Can anyone recommend types of cheese and sausage that will last 3-4 days without refridgeration? I'd like to use them for backpacking. I have access to a lot of speciality/ethnic food shops so obscure cheese/sausages aren't out of the question.

-Blast

p.s. "Valvetta" is NOT an option.

Canned Cheese Whiz and Hormel Pre-cooked Sausages!!!

There's enough artificial ingredients and preservatives in those things that they will be around long after the cockroaches have died off

Blast What about the hilshire farm summer sausage. You see it sitting on shelfs at stores. No refridgeration needed. OR maybe some nice spam. And for the cheese you could use any hard type that is completly covered in wax.

Blast,
Cheese was originall a way to keep milk without refrigeration and most cheeses will last for several days without refrigeration still but the cheese moist cheeses of today will get oily in just a few hours. The dry cheeses like parmisan will last for weeks and melt like regular cheese. The key is the drier and harder ir is the linger it will last, and if it molds cut the mold away and be happy cause all cheese really is in molded milk.

Second ray's comment on hard cheeses like Parmesan and Asiago. You can also carry feta, its softer, but it comes packed in brine (or should, if it isn't go somewhere else) so it should last. Summer sausage will store well unopened, but you've got to eat it or refrigerate it after you open it or it'll go bad. If you know a butcher, ask him.

Even some of the semi-hard cheeses like jack and cheddar will be ok for a few days. You just have to expect a little mold on the outside. Just slice off that thin layer, and the rest is fine. It looks a little gross when you see the mold, but, it's really fine under that.

Shame, shame. What will Wolfe Brand and Dinty Moore think?
I have used smoked summer sausage and blocked cheeses on extended backpacking with great results.
kmat

One of my friends takes the Healthy Choice low fat sausage and slices it thin and puts it in his dehydrator and makes sausage jerky for backpacking. It was excellent! He also makes pepperoni chips that way.

BLAST.. i take aged cheddar..the older the better..jarlsberg
also keeps well..i take both on canoe trips in a small soft
side cooler along with jam tubes and margarine..
i also see some high end meat sticks in the dele case at
the supermarket..some covered in herbs and course pepper..
last trip i took one that had the least coatings and it
kept well and i had it for lunch..sorry i don't recall the
name...i have also used string cheese in one serving packs.



the photo is a typical lunch..the summer sausage was made
from buffalo and did not keep very well.i had to trim
the end if i did not cut off a hunk for lunch every day
so i went to the high end stuff at twice the price but
it did keep better,only weaping a bit of grease on the
cut end between uses

BLAST-- just went thru my canoe logs..it's Colmbus brand..
the dry one without the pepper and herbs..
also found in my notes i was using Hoffmans Smoked Cheddar.

If you can get some McLelland Mature Cheddar in the your local Specialty food store. It might not last 3-4 days though because you probably would have eaten all of it on the first day.

Hope your local deli is better than this Cheese Shop

As for the sausage why not try some salami sausage or one of the other smoked alternatives.

For cheese, hard ones like parmesan, or a semi-soft like cheddar or edam that has been waxed. You're best bet is a speciality cheese seller, but they generally only have the larger ones. They would also have cheese wax, so you can wrap your own for a few days at least.

For the sausage, brands vary by region, but adds are there should be an area of your grocery store that has stuff like shelf-stable pepperoni and salami, whole and sliced. They often also have little 3-4 ounce salamis and summer sausages around there.

Edam - one of the most pointless bland boring cheeses ever created. The waxy cheesy bit just under the wax skin is disgusting. Although if you put it between the toes is does get rid of athlete's foot I have been told.

I've had good luck with string cheeses that are individually wrapped. Cheddar, Jack, and Mozarella. Taken them on week+ trips without a problem. Also, spent a couple of days hiking with a ranger once and he had cheese he'd had with him for 3 weeks and it just some cheddar and some white cheese... don't remember what. Just said he made sure he carved off of a different side each time to keep the mold from starting. WHen I"m hiking the oily texture doesn't bother me at all.

As for meat, small summer sausages are a hit, somethign I can eat in one meal and a snack a couple of hours later. Also peperroni and beef jerky, those last longer.

YMMV

Last weekend I brought pepperoni but the amount of grease was overwhelming. In the past I've done summer sausage but Texas heat turns it to an oily, unpleasent mush pretty quickly. I'm thinking their must be some hard Spanish sausage or something that can sit untouched by hot sun...

-Blast

BLAST..i'm sure there is a Spanish hard sausage,i think
i have seen them in the cooler with the other brands..they
are dark ,twisty and dryed up looking..kind of like Spanish
cigars..there good but take some getting used too--the cigars,
i never had the nerve to try the sausage..

A good salami stick is also a pleasant hiking alternative. Not too greasy, and tends to last a lot longer than some of the others. Genoa or some such are actually fermented and cured sausage with an edible mold on the outside (like a Brie cheese). I doubt you will find another sausage type that holds up as well and has so much character and flavor. It also goes well with hard dry cheeses like Parmesan, which makes some sense.

There are some spanish and portugese dried chorizos that are okay, but can be a bit too hard and chewy at times.

Although it isn't really cheese, velveeta is a good compromise for the trail. It doesn't need to be refrigerated, as long as it is kept in a sealed container and clean. It may not be a fine cheddar, but two weeks into a hike it will still be as good as the first day if properly cared for, without refrigeration. Otherwise, stick with the hard dry cheeses and keep them dry on the trail.

Too bad we don't irradiate our food. Irradiated cheddar stored in an airproof container will last 6 months unrefrigerated. Some day we will get it right.

Thats a nice looking lunch Canoedogs. Even though it might be a little more expensive Whole Foods actually has a good selection of dry salami, pepperoni sausage etc. And you can pick up some nice Gruyere cheese to go with it which lasts for quite a while. Aged Mizithra is another good cheese that stores well and makes a great addition to pasta/rice dishes. Damn, I'm getting hungry. Must go buy some cheese and sausage.

Here in New Zealand we can buy sausages with cheese in them. Yep, a sausage with a line of cheese down the centre. These are 'English style' sausages, not cured sausage like salami etc.

That, and the mince and cheese pie makes interesting conversation for recent arrivals to NZ.

A

The kosher (or kosher style) solution to this is a nice hard salami. You know, one of those wrinkled salamis that hang behind the counter at the deli. Actually, the way those are made is that the delis buy soft (fresh) salamis and hang them up for weeks until they dry.

As far as cheeses go, I have carried all sorts of cheeses for days or a couple of weeks at a time and none of them have every gone bad in any way.

Only problem I have with either of those foodstuffs is that they are pretty heavy for backpacking use.

Heavy, but concentrated. You get a lot of bang for the gram out of dried sausage like this. Lots of calories, lots of flavor, lots of satisfying. A good two lb salami log ought to last one person hiking at least 10 meals as the main.

Mmm, a little diced salami mixed into my mac and cheese, oh baby.

A few years ago I spent a month in a remote camp, in the early summer, sans refrigeration. I brought along some hard cheddar cheese and several smallish summer sausages.

I opened a new sausage only when I used up the previous one. Once opened, each sausage would easily keep for two or three days in the hot weather.

The cheese was kept wrapped in cheesecloth which had been soaked in cider vinegar. This is an old trick; aside from adding a nice aged taste to the cheese, it keeps the mold away.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Here, we call it chedderwurst, but I've never seen them outside of New England and upper New York. Depending on who made it, it's either like a bratwurst or kielbasa with something halfway between velveeta and cheddar in it.

Hickory farms makes something like that they call it "Cheddarbrats". Pretty darned good eatin.

I never heard of the cider vinegar idea for cheddar before. I reckon I might have to give that a try sometime.

I've always heard that hard cheeses last well. Things like parmesan (block, not shredded). Not the typical cheddar or American, but I happen to love the flavor.

just buy the ones that aren't in the cold section.

I have found that regular American chedder cheese in 1 lb blocks will last several days without refrigeration. Sumer sausage from Wisconsin also lasts well.

I just bought some Le Marechal hard cheese. Excellent. A bit pricey but excellent. Nicely smooth and a little smokey. Definitely a good backpacking cheese.

Pick the cheese you like, cut into single-serving-sized pieces, and wax the chunks yourself (see http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/WAXING_CHEESE.HTM )

But I've never heard of waxing sausages... sorry.

Sue

Susan,

Excellent link. Thank you!

And thanks to everyone else too. I'm looking forward to trying the different cheeses and sausages y'all have suggested.

So much for my diet!

-Blast

Don't think of it as breaking your diet; think of doing it as research against a worst case scenario. And just tell yourself you aren't enjoying it at all.

Yep, and don't forget the pemmican ball.