How many of you pack in steak for night one? Is it worth it? How do you package it?

Does anyone here make hard-tack or pemmican for the trip? If so... Do you got a good recipe?

Three Weeks to go and I can hardly stand it.... Food planning is starting to take place and looking for something to surprize the others.

Hex

Last year we packed in frozen steak. If you haven't got any frozen, then I would put it in the freezer now. We also brought along fresh garlic cloves which we would use generally for cooking, but the last night we had an extra clove so we cut the end off, poured olive oil or whaterver oil you have over the top, and wrap in tin foil. Put the garlic wrapped in tin foil on the edge of the fire grate, let it roast a good while, and then spread the garlic on crackers or whatever you have. We only had beef jerky left last year, but that worked.

Last year we packed in fresh smoked Italian Sausage and made Jambalaya the first night... nice and spicey just the thing to get ya moving after a long hard first day paddling... Mighty tasty with peta bread, and Kool-aid... Also, love to take blue berry bagels and strawberry creamcheese... great for breakfast those first few mornings goes great with coffee and tang...
Am I getting hungry or what.... gotta go eat... ha ha
Bruce

I always have either frozen steak or frozen chicken breast fillets for our first night. And if it is early in the season or late in fall, then I even try to two nights.

In the cooler times, it keeps okay especially when I pack them in a Kondos Outdoors 'freezer/cooler' insulated bag.

In the fall, I even freeze about 1.5 pounds of real butter in a Nalgene bottle. Keeps the whole bag cooler and doesn't leak even when warm. And real butter is the best!

Yep,

We have brought steaks on every trip. We have been taking no-name steaks for the last few years. They are pretty good and are sealed in plastic so they are self-contained. They start out the trip frozen and are kept in a soft sided mini cooler that is about 10”x8”x6”. We typically have some frozen soup in the cooler as well as some fresh veggies.

As for the bread, bagels, pita and tortilla all keep well and are readily available. Hardtack, crackers, buns and bread tend to crack, crumble or get crunched. We have taken buns in the past in a hard sided plastic Tupperware container but I think the aforementioned bread products work better.

TB

Yep, Steak on the 1st night has always been our tradition. We pack it in frozen. The steak that is vacumed sealed are the easiest.Less mess. We also have frozen corn or corn on the cob with instant mashed potatoes with the steak. Our favorite meal that 1st night!
Enjoy!

Count me in too. It's a F&D Meats ribeye all around. Last Octobers trip was cool enough we had steak a second time 9 days in. F&D Meats is in Virginia, we ussually call ahead and have them vacumn pack and freeze our steaks and slab bacon. We stop in on the way and also look over the jerky, beef stick and sausage. Being a barbarian I like to eat mine right off the fire grate.

Egg McMuffins for breakfast

English muffins
Fresh Eggs
bacon
Cheddar cheese (packages shredded)

Cook the bacon first and keep warm in foil. Fry the eggs over hard by braking the yolks, warm the muffins and place cheese on top of the eggs before serving to melt the cheese. To make the eggs more the shape of the muffin make small rings from the foil.

This is a lot quicker and easier than pancakes and a hit with most people.

Eggs will keep for a couple of days if kept out of the sun and protected from breaking. I keep them in their cardboard container and wrap bubble wrap or additional cardboard around them. For saftey I also place that in a plastic ziplock just in case one breaks. I have yet to lose an egg on a trip.

BTW-I also have switched to tortillas. Last a while, pack flat and can't crush as they are already as flat as they can get.

ABSOLUTELY steak on the first night! We brought in 11 pounds over Memorial Day (yes, 11!!!) and had a feast. I received great advice from Hackenmuellers Meat Market on marinating/packing/carrying. I divided the sirloin into approx 7oz steaks & marinated them Tuesday night (marinade was 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1 cup ginger marinade, 1/4 cup vegetable oil) overnight. Then I froze them Wednesday night. I took them out of the freezer Friday evening & packed them as is (plastic bags). They thawed slowly thru the night; the soy sauce helped preserve them. By 7pm Saturday night, they were perfectly marinated & thawed. They tasted great! I packed them with our other cold foods. If steaks were the only cold things packed, you might want to wrap them in newspaper (also good for starting fires) & pack them the day of. Otherwise, that much meat took a good 24 hours to thaw.