What can you get away without refrigeration? I've read of people (Seeker?) taking bacon with them and no cooler... maybe?
Is there a specific cured bacon that can survive this without killing you? I've looked a little but I haven't found a definite answer.
Eggs would good as well. Any idea on what you can get away with there?
I'm getting sick of Hawk Vittles and Mountain House to the point where it's making me want to come back to civilization sooner.
Yeah, that's me... I wasn't talking about run of the mill grocery store bacon though... I get mine from Liehs & Steigerwald, out of Syracuse NY (also have a store in Liverpool, near the intersection of I-81 and 481, across from the Great Northern Mall). It's a German place that's been in business since the 20s... I went to school with the grandkids, one of whom now runs the place... They smoke the bacon, and that adds shelf life. If you call and ask, they'll "double smoke" it, and it's good for about a week in an Adirondack summer... It also lasts longer if you get it as a flitch, instead of sliced.
(commentary... spell check is confused by the word "flitch"... apparently it's not a common word? how sad. It's a slab of bacon.)
The other thing you could look for is "dry cured" bacon, which is an entirely different animal than the wet cured bacon they sell in stores these days... Think Virginia Ham, but bacon... salty, dry, preserved, lasts for months... Not sure of a source for it. When I was a kid, my dad used to get some from Germany, and we'd eat it raw... just carve the rind off, cut a strip about 1/2" thick, and then cut that into little nuggets... they were delicious. Guess the smoking sort of cooked it too.
Fresh "from the chicken" eggs will last for a couple weeks if you dip them in vegetable or olive oil and wipe them off... this seals them somehow (commercial eggs get washed, and this opens the pores to spoiling bacterial, so they need to be refrigerated). I've only pushed that theory to a week, personally.
I bring evaporated milk with me too, and reseal the small cans by turning them over while plugging the holes with my thumbs... the skin that forms in the opening seals it up again, and I use a can every 2 days if my daughter is with me, maybe every 3 if i'm solo... you can cover them with tape as well, but i wouldn't push this too far time-wise. I just don't like dried milk, since it's non-fat... heard that Nido powder is good (hispanic food section), but i can never find it in my area.
I also think that some folks have more sensitive digestive systems than others... I grew up eating dirt, drinking out of hose and the local ponds and creeks, and don't seem to have nearly the trouble that others I know have... I will rinse and eat stuff i've dropped on the ground vs going hungry, or wasting it, and don't fuss much over "contaminating" my cookware with raw eggs (chicken's a slightly different story)... I won't eat raw eggs, but my wife bleaches anything touched by eggs or chicken... she's sick way more often than i am... growing up, my neighbor's kids were like that... their mom sterilized everything, and they were always sick. I shared a cup at another neighbor's house (they had 4 boys), and we all did fine...
anyway, that's all i've got.
