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  • Keeping Meat Cold in an Ice Chest

    We're heading to a neighboring town to pick up a couple of packer briskets tomorrow. No one in this town carries them -- and most of the meat department guys I have talked to don't even know what I am talking about when I ask.

    Anyway, it is about a 30 minute drive from where we get them back to our house. In the past I have placed them in an ice chest and put a large bag of ice on top of them for the trip home. We have usually come straight home after the brisket purchase.

    Well, my wife wants to make a few side trips and since the place that sells the briskets closes earlier than the places that she wants to go, I have a question.

    If I take 1 (or 2) packer briskets from cold storage at the meat place and put them in a 48 quart Igloo ice chest (that will be precooled with ice) and then fill it completely with ice, are the briskets likely to remain below 40° for an hour or two? The ice chest will be in the trunk of our car and temperatures around here have been in the 90s during the period that we would be driving. I could put a temp probe in the cooler and temp it when I get home but if this sounds like it won't work, I don't even want to try it.

    I know there are quite a few variables involved but what's your best guess?

    Thanks.

    Dave
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  • #2
    Heck ya they will. Go for it.

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    • #3
      You don't have anything to worry about if you do it like that. From experience, if you throw a towel or pillow on top of the cooler it will last even longer. You can go several days packed in ice as long as it stays packed in ice.

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      • #4
        Packed in ice, they should be fine. Might as well throw a couple beers in there too. They will be nice and cold by the time you get home to put the briskets in the fridge.
        KCBS/CBJ #56408

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        • #5
          Originally posted by wutang View Post
          Packed in ice, they should be fine. Might as well throw a couple beers in there too. They will be nice and cold by the time you get home to put the briskets in the fridge.
          I gotta agree with Adam on this one!



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          • #6
            Me too. fill that baby with ice and it'll last till the next morning. Remember, even ice water is 32, 33°.


            Tom

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            • #7
              if ya can get them wet, fill the ice chest with water after you've put the meat and ice in. Air is an excellent insulator and all those little gaps between the ice cubes and the meat add up.

              Ice water helps make for a better thermal transfer and will keep those hunks o meat super cold.
              Mike
              Life In Pit Row

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              • #8
                Great!!

                Thanks for the info. That will definitely give us more flexibility tomorrow. Maybe we'll go out to dinner while we are there. The kids like Applebees. Maybe I'll order their babybacks.



                But probably not since I am smoking a rack for myself for lunch tomorrow.

                Dave
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                • #9
                  another thought before you put em in the cooler with ice........get one of them hot/cold bags you can get at wally world.........they are pretty good size............mite have to buy two of em..........but they werk GREAT!


                  let us not cry because we lost someone, but let us smile because we enjoyed their company for what time was allowed us!

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                  • #10
                    Be fine....from experience, not tryin to get away. Use Igloo cooler's, they hold the cold better along with the ice. All i use for oyster's....Dang! Month with a R in it....time to get some!
                    Sunset Eagle Aviation
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                    • #11
                      go for it... you'll be fine... how I do it when I go to the lake anyways...


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                      • #12
                        Thanks for all the confirmations folks.

                        Brought home two 14 pounders tonight. Worked like a charm. Meat was in the ice chest probably 4 hours. When we got home, could barely tell that the ice had been melting. Put one in the neighbor's freezer and one in the fridge. It will go on the UDS tomorrow night around 10 pm.

                        Boy, they had some MONSTER briskets over there this time. Several 15 pounders and a couple of 17 pounders as well. They also had spare ribs trimmed to St. Louis style for $2.38 a pound. Don't know if this is a great price or not. I usually get the baby backs (loin backs actually) from Safeway. Have done spares a couple of times and trimming them myself is no probelm but I usually end up smoking and eating the trimmings myself since I don't make sausage at all or beans very often. Eating them myself is not a real problem either except for the weight and cholesterol thing.

                        Dave
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                        "All welcome, take what ya need, share what ya know. " -- Richtee, 12/2/2010

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by wutang View Post
                          Packed in ice, they should be fine. Might as well throw a couple beers in there too. They will be nice and cold by the time you get home to put the briskets in the fridge.
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