How to keep your food dry in a cooler while camping
As we are starting to plan out our camping trip this weekend I thought I’d share the brilliant idea that my husband and I came up with last year to keep our food dry.
First I have to say that we do car camping - meaning that we drive to a camp site and park ourselves for a weekend, no walking in, portaging or anything crazy like that. Our camping rule is, if you can’t bring beer, we don’t want to do it. So this is obviously a car camping tip 
We bring 2 coolers, one for drinks and one for food. The drinks cooler gets opened much more so the ice melts faster and it’s ok if the drinks get wet (mmm, icy cool beer). In the food cooler we came up with this cool contraption where the ice is below the food under racks so the food doesn’t sit in the gross melted ice water.
The picture above was taken after we got back from our 3 day camping trip - two things you see are that there is still ice in the bags and also you see the gross coloured water that your food would have been swimming in ( I think a container of sauce spilled).
If you can get ice in blocks that would be best but if not those ice bags you usually get are often pretty solid, so don’t break it up, just place on the bottom of the cooler. We used 3 bags for our large cooler. Then we placed soup cans on the edges and the middle to hold the racks up after the ice starts melting. Then we placed baking cooling racks over top, we used 2 over lapped to fit the space. Now you can place your food like normal, things that need more refridgeration like meat, place on the rack and fruit and stuff on top. You still need to zip lock bag things to protect from normal cross contamination, but at least your berries aren’t soaking in steak juice when a bag leaks. We thought we’d have to replace the ice during the trip but it lasted a long time and everything was still really cool so we didn’t - but you could take things out and replace the ice and reload.
This method worked so well for us last year that we will definitely will be doing again this year. I was always upset at how much food was spoiled at the end of a camping trip and now everything lasts and we’re not throwing out a bunch after we get home.
So who’s going camping this summer?
EDIT: if you want more awesome cooler tips check out the comment section - everyone has been leaving great ideas. Keep sharing people, it’s great.
I like to buy 2 gallons of water and 1-2 gallons of milk and freeze them. Then I place them in the cooler and put the stuff that has to be kept colder right against the frozen bottles. The water and milk slowly thaw, and can be used, and the cooler isn’t swimming in nasty water. Your bread stays good, and no cross contamination.
Great idea. We did bring some frozen burritos that helped keep stuff cool as well and our friends brought frozen meat sauce for spaghetti.
I have bought some of those insulated grocery bags that have the zippers on them. I fill one with pre-frozen foods that we will need and one with cold stuff like lettuce, cheese, etc. My cooler will hold 2 of these bags and requires no ice. I can do this for short trips like just a couple of days. Works great!
Great tip. I think bringing food frozen is a great idea to keep things cold.
I like to precook any meat I can, then freeze it. I also freeze any non-dairy sauces, breads, and the like. Then I freeze bottles of water. When I pack, I lay the bottles of water on their sides and pack all the cold stuff on top of them. This works out really well because once the water starts to thaw, it’s not going anywhere. However, about halfway through our trip last summer, my husband decided the water was halfway melted and that wasn’t enough ice, so he went and bought two bags of ice and dumped it on top of everything. *sigh* Fortunately I’d packed everything I could in leak proof containers anyway.
It’s a great idea to freeze what you can. I pre-cooked bacon for our camping trip last weekend and it was awesome. I also pre-cooked french toast. I didn’t freeze it because I didn’t plan ahead but it would be good frozen too.
I live in St. Louis and it gets ridiculously hot here. I’m going camping this weekend and definitely want to try this. This is an AWESOME idea because our ice cubes are always melted by the day 2 and we are just left with floating and sometimes ruined food. I am planning on freezing a few gallons of water to use instead of ice cubes and put the food on top. What size racks did you use? They look like normal cooling racks used for baking but I can’t find any that narrow.
I never plan ahead enough to freeze my own ice - maybe next time
I used normal cooling racks in our cooler but our cooler is very large - but if you’re using gallons of water you probably won’t need the racks because the melted ice will stay in the jugs. Also ice blocks like that will last longer then cubes too.
Good luck
Another way to keep your ice chest really cold is to keep an old heavy blanket on top of it. Fold it so that it hangs over all the sides about half way down chest. I found som narrow cooling racks at the dollar tree that fits just right in most of our chests.
I didn’t think of covering the cooler - great tip.
I often camp solo, so I will fill a bread pan half full and freeze. Then I put chicken breast in freezer zip lock bag and put on top of frozen water and fill to top. And freeze into ice block. I’ll bring that block to the top when I want to thaw for that evening. I also freeze milk jugs of water. I can stay out five days and still have cold food. I found those blue reusable gel blocks don’t last nearly as long as a 20oz bottle of water frozen. I’ve found using a cube shaped cooler keeps things colder comparable to a rectangular cooler.
I love hearing everyone’s tips for keeping their cooler cool - great ideas
I have found over the years of camping that if we use a garden hose and fill the cooler full of cold water the day before we leave (drain & dry) then put ice in the is stays frozen longer as your are putting it into a cold cooler.
That’s a great tip. I’m going to try that next weekend.
Wonder if one of those shelves you can get for a school locker would fit in the cooler? If so, you wouldn’t need to prop them up. They have legs.
I haven’t thought of using school locker shelves - they might work in smaller coolers since they would be narrower.
I love that there are other people out there obsessed with cooler tricks! I do frozen jugs method, the best ones are the big rectangular ones that usually are used for apple or grape juice. They last 3 nights just fine, and lay well flat at the bottom of the cooler. Then, Shove all the frozen meat in between them in crevices. Then, get 2-4 plastic wash bins (cheap at Walmart) to put food in. They fit and stack well in a cooler, and they are easy to maneuver when looking for something. Sometimes I will also add a frozen powerade jug to the bins that have stuff like dairy in it…just a little insurance. Also, I try to be better at remembering not everything has to be cold that’s getting eaten in the next two days….I leave a lot of produce like onion, potato, peppers, corn on cob, etc out of the cooler because it doesn’t need to be in there.
Definitely trying the fill with water the night before method…genius!
I’ve been loving everyone’s tips too. I like the wash bin idea too. Thanks for sharing
I found this via Pinterest. What a great idea with the freezer racks! I also like everyone’s comments like freezing water bottles. I put water in quart size heat sealed FoodSaver bags (make sure too keep some air in there) and freeze them. They stay frozen longer than the cubes and the water will never leak.
I know - everyone’s comments are the best - so many great tips.
A block of dry ice in the middle of all your ice will also keep it really cold. Only put food you don’t need right away on the ice. We use the dry ice in our “freezer” cooler for long trips.
Thanks for the tip
We try to camp every summer. We freeze several nalgene bottles of drinking water and use those for the majority of the cooler. Then we only need to add a bag or so of ice. As the bottles start to melt we have cold drinking water. I like things that provide double duty when camping! I think the baking rack idea is amazing! I will definately try that next year.
Freezing your drinking water is a great idea - thanks for sharing.
We add 1/4 cup of salt to one gallon of water in our recycled milk jugs. It stays frozen/cold longer…HAPPY CAMPING everyone!!
Thanks for the great tip. Next year I’m going to get myself more organized and freeze ice before hand.
We do this, too, and works great. We often freeze salt-ice in 16-20oz plastic bottles (empties from individual Gatorade, or apple cider, etc.) that are small enough to fit in our soft-sided cooler in the car for road trips. I just make sure to label them prominently so no one drinks saltwater after they melt.
great idea
I freeze cake pans full of water a few days ahead and put them in the bottom of the coolers. It helps to keep things cold a long time. We also freeze some water bottles because we can pack them around things very easily. p.s. The new lights for coolers that stick on the cover works awesome. It lights up and you can see what you are getting out without having to hold a flashlight.
The light is a great idea. Thanks for sharing
Do you mind if I pin this to Pinterest? (I saw this originally on Pinterest, but didn’t see a Pin-related icon on this page and wanted to check before re-pinning)
of course re-pin
thanks!
Camping for years….I cut an old car window shade- the kind you put in your front windshield-cut in half , line the bottom of your cooler, put your ice blocks, ice, frozen bottles, racks, etc, then put other half of shade on top of everything and close your lid. A little more insulation- which helps a lot. ( we usually use dry ice when we camp, makes for more room in the cooler)
Live in southern Illinois and it gets hot & humid here in the summers. I like to freeze water in 1/2 gallon paper milk containers, when ready to go on a picnic or camping, I tear the paper off the block of ice, stays much longer than buying bags of ice, good for a beer & soda cooler. I also freeze water in 1/2 gallon plastic milk containers for my food cooler, cooler stays cold & dry.
Great tips
Suggestion, instead of cans for the racks to stand on. Why don’t you fill a canning jar (they make freezer ones that are plastic) 3/4 full of salted water and freeze. Put the lids on them and use them to hold up the racks. This would allow you to have even surface to hold the rack up and more frozen cold ice as well to further the cold. I also make sure to place a towel on the top of everything before I close my cooler. Tuck it down the insides a bit to make sure. This helps from all the cold air escaping when you open the cooler up. If you push aside the area you need to go to, then cover it back up it will help keep your items cooler longer. It’s really great for the small coolers when your doing a lot of opening and closing of it. I’m looking to get some of those zippered cooler bags for taking home your groceries from the stores that have the zippers broken. I want to cut them up to make a blanket/insulation layer out them for the top of my cooler to help make that cover instead of a towel.