We have used egg beaters and shelf stable bacon in the past. Considering fresh eggs and bacon this year.

What do you do with the shells and bacon grease? Over the years, upon arrival at a campsite, I have seen shells in fire pits with the distinct smell of bacon grease.

Do you burn the shells and grease, pack them out or bury them away from camp? What are you supposed to do? I don't like the idea of egg shells in my pack for 5 or 6 nights.

We pack out the egg shells. You can always rinse them out by the lake, then they crush down pretty small.
Bacon grease - we cooked the bacon first, then cooked the pancakes in the bacon fat. Anything left over was burned in the fire. The key is to get the grease on the logs and not in the ash.

Using precooked, no refrigeration required bacon also helps keep grease down to a minimum.

There are only two of us, so we don't have a huge amount of eggs, but we crush the shells and carry them out in our trash. (I don't rinse them, and would not rinse them in or near the lake.) We take the pre-cooked bacon and there is almost no grease, just enough really to lubricate the pan to cook an egg. :-) It's tasty bacon, and not nearly as messy.

greased left over from fresh bacon is awesome to fry fish in. one of my most memorable meals was 1-lb diced up fresh bacon fryed put the diced bacon in a pan full of beans then fryed up breaded lake trout/walleye in the bacon grease.. ohhhhhh yaaaaaaaaa memorable

Bacon grease is burned in the fire and egg shells are crushed and packed out.

We have also brought the real, not fake bacon crumbles you can buy for salads, or make your own. They go great with scrambled eggs, or whatever, ice cream sprinkles, etc, :-)

But not having a lot of bacon grease makes having fried eggs cooked in bacon fat impossible, and then making hash browns, a very bad thing. If you are bringing fresh eggs, I vote bring whole bacon, fry it up, and then either burn extra, or cool and save for a fish fry. There won't be much left over if you do the fried eggs, hash brown thing.

quote buz: "We have also brought the real, not fake bacon crumbles you can buy for salads, or make your own. They go great with scrambled eggs, or whatever, ice cream sprinkles, etc, :-)


But not having a lot of bacon grease makes having fried eggs cooked in bacon fat impossible, and then making hash browns, a very bad thing. If you are bringing fresh eggs, I vote bring whole bacon, fry it up, and then either burn extra, or cool and save for a fish fry. There won't be much left over if you do the fried eggs, hash brown thing. "

I'm with Buz. Lots of bacon fat, just drop the eggs in and baste them a little, never turning.

We like scrambled eggs or omelets, so we break our eggs into one of those lockable plastic containers (it has a tab on each side of the lid with a slot that clicks to the side) before we go and mix them with salt, pepper, and a little cream. Then we freeze it. It says frozen all day and helps keep the other cold pack items fresh and by the next morning it is unthawed but still cold. Saves the mess of dealing with shells, not nearly as fragile as real eggs, and helps keep the cold pack cold.

people have told me i'm wrong in doing this but i crack 4 dozen eggs in a container the morning i leave. but it goes in a medium upright type cooler the kind that can fit up front or in back of your canoe(with a locking type lid) with frozen meats and a chunk of ice and i have bacon/jimmy dean and eggs for 4 guys for 5 breakfast's. keep the cooler covered with whatever and keep it in the shade.. now i do go up on opener but 2011 opener was incrediable weather very warm to hot we got sunburned and our eggs were just fine i also bring in those simply potatoes too and do a 1 pan fry for breakfast. and it is more work bringing in a cooler but we eat good and if your in my group the extra work is well worth it. i love these breakfast's as much as the fish frys in the BWCA. just a great way to start your day.

Thanks for the idea! We usually use egg beaters frozen, but why not do it yourselves.


Oops! I'm referring to Lazerath's post.

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I would strongly caution against using cracked eggs after a day or so unfrozen. In the shells is another story, but once they are cracked, it can be bad news. Maybe if they were home grown organic, fresh eggs it would be better, but the factory eggs are known to carry all kinds of really bad bacteria that will multiply rapidly once out of the shell and thawed. The BWCA is not a place where you want to take chances with becoming ill. Just please if you are going to do this make sure they are cooked completely through before eating and use within one day of thawing. Salmonella and E coli can kill.

I'm all for fresh eggs and bacon, but please use caution.

We use pre-cooked bacon and it cuts down on grease.

As for eggs, anyone heard of this? Take the eggs before you go on the trip, and dip them in boiling water for 5 seconds. This "soft boils" the inside of the egg shells and makes the egg inside able to "keep" in fading cool packs for many days.

I heard this trick and tried it on our first trip (we had no cool pack at all) and it did work. Some would be leery of it, but we did do this in 2010. And yes it was early June and pretty cool out.

For eggs, fresh eggs the first few days. After that, or for ultralight, consider ova-easy.

Bacon grease was never intended for anything but human consumption. That might be in the Bible. Or at least in my mind. By all means, fry something in the bacon grease and eat it.