Keeping meat warm in a cooler.


 
R

Rita Y

TVWBB Emerald Member
Mike M. wrote:
I can not seem to hold things in warmed cooler. Wrapped in foil and towel the temp seems to drop pretty fast. I had to put flat in frig to wait on the butts.
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Mike,
What about trying to drop one of those lightbulbs on an extension cord into the cooler to keep the heat up? We added a rheostat to the cord so the heat could be ajusted. I use a remote thermometer inserted through the drain hole to monitor the temp inside the cooler as well as the one in the meat.

Just make sure the lightbulb doesn't touch the sides of the cooler. Works quite well for me.

Rita
 
Rita, Brilliant idea. You can also fill the cooler with hot water for 15 - 20 min before putting the meat in to pre heat it.
 
Id be afraid that the light bulb would begin to melt the plastic of the cooler. I would go with either hot water or if its sunny and warm just leave the top of the cooler open and put it in direct sun. Its always worked for me.
 
Rita,

That reminded me of your wonderful post (as always
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) in this thread.
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Thanks, Biil.
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Jim, the cord at the lightbulb end could be duct-taped to the lid so when closed, it would be away from the sides of the cooler. I agree: the bulb might melt the plastic if it touched.

I use a low-wattage bulb and the rheostat at the other end of the cord outside the cooler helps regulate that very well.

Rita
 
i like bryan suggested just put hot water in the cooler for about 10 minutes....oh and this time i put the towels in the dryer for roughly that same amount of time....

toasty warm...
 
This'll sound stupid. What I always do is run hot water in the cooler and cover it. I put a couple towels in the dryer... When the food is done, I pour out the hot water, put a hot towel on the bottom, put the food on the towel...and cover it with the other hot towel.


It works like a charm....even if it is kinda weird!

-brian
 
It's called replying before reading the entire thread, Mords. Plus, it's a perfect case of GMTA.
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I wish there was a way to keep meat warm for longer than 4 hours. I'd love to bring freshly smoked meat to our next pot luck at work, but in order to do that, I'd have to pull it off the smoker immediately before I leave for work and then have it stay warm for a minimum of 5 hours and probably an hour or so more than that. Either that or I drag my WSM to work in the middle of the night and just smoke stuff there. lol
 
GMTA? you could bring a warming plate.....its a glass type thing that you plug in and it stays warm......you could leave the meat wrapped up ontop of that for some time...

it may just work
 
How 'bout this...?

Preheat the cooler with hot water, warm the towels in the dryer, then put a heating pad (the kind people buy for aching backs) into the bottom of the preheated cooler. Double-wrap your meat in foil, blanket with the warm towels, and cradle it on the heating pad inside the cooler.

If that doesn't work, eat early.
 
Mords, GMTA=Great Minds Think Alike
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I never thought about a warming plate. That might just do the trick! Just gotta dig it out of the garage and clean it up a bit.
 
My wife has one of those thingies you heat in a microwave and hang around your neck for neck ache or pain. It gets fairly warm and you could put one of these in the bottom of your cooler (sorry but I do not know what it is called).

As an alternative, my chiropractor heats towels in the microwave and places them on the table before I lay down on it. This should also work to add heat to your cooler.

Ray
 
thanks for the explain mark....also the plate just by itself not in the cooler though you can try it i think itll get to hot...

but keeping things warm is always a prob for "us" because we cant cook on fri night.. however we want warm food... so most of us use a warming plate and put the food on that for a few hours...it works...

also they have now...ill try to find it online...but its a fancy warming cabinet...it looks like a piece of furniture...like a night stand..but u put food in it and its like a lil warming oven that the foodservice ppl have....its pretty cool...
 
Kevin, another very functional step to keeping your meat warm from morning until lunch in a cooler is this. After you wrap your meat in foil and wrap a towel around it, wrap some polar fleece around it as well.

Go to your local Walmart or fabric store and look for 60" wide Polar Fleece. Buy it in 1/3 yard increments, or check in the remnants bin and see if there are any tag-ends that are 1/4 to 1/2 yard lengths. This gives you about 3 wraps around a brisket or butt, and is a great insulator. Machine washable, too.

I bring meats to work regularly, and they're still piping hot at lunch time. I wrap in three layers of HD foil, then one towel to catch any leaks, then wrap a polar fleece strip around it. I have a couple of towels in the bottom of the cooler, lay the meats on top of those towels, then I lay part of an inexpensive blanket or old quilt on top of that. Works great. I've kept a cooler of briskets hot (about 140) for eight hours that way before.

Keri C, smokin' on Tulsa Time
 
Nifty little trick...

Take a towel and get it wet, wring it out till it's saturated but not dripping. Nuke it for a few minutes (how long depends on how big and how wet the towel is) until it's steaming hot. CAREFULLY, place the towel into an appropriate plastic bag (trash bag, etc) and drop it into the bottom of the cooler.

You can nuke a wet towel to the point where you can't safely touch it, so be careful. Once inside the cooler it'll last for a long long time.

Many folks have microwaves at the office, so even if it does cool down to where you're not comfortable, the process can be repeated.
 
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