How do you keep food cool?

[chelseamorning]

We're about to go away soon for a week's camping in Cornwall. The site doesn't have a freezer so we can't refreeze cooler blocks. We only have a basic 'picnic' cooler bag which is okay for a few hours but that's it.

Please share your wisdom on how to keep food cool when camping. Any special tips? What non-electric kit do you have?

coolbox with solid sides - the usual type. we freeze the contents - food, milk, blue freezer blocks before we go. and thereafter try and rely on stuff that doesn't need freezing eg tinned curry, pasta. Or buy food each day

i have one of those cool bags, 99p ish from asda type thing

i put the cool bag into another cool bag (my zipped up waitrose one) and put ice blocks in that cool bag too, thus keeping the inside cool bag cool for much longer...

also freeze milk and anything that can be frozen and defrost as the cooler things are the cooler they will stay for longer

Thanks.

So how long do your frozen-before-you-go things tend to stay cold? A day or two?

Good idea about a cooler within a cooler, Nannyl. Might try that!

It's the food side of camping that always stresses me out.

we use cool box and freeze a couple of large bottles of water, that's good for a couple of days.
Then go to supermarket and buy bags of ice for a quid to keep the temp down in cool box.

my frozen before you go things stay cool for about 3 days when in the cool bag in the cool bag

also whem camping i always get cravendale milk as it stays fresh for much longer... almost a week in those conditions last augast before it went off...

i freeze UHT juice as cool blocks and drink later too

that's really useful good thread thanks

If it's a bsaic site you may find you have a stream nearby- if it's shallow and running put milk etc (butter etc OK in a sealed tupeprware) in the stream (tucked so it doesn't wash away with the water) - it also works if you have a large bowl full of really cold tap ater (of the type you can usually only get in a remote field LOL) and change a few times a day

And obviously keep things oputside the tent in the shade.

hth

If you rap your cool bag/box in a space blanket that can also help keep the things inside cooler.

We now have a camping fridge runs off gas or electric of in the car. it takes up a lot of space but we think it has saved us money as we no longer have to buy milk from expensive camp shops we can also pre- cook for the whole week and have ham and cheese sandwiches. this is much easier for us as dd2 has food intolerances

Food intols are anightamre camping aren't they? For years we had gluten and casein to deal with, only casein now at least.

We don't ahve car space to cook in advance, but we do ahve a fridge for when we go to ehu sites (rarely) and which is a solid cool box for toehr sites; you can buy ice in most supermarkets and many saprs, and it's never been a real challenge tbh.

Some great tips. Thanks!

Also, if you can, don't leave your coolbox in the tent. My DB did this this weekend and some of the food inside was inedible after it had been inside the coolbox inside the tent all day on Saturday. You can also put a wet towel or cloth on top of the coolbox and the evaporation will keept it cooler longer.

Beer keeps quite cool in a bucket of water.

Go electric and take a small fridge.

Seriously. It takes the stress out of the food side - no soggy cheese, and no worrying if today is the day salmonella strikes

Or you could just do as we do and buy fresh- we find the nearest market / local shop / etc, buy whatever p[rotein looks good and eat with dsalad and decent bread; bacon for brekkies keeps OK anyway as do eggs for veggies; fairly ehalthy way to go too, even with the com[pulsory pringles every night I always lose weight camping.

Sundays can be ahrder if no big multimational where you are but that's what pub lunches are for, surely?

I thought this had some good tips on keeping things cold while camping:
www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=6&TopicID=222625&PagePosition=9