How long will cooked chili last on the trail?

[BlackHatGuy]

Kind of an addendum to Wisner’s cheese thread.

If I cook some chili with beef and chicken in it and then food saver it in individual servings, how long do you think it would be okay on a backpacking trip with daily temps in the 70s/80s? Do you think it would last a week and still be okay to eat?

[BC Bob]

Are You Storing Food Safely? — FDA

“….Stick to the “two-hour rule” for leaving items needing refrigeration out at room temperature. Never allow meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, or produce or other foods that require refrigeration to sit at room temperature for more than two hours—one hour if the air temperature is above 90° F….

[JCH]

I bet it would de/rehydrate nicely.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

The best chili that I have found is Bear Creek’s Darn Good Chili.  It can be divided and will make 4 hearty servings.  Usually I add dried ground beef to the mix.  If you steam bake it, you can make a chili that is thick enough to hold a spoon upright in it.  My 2 cents.

[Todd T]

Do you mean before or after you eat it?

:-)

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

Yes.

;-)

[JCH]

Did not need that mental image…

[Roger Caffin]

Boiling the reconstituted meal will kill most bugs.

Cheers

[jscott]

“Boiling the reconstituted meal will kill most bugs.

Cheers”

Oh yeah, that’s the first thing they teach kids in Home Ec.. Wait, do they still have Home Ec.?

It’s amazing that Roger is still alive. (count to three before hitting the Submit button…)

My advice is to follow the FDA guidelines a ‘tad’ more closely than you’re planning.

[BlackHatGuy]

So, if I’m understanding y’all, I can’t make some chili at home, package it up (without dehydrating it) and bring it with me backpacking.

Bummer. I guess it’ll be meal bars for this trip then. Oh well.

Or are you saying, Roger, that if I bring the chili to a boil that should be okay? I take ‘reconstituted’ to mean adding water to a freeze-dried or dehydrated meal, so not sure I understand you completely.

[BC Bob]

So, if I’m understanding y’all, I can’t make some chili at home, package it up (without dehydrating it) and bring it with me backpacking.

I would never do it longer than a couple of hours.  As JCH noted it should de/rehydrate well.  The chicken and beef should be thin pieces.  If you don’t dehydrate, it well worth learning.  You can do lots of great meals yourself and they should keep for weeks.

 

[jscott]

“Or are you saying, Roger, that if I bring the chili to a boil that should be okay? I take ‘reconstituted’ to mean adding water to a freeze-dried or dehydrated meal, so not sure I understand you completely.”

I may not have either. I thought he meant, you can just boil spoiled meat and it will be fine to eat. Hey, I trust the ol’ boil to sanitize procedure myself. But not for four day old unrefrigerated spoiled meat.

It gets hotter than the outdoor temp inside of a pack. The sun is shining on it all day long.

[Roger Caffin]

It’s amazing that Roger is still alive.
Ah, but I am out of reach . . .
And yes, we survived COVID.

Yes, I am saying that boiling will kill many bugs – but there may be some I do not know about. After all, holding water at 70 C for a while will usually render it fairly safe. A good boil is always much safer however.

Now, there are some cautions here. It is NOT sufficient to just heat the outside of something to near boiling. The core may not be anywhere near a safe temperature. This is a danger with ‘slow cookers’: if they are not hot enough then they may instead be incubators. The same applies to spit roasting a large animal.

Water which is giving off small bubbles is NOT near boiling: those bubbles are probably oxygen being heated out of solution. Lots of people get fooled by this and think they have a super-fast stove. The founders of JetBoil fell for this at the start. Vigorous boiling!

India is the home of hot spices and curries: one might well ask why. In that hot climate, meat went off very quickly, but the taste could be disguised by . . . curry. Provided the meat was then well-cooked, it was OK.

Mind you, one might have to be a bit desperate . . .

Cheers

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

There are a few tribes around the world that use the same pot (without really cleaning it out)  for their meals (morning, noon and night),  They use that technique of bringing everything to a boil and each dish adds more to the overall flavor.

[Matthew / BPL]

Ok but coffee needs to not taste like chili.

[Roger Caffin]

but coffee needs to not taste like chili.
Do you mean you have tried that???

[Atif Khan]

This is a meat recipe we’ve been using for hikes lasting several days with ambient temperatures reaching 45 C (113 F). Below 30 C (86 C) this will go weeks. Its main advantage is that it doesn’t have the dried out texture of jerky or pemmican, tastes “normal,” and frees one of concern about bacteria.

The key is to get the fat out. Salt and spices help preserve the meat. We cook several kilos and keep it in the freezer for months for a variety of hiking meals: spaghetti, meat and potatoes, curry, stir fry, and, of course, chili:

Pressure cook 1 kg fat-free boneless beef, 3 tsp salt, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp pepper, 2 chilis, 1 tsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp turmeric, 100 g butter, 1/2 cup water until whistling, then simmer 30 minutes (until tender). Saute onion and ginger until brown. Add meat until water dries.

[Philip Tschersich]

I think this is one of the strangest threads I’ve seen here in a while. It’s basically, “putrefaction adds character.”

Just dehydrate your chili. It’s very easy. Do it in a warm oven if you don’t have a food dehydrator. Look it up on YouTube. If you want to make Chili Mac, also boil pasta (mini Penne is great) until barely al dente, and then dehydrate that as well. Mix it with the dried crumbled chili, and then rehydrate it by adding sufficient boiling water (freezer bag cooking) for a good 20 minutes snuggled in your puffy jacket or sleeping bag as a cozy, and you will have the hardiest backpacking meal you have ever experienced. This is one of my main goto’s.

[Roger Caffin]

The key is to get the fat out.
Agree.
Fat goes rancid – bad news.

Cheers

[Atif Khan]

Bread, not meat, but still on the topic of spoilage:

My father, now 86, recalls that when he was a young boy ship bound pilgrims brought “parathas” on their two week Hajj journey in temperatures exceeding 45C (113F). Parathas are ordinary flat breads, dried of water on the cast iron skillet, and heated in oil until they are soaked through. Recipes abound online. The high oil content helps preserve it. Not ultralight, but a welcome treat for bread lovers after a week or two in hot weather. I am not familiar with how long sour dough bread keeps in hot weather, but it may have similar hardiness.

Alternatively, you can take dry flour, which lasts months in all kinds of temperatures. We’ve had Bedouin cameleers prepare it like this and it was delicious: mix flour and water until dough-like; knead; bury in sand (in dirt I would recommend a bed of rocks); cover with hot coals; wait 20 to 30 minutes.

[moggie]

Part of the reason you can’t just boil food that has been unrefrigerated and make it safe to eat is that while the bacteria may be killed, the toxins produced while they were growing in the food will not be broken down. It may still be quite capable of causing serious illness even after you kill the bacteria.

[BlackHatGuy]

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

[JCH]

Agree with Philip…Once I started dehydrating my own meals the world of eating in the woods opened up. Chili is one of my favorites. Cuban black beans with chicken and yellow rice is also right up there.  My mother’s Mac and cheese recipe: dehydrate the cheese sauce by itself and combine with pasta as Philip suggested.  Endless opportunities for “home cooked” meals in the woods.

[BlackHatGuy]

I don’t do carbs, even when backpacking. I’m all about the fat and protein, so no pasta or beans, etc. My chili is pretty much meat and tomatoes/tomato puree with onions and spices. I generally use Nine Mile Meals when backpacking, but didn’t order in time (or maybe I did, I might actually and unexpectedly get my order the day before I leave, woohoo!). I guess I could just add ghee to a dehydrated chili to bring the fat content back up, perhaps something to check out.

[jscott]

Let us know how the trip went! Curious about where you’re going. Not eating carbs really changes the equation for sure.

[Author]

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