Frugal Cruising Idea Exchange

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by conachair

One of the many pluses of living on the hook, IMHO, is a tendency to eat less and end up on a more vegetarian/fish based diet. As much cos it's easier to get quality than the meat we've been condition to think of as a necessity.

Similar with the ziploc bag discussion - hard to imagine how any cruiser on the hook wouldn't spend a few moments washing something as useful onboard as a ziploc bag - takes moments, less rubbish to take a shore. Though maybe to non cruisers it might not be so obvious having a lifetime of conditioning in a consumer/throwaway society being told to throw out and buy more.. Takes a while to chip away at those wired up neurons.

Washing ziploc bags for reuse also helps to fill the day time wise and helps psychologically for those of us conditioned to abhor waste.

[Singularity]

Sous vide (placing meat/vegetables into sealed plastic bag and immersing in hot water bath at a set temperature for a set time) should be considered.

With an in-line AC temperature controller and a heating element (or in-numerous other hot water source ideas) one can use a large cooler (e.g. 60L) and cook many single-double meat portions at a time. Toss them in the freezer.

Cook the protein in batches when surplus energy is available. Add the pre-cooked meat to veggies later with less energy required from the energy sources that complete the meals.

There are negatives, including use of plastic, relative need of a vacuum bagging machine, concerns about cooking in plastic, etc.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Singularity

Sous vide (placing meat/vegetables into sealed plastic bag and immersing in hot water bath at a set temperature for a set time) should be considered. ...

Interesting idea. I had to look it up. Wiki tells me it is a method of cooking:

in which food is placed in a plastic pouch or a glass jar and then placed in a water bath or steam environment for longer than normal cooking times (usually 1 to 7 hours, up to 48 or more in some cases) at an accurately regulated temperature. The temperature is much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 55 to 60 °C (131 to 140 °F) for meat, higher for vegetables.

Have you actually done this on a cruising boat? Sounds like it would be rather difficult, but then we have Alexandra making charcoal and methane, so who am I to judge .

I like to dry and vacuum seal foods. I’ve been doing this for decades on land as part of food storage. Started with wilderness canoe tripping, but I’ve continued to use dried food on board our luxurious cruising boat.

I must admit, I haven’t yet dried on board yet, but I built a solar dehydrator using the Sailing the Farm design (somewhat modified). I plan to give it a try this season.

The “frugal” aspect of this is to be able to buy foods in bulk when they are cheap, then dry what is not needed for later use. Works great on land.

[chris mac]

Please be careful with homemade sous vide style cooking. The temp range is in prime bacteria growth zone. The long time frame is essentially pasteurization, killing the bacteria.
So it can work great, but don't be too frugal and consider it cooked too early.

[JPA Cate]

We found that refrigeration w/o freezing uses less electricity. Having butchers vacuum bag our meat means it will keep easily 3 months, never frozen. Mike, if where you sail, you can keep the food at 45 deg. F., w/o refrigeration, vacuum bagging meat would extend the meat's life.

Ann

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

We found that refrigeration w/o freezing uses less electricity. Having butchers vacuum bag our meat means it will keep easily 3 months, never frozen. Mike, if where you sail, you can keep the food at 45 deg. F., w/o refrigeration, vacuum bagging meat would extend the meat's life.

Thanks Ann. Three months is pretty impressive. What kinds of meat do you do this with?

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Placing a sheet metal skirt around a pot, to keep the heat close, can reduce fuel requirements 20-35%. More on a grill. Just a little flashing and some machine screws.



https://www.practical-sailor.com/iss...d_12053-1.html

This is exactly what campers do. It works there, but is mostly used to block wind.

This thread mostly discusses cooking but in some places it can be much cheaper to actually eat out. Take Peru for example where for €2 you can a three course meal. Even in Europe, some items like Gyros in Greece are immensely cheap.

[stevegerber]

That's a helpful tip about vacuum bagging meat to increase it's refrigerated shelf life. I didn't know it would last that long!

I have another food specific tip. When sailing in less developed areas of the world you may have the advantage of being able to buy lots of inexpensive fresh UNWASHED eggs from a local farmers. Unwashed eggs have a natural coating called 'bloom' which keeps air out of the egg and preserves it's feshness. Unwashed eggs can last for weeks without refrigeration at all and for several months with refrigeration. In the U.S. all eggs are washed because most consumers would refuse to buy slightly dirty eggs but as a result they do not remain fresh nearly as long as unwashed eggs.

[Sojourner]

Originally Posted by Fiveslide

I wash my ziplock bags because I try to do everything possible not to throw something away after a single use, for the environment. I do this for almost all things, the only exception I can think of right now is toilet paper, that stuff is single use as far as I can tell.

Wrong

Alternative Toilet Paper Kit - Cloth Wipes

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by stevegerber

That's a helpful tip about vacuum bagging meat to increase it's refrigerated shelf life. I didn't know it would last that long!

I have another food specific tip. When sailing in less developed areas of the world you may have the advantage of being able to buy lots of inexpensive fresh UNWASHED eggs from a local farmers. Unwashed eggs have a natural coating called 'bloom' which keeps air out of the egg and preserves it's feshness. Unwashed eggs can last for weeks without refrigeration at all and for several months with refrigeration. In the U.S. all eggs are washed because most consumers would refuse to buy slightly dirty eggs but as a result they do not remain fresh nearly as long as unwashed eggs.

It's not a developed world thing. In many European grocery stores, you won't find eggs in the refrigerated section.

Likewise, you will find UHT Milk. UHT being Ultra Heat Treated. The normal pasteurization process, just kills off a lot of biological growth but not all then relys on cold temps in the fridge to slow the regrowth and delay spoilage. UHT takes it to a higher temp so that it can last for weeks or months without refrigeration. Of course once you open it, the game changes.

So if you are not going to be in range of a grocery store for a few weeks (or in an expensive area), you can stock up with milk in the pantry and just put the open box in the fridge, saving limited fridge space.

[Fiveslide]

Originally Posted by Sojourner

Wrong [emoji3]

Alternative Toilet Paper Kit - Cloth Wipes

I'm not buying it.[emoji1]

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Three months is pretty impressive. What kinds of meat do you do this with?

I'll bet that Ann means most any mammal flesh. In Aus, that often means (shock, horror) bovine flesh. Ovine and porcine muscle meats are also used.

It's not the meat that is important. It's the particular plastic, I think invented and trademarked by a Germany company, that's used in the vacuum packing.

See: About Cryovac Packaging

Of course, why anyone would want to create economic demand for the killing of sentient beings is beyond me.

Karmic retribution might be in your future (didn't your grandparents warn you about increased risk of prostate cancer etc should you be unwise enough to eat mammal flesh?).

Lentils, chickpeas, soy beans ... all them offer more frugal access to high quality protein. Without that refrigeration thingie.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Alan Mighty

I'll bet that Ann means most any mammal flesh. In Aus, that often means (shock, horror) bovine flesh. Ovine and porcine muscle meats are also used.

It's not the meat that is important. It's the particular plastic, I think invented and trademarked by a Germany company, that's used in the vacuum packing.

See: About Cryovac Packaging

Of course, why anyone would want to create economic demand for the killing of sentient beings is beyond me.

Karmic retribution might be in your future (didn't your grandparents warn you about increased risk of prostate cancer etc should you be unwise enough to eat mammal flesh?).

Lentils, chickpeas, soy beans ... all them offer more frugal access to high quality protein. Without that refrigeration thingie.

Is this the irradiated meat (which sounds worse than it is)?

Whole muscle meet rarely has any biological growth other than on the surface. So they vacuum pack it then irradiate the surface enough to kill off surface bacteria leaving an almost sterile product. With negligible bacteria and no air source, it really slows down the process.

There's places to be frugal and places to live a little. You try to replace my bacon with a lentile/chickpea/soy fake and there will some karmic action going on.

[sailorboy1]

This food topic means:

A food vacuum bagger and a cold freezer is fugal

[stevegerber]

I bought this gadget that vacuum seals wide mouth canning lids on to wide mouth mason jars. It's nice for keeping dehydrated foods moisture free.
It's a little inconvenient to use with jars that you open frequently but for longer term storage it works well.

Someone posted a helpful tip somewhere online regarding getting the lids back off without bending them. If you pierce a tiny hole in a canning lid and then cover the hole on the outside with a small piece of electrical tape you can then just peal back the tape to equalize the pressure in the jar and then lift the lid off without bending it. That way you can use the same lid many times.

I attach this gadget to a 120v AC electric FoodSaver vacuum pump but I've heard that it's possible to adapt a manual squeeze type automotive brake bleeder vacuum pump to suck the lids on if you want a non-electric solution.