Planning our food for the first time this year. I have a group of 8 and planning on summer sausage and cheese for two of our lunches, but have no idea how much we really need.

How many oz of summer sausage do you plan per person, per meal? How many oz of cheese?

That depends on how much each member of the group eats... and how tasty the summer sausage is. For example, a group of teenagers is going to eat a lot differently than a group in their 40's. Your best bet is probably to talk to your group about how much they like to eat for lunch and go from there. Eat summer sausage and cheese for lunch for a week and see how much you average per day.

I usually double the recommended serving size of whatever it is just because of the calories we're burning and triple it for my kids. The one problem with foods like sausage and cheese and group of 8 people is the weight begins to add up in the food pack. The other issue will be keeping food like that from spoiling if you don't eat it early in the trip and you have warm temps. So you'll also need to calculate the weight of ice or dry ice. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I generally won't eat something like that after the third day. I had some minor gut issues that probably came from some summer sausage a friend brought on a five day trip that I ate on day 4. Maybe completely unrelated, but it's just not worth the risk for me. Feel free to call me out if I'm off on this one.

I usually pack 1 or 2 of these per person along with 1 or 2 mozzarella sticks per person with some Ritz.

MIght want to consider some dry cured italian sausage, won't need refrigeration at all, and will last almost indefinitely. Summer sausage, once opened, I would want to keep cool.

I have found that if I open and start slicing a summer sausage, they will eat it.

I usually have the group put in their order when taking a bigger group - Yup,. I send them out an e-mail food order form, they make choices and send it back, especially with gals, guys and college types. That way they get what they want ( kind of cheese and amount) and we don't have left overs. That being said, some of the "kids" order a little extra for afternoon snack or to bribe the guys to do more work. Positive reinforcement - works every time.
Most of the gals request 2 cheese sticks per meal and 3 oz of sausage is good per person if I have trail mix, crackers and dried fruit along with the meat and cheese.

I do an 8-ounce dry sopressata or other dry-aged salami and about a half pound of hard aged cheese for a lunch for two people. If there's any left over, it can go in the eggs with breakfast, but there's rarely any left over. And the dry aged salami and hard cheese can go indefinitely without refrigeration, unlike summer sausage.

Hard salami keeps well. I get it deli sliced to cut down on waste and consumption. While I don’t limit consumption, most use only a few slices. Wrap in meat paper and keep in a zip bag. As with all foods, keep out of direct sunlight. You can freeze it prior to trip. If you feel the need to limit consumption, divide it into per meal portions, putting each meal in a separate zip bag.

I figure a 1/4 lb per person, per meal.

We always eat summer sausage and cheese for our first days lunch, 1/4 pound of summer sausage and 1/8 pound of cheese for each person along with 1/2 sleeve of saltines per person. Seems to work out about right.

Bring more than you need. It makes a great snack.

I remember having made some friends with a Scout troop when on the Wonderland Trail at Mt Rainier. They were doing trail work. They shared a piece of the best jerky I had ever had.......wonderful. I met them several more times on the 90 mile loop and we became fast friends.

The Scout leader gave me the remaining bag of jerky one evening as they were pulling out the next day. I had envisioned the zip lock bag of jerky lasting several days.........but before the day was over the bag was empty. I literally could not stop eating it.

Bring more than you think ;-)

On second thought, take plenty, and if you take too much and have leftovers, put my name on it and leave it at Seagull Outfitters, I'll pick it up the third week of July!

This is really hard to answer for someone else since there are so many personal variables involved in how much a person will eat. Also take into account how big was breakfast, how long ago was breakfast, how soon will dinner be, how hard did you all work between breakfast and lunch, how much snacking did the group do before lunch, etc.

Just plan on having extra just to be safe. Also always plan on having an extra days food and some extra snacks available in the event one meal ended up being a little lighter than you intended or you end up getting wind bound for a day.

I'd plan 4-5 oz per person per meal for summer sausage and 3 oz per person per meal for the cheese. We enjoy eating it on Triscuits.

Half to 2/3's of average 7 oz tube per person. If in summer, would use any leftovers in dinner, after frying a bit. In fall, I let go overnight. I take tortillas now, vs crakers, as tortillas don't crunch up. In later fall, real cheese, as cold enough, in summer, velveta in smaller packages, as can open one per meal. Bit of yellow mustart and you are set. Harder sausages hold up better, if warmer, as don't call for refrigeration to start with, but some find too greasy.

paddlinjoe: "I'd plan 4-5 oz per person per meal for summer sausage and 3 oz per person per meal for the cheese. We enjoy eating it on Triscuits. "

+1. If you pack dried fruit, nuts and cheese sticks, for example, that can be a full lunch that will stretch the summer sausage for potentially another lunch or two. Just a thought.

paddlinjoe: "I'd plan 4-5 oz per person per meal for summer sausage and 3 oz per person per meal for the cheese. We enjoy eating it on Triscuits. "

Thanks for all the feedback. Especially those who replied with portions of summer sausage. I think ill start with around 4-5oz per person. And yes we love the Ritz crackers in the individual fresh stacks. Makes a great per person cracker portion. Any type cheese suggestion? block or individuals? what kind? Plan to be done with sausage and cheese by day 3 or 4. Not packing in ice or a cooler. PS I'll also plan that what we open that day will be eaten entirely that day.

dont forget the Ritz ;)

4-5 ounces seems like a lot if served with other things. I plan 3-4 ounces/ person cheeses and summer sausage combined, along with crackers, dried fruit, and some bars. (A recipe I found here for fruit cake cookies.). Has worked for up to two weeks, and usually don't eat it all. I just keep them in zip lock bags.

Not many cheeses I haven't tried. Always cheddar, but Swiss, parmesan, brie, Colby, and Gouda - probably others - have made the trip. My favorite "accident" meal was a last day all of the leftover cheeses, a foil pack if chicken, and a pizza dough mix. Made dough, lined jmo, put in chicken and cheeses, and baked. Delicious.

We normally travel every day with 1 or 2 layover days depending on length of trip, weather, etc. Our standard lunch last year for 5 adults when traveling was a one lb roll of deer sausage, can of Pringles, dried fruit, 8 oz. cheese, peanut butter and tortillas. Tortilla wrap with PB, sausage and cheese was sure good. This was around the 3rd week of August and everything kept fine for the 7 day trip.

Bring a lot of cervelat. Tastes better than summer sausage

Bring a lot of cervelat. Tastes better than summer sausage

Can you ever really have too much summer sausage?

A lot.

It goes well with triscuits and ritz crackers. Also you will need some cheese. The sealed half pound bricks will keep for over a week if unopened and feed 3-4 for a lunch. Also string cheese is always a hit and has the same shelf life

I take a small sausage (about 6") with crackers and cheese for 6 people. Then a salted nut roll per person for dessert.

One thing about lunch to me. It's not a fill you up meal... It's more of a pick me up meal to get me to the fill me up at the end of the day. So Bill Conner I think has a good amount. Just enough to pick you up an not having to sleep it off on a portage haha. Salted nut roll, Snickers, or something similar is good too. Gorp also comes to mind. Summer sausage while good, I would change up day to day.

So what you're gonna want to do is pack 5 or so sausages, any kind will do you just have to make sure not to leave the leftover sausage in your tent when you pack up. I have made this mistake myself and I can no longer use my 6 man tent. However I do not want to discourage you from bringing summer sausage because it is one of the best ways to get your complete proteins while on a camping trip. Summer sausage is a versatile and nutritious food option. I would recommend consuming at least 5 morsels of sausage per day. Ration it carefully or a selfish member of your group may sneak some sausage (I am looking at you Bob Cohen.....) I have also found that the sausage wrapping can be applied to your skin as a useful exfoliant. I often get rashes while on these camping trips so it is good to maintain skin health.