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Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: BWCA Food and Recipes :: Bacon
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| BartTB |
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| TriTodd |
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| GSP |
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| snakecharmer |
quote Ingvald: "quote Spartan2: "Why not just buy the shelf-stable precooked bacon? It is really very good and extremely easy to transport." +2 It's a no brainer in my book. |
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| h20 |
quote Ragged: "Agreed. I work in a restaurant with stringent food safety standards. Be aware of safe food handling.quote BillConner01: "I'm sure meathunter is correct. |
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| tinkerer |
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| MeatHunter |
"To make bacon safe to store at room temperature (shelf stable), it is precooked in the plant to have a water activity at or below 0.85 to control Staphylococcus aureus. The cooked yield is 40% of the raw weight." Aside from this whole canoeing gig, I have a few other hobbies. One of them being the curing, smoking, pickling and fermenting of various styles of meats and sausage making. Bacon that is cured does NOT mean that it is safe to be left out at room temps. The cure used in bacon is there for a few reasons, none of which is to make it safe to store unrefrigerated. Taken from the USDA site. "Sodium nitrite (cure) produces the pink color (nitrosohemoglobin) in cured bacon. Nitrite also greatly delays the development of the Clostridium botulinum toxin (botulism); develops a cured-meat flavor; retards the development of rancidity, off-odors, and off-flavors during storage; and inhibits the development of a warmed-over flavor." Maximum safe refrigerated storage time per USDA guidelines for uncooked bacon is 7 days. There is a reason that it is sold in the refrigerated section of the grocery store AND, those temps are 40 degrees or cooler. Bacon that is safe other than shelf stable bacon would be Dry Cured. A far superior product to ANY store bought bacon and a great item to take into the back country. Something that can be obtained from higher end meat markets or ordered from a butcher. There absolutely is no debate on this, and yes, I too know people that do it and have done so without incident, but the fact remains, taking a meat product into the back country that is meant to be kept chilled is only inviting problems. One may get away with it once, twice, 10 times or a 100 times. But eventually you or someone else will get sick from doing so. Just like smoking, you may be able to smoke for years, decades and never get cancer. But the longer you do, the greater the odds are that you will. Throughout the year, when people come down with the flu, they mainly think that is just what they have, the flu. Many times however, that is not the case, but rather a mild case of food poisoning. I'm just looking out for those who may not be aware of just what is considered safe practices and you certainly do not have to take my word on it. But I do invite anyone to ask their local butcher about what they think of doing it.... |
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| shock |
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| billconner |
I wish there was an easy way to comapre the risk of not keeping bacon at 40 degrees or below for a week vs. the risk of driving 500 miles each way, but kind of suspect the driving is riskier. Just my view. |
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| Basspro69 |
quote snakecharmer: "+3quote Ingvald: "quote Spartan2: "Why not just buy the shelf-stable precooked bacon? It is really very good and extremely easy to transport." |
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| SunCatcher |
SunCatcher |
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| overthehill |
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| Ragged |
quote BillConner01: "I'm sure meathunter is correct. I'd rather play bumper cars than crap my pants on a portage I've had really bad food poisoning and my wife got ecoli from a Subway, I do not mess around with this stuff. |
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| billconner |
quote GSP: "Take the real thing, bacon is cured and will last a week easy. We have taken it for years and used for 2 weeks." I'm with GSP on this. Non-issue in my experience. |
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| George |
I do agree it is a risk. But so is drinking water right out of the lake. For instance, I had a "discussion" with a very nice lady at REI last week. She was selling someone a water filter for his first trip into the BWCA. I mentioned, in passing, that I have been drinking water right out of many (not all) of the lakes in the BWCA for over twenty years. I just make sure to get it away from shore, not by any beaver dams, in fast moving water, etc. I also mentioned that water filters have not been around all that long, and believe it or not, many pople have been drinking right out of the lakes up there for a couple years. She got pretty ticked off and gave me the stinky eye. And looking back on it, I should have just kept my mouth shut. The lady from REI went on to state how she and one of her friends got sick just by swimming in the water (in the BWCA) and getting a little water in their mouths...and I should know better. The way she was describing it, the BWCA water was all toxic and you will probably die if you don't filter it, boil it, and treat it. Seriously, I think this kid thought if he did not buy the right filter, he would surely die. So, I asked her: "Did you quit swimming in the water cause of the 1 in a 100 chance you could get sick"? I promptly apologized. I followed up the apology with stating she is correct. It is always good to take precautions, but I do think we can go overboard. Calculated risks are part of living (and not dying in paralysis). I promptly left before she lost a gasket. |
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| Ingvald |
quote Spartan2: "Why not just buy the shelf-stable precooked bacon? It is really very good and extremely easy to transport." +1 |
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| BRic |
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| inspector13 |
Without refrigeration I wouldn’t try it. Shelf stable foods are vacuum packed so there is little available oxygen for microbe growth. Some even with carbon monoxide for extra measure. |
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| maddog2099 |
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| winner |
And buy your bacon from the local butcher... Winner |
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| shock |
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| HammerII |
quote SunCatcher: "I cook up my hashbrowns and then put the pre-cooked bacon in the hash browns and stir for a couple minutes = Happy Canoe Dude. The real bacon packets are pretty dang good, I've used them in plenty of different stuff these days |
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| stielowjm |
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| butthead |
butthead |
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| maxxbhp |
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| Spartan2 |
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| Dbldppr1250 |
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