High Sierra Topix

We went north for the big family Thanksgiving this year, but still wanted to have a small celebration here - in order to have leftovers. So today I went out and bought a 12 lb turkey, which is brining nicely in a bear canister right now. Anyone else have offseason uses for their bear canisters?

Hah! I've heard of people using the bear can to wash clothes on the trail, but I don't have any uses for one around the house, unless you count storing some of our platypus bottles, FAK, etc.

so many things wrong with brining a turkey in a bear can..

I use my old Bear Vault to store dog food and the Garcia for cat food. Once the big bags of pet food are opened, we cannot keep the ants out, so the bear cans work. I tape the lids just to be sure. The ants are really tiny. The bear can I aways use, the Bearikade Weekender, is however, stored in a closet.

I use an old 6 gallon food grade bucket for brining turkey. It was historically used for brewing. Raw meat brining should have its own container. It is used for nothing else. I used to use bleach to disinfect my brewing equipment but switched to BTF Iodophor sanitizer.

Hey WD, get some Terro ant traps. I live in 28' travel trailer and get hit with ants once or twice a year. The ants come in, eat the bait and carry it back to their nest and all die in 2 days. Kind of fun to watch how they plan their path to the bait. They don't bug me as they don't seem to attack the pantry food stuffs.

Bear can stays in the closet and is just for backpacking.

rlown states:

so many things wrong with brining a turkey in a bear can..

jlweinberger, I think Russ makes a good point... especially if you intend to take this meal on your fall backpacking trip.
For a start, it's just super heavy compared to top ramen noodles and soup powders. Think of all the water weight you'll be carrying?! I suppose if you are really into Thankgiving, then you'll be alright eating Turkey for breakfast, lunch and dinner... can we assume you'll take a whole pumpkin to go with it?

Harlen wrote: ↑Sun Nov 27, 2022 11:13 am rlown states:

so many things wrong with brining a turkey in a bear can..

jlweinberger, I think Russ makes a good point... especially if you intend to take this meal on your fall backpacking trip.
For a start, it's just super heavy compared to top ramen noodles and soup powders. Think of all the water weight you'll be carrying?!

Not sure that Russ is all that great of a reference concerning water weight, by his own admission:
search.php?keywords=watermelon+taittinger

Druid, remember this thread was about using a bear canister to brine raw meat. I'll stick to NOT doing that.

As for carrying a watermelon and champagne to 4th of July lake, It is an easy hike in from Carson pass. I'd do it again.

rlownwrites:

Druid, remember this thread was about using a bear canister to brine raw meat. I'll stick to NOT doing that.

As for carrying a watermelon and champagne to 4th of July lake, It is an easy hike in from Carson pass. I'd do it again.

I think you got him Druid. He's using the old defense through offense rhetorical ploy. I reckon he carried the whole watermelon too, and the original glass bottle for his champagne.

jlweinberger, how would you do it, getting back to your bearcan tricks? Cut off the rind, and then brine the watermelon in the champagne.