with beaten eggs and baked until they puff up. Then freeze in a gallon ziplock. Eat hot or cold for a quick snack)
• Quesadillas - my new best thing ever on the playa for coming home late night and eating. Tortillas, shredded cheese, jarred salsa, and a nonstick pan on a camp stove. Oh yes.
• Canned bloody mary mix - with or without vodka, a can of mix is a great start in the morning and full of delicious sodium
• apples - kept in a cold, dry cooler

What didn't work:

• French press coffee - just too much of a pain in the ass to clean the french press after. Will coldbrew at home this year and bring in bottles

What I'm excited to try this year:

• Steak - since I won't be cooking for a whole camp
• aforementioned cold press coffee

[bluemiragemi]

thread bump, I'd love to hear more about what DOES NOT work on the playa!

[asr9754]

What does NOT work?
Broccoli or cauliflower in your mixed veggie tray. Trust me.
Raw eggs in a cooler. Trust me. Crack them into a jar at home or store eggs in a magic unbreakable container
Opened hot dogs, shredded cheese, or lunch meat bags thrown back in the cooler.
Milk or 1/2 and 1/2 in a cardboard carton. Get something with a screw-on lid. Anything that can spill or break in a cooler WILL, leaving you with icky moopy melted ice water to deal with. I bring a few small tupperwares to put open lunch meat, cheese, or whatever, back in the cooler, as the zipper bags don't seem to keep cooler water out of food, or food out of cooler water.

[GreyCoyote]

Worked:
Zatarains jambalaya (rice or pasta version) with precut sausage and a cube of butter or oil mixed-in.
Blue Bell ice cream in individual portions
Precooked link sausage (heat and eat)
PB&J sandwiches for snacking.
Bacon tamales.

[gypsy68]

One of the things I like to do is test the storage containers I am going to use in my ice chest to make sure they don’t fail. I find that the way I am transporting my food is as important as the food I bring.

I used to use large storage containers (the shoe box style) in my ice chest, and put the food in there, with the ice around the containers. My 2nd year out on the Playa, after the water melted, it leaked under the lid. I had a package of coffee in the bin. The water soaked the bag. It made a huge mess inside of the ice chest. After that trip I started to test my storage containers.

The following is how I test the container.

I take the container put some flour in it. Fill the sink with water, and let the container sit in the water for a while. If the flour looks like it is wet, then I know that water will get in. You might have to weigh down the container, just add something heavy inside of it.