DIY: Freezer Bag Cooking Cozy
If you're into Freezer Bag Cooking, then you should consider bringing along a freezer bag cozy to keep your food warm while it re-hydrates. This it particularly helpful in the early spring, autumn, and in the wintertime when colder weather will quickly cool hot water in an uninsulated Ziploc bag.
This is an easy DIY project. To get started you need a roll of Foil Bubble Insulation and a roll of Reflective Foil tape. The bubble insulation consists of a layer of polyethylene bubble wrap sandwiched between two sheets of aluminum. This stuff is easy to find at Home Deport or a well stocked Ace Hardware store.
The first step is to cut two pieces of the foil bubble insulation with the same width. The stuff is very soft so common household scissors are fine for this task. Next cut one of the pieces down about 4 inches. You want the foil bubble insulation piece to be slightly wider than the freezer bag since you're going to tape them together to form a pocket-like envelope. I usually allow for two foil columns on the left and the right of the Ziploc and use that as a guide.
Next, stack the shorter piece of insulation on top of the longer piece, and cut three lengths of reflective tape tp join the sides and bottom together.
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Apply the reflective tape to form an insulating envelope and cut off any excess around the edges. Fold the longer piece over the shorter piece and you're done. If you want to be extra fancy, you can also add some velcro tape to the inside of the flap and the outside of the insulated envelope to keep the cozy closed while your freezer bag meal is cooking.
.jpg "DIY: Freezer Bag Cooking Cozy")
The weight of the freezer bag cozy shown here is 1.7 oz.
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Using your sleepingbag could be a useful alternative.
Nice! My cozy isn’t as cool, I’m going to have to give yours a try.
In regard to the other comment, I don’t think putting food inside one’s sleeping bag is a stellar idea… animals have great sniffers!
I’d also be hesitant to use my down sleeping bag as freezer bag insulation Spilled/leaking water and down make poor sleeping companions when it’s cold enough to need a freezer bag cozy.
Very cool!!! If I didn’t already have a couple of the fabric ones, this would be fun to do. Great info.
The ones made of Reflectix work well and are very easy to do.
While one can use a hat, jacket, etc as a cozy (since a cozies function is to insulate food so it can cook) – I would suggest strongly that a person uses a dedicated cozy, be it Reflectix or a fabric one, such as we make. That way the cozy can go in your bear bag, Ursack or canister at night
Sarah
Definitely – you wouldn’t want your Freezer Bag cozy to be your sleeping bag in grizzly country. Very bag idea and it’s hard to get it to fit in a bear cannister, too.
Oops, I added my comment to the wrong post earlier.
I just made a similar freezer bag cozy out of a reflective padded mailing envelope I bought at Target for $1.60. It’s probably not as sturdy or as efficient as yours, but its cheaper than buying a roll of foil insulation. Pictures are available here: http://geeksinthewoods.blogspot.com/2008/09/diy-freezer-bag-cozy.html
Nice! – you’ve reminded me that you can also use a plastic mailing envelope with bubble wrap insulation as cozy too. I did this a few years ago before investing in the huge roll of reflective insulation you see in the article.
You can get the insulating foil stuff in the auto section at Walmart for ~$5. They are the sun blockers for windshields. No big roll leftover after the project. It is more like foil bubble wrap, but it works great!