Freezer bag cooking vs. pot cooking – weight of boil-in-bag bags?

[Dan Yeruski]

I can do that :-)

Send me your address.

The last two days I've been using the foil bags while camping. They work great. I had mountain house chicken and rice main course with blueberry granola for snack. A raccoon got to the empty bags while sitting on top of the picnic table while I was in my tent. I wasn't gone but 2 min and the coon was feasting. Even took a drink out of my mug. :-))))

I'll be back at home this evening. I'll ship some bags to you tomorrow.

[d k]

"> For those not doing FBC cooking, what ecologically sound alternative are you using to package your food?

Plastic sandwich bags, which I recycle once the trip is over."

+1

And by recycle, I mean re-use if they are still intact. I usually use ones that have already been used for other things anyway. I am planning on transitioning to using paper sandwich bags (store all of them inside a large plastic bag on the trip).

[Jake D]

I figure you have to carry your food in something so it might as well be a freezer bag so I can cook in it. also you're not "boiling" it in the bag.. you pour hot water in it. those bags are meant to take hot water so there is no chemical leaching for the paranoid folks. throwing away a few plastic bags is probably less waste than you use on a daily basis at home. or you can save them and recycle them too.. no different than sandwich bags.

go on an extended length hike long enough and you'd eat out of a cardboard box and maybe the box after too haha.

oh and not to mention you can cook a lot more food in a freezer bag than you can in a pot. Can probably cook 2 Pasta sides with water in a 700ml pot.. even one pasta side would be boiling over.

[Erik Basil]

We use a hybrid/group method for FBC: repackage or build dehydrated meals for 3-4 into freezer bags, purge and rolled for the bear canister; dump up to 32oz boiling into it, stir and insert in reflectix cozy. When done, we serve into our Saimin noodle cup/mess kits which are insulated with reflectix, too. This leaves dishes to be washed/licked etc…but lightens the load dramatically for the crew.

[Katy Anderson]

For those of you who burn your ziplock bags in the fire after your meal I have a question: Does the plastic really burn away completely? If not you may be leaving plastic behind that will stay in the wilderness as trash for a very long time.

[Billy Ray]

I have read that you're not even supposed to leave a drink in a plastic bottle in a car on a hot day and then drink it as just that amount of heat releases some of the carcinogenic toxin from the plastic into the liquid.

I'm not a plastic chemist, but I would not want to eat or drink anything that has been subjected to boiling temperatures in a plastic bag plastic… no matter how much weight I could save. Presumable plastic coffee cup has a particular plastic that is suitable for hot liquids, but I would not bet on freezer bags…

… just sayin'

bill

[Yoyo]

Here are the PackitGourmet bags I was using in the past:

http://www.packitgourmet.com/CookIn-Bags.html

They claim to be safe, so long as the bag isn't dunked in boiling water (they have bags for that, too, methinks). Now how *safe* are they really? I don't know. Presumably, *some* plastic is going to leech into the food.

But again, the primary reasons for me moving to cooking in the pot are:
(i) to avoid eating out of a bag
(ii) to save weight.

On a trip which involves at least 3-4 meals (for two), it seems that an argument could be made to defend the claim that there is no weight benefit to doing FBC instead of bringing a bigger pot. A 1.3 L Evernew pot (including lid, apparently) is 4.6 oz. This is about 1.75-2.0 oz more than my BPL Firelite 550 pot. But the weight of the bags alone may come close to equaling that. If so, I'd prefer to take the bigger pot. Just package meals into lighter weight plastic or put multiple meals into one bag and aliquot as needed (may need a measuring cup for this purpose).

A final motivation for thinking about moving to cooking in my pot is that one can do real cooking. So for those times when the food didn't fully rehydrate it's easy–just turn the flame back on (especially if using a gas stove). If doing it FBC-style, you have to sit there and wait and hope it did reconstitute properly.

Now if I'm going SUL style solo, then perhaps I'll bring my Firelite 550 pot and do FBC style. But for those other times, I might try cooking in the pot (at least as an experiment).

[Justin Baker]

On most trips I burn all of my trash. There is never any plasticy goo left over, so I think that it's all vaporized. I could be wrong.

I have seen plants and saplings growing out of old fire pits that have obviously had a lot of trash burned in them, so even if there is a small amount of residue left over it probably won't hurt the soil.
I have heard some say that when you start a fire in a fire pit you are re-melting all of the trash that people have burned over the years and a bunch of fumes get put out. I have no idea if that's true or not. I have no idea if any residue is left at all. I would love to hear more input on this.

[Ken Larson]

If you PACK IT IN…..PACK IT OUT.

Once at home wash the plastic bags and use again!

If this is a hassle……cook in a pot.

BURNING or BURYING the plastic bags is not an option in this day and age.

Cheers

"What you derive from an experience depends a lot on the amount of preparation you made before the start."

[John S.]

Burning plastic in fires is not good, imo. The LNT principles don't go far enough to give more specifics on what should not be put into a campfire, along with other things it leaves out.

[Justin Baker]

Can anyone give an actual reason why burning trash is bad?

[Charles P]

Depends on what you think of the ozone layer.

[Alaskaoneday]

Here is a start

http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/pdfpubs/pdf04232327/pdf04232327dpi300.pdf

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

I guess that some people think that LNT does not include dumping junk into the air (what?, the solution to pollution isn’t dilution? When did that change?). Open burning is not allowed in most parts of California (Air Quality Management Boards and such). Even so, I am pretty sure that plastics are probably a no-no (hey, but I could be wrong). I don’t know why people think that this practice is acceptable on the trail (Its two, two….two products in one! It’s a wood burning stove AND it’s a trash incinerator!). For those of you that do burn your trash (and particular plastic), I suggest that they consider burning there plastic waste INSIDE their tent or shelter. You can use your lungs to pack out what you brought in. I guess that I am still strong enough to carry out my own trash and when I can’t do that any longer, I’ll list all of my equipment in Gear Swap. Anyway, my 2 cents – Jon

[Katy Anderson]

My first thought (see comment above) was that burning plastic in a camp fire would leave some trash behind. That is possible, but from googling this topic I have just learned that even if the plastic completely disappears you are still doing harm to the environment by burning plastic. This is why:

Burning plastic and trash in a camp fire releases toxins into the air.
It also leaves behind toxins in the ash. This ash is then dispersed over time and ends up polluting soil and water in the immediate area.

So the Boy Scouts, the forest service and the national parks are all united in saying: Please do not burn your trash. Pack it in and pack it out.

[J R]

This discussion is coming back to what I was noting, I was very surprised to hear about people burning plastic bags. Those chemicals don't disappear, they go into the air and that definitely is part of the environment we are supposed to be trying to not impact.

Pack it out, please.

[Jake D]

"On a trip which involves at least 3-4 meals (for two), it seems that an argument could be made to defend the claim that there is no weight benefit to doing FBC instead of bringing a bigger pot. A 1.3 L Evernew pot (including lid, apparently) is 4.6 oz. This is about 1.75-2.0 oz more than my BPL Firelite 550 pot. But the weight of the bags alone may come close to equaling that. If so, I'd prefer to take the bigger pot. Just package meals into lighter weight plastic or put multiple meals into one bag and aliquot as needed (may need a measuring cup for this purpose)."

nice math except you don't take in account the bags that you still have to carry your meal in. sandwich bag 2.3g freezer bag 6.3g 4g "savings" per bag. to add up to 2oz you need 14 meals to break even. and at that point you're not worrying about 2oz haha

smaller pot isn't just about weight.. space savings between a 5-700ml vs 1.3l is pretty significant.

As with anything it will come down to personal preference. I personally hate washing pots while backpacking. i'll pack out 4g extra for that convenience.

as far as the tin foil hat crew.. ziplock's bags are microwave safe. that means they can exceed boiled water temps no problem.

"Like all Ziploc® Brand products, Zip’n Steam® Bags are dioxin free. Additionally, they are specially designed for microwave use and meet the safety requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for temperatures associated with cooking food in the microwave when label directions are followed. " Ziplock FAQ

[Kevin Burton]

I was watching a section hiker's blog where he talked about doing the same thing but he packed his food in wax paper bags.

Then he could just burn the paper bags when he was done his food AND it could be used as a fire starter.

Seems to make sense if you don't mind avoiding washing your ziplock between meals.

Seems easier to just cook in the pot if you're gonna clean it up anyway.

Rocks and gravel make a GREAT abrasive cleaning agent btw. I just throw some water in there and gravel and churn it up.

[Yoyo]

Sounds like an interesting idea. Any clue where one can source such bags? And their weight? The trick would be keeping all the food contents from spreading all over the place (and attracting bears).

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