Cold Soaking Containers
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Talenti Gelato jars and plastic peanut butter jars work well – good size, good seal – until you wash them in the dishwasher. Then the #1 PET / PETE plastic gets a little, well, plastic, and deforms. So if you want to get them really clean between trips, hand-wash them with dish detergent but in warm, not hot water. I’ve never tried pouring boiling water into them but maybe people are getting away with it because it is that hot for only a short time and it immediately mixes with the dehydrated / FD food which is room temperature. The counter argument is that if you ruin it, darn!, you have to eat another pint of gelato.
Pro-tip: You can remove the printing from a Talenti jar with acetone. Because the lettering has to weigh something, right?
Anyway, a much higher-temperature (and lower-temperature) plastic is HDPE. Gatorade powder comes in such a jar:
Even sturdier (because the contents cost so much) are protein-drink and other body-building supplements that come as powders. Look in the #2 plastic recycling bin or in the dumpster behind Gold’s Gym:
THIS also works well. The cap never leaks and the black absorbs solar energy. I add water to my dinner in the AM then reheat for dinner but could be eaten as is because the meal has been reconstituted. This method also saves on fuel and weighs in at 1.8 ounces. I have tried zip lock baggies in the past, but they always leak. I wish it were peanut butter and not coconut oil, I would have dozens of these containers by now.
Or perhaps don’t soak. Home-made granola with whey isolate, milk powder, etc.
New cold soak eat hot or cold System, from storminstovesystems.
I bought some of these at walmart. Weight the same as the Talenti containers but have more volume and measurements on the side. Might take up a little more pack room, but are microwave safe #5 plastic, lid works great, and seems easy to clean (don’t have the ridges and weird inside lip on the bottom like the Talenti)
I recently bought two of these Snapware 2-cup containers and I quite like them.
Each one of these containers has the following characteristics:
- A weight of 2.9 oz on my scale (including lid)
- Made of polypropylene (#5 plastic), dishwasher/microwave/freezer safe
- Completely watertight and quite rigid
- Capacity of 16 fluid oz
- Rounded inside profile at the bottom, making cleanup very easy (no corners!)
- Currently (as of February 2020) available inexpensively ($7 USD) and as a single container (no need to buy a whole kit just because you want one piece in it)
While these containers weigh about 1.1 oz more than the ever-popular plastic Talenti jars, I consider them vastly superior in just about every other meaningful way. Those plastic Talenti jars simply aren’t watertight, and I’m still kind of baffled that people use them to hold liquids in their packs. They will leak, and they will warp with heat. These Snapwares won’t.
I think I’ve found my perfect watertight food container for backpacking!
I use these zip lock bags for cold soaking now. They are very high quality and do not leak when zip locked. The added bonus is I can also use them to solar heat water for a shower even though I think the original intent was to use them as a stoveless option but I use them for cold soaking and water heating. I would like to get more but can’t remember where I purchased them!
I like the versatility of my Vargo BOT 700 titanium pot. If you want to cook with it or cold soak something it does both and its super lite. It also holds a fuel canister and my Soto windmaster stove inside with no problem. Ryan did a good review on it so I linked it below if you haven’t seen it yet. If you are just cold soaking then this would be probably over kill and you can find something cheaper like the jars others mentioned above. I like to do both while on the trail so this fit the bill perfectly.
https://backpackinglight.com/vargo-bot-700-review-first-looks/
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