Originally Posted by Starwood Lurker
However, even in the days of no refrigeration, my great-grandparents used to wrap the bacon tightly and keep it in a bucket floating at the bottom of a deep well. It was around 54 degrees down there even on the hottest of days.
I think people were tougher in the old days. And their foods weren't exposed to the same processing that we have today. 54 degrees is NOT a safe temp -- the line is 40 degrees in the food safety world. Freezing the bacon and then letting it "defrost" over the course of the trip is basically the same as defrosting in your sink instead of the refrigerator -- a very dangerous practice.
The people of
HomeFoodSafety.org say that bacon lasts 3-4 days after opening the package when refrigerated. And while I've frozen all sorts of meats and taken them on backpacking trips with no ill effects, I don't think anyone should suggest that this is a safe practice.
If you can't keep it on ice for the entire trip, then you probably should just try to buy it on the other end from
the Bacon of the Month Club