Caribbean - Bringing Steaks to the Caymans

Next week my wife and I will be taking our first beach vacation with our little one ( 6 months old ). We have rented a home in the Cayman Islands for 10 days and just plan on taking advantage of the secluded beach and private pool...basically...we want to move our Chicago life to somewhere warm. Given we love to cook and will be limited interms of dining out, I thought bringing some vacuum packed frozen dry aged steaks would be a good idea for those days we don't take advantage of fresh seafood / local produce. While I am not a big fan of freezing high quality meat, I imagine the Prime cuts of beef I can get in Chicago are a little better / reasonably priced than those on the island. Has anyone ever packed frozen meat ( in insulated bags ) in their luggage? We are leaving Chicago at 9:15am and should be on the Island by 3:00pm...it doesn't seem unreasonable to me but I figure the expert minds around here will know better.

Cool! And entirely possible. I've shuttled entire 12-17 lbs ribeyes from here (SFO) to various asia destinations which should have a climate similar to the Caymans. The biggest issue is to make sure they do not leak all over your suitcase. (Trust me, you don't want to start your vacation bloodstained.) Here's how I do it.

- Meat must be vacuum-packed, preferably in the original packaging the butcher receives it. I get entire ribeyes which are still in this thick plastic wrap
- Buy meat 1-2 days before trip. Keep in refrigerator.
- ~6 hours before leaving for airport, drop it in freezer. Meat never really freezes. Just gets real cold.
- When headed for airport, pack meat in cooler bag, throw in 1 or 2 blue ice packs, zip up, pack cooler bag into suitcase.
- Up to 22 hours later when I land in Asia, meat comes up nice and cold.
- Grill and enjoy

Just got back from a trip to St. John. We packed steaks and hamburger in our checked luggage. We froze the meat ahead of time, and wrapped it in zip locks. Then we put it in one of the Thermos soft sided coolers (we got ours at Target) that looks like a large purse, along with two ice packs. They were still frozen solid when we arrived in our villa some 12 hours later. Checking the luggage really helps because cargo gets a lot colder than the cabin.

The cooler also comes in handy for packing lunches for day trips or to bring drinks down to the beach/pool.

http://www.thermos.com/products/raya-9-can-purple-flower-tote.aspxhf
http://www.thermos.com/products/36-cube-ice-mat.aspx

Next week my wife and I will be taking our first beach vacation with our little one ( 6 months old ). We have rented a home in the Cayman Islands for 10 days and just plan on taking advantage of the secluded beach and private pool...basically...we want to move our Chicago life to somewhere warm. Given we love to cook and will be limited interms of dining out, I thought bringing some vacuum packed frozen dry aged steaks would be a good idea for those days we don't take advantage of fresh seafood / local produce. While I am not a big fan of freezing high quality meat, I imagine the Prime cuts of beef I can get in Chicago are a little better / reasonably priced than those on the island. Has anyone ever packed frozen meat ( in insulated bags ) in their luggage? We are leaving Chicago at 9:15am and should be on the Island by 3:00pm...it doesn't seem unreasonable to me but I figure the expert minds around here will know better.

I take a small cooler pick up some dry ice at the store and check it in as luggage. I usually pack burgers,boneless chicken breasts and steaks. I fly DFW-OGG 8 hours no problem.

Awesome idea. You can't bring meats from outside US correct? I saw on Natgeo the other day about customs inspections and they were throwing alway everyone's meat.

I take a small cooler pick up some dry ice at the store and check it in as luggage. I usually pack burgers,boneless chicken breasts and steaks. I fly DFW-OGG 8 hours no problem.

Make sure that you know your carrier's rules re dry ice. Most limit it to 5.5 pounds and require that it be inspected to ensure it is vented properly. Some require a label indicating that it is dry ice, along with the weight. Some allow the use of a styrofoam cooler, some do not. United charges a $100-200 service charge if you transport it in your checked baggage.

http://images.delta.com.edgesuite.net/delta/pdfs/dry_ice.pdf
http://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInformation/baggage/restrictedArticles.jsp#
http://www.britishairways.com/cms/global/pdfs/Forbidden_Items_List.pdf
http://pss.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/baggage/fragile.aspx?SID=7B25C604B4FD47AE800CF1BD56405F4B

Me? I use ice packs because they do not require special handling. And they come in handy for day trips.

Way too much effort for me. When I'm in Cayman - been a few dozen times - I just go to the local grocery store and buy my steaks. And my mix!

Cheers,