Moving frozen foods

[fluffythewondercat]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

I kept all of the halibut in the chest freezer and tossed 20lbs of dry ice on top. I left Chicago Saturday evening and on Monday morning in Texas there was still maybe 10% of the dry ice left and the halibut was still frozen solid. Pretty amazing.

That's no less than I'd expect from someone named "lepoisson".

[Free-R]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

I kept all of the halibut in the chest freezer and tossed 20lbs of dry ice on top. I left Chicago Saturday evening and on Monday morning in Texas there was still maybe 10% of the dry ice left and the halibut was still frozen solid. Pretty amazing.

Congrats. I'm responding late to this thread, but just in case you or someone else wants to attempt this in the future, I was going to suggest getting a portable freezer and using a power inverter for your car; where you plug the inverter into into a cigarette lighter to power the inverter, and then you can power a regular plug-in device from that. There would be capacity/voltage issues to deal with in matching your car's output and the power requirements of the freezer, but for a small load, I think that could work.

Dry ice worked and was a much simpler solution, though.

[littlelou]

I'm late to the thread too, but thought I'd add my tip, growing up in the mid-west we'd get hit with ice storms that would knock down trees and no power. My mom would wrap all the frozen meat in the freezer in newspaper to insulate the frozen state a little more and pack the freezer as full as she could get it. I remember being without power 4-5 days (thank goodness for a huge wood burning fireplace that kept us warm, and we could cook on it) and we lost nothing in the freezer. everything was still frozen solid. i mentioned this to friends in Florida when hurricanes were hitting their area, and they did the same.

[scully2010]

Originally Posted by Parnassia

If this is valuable enough for you to move it, ship it via a frozen food/refrigerated freight service.

OK, time for a frozen fish story:

I was waiting for my flight in the Juneau, AK airport in late summer. Height of halibut charter sport fishing season. Two portly middle-aged gents were sitting across from me. Both were obvious charter fishing clients: brand new LL Bean/Bass Pro outfits, spotless Gore-Tex rain jackets, crumple-free new ball caps with fishing lodge logos, suspiciously clean hiking boots and carryons, glowingly fresh sunburned noses and hands. This is an airport where you can spot local residents because half their luggage is manufactured by Coleman or Igloo, and held together with duct tape . Its also the time of year when it seems like 1/2 of the baggage on the handler's carts consists of the same brand of rectangular cardboard boxes just the right size to hold a nice fat salmon or halibut fillets nestled in freezer packs.

One of the two was on the phone with family somewhere in the south 48; most likely his wife. He was describing their trip. Eventually the topic turned to how much fish he'd actually caught. Hard not to chuckle at the conversation. OK, I could only hear one end of it but the other was pretty easy to figure out.

Portly gent in LL Bean: "The boat crew was fantastic. They cleaned all the fish right on the dock. Then the lodge staff packed and froze everything the same evening!"

Portly gent's wife: Unknown.

Portly gent: "Oh not that much, maybe 40 lbs. I did have to pay for excess baggage. Wear a sweater. We'll have to crank up the AC for the drive home."

Portly gent's wife: Unknown.

Portly gent: "I know, but I had some great fish dinners at the lodge. I brought back their recipe book for you (pause) I thought you told me once you liked halibut!"

Portly gent's wife: Unknown.

Portly gent: "Don't worry, I'll learn how to do all the filleting and packaging I promise. You won't have to touch any heads or bones! Well, we can stop at the supermarket and buy more Ziplocs! The kids don't have to eat it if they don't want to. That leaves more for US!"

Portly gent's wife: Unknown.

Portly gent (wheedling tone): "I know, but we can grill it all outside. We can buy a new grill. You know I've been wanting one anyway."

Portly gent's wife: Unknown.

Portly gent (begging tone): "Sure we'll have enough space if you sort all the older stuff in the freezer. We could get a chest freezer for the garage. I'd love to do this again next year! This will be much better than all that beef and chicken. I'm sure the dog will eat that."

That's really funny. And that was some expensive frozen halibut. All that other frozen food wasted. The silly thing is, they will hold your fish for you at the dock and ship it to you home once you're back from vacation. You don't have to take it yourself. The portly gentleman did it the goofy way, taking it himself. I went halibut fishing in Homer, Alaska, and the facility cleaned it, packed it and shipped it FedEx in dry ice for something like 70 cents a lb. It was super duper affordable. Of course that was 20 years ago. But I'm sure it's not insanely expensive now.

I'm late to the ballgame for the OP, so I hope they were able to get their fish to Texas safely and unthawed. I understand the value of good halibut!!!

[Parnassia]

Originally Posted by scully2010

That's really funny. And that was some expensive frozen halibut. All that other frozen food wasted. The silly thing is, they will hold your fish for you at the dock and ship it to you home once you're back from vacation. You don't have to take it yourself. The portly gentleman did it the goofy way, taking it himself.

Well, arriving home from your grand expedition accompanied by a big box of wild game you slaughtered yourself leaves more of an impression. The proud provider home from the hill. Just about begs you to regale everyone with the tale. FedEx dropping the same box on the doorstep the next morning doesn't have quite the same impact...