YETI Rambler® "Food Jar" Insulated Food Jar 1 piece

A hot meal while the bonnet is already up

What is the YETI Rambler Food Jar? A wide-mouth food container in 18/8 stainless steel that you fill at home in the morning and open again hours later on the folding table. It keeps what you put in. It can't heat anything up, and it won't fit in the cup holder.

The YETI Food Jar is YETI's food container for anyone who preps their food at home and wants to eat it wherever the car is parked. Six o'clock, the house still asleep, stew in, lid on, wait for the short click. By eight the bonnet is up, two people are talking intake manifolds, and a hot meal is waiting on the folding table.

• A full portion, not a snack pot. The medium size holds 473 millilitres, one bowl of stew for a grown adult. That's exactly one meal, not half a day's supplies. If you want to eat your fill at lunchtime without queuing at the food truck, this size settles it.
• Stays where you put it. All three sizes share the same 9.5-centimetre base. On a folding table in the wind that's not a spec-sheet number, it's the reason nothing tips over when someone walks past the table. The price: it won't fit the cup holder.
• No water ring on the boot sill. Even after two hours in the sun the outer wall stays dry, whether there's something hot or cold inside. On painted metal, on leather and on the folding table, nothing is left behind that needs wiping off.

Detailing1's tip from the shop: The most common mistake happens the very first time you open it. After a quarter turn anticlockwise, the lid hits a noticeable stop, and if you pull off the top part there, the grey lower part stays stuck in the jar. Then you put the lid back on completely and keep turning past the point of resistance, and both parts come out together. Never lever it with cutlery or pliers, that'll cost you the seal.

Sunday morning is decided before six

The YETI Food Jar doesn't heat your food, it holds whatever state you give it. That's why the important part happens in the kitchen, not at the meet.

Boiling water in, leave it for a minute, pour it out. Then fill it piping hot to around four-fifths full. Tip in lukewarm stew straight from the microwave and you're eating it cold at eight, whatever name is on the bottom. Fill it hot and you eat it hot, and that costs you two minutes.

Opening it is then a little moment of its own. First quarter turn anticlockwise, a noticeable stop, a brief hiss. Keep turning, lid off, steam rises over the folding table. The smell of goulash just after eight at a meet where the air is otherwise all coffee and brake cleaner reliably draws a crowd.

The same ritual works in the paddock. Between two sessions you rarely get more than forty minutes, and those go on tyre pressures, fuel and helmet. If you've already got something hot ready, you eat in peace instead of queuing and then rushing. On a road trip in the weekend car, the same goes for the motorway services, just with a better view.

YETI doesn't include a spoon. Remember one, or you'll be standing there with a hot meal and nothing to eat it with. The opening is wide enough for normal cutlery, you can reach the bottom with a tablespoon without scraping. Next to it goes an insulated tumbler for the coffee the stand turns out not to have after all.

And because it only keeps rather than makes, it works just as well cold. Pasta salad that comes out of the fridge at six is still the one you packed at twelve. If you drive to a meet without shade in summer, you'll notice the difference from a plastic tub in the footwell by the first bite.

The only important thing is not to leave it screwed shut in the boot until the evening after you've eaten. Leftovers from a heavily salted soup work against any stainless steel over days. Rinse it when you get home, leave it open to dry, done.

473 millilitres is the size for a bowl of stew

The medium size is the right one for most people. 473 millilitres is a proper adult portion of soup, chilli or curry with rice, and it stays warm longer than the small one.

The 237 millilitres is the breakfast size. Overnight oats on the drive over, a dip, a side. For lunch it's too tight, and it's the weakest of the three when it comes to staying warm. The 709 millilitres is the pick for serious hunger or for sharing, but it costs 16.5 centimetres of height in the bag.

If you mostly eat one portion on your own, go for 473 millilitres. If two of you are travelling and each wants their own, take two mediums rather than one large. Nothing holds heat properly half full, and a half-empty large loses heat faster than a full medium. For the drive over, both sit side by side in an insulated lunch bag.

Then the list you should know before you order. It won't fit the cup holder, at 9.5 centimetres it's simply too wide, and YETI says so itself. The stainless steel can't go in the microwave. The maker rules out anything carbonated, dairy-based or fermented, because pressure can build up over several hours.

It isn't an all-day container, either. Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment recommends keeping heated food at 60 degrees or more and limiting hot-holding to three hours. Fill it at six and eat at two in the afternoon and you're out of bounds, whatever brand is on the bottom.

On the drive it stays shut. Closed, the lid is leakproof, but that also means it really has to be screwed down to the stop before it goes in the bag. Upright in the footwell or in the lunch bag, not lying across the back seat, and you'll arrive with no surprises.

And you won't get a number here. YETI gives no hot- or cold-holding time in hours for the Food Jar. If a documented number of hours is your buying criterion, you'll find it at Stanley or Klean Kanteen. If build quality, lid mechanism and colour brought you here, then this is the one.

After three seasons in the boot it looks just bought

The reason for a YETI is rarely the one extra hour, it's that after the third summer in the boot the thing still looks like it did on day one.

The coloured outer skin is a powder coating that, according to the maker, won't chip, peel or fade, and YETI gives a five-year warranty on the Rambler range. If you've ever judged a paint sealant after two years, you know that searching look. Edges, corners, the spot where you always pick it up. That's exactly where nothing happens here.

The second point is invisible and still stands out. The outer wall stays dry, even with something cold inside. No damp ring on the painted boot sill of a dark estate, no wet patch on the leather seat, no puddle on the folding table after two hours of sun. It's the same obsession with surfaces you don't have to wipe afterwards, just on the container instead of the paint.

Who it isn't for: gram counters. 0.46 to 0.66 kilos empty is an argument against it in a touring rucksack and exactly right on a camping table, because nothing tips over. And if you're after a flat tub for your handbag, you're buying too much container for too little food.

It's for anyone who looks after their car instead of using it up, and who therefore rarely buys the cheapest or the loudest thing. Someone like that buys what will still be around in five years. The container on the folding table says the same about its owner as the paint next to it, just more quietly.

That leaves the move no manufacturer puts on the packaging. The wear part on the YETI Food Jar is the lid, not the jar. If you regularly carry curry, garlic or chilli, sooner or later the smell settles into the joint, specifically in the seal, not in the stainless steel.

So always wash the lid taken apart into both pieces and let it dry open. And if it does give up one day, it's available separately as a spare part and fits all three sizes. A container that fails at the lid isn't a write-off here. The same thinking runs through the whole range of insulated cups and containers.

How long does food stay hot in the YETI Food Jar?

YETI deliberately doesn't give a number of hours. In practice: fill it hot, fill it well, open it rarely. And Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment recommends keeping heated food at 60 degrees or more anyway, and eating it within three hours.

Which size should I get?

473 millilitres is a full adult portion and the right choice for most people. 237 millilitres is enough for oats, a dip or a side. 709 millilitres is for serious hunger or for two, but needs 16.5 centimetres of height in the bag.

Does the Food Jar fit in the cup holder?

No. At 9.5 centimetres across it's too wide, and YETI says so itself. It travels in the bag or the footwell and goes on the folding table when you arrive, not in the centre console.

Can I put it in a bag?

Yes, closed, the MagVent lid is leakproof. Screw it down to the stop before you pack it, and don't lay the jar on its side if you can avoid it.

Can the YETI Food Jar go in the dishwasher?

Yes, the jar and both parts of the lid. Take the lid apart first, otherwise food gets stuck in the joint. Then let it dry open. If you regularly carry curry or garlic, do this every time, otherwise the smell gets into the seal.

The lid is stuck, now what?

Then the top part was pulled off too early after the first stop, and the grey lower part is stuck. Put the lid back on completely and keep turning past the point of resistance, and both parts come out together. Never lever it with tools.

What can't go in?

YETI rules out anything carbonated, dairy-based or fermented, because pressure can build up over several hours. The stainless steel can't go in the microwave. And it only keeps what you put in, it doesn't heat or chill anything.

Before first use: take the lid apart into both pieces and rinse everything through once.

In the morning: boiling water in, leave it for a minute, pour it out. Then fill it piping hot to around four-fifths full and screw the lid down to the stop.

At the folding table: turn anticlockwise to the stop, wait a moment, then keep turning. Never lever it with cutlery.

Afterwards: take the lid apart, everything into the dishwasher, let it dry open.