Transporting a frozen lasagna - 10 hour trip

[Anonymous]

Chill out. Keep it flat just in case. Keep it in the back not at your heated feat. I

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10 hours? Honestly, I'd get some dry ice.

Why? Even in a cheap cooler ice lasts for 12-24 hours.

It will not go bad, but i I’ll not say frozen solid. If they plan to cook it after she arrives, that is fine. If they plan to referee, it could be a problem. I am assuming the cooler will be inside the heated car.

If the ice stays frozen solid why wouldn’t the lasagna stay frozen solid? You don’t seem to understand physics very well. The lasagna will stay frozen solid.

[Anonymous]

Adding to the “it will be fine” chorus. We had a second home that was a 10 hour drive and we transported food back and forth all the time in an inexpensive cooler. Agree that keeping the cooler full is helpful. (FWIW — I transported some frozen fish surrounded by zip loc bags of ice in a Yeti once and when I got home, the ice and fish had frozen into a solid block of ice, so a Yeti is actually overkill for this situation.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10 hours? Honestly, I'd get some dry ice.

What? That’s overkill. OP is driving to NY in December. This isn’t some trip through Death Valley in July. It will be fine.

Lol, where does it say NY? This could be in Arizona, for all we know.

[Anonymous]

Regular cooler and a couple of frozen water bottles, and you will be fine.

I regularly camp in Maryland, in August. We pre-freeze a lot of the foods that we put in the cooler to keep everything cold -- based on my experience, your lasagna may not be fully defrosted after 10 hours, depending on how big it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, all!

I don’t know how good it is but my dad likes it. We’re heading to a rental and I wanted to make him happy. Though fresh is best, I also think frozen is better than made without proper equipment or ingredients.

" w/o proper ingredients or equipment"? It's lasagna, not beef wellington

[Anonymous]

Still want the recipe

[Anonymous]

Take two gallon ziploc bags. Fill halfway with water, then lay them flat in the freezer overnight. They'll freeze into two sheets of ice. Put in the cooler, one on top and one on the bottom. At the end of a 10 hour drive, if you don't open the cooler, the ice should be half frozen and the lasagna will still be fully frozen. You can dump out the ice/water and put the lasagna into the freezer at the end of the trip and you'll be ready to defrost and cook as normal the following day. I've done something similar before with no issues.

[Anonymous]

Presumably you have to go to the grocery store anyway upon arrival at the rental so why not just pick up your perishables ingredients then and bring your casserole dish and other non perishables with.
Then just make it there.

[Anonymous]

Pack in the x regular cooler with frozen bottles. You can also get a block of ice for the bottom of the cooler, which will hold a more steady temp vs. “Regular ice” which will melt pretty quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Presumably you have to go to the grocery store anyway upon arrival at the rental so why not just pick up your perishables ingredients then and bring your casserole dish and other non perishables with.
Then just make it there.

Honestly, you could put the frozen lasagna in the trunk and it would still be frozen. No way I'm making a lasagna on site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Presumably you have to go to the grocery store anyway upon arrival at the rental so why not just pick up your perishables ingredients then and bring your casserole dish and other non perishables with.
Then just make it there.

There are many times you are going on vacation or for a holiday where the kitchen is either not fully stocked or not available to you (like if there are going to be people using the kitchen full time the day of the event). The point of preparing a casserole type dish ahead of time and freezing it is specifically to avoid having to do it on site. You've presented a solution that creates the problem OP was trying to avoid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Take two gallon ziploc bags. Fill halfway with water, then lay them flat in the freezer overnight. They'll freeze into two sheets of ice. Put in the cooler, one on top and one on the bottom. At the end of a 10 hour drive, if you don't open the cooler, the ice should be half frozen and the lasagna will still be fully frozen. You can dump out the ice/water and put the lasagna into the freezer at the end of the trip and you'll be ready to defrost and cook as normal the following day. I've done something similar before with no issues.

Not OP, but love this idea

[Anonymous]

Tie it to the roof of the car and it will be fine.

A coolers worst enemy is air in the cooler so keep that in mind, also prechill the cooler, fill it with ice water the night before or leave outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not just make it when you get there?

Fresh is always better than thawed & re-heated .

Not when it comes to lasagna! Best to make a day or so ahead and let the flavors meld.