Food Containers that Keep Food Warm

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shadowcat

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Do you guys know of any food containers that are smaller that will hold maybe a sandwich or 2 that will keep food hot/warm? i'm thinking they must have something small to carry in my pack? with the colder weather it would be so nice to take hot food with on the trail. i do already carry a thermos that's been great at keeping liquids hot for 8 hrs and it is the best to open that up and drink some hot chocolate mixed w/ coffee & marshmellows or some tomatoe soup! makes you all warm and toasty. i made a hot grilled cheese sandwich to take last wkend but by the time i got around to eating it - it was really cold! so i thought "mmmmm" wonder if....... :rolleyes:
 
It is much harder to keep solid foods hot for very long. Liquids work much better, probably because of conductivity. Also Hot Cocoa starts close to 200* whereas most solids (like a cheese sandwich) start at a lower ambiant temperature. I haven't had much luck so far myself. Also have found thicker soups cool faster than thinner soups? I think a stove is the only way for a hot sandwich break, though you could bring already cooked ones in foil and re-heat which would probably be the easiest and fastest way. I have a set-up I plan to try with my Primus cannister stove this winter where I bring the can in a heated container ... but most of the time it is too cold to plunk down and let the body get even colder by cooking something up. Thermos with hot liquid, and fatty foods, and a body in perpetual motion is usually the name of the winter dayhiking game for me.

Let us know if you come up with something good!
 
My Idea

My idea would be a container, one that came in various sizes. Maybe you'd stick in your microwave or heat a separate "thingy" in the microwave - but in any case once you put your hot food in the container and seal it would keep your food hot for xxx number of hours. We've got all those hand/foot warmers, the ones you crack open. I also have a hand warmer where you lite a stick and put it in this metal lined box. both these puppies get darn hot. Some idea utilizing things like this. maybe even battery operated as long as they didn't get too heavy or cumbersome. wouldn't it be great to have some hot yummy food at the summit? i'm gonna do some searching and see if i can find anything. i bet there's something out there somewhere. if not: just remember this was my idea! :)
 
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twigeater said:
Once on a post Thanksgiving hike, I wanted to bring hot turkey dinner. Just before I left, I microwaved it, wrapped in layers of foil, surrounded it with a few chemical heaters, and wrapped it all in foil. It was cold by lunch time.
Twigeater

Foil is a relatively good conductor and probably worked against you. You might have had better luck with some kind of open fabric (wool sweater?) Or how about a down cozy? :D, or even bubble wrap. Remember, the key to a Thermos is the vacuum between the inner and outer bottle.

Pb
 
The whole thing was wrapped in a fleece in my pack, but probably some bubble wrap between layers tinfoil would've been better.
thanks!

Also, the chemical heaters need oxygen to stay hot, so I don't believe they helped at all.
 
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cold food

Stop being such a yuppie, you can go without a hot grilled cheese for a hike.
 
While mostly I agree with Sierra :D I have on occasion had a need to keep things warm. I have a hankering for tuna salad during cold winter camping trips. I throw some pepperoni (save the comments), cheese, and mayo and the contents of a foil pack of tuna into a ziplock bag. Of course, it doesn't stay thawed for too long, so I put it in a cozy with a chemical heat warmer. Though they are supposed to need plenty of oxygen to work, they do fine in the enclosed cozy.

A while back I was annoyed at the cost of the OR water bottle parkas, so I made my own. Now I've made several and they work great and cost me about $1.50 and an hour to make. I will probably make some different shape ones next, but the water bottle shape ones work fine for a bag of tuna.


other than that, I let things melt in my mouth...

spencer
 
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No yuppies here!

i'm not a yuppie and neither is anyone else - there's nothing wrong with thinking outside the box and coming up with new ideas. if you want to eat a 1/2 frozen sandwich hey more power to ya but if i can be creative and have mine warm i'm going to do that to. i'm sure you were just kidding but just bec we like the outdoors doesnt mean we have to suffer. :p
 
yuppies are alive

shadowcat there certainally are yuppies out there thats a fact, wether or not your one, I really cant say as I do not know you, so I will retract calling you a yuppie ok? As far as keep ing a sandwich warm, you sounded sincere so I gave it some thought to try and help you out.
The way I see I came up with 2 options:
1. Take your hot sandwich and wrap it in foil, then activate 2 hand warmers and place them on either side of your sandwich, wrap those in foil as well, then take this bundle and place it in a OR stove carrier, I doubt it will stay as hot as out of the pan but maybe it would stay warm, alot of effort for a sandwich.
2. Make your sandwich, then cook it on the trail, it would be hot and fresh.
 
mcorsar has the right idea. If it'll keep thing cool in the warm months, it'll help keep things warm in the cold months.

For how long will it keep warm and what can you do to enhance it? If that hot themos is small enough put it in the same insulated lunch bag or consider wrapping the things you want to keep warm together inside your spare fleece or down and pack them as close to your body as possible.

I have the OR insulated water bottle holder ... it keeps my hot tea warm for a couple of hours ... by midday it's either gone or luke cold.

In the summer I wrap my frozen water bottle (cube) in a camp hand towel. Amazing how long the ice will last assuring nice cool drinks throughout the day. Heat dissipates faster than ice melts, however.
 
from a technical standpoint, you'd want to maximize the thermal resistance between your food & ambient temperature (good insulation) and maximize the amount of heat energy inside the insulator.

Best way to do it would be to ensure there's some boiling water inside the insulator -- either with the food itself (I love bringing hot soup on a hiking trip, it warms the soul) or by adding some boiling water inside a separate plastic container along with your food. Water has one of the highest specific heat capacities (how much heat energy you can store when you raise the temperature of a given weight of the stuff) of anything, much higher than other solids & liquids.

It's extra weight but if you really want the luxury of hot food that's how I would do it. (Not sure how those gel-packs compare, one could try an experiment. Hmm, I have one of those mini-wireless thermometers; when I get some free time this winter I'll have to try it. :D )

The other option is to use some kind of chemical reaction to release heat, not sure what's available & safe... I seem to remember that military MRE's had something but it was for heating food quickly, not keeping hot food hot.
 
I have two silly suggestions:

make a grilled cheese wrap (folded up) and stick it in a previously heated thermos.

tape the grill cheese to your tummy while hiking.. I get
rather warm - and have stuck power bars down my shirt (and pants) before to prevent freezing.

It would be excellent to have a grilled cheese on a freezing day!
 
There are shorter, wider thermoses (thermi?!) that might hold a sandwich more easily. Any warm sandwich will get a little soggy being stored in a thermos because its own condensation will soak into the bread. I usually bring a soup or stew in a thermos, and a chunk of bread wrapped separately. Also, carry food wrapped as much as possible in the middle of the pack so all the other layers/gear will help insulate it.
 
great idea Blue!

I often keep my camelbak and other snacks between two shirts to keep them thawed. :)
 
Smiles

laughs thanks! I can see me trying to pullllllll my sandwich outta my thermos :). hey at least i got you guys thinking about the idea and that was my intention!
when we (some of us) were "younger" we used the low, wide thermos to take our lunch to school. i don't know why they are so darn hard to find these days but all i'm seeing are the coffee - tall/thinner type thermos. now i'm thinking some hot rice with chili on top...... yummy.
i do make the best hot chocolate, with some coffee in it; tons of marshmellows - it stays as hot as i make it for a good 7-8 hours; after that it it still warm;so far it's never gotten totally cold. i've been dogged about this until i open it up and my co-hikers smell it. last time they ever dogged me!
blue you go first and let me know how that taping a sandwich to your tummy works - :D
 
Vacum Seal Thermos...

I once owned a vacumn coffee thermos that kept liquids HOT for very long periods of time. I wonder if they sell some type of vacumn food container thingy? You could always cut up the sandwich and shuv it into a vacumn seal thermos and hope for the best. It might be hard to get out...
 
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