For most people, coolers are little more than a box full of ice that keeps food and drinks cold during a picnic trip to the beach or a weekend camping trip. But these versatile boxes have the potential to be much more than just drink chillers. Premium coolers, like those from Canyon, can be repurposed in a number of creative and practical ways. Let's explore five of our favorite unconventional ways to use your Canyon.
1. Use Your Canyon Cooler as a Cooking Station
There are several ways to use your coolers to prepare food. Their insulative properties keep the internal temperature stable, making them perfect for processes that happen slowly over time, such as sous vide or even finishing a smoked brisket.
Sous Vide means "under vacuum". Sous vide cooking is a relatively simple process. Season the food you're cooking, seal it in a bag, and place it in heated water. Typically, the water is heated to the final temperature of the food. Coolers make a good DIY alternative to specialized Sous Vide equipment. Fill your cooler with water heated to your desired temperature. Place your seasoned food bags in the water to heat up slowly. This process preserves juices, colors, flavors, and nutrients and is an excellent way to prepare meats and vegetables.
For those with a smoker, you can use your cooler to finish the process when smoking a brisket. This process is called "resting," an essential part of getting the perfect brisket. As you smoke the brisket, the muscle contracts, pushing the water and juices outward. This leaves the center of the cuts dry. Resting the brisket for extended periods in an insulated cooler allows the natural juices to redistribute throughout the cut. To do this, wrap the brisket in towels and leave it in the cooler. Typically, you'll pull the brisket off the smoker at around 190 degrees internal temperature. And you'll want to end the resting period before the brisket cools below 140 degrees.
2. Use Your Cooler As A Fermentation Chamber
You can use your cooler to make fermented products such as kimchi, yogurt, or kombucha.
To transform your cooler into a fermentation chamber, start by sanitizing the cooler to ensure a clean environment for your cultures. You'll then place your fermentation vessels, whether they're jars of sauerkraut, crocks of kimchi, or bottles of kombucha - inside the cooler. The cooler's insulation will maintain the steady internal temperature critical for fermentation. Add a bottle of preheated water if your foods need a warm temperature. Or use a strategically placed ice pack in the cooler if your ferments need a cool environment. Use a thermometer inside the ice chest to monitor and adjust the temperatures over time as required. The internal microclimate can nurture your ferments regardless of external temperature fluctuations, producing consistent, high-quality fermented foods all year.
3. Use Your Cooler As A Doomsday Readiness Kit
Using your Canyon Cooler as an emergency readiness kit leverages its durability, portability, and watertightwatertight properties to create a robust survival cache for when the zombies invade. Build your kit by cleaning and drying the cooler. You can use foam dividers to create a sense of organization if desired. Fill the cooler with essential survival items such as first-aid supplies, non-perishable food, water purification tablets, emergency blankets, flashlights, batteries, a hand-crank radio, and a multi-tool. Its insulation protects temperature-sensitive items like medications or electronic devices from extreme heat or cold. Its watertight seal safeguards contents from moisture, floods, or heavy rain. The cooler's durability shields essentials from damage during transportation or in the event of falling debris. Additionally, the cooler's handles make it easy to grab and go in a hurry, while its capacity allows storing enough supplies to sustain a family for several days.
4. Your Cooler As Backup Refrigeration During Power Outages
Power is often one of the first things we lose during natural disasters, whether storms, fires, or quakes. And with the loss of power comes the loss of refrigeration. A high-quality cooler is often enough to bridge the gap between power outages as the electricity line workers work to restore the local electrical grid. But planning ahead is crucial. Prepare for outages as storm warnings come in by getting your cooler cold. When you're buying emergency water and food, include bags of ice. Put them in your cooler. When the power goes down, you can quickly move chilled and frozen foods into the pre-chilled coolers. The cooler insulation, combined with cold or frozen foods, will give you time for the power to come on before your frozen foods thaw and spoil.
5. Use your cooler to transport or protect temperature-sensitive plants
Your cooler can shield delicate plants from extreme temperatures during transit or adverse weather conditions. When preparing to move sensitive plants, line the cooler with a moisture-resistant material and carefully arrange potted plants or seedlings inside. Use soft packing materials like foam peanuts to prevent shifting. The cooler's insulated walls create a stable microclimate that protects plants from temperature fluctuations. This method is particularly valuable for transporting temperature-sensitive species, rare specimens, or newly propagated cuttings.
In unexpected frost or heatwaves, you can also use the cooler as a temporary refuge for vulnerable flowers until conditions improve. Gardeners can even use the cooler as a mobile greenhouse for hardening off seedlings, gradually acclimating them to outdoor conditions by adjusting the lid's position.
Conculsion
These are just five of our favorite ways to use your Canyon Cooler that you may have yet to consider. There are dozens of other alternative uses. You're limited by your imagination. If you have a unique use for your Canyon, we'd love to hear about it. Email us at info@canyoncoolers.com.
If you're ready to get a cooler of your own, start with our guided questionnaire that will help you find the Canyon Cooler that best suits your needs.
