Keeping Turkey Meat on Ice

[SwampDrummin]

How long can you keep turkey meat on ice? I might have an 8-10 day opening in my schedule and I was thinking about jumping around to a few new states, basically wherever the wind blows me.if If i kill birds early in the trip then the logistical problem is how long can I keep them on ice, assuming I am religious about field care and keeping the ice topped off.

! Don’t really want to eat them as I go cause I like to have some for throughout the year and I like diner eating when I am tired from chasing turkeys.

[ICDEDTURKES]

40-140 is the danger zone, longer they stay in zone

the worse they get ice with salt added will help

[howl]

Dry ice and a Coleman six-day cooler will do a week. You'd probably have to buy more after that. Not sure how you can have turkey breast around that long without eating it, though.

[GLS]

40-140 is the danger zone, longer they stay in zone

the worse they get ice with salt added will help

Not sure what you mean by "40-140". Can you clarify???

[Greenheadrocker]

I think he is referring to below 40° it's fine and above 140(while cooking) is where it needs to be.

[aristico]

You need to keep the meat under 41 degrees.....put the meat in a cooler put a piece of cardboard over and put dry ice on the catdboard and it will freeze the meat.....dry ice could be hard to come by though so lots of ice with salt and some thick ziplok bags so water doesnt get in will do the trick...

[RapscallionVermilion]

Just got back from a multi day turkey camp trip to the Gila National Forest in NM. Killed a bird the first morning. We bring a large cooler completely filled with ice. Cleaned it up and buried the meat in zip lock bags under ice and on top of a layer of ice. Got home and saw your post last night, so checked core temp on the meat and it was not frozen, but 32.5 degrees F. Meat will keep a very long time at those temps. As mentioned, water in contact with the meat is not good for the texture and speeds the breakdown, so we dry the meat off best we can before stuffing it in bags.

[ICDEDTURKES]

Thanks fellas for clarifying my post. 160 in the boob cooking. 165 thighs

[LAturkey]

I normally go on two out of state trips and year and have kept the meat on ice for 5 days without problems. I always try to clean it as best as I can and keep lots of ice on it.

[SwampDrummin]

Boom, now i’ve Got some options. Thanks everyone.