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Light Weight Food Canister

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I am doing 60ish miles on the Toby/Clarion River in NW PA in a few weeks. Over 4 days. I want to take a sleeve or two of English muffins for sandwiches. In general muffins and bagels are pretty sturdy, but I'd like to protect them with the lightest possible shell. I was thinking of using a cardboard oat meal canister. Has anyone one seem something similar in aluminum or plastic? or how do you take bread on short trips? I am looking for very thin and light. It will be in a barrel for protection from water.

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That's why I usually take only uncrushable flatbreads or soft flour tortillas or make my bread from scratch in a reflector oven.

But if you want to take English Muffins, you don't necessarily need to limit yourself to a round/tubular container -- Thomas' packages their English Muffins in rectangular cardboard boxes -- so you could just use any old Tupperware-like food container.

Honestly, however, if it is going to be in a barrel maybe just put the crushable stuff on top?
 
Quaker Oats boxes crush pretty easily, but might work. I've used rectangular ("Red Oval") cracker boxes (the long skinny ones) for cookies on multi-week trips, and they worked well. The nice thing about them is that you can squish the ends down as you eat them, saving space and beefing up the crushability. You'd have to find the right box for the muffins, though.
 
I may have jumped the gun by posting this thread. I just found a plastics company that will sell me this container and a metal lid for ~$2.33 plus shipping. It is 4.2 by 9.6". It is a beef jerky container. I just ordered it.

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Al, I'm unsure if you made the transition to the new site or not (profile seems to suggest "not") but I'm considering a similar trip on the Clarion river... did you make the trip?... Care to share insights?... Perhaps a trip report to get us through the winter?
 
Staying with the oatmeal theme, how about one of these metal cans? I really llike this type of oatmeal, although it takes. a long time to cook.

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Cut a rectangle of aluminum flashing (or you could use piece of thin plastic like the kind sold to make flexible chopping mats) large enough to roll into a cylinder the size you‘re needing. Add snaps along the seam edge. Once your muffins are consumed undo the snaps and you can roll the cylinder up for storage.
or
bag the muffins, insert in a second bag and inflate and seal to create an air cushion and your foodstuff
 
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Staying with the oatmeal theme, how about one of these metal cans? I really llike this type of oatmeal, although it takes. a long time to cook.

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My wife likes steel cut oats and every night, during the winter, I place them in the rice cooker with water, set the timer and they are ready for her in the morning.
 
I don't like peanut butter but I like the large size plastic jars it comes in.

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I also use the smaller size and the different types (smooth, crunchy, reduced something etc) all have colour coded lids which makes it easier to extract the right container from deep inside a giant dry bag.
 
Often I'm standing in a grocery aisle "having a genius moment" ; the other shoppers milling around me mistake for "having a senior moment". Whatever, they're probably not trippers.
I am drawn to food items which might find their way into a clever new tripping recipe, likewise containers might find their way into a clever new reuse it purpose. As such some "questionable" items are bought and brought home. (The italics are a nod to my wife. She hates the "junk" I "fill the pantry with".) As per the OP I'd prefer the cardboard container of oatmeal. Burnable crushable later on the trip. Plastic end caps are easily packed home. If the OPer needs any Quaker Oats containers fear not. I have a pantry full.
 
Zip ties used to be sold in a plastic container about 3-4" wide and about a foot high. You can also still find old Saltine cracker tins in antique shops that would work. And around Christmas, EVERYTHING seems to come in a tin, and that's a good time to look for them.

Both oatmeal and cornmeal come in a smaller, bagel-sized waxed cardboard container, as do raisins.

A large cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, or sour cream container might work as well.

I prefer bagels for tripping because of their shelf life and durability. I find the raisin ones last longest; something about the moisture in the raisins seems to keep them soft and fresh-ish... Regular ones get too dry for me in a week, and english muffins seem to crumble by day 3. Tortilla wraps work well, but I don't really like the taste. Some of my friends swear by them though. Naan is pretty durable too, and I like it well enough.

And I'm not sure if they sell it commercially, but the Army used to issue us "shelf-stable bread" in a brown foil wrapper, like an MRE... it was like two heels stuck together, with the crust on all 6 sides, but still 'bread', and if you were hungry, you ate it and were happy. (There was shelf-stable milk too. Vanilla was 'eh', and chocolate was very good.)
 
Light weight food canister… sounds like most posters bring bread on trips. I wonder if many make bannock anymore? I do bring wheat flat bread once in a while. However, my dog Jake and I like to travel a few days then base camp while enjoying some fresh baked cinnamon bread or corn bread … we can go through corn bread in a hurry. Flour travels well on trips and a good chunk of corn bread and honey with coffee makes a great breakfast … or late morning snack … or afternoon snack …

Bob.
 
Light weight food canister… sounds like most posters bring bread on trips. I wonder if many make bannock anymore? I do bring wheat flat bread once in a while. However, my dog Jake and I like to travel a few days then base camp while enjoying some fresh baked cinnamon bread or corn bread … we can go through corn bread in a hurry. Flour travels well on trips and a good chunk of corn bread and honey with coffee makes a great breakfast … or late morning snack … or afternoon snack …

Bob.
Not bannock, but I do cook a skillet yeast bread which is quite good. It is actually a modified english muffin recipe. It takes a while longer due to the yeast leavening vs chemical but it is worth it as a treat.
 
Light weight food canister… sounds like most posters bring bread on trips. I wonder if many make bannock anymore? I do bring wheat flat bread once in a while. However, my dog Jake and I like to travel a few days then base camp while enjoying some fresh baked cinnamon bread or corn bread … we can go through corn bread in a hurry. Flour travels well on trips and a good chunk of corn bread and honey with coffee makes a great breakfast … or late morning snack … or afternoon snack …

Bob.

I can't stand stale bread, so on a trip my breadlike starch is either bannock (Gil Gilpatrick's "canoe country bread" recipe) or tortillas. @DuctTape, I admire your mastery of yeastbushcraft! Baking powder was invented for ham fisted bakers like me.
 
My bannock contains the following ingredients
Choose your own proportions:

flour - half white, half whole wheat
corn meal
oat flour
Nido whole milk powder
sugar - half brown, half white
shortening (Crisco works well, traditionalists will use lard)
Cinnamon
baking powder
salt
Mix well and bag

it stores and travels well when dry, mix with water to make a stiff dough when ready. Press very flat before cooking in liquid margarine.
Serve with honey or maple syrup and/or jam
 
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