What do you pack in your carry-on cooler??

[Gigi]

After 8 trips to STJ, we have decided to buy a 24 pack Polar Bear cooler and pack some of our own food. What types of foods do you pack? Are there certain things that don't freeze very well? I don't want to take too much because we do want to enjoy some of our favorite places.

[Chet]

Augie is the Yoda of Polar Bear coolers...

[Xislandgirl]

We carry a smaller backpack cooler but here is our normal list

I use a vac sealer for everything
Must Pack
Chicken breasts
Bacon
Large block of VT Cheddar (not frozen)
Soppresatta and Salami sticks (not frozen)

Sometimes Pack
Stuffed Clams
Meat Sauce
Breakfast Sausage

[PA Girl]

When we "coolered" I would meal plan first and made my cooler list based on menu. We have taken:

Meat - steaks and chicken breasts
Snacks - cheeses and cured meats, treats from home not available on STJ.
Breakfast meats - ham and bacon
Dry ingredients for meals like ziploc bags containing spices for marinades, seasonings for pasta salad, etc.

We would take a cooler for ease of meal planning (there were people in the house that didn't drive and didn't like going out at night as well as a toddler to feed) and I would put all the recipes and an on-island shopping list right in the cooler so I knew exactly what to buy to cook the cooler food.

[jimg20]

We pack cryopacked meat generally along with one or two techni ice. We would take steaks, chops, ground beef, sausage and bacon. We put the techni ice in the bottom if we are carrying it on. Then the meat in its transparent packages go in. There are some TSA agents who do not want to let the ice go through. When it thaws it is a gel. When they open the cooler and see all that meat, they generally want to close it and send you on your way. At the gate, I open the cooler and pull the ice up along side the meat. Then it doesn't open until we are in the villa's kitchen.

To answer one of your questions, the bacon does not freeze well. When we got back, I spoke to the butcher. I told him that everything got to the villa frozen solid except the bacon which was cold but not frozen. He told me why. There is too much salt in it to stay frozen. That's OK. We generally drop the bacon in the frig and start eating it the next morning.

Have a great trip.

JIM

[nuendelcapecod]

We always bring a cooler and we check it for the flight. We bought a 24 can Polar Bear last year based on this forum's recommendation but I can't honestly say it did any better than our previous soft sided cooler. Part of the issue is we stay over in Boston the night before our flight, leave the cooler in the car (this is March in New England). As soon as we get to our CBC campsite we buy ice and put cooler contents on it. We bring 2 servings each: boneless chicken breasts, scallops, shrimp, steaks, swordfish. Then there's turkey bacon, kielbasa, little Parmalat milks, limes, a bottle or two of tonic, deli lunch meat and cheese, a block or two of cheese, hummus, and even a dozen eggs, most of which survive the trip. The broken ones get scrambled for our first breakfast. Enjoy!

[augie]

Augie is the Yoda of Polar Bear coolers...

With us it depends how many are going and for how long - the more meals we plan to cook in, the fewer "accessories" make the cut.

Some that we almost always bring:
Chicken (parts or whole)
Steaks
Burger meat
Pork tenderloin

Sometimes:
Frozen pulled pork
Frozen lasagna
Frozen smoked baby back ribs
(the above three pre-cooked and vacu-sealed)

The last couple of trips we've brought frozen cookie dough!

If there's room we'll bring some frozen veggies and/or fruit (we like to add frozen blueberries to our oatmeal), cheese, grapes, etc.

I'm still learning to not take too much, the same way we did with clothes!