Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

[Quadrille in JB]

There have been many great ideas shared here and even though we have adequate refrigeration it's always good to have some non-perishable items on board.
Dried shredded Idaho potatoes from the market work great and we like them better than fresh shredded potatoes. They can be stored indefinitely in zip-loc bags and they lend themselves to a great variety of recipes. We use them for hash browns, potatoes au-gratin, potato salad, and you can add them to many of your existing soups, stews, and recipes.

[cxz]

Sven Yrvind has a good example, but he's non-stop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcQYaOmY4ks

My diet wouldn't cut it!

[s/v Jedi]

It amazes me how many will go for the food in a package from the supermarket or emergency food. These are fine for survival or even a once in a lifetime expedition, but for full time cruising, eating that every day is horrible, miserable and it’ll probably kill you before the virus gets you

It’s also surprising that Europeans (including me) even though they invented canning, know nothing about it anymore except for buying cans from the supermarket with horrible results.

When we pressure canned our first meals: soup, pasta sauce, chili, and beef stew, we were shocked by how good that tasted and how bad of a cooks the people who make the supermarket cans are. I guess our ingredient cost is triple because how else can the difference be so big.

So try canning. In Europe people order these pressure canners from the US using Amazon. This video from Jamie is a great introduction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU0CzxBnKoY

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

It amazes me how many will go for the food in a package from the supermarket or emergency food. These are fine for survival or even a once in a lifetime expedition, but for full time cruising, eating that every day is horrible, miserable and it’ll probably kill you before the virus gets you

It’s also surprising that Europeans (including me) even though they invented canning, know nothing about it anymore except for buying cans from the supermarket with horrible results.

When we pressure canned our first meals: soup, pasta sauce, chili, and beef stew, we were shocked by how good that tasted and how bad of a cooks the people who make the supermarket cans are. I guess our ingredient cost is triple because how else can the difference be so big.

So try canning. In Europe people order these pressure canners from the US using Amazon. This video from Jamie is a great introduction.

I could not agree more!

Especially about the emergency food. MREs, as we call them in the States, used by the military are made for 18 year olds who can handle 80% of lethal dose of sodium, etc. They also taste awful!

This is not a way to enjoy your life at sea.

Processed foods from the supermarket are no better.

Canning is a great way to take hight quality ingredients and preserve them (as is drying, etc).

I use this canner:

https://www.allamericancanner.com/Al...ure-Canner.htm

[Sam8989]

Hi there,
I'm taking my first crack at making creme brulee by myelf in a couple of weeks. Please share any tips/advice that you might have. Do i need a decent torch? Which one of these would you recommend - https://snugkitchen.com/best-torch-for-creme-brulee/ ?

[JanetGroene]

I wrote The Galley Book with recipes for all sorts of food prep including corning, candying and canning in tin cans. It's out of print but probably available on Amazon. My newer Survival Food Handbook (International Marine) covers all phases of provisioning with supermarket staples including stowage tips and recipes. Advice: don't overstock with expensive doomsday survival rations until you try them.

[Visarend]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Techniques we use for 6-month provisioning:

- water bath canning (pickling)
- pressure canning (meats, stews, sauces, soups)
- freeze dried versions (butter, eggs, milk, cream)
- dry staples (rice, oats, mashed potatoes)
- long term fridge (just not freezing for cheese, butter etc.)
- freezing (meats and fish, meat/fish salads, cream based sauces)
- vacuum packing (bread and baking mixes)

We’re testing this right now and we have run out of mayonnaise, ketchup, liquor, wine etc., all from the supermarket available items as we were too focussed on the self made items.

@Jedi: do you have any link/reference to water canning? I'd much appreciate it. TIA

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Visarend

@Jedi: do you have any link/reference to water canning? I'd much appreciate it. TIA

Hoi Visarend,

The video I linked above also has water bath canning. I recommend to watch that one first, then do a search on Youtube for more specific info, like which produce you want to can.

I'm guessing you're Dutch or Danish: it's called "Wecken" with "Weck potten" there. Traditionally they are the glass jars with hinged lid and clip made out of steel wire and the big rubber gasket.

In the US they use Mason jars but the European jars are also available. Also, you can can in tin jars but need the machine to close them. Finally, you can also can in Mylar bags like you see in the supermarkets more and more (started with tuna I think).

[cxz]

I notice she was using a canning machine there. For those of us without access to one, do you have some alternative ideas?

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by cxz

I notice she was using a canning machine there. For those of us without access to one, do you have some alternative ideas?

No, you have to buy one. It is not a machine though... just a big pot. When you look these up on Amazon you find them in many sizes. We have one smaller than Jamie is using and can do 7x a quart jar, 8x a 1.5 pint jar or 16x a pint jar.

Here is the one we have: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Please note that yo can not pressure can in a pressure cooker. You can pressure cook in a pressure canner but not the other way around. Do not take shortcuts because the risk is botulism so you really need to do it right.

Water bath canning can be done in any large pot with something on the bottom to keep the jars clear of the metal bottom. Called a "weck ketel" where I was born :-)

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Visarend

@Jedi: do you have any link/reference to water canning? I'd much appreciate it. TIA

From my earlier post,

We are still in a house but our pressure cooker we use for canning will be put on a boat, if we ever manage to get a boat. The pressure cooker is big, bulky and sorta heavy but it is bomb proof, does not require a gasket, and as long as gravity works, it cannot explode.

This is what we have and it will preserve four quarts at a time which seems to work best for us.

https://smile.amazon.com/All-America...en&sr=1-1&th=1

The cooker has instructions for canning but there is far more information on the following website. I usually refer to both sources when preserving food.

https://nchfp.uga.edu

The NCHFP website have instructions on water bath, pickling and pressure canning/jarring and other food preservation techniques. All free from the US tax payer. I printed out the instructions and put them in a binder for easier access.

Food preservation is not rocket science. It is really easy. In the US, the local Extension Offices have classes if one learns better that way.

Later,
Dan

[dannc]

Originally Posted by cxz

I notice she was using a canning machine there. For those of us without access to one, do you have some alternative ideas?

We should be careful with our word usage in this discussion. There has been some confusion in other food preservation conversations on CF regarding canning and jarring. And those people where native English speakers. Well, I think Aussies speak English.

Food preservation, either with hot water bath or pressure preserving, can be done using a can or a glass jar to hold the food. Unfortunately, in American English, people say, myself included, that they are canning food when preserving food. However, almost certainly, they are NOT using cans but glass jars. It is confusing to say the least.

The link I provided earlier, uses the words canning or can, when they are really talking about using glass jars.

One reason it is confusing is that there ARE canning machines that are used to put food into cans/tins that are then pressure cooked. The problem is that the machines is expensive, takes up space, and requires single use cans. Jars used to preserve food can be reused. Only the lids need to be single use. Here is a canning machine:

https://www.amazon.com/All-American-...-2&tag=mh0b-20

I don't want one.

Just posting this to clarify, I hope, the words we are using.

Later,
Dan

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Regarding bad eggs:

We were being super careful about causing ourselves any injury or illness this summer so we wouldn’t have to visit places packed with Covid patients.

Being cautious with our non-refrigerated eggs was a part of that.

I became able to tell if eggs were going bad. They have a distinct, weird smell which is not like the “rotten eggs” sulfur smell. I can’t describe it, but it’s almost fishy smelling.

You crack open the egg in a separate container, then sniff it before putting it into the food.

Toward the end of the summer almost half the eggs failed the smell test and many had black mold like gunk in them.

You see or smell something wrong... you throw out the egg.

There is a very easy method to discover if an egg is bad or not: take a big cup or a small pot and fill it with water (sea water is ok)
- a fresh egg lies on the bottom horizontally, fine to eat in any form you like
- if one end of the egg rises up but still on the bottom, you can still use the egg but it need to be cooked or backed through.. No fresh use like a 3min egg with soft inside but an omlette or pancake is fine
- if egg swims on top its bad, throw away

That is a really reliable method for eggs told to me by a friend who is head of convenience food at Bell and he needs to now all that stuff. He explained to me If an egg is "aging" the chemical reactions in it produces a gas that is lighter then air. Small amount, means still eatable gas concentrates on one end so it still stays on the bottom but one end of egg goes up...swimming means reaction produced more gas so egg swims up=>bad, throw away

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by PaulvR

danish hams......and learn to make fish-biltong.

I've had snook biltong..... very very salty...

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by smacksman

We had fresh meat vacuum packed in Cape Town. The beef lasted for months but the lamb went off within a week or two.

The only vacuum packed meat I have had go off is lamb..... 2 legs... years apart... I was given to understand it was down to it having the bone in it.
In future I would buy diced lamb or de-boned lamb leg steaks.