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Cooler Question

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ewatts2003

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I've searched over and over and can't really find the answer that I'm looking for, so I apologize if this topic has been discussed. I'm trying to thin out my comp load and streamline things a little better. My question is about the meat cooler. I have a 110 Igloo MaxCold that I keep the brisket, 3 pork butts, and 4 racks of ribs in. Chicken is it's own small 6 pack cooler. The previous comp I had a third cooler that held injections, sauces, butter, and garnish. Am I safe to put all of the items from the third cooler into the meat cooler? Or should I just continue doing it how I'm doing it? Thanks in advance!

Eric
 
Shoot... You asked me about this and I forgot about it. Sorry!

We only put meat in our meat cooler. We do all that we can to prevent contamination (individual meats in seals bags, all meat bags in a plastic garbage bag) but once in a while some meat juice escapes into the cooler, so I wouldn't put anything else in that cooler, or find a way to ensure that it won't come in contact with any meat juice.

That may be extreme, but I would rather be safe than sorry.
 
Ron_L said:
Shoot... You asked me about this and I forgot about it. Sorry!

We only put meat in our meat cooler. We do all that we can to prevent contamination (individual meats in seals bags, all meat bags in a plastic garbage bag) but once in a while some meat juice escapes into the cooler, so I wouldn't put anything else in that cooler, or find a way to ensure that it won't come in contact with any meat juice.

That may be extreme, but I would rather be safe than sorry.
Click to expand...

No problem Ron, I know how it goes!! I am planning on being on the safe side, just thought I would get some opinions. Do you put your chicken in the same cooler or on its own? More than likely I will end up getting another 110 qt for drinks, snacks, and the items I mentioned above. Thanks for the response!
 
IMO, leave the garnish out, but the rest of those items are fine. Even if something gets on the butter, you're going to cook it anyways. If the sauce bottle is sealed, the sauce will be ok too. Of that list, the garnish is the only thing I'd worry about.

Get a separate cooler for beer, though.
 
ewatts2003 said:
No problem Ron, I know how it goes!! I am planning on being on the safe side, just thought I would get some opinions. Do you put your chicken in the same cooler or on its own? More than likely I will end up getting another 110 qt for drinks, snacks, and the items I mentioned above. Thanks for the response!
Click to expand...

Same cooler, but separated from the other meats. We also don't us any ice from the meat cooler in any other cooler.
 
I am similar to Ron. If it gets cooked it can go in with the meat (meat, brine, injection), if it does not get cooked (sauce, garnish, etc.) it goes in another cooler. Any ice that has touched raw meat, packaged or not, is not allowed to touch anything that does not get cooked (sauce, garnish, beer, etc.).

I do think you can eliminate the chicken cooler. If everything in the meat cooler gets cooked above 160, which it all should, then I think you should be fine.

My biggest fear of getting sick at a contest is having a beer at another cook site where the team thought the ice from the meat cooler looked clean and could be re-used to keep beer cold.
 
Thanks everyone! Chicken will go in the meat cooler along with the injections and marinades. Sauces and garnish will go in with the snack cooler. And drinks will be in another.

I also do not use the ice from the meat cooler for anything. Shame to throw out 80 lbs of good ice, but not worth taking the chance!
 
We use 3 coolers. 1 for all meats which are double bagged. 1 cooler for injections. The 3rd (and most important) cooler is for beer and other drinks.
 
Meat goes in one large cooler with a divider for the bagged garnish on one side. Keeps garnish cool, but not frozen on ice.

Injections will travel with the beer and food in the other cooler. Sauce does not need to be kept on ice, so those bottles ride elsewhere, so I run two coolers. Will sometimes take a third empty for ice that is provided or for KY Mules, or the sort.
 
We use 3...one for meat...and meat only, one for drinks/sauces, and one for garnish.:cool:
 
I use one for all of my meat, which is all in vacuum sealed bags. I also do not use that ice for anything else, it gets dumped when everything is out of it.


We have a toyhauler we cook in so we put everything else in the fridge of the toyhauler and work out of that. If we have extra soda or canned things as we pull injections etc out it get's put in to chill. The fridge is on anyway and it is usually only half full so it is nice to use the space, plus I can have my ice cream in the freezer :thumb:
 
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