The Cooler Hack That Prevents Your Sandwiches From Getting Soggy

Whether you're headed to the beach, chaperoning a field trip, or getting ready to tailgate the big game, if you're in charge of packing the cooler you know that it's a serious job. If you're heading out for a day trip, perhaps your biggest obstacle is keeping the dry food dry in a cooler filled with melting ice. You might be surprised to know that you probably have something in your cookware set that can make this task a lot easier: A cooling rack. This item that you use for cooling things like cakes and cookies can actually help make your picnics much easier.

Coolers are typically filled with ice and drinks first, and then the food is placed on top. Once everything's packed, the race is on to eat all the food before the ice melts and the food slowly sinks into ice soup. If you stack properly, however, and place a metal cooling rack between the drinks nestled in the ice and the food on top, your sandwiches, cheese, and salads stand a much better chance of survival. All you need to do is make sure your cooling rack fits inside your cooler or get one that does, and you'll never have to worry about soggy sandwiches again (unless you planned it that way).

There's nothing worse than getting all the way to a picnic spot, spreading out the blanket, or arriving at the tailgate, only to open the cooler and find out that the food you painstakingly packed is ruined. Even worse, if there are perishable ingredients like mayonnaise and uncooked meats that can transmit foodborne illnesses that are all mixed up with cut veggies and fruit that won't be cooked, you have to toss it all; "When in doubt, throw it out," says the USDA.

You don't need to be a cooler-packing expert to keep your food dry, however. Packing with a cooling rack takes only a few easy steps. First, fill the bottom of the cooler with a layer of ice and then add drinks and anything that can come in direct contact with ice and water. Next, fill the cooler to about halfway with more ice to cover the drinks. Now, place a cooling rack on top of the ice and drinks. If you have a large cooler, you can use two racks. Finally, place your food on top. The tray will come to rest on the pile of drinks way before it ever reaches the water that's collecting at the bottom of the cooler. Plus, you can use the racks to lift your food up to access the drinks more easily.

A cooling rack will make your picnic life a lot easier, but it's not entirely foolproof. As the ice melts, your rack will keep the food up and away from the water in the cooler only as long as there are drinks in the bottom to keep it away from the water. If you're using your cooler for a long afternoon, pack heavy on the beverages so that your tray has something to sit on throughout the day. You can always just pop whatever doesn't get used in the refrigerator when you get home.

It's also a good idea to remember to drain off the water from the cooler as the day stretches on (and the drinks run low) so that there's less of a chance for the rack to dip into the water. Also, when you take drinks out of the bottom, be sure to redistribute them throughout the cooler so that the cooling rack doesn't topple over to one side and dump the food into the ice.

If you always remember to pack your cooler with this easy method, you won't need any special equipment to pull off the perfect picnic — just a little something from the kitchen that most of us already have.