Taking cooked food when going somewhere far, for consumption later

[blisterpack]

Hi, If you're taking a batch of cooked food to a remote area around 3 hours away, what do you do with it once you've first cooked and cooled it? Freezing it is a bad idea isn't it, because it would be thawed once you get to your destination and I think refreezing or refrigerating after that is a no-no? It's not to be eaten straight away but over the next two or three days. So is it better to just refrigerate it, then take it there and put it in the refrigerator there, until needed?

Cooking there is not an option, only heating is possible.

TIA.

What is the food?

When we go to our caravan I often cook at least one meal in advance to save messing about.

I usually do a chicken casserole, or a chilli. I then freeze it in one large tub until we are ready to leave. I pack it in a cool bag with all the other cold items we are taking - bottled water, butter, cheese, wine. If everything in there is cold then the large tub of cooked food won't start to thaw much.

If kept in the fridge on arrival, then the food will usually be thawed by the next day and is fine to use then, and even the day after.

HTH

Oh by the way. Our cooked/cold foods have to stay in the cool bag for about 2-3 hours. It is a two hour drive to our caravan, and obvously I start packing the stuff before hand. Nothing defrosts in that time if all packed together.

I sometimes freeze bottled water too, whcih serves as extra ice packs in the cool bag.

If you make a lasagne and freeze it, then put it in a cool bag with some ice packs it will still be frozen on your arrival. Freezing food makes it easier to transport as well because it won't be slopping around everywhere.

Personally I'd cook it at home and freeze it, taking the slowly defrosting block of fodd with you to your destination. This stops the process of composition, if you like, stops the food going off, until it's at least partially defrosted again and buys you some extra days. I wouldn't just refridgerate it and take it and refridgerate it again if you need to eat it over 3 days - by day 3 you'll be on dodgy territory.

Having said that, what are you cooking? The above would apply to meat based meals - bolognese sauce etc but not to veggie dishes. They should be ok to eat just refridgerated.

Thanks a lot everyone. Very helpful advice. Esp about freezing water etc. and putting it in with it. It is a couple of meat based dishes and one veggie dish. I'll pack as suggested.

One thing I'm not clear on though. Once I'm there do I freeze it again or refrigerate it?

It dependson the state of it whne you get it there. If it hasn't started to thaw much, then I guess I would whack it in the freezer. Keep out the one you want to eat first.

A block of frozen food will take a good while to defrost anyway - think of frozen turkeys!

yes - if you have a few frozen items, and put some ice packs in a cold bag, then food won't defrost in 2-3 hours. Or you could just take it and freeze it when you get there.

Or depending on how long you're going away for, you might not even need to freeze it at all, just keep it in the fridge for a few days - will be fine.