How Do You Cook Onboard?

[Knottygirlz]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Lori, you could always have Whirley-pop ship to a straw dog purchaser in the US who could just throw a new label on the box & hand it back to the postman.<G> The USPS will even let you buy postage and print labels online, so you'd be able to email the prepaid label to your straw dog purchase.

We found out this summer that if you know someone at Canada Customs at the local border crossing (we do) then you can have US stuff shipped to their local US address and then have it cleared into Canada. I never thought of using it to get my Whirley-pop, but now that you mention it....
I'll probably ask Santa to get it for me now.....

Originally Posted by hellosailor

But Real Men know how to cook on the exhaust manifold of an engine. Wrap the popcorn neatly in multiple layers of heavy aluminum foil, sprayed lightly with corn oil on the inside, and allowing room for expansion. Light the diesel...and cook the popcorn while you're motoring.<G>

Don' need no steenkin galley!<VBG>

Well, now could I have known about that, since I cannot ever fit into the "Real Men" catagory ....but now that you have let that little secret out to us galley rats, I have put it on my list of things to try next spring!

Lori

[hellosailor]

Lori, decades ago there was a cover story in (?)Popular Mechanix about cooking on your engine manifold, so familes taking vacation road trips could have a HOT picnic lunch when they stopped at midday.

What can I say...I didn't start it.<G> Just remember, seal the seams well (double french seam) and use bailing wire to tie it to the manifold.

[Knottygirlz]

Hello,

It was also featured on a sitcom a number of years ago..."wings" I think. They called it the Car-B-Q

Lori

[Rick]

Getting back to the original question of just how one cooks aboard the answer for many of us is that we use many sources: Microwave, stove and oven, pressure cooker and bbq. ALL of the above. What with the profileration of the inverter it makes no sense to not have a microwave with a locking door to keep contents from spilling out in a heavy sea.

The good quality oven/stoves like the Force 10 units that have 3 burners in addition to infra-red broilers and ordinary oven functions mean that one can make a Grand-Marnier soufle as well as a perfectly broiled steak. Pressure cookers allow one to minimize propane usage on the stove when cooking lousy cuts of meat in a minimum amount of time as well as to use the cooker to can good cuts of meat when available in addition to canning fish to save having to throw away those large dorado leftovers when fortunate enough to catch a good one.

Today's small galley can be very efficiently arranged with the above items to cook under any condition and enjoy the life without the sacrifice of excluding culinary delights!

[Auspicious]

Propane 2 burner Eno stove w/ oven (3 burner Force 10 w/ thermostatic oven and broiler ordered at the boat show)
Pressure cooker (4 qt Kuhn Rikon)
Microwave
Dickinson large Sea-B-Que propane grill on the rail

I can run the microwave off the inverter, but usually use it off the generator or shore power.

The pressure cooker has become the workhorse, and makes up for the relatively small number of burners (I had a 6 burner cooktop at home before I moved aboard).

Someone earlier in the thread recommended The Cruising Chef Cookbook by Michael Greenwald. I definitely agree. If you are a food geek, get On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee -- tremendous help with substitutions if you have enough science background to get what he is talking about. I also have well-thumbed copies of Joy of Cooking and the Good Housekeeping cookbook.

[Hunter42]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

Someone earlier in the thread recommended The Cruising Chef Cookbook by Michael Greenwald. I definitely agree. If you are a food geek, get On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee -- tremendous help with substitutions if you have enough science background to get what he is talking about. I also have well-thumbed copies of Joy of Cooking and the Good Housekeeping cookbook.

There one one more MUST have cookbook . . . Kay Pastorius's Cruising Cuisine . . . great recipes, but also helpful hints on substitutions that can be used iwhen cruising different regions of the world!

[hellosailor]

"I also have well-thumbed copies of Joy of Cooking and the Good Housekeeping cookbook." Either my mother gave them to me or I purloined her copies long ago. And now, apparently, JoC sells for a fortune IF you can find a new version, so I treat mine with a great deal more reverence.

Neither one may "be" modern cooking, but if they can't give you a start on how to do something....you probably shouldn't be playing with fire.<G>

[Lynx]

Handles on pots and pans???

There is post on small boat boards and books to not have handles on pots and pans. This seams a little dangerous. I will be doing almost all of my cooking on the hook.

Is the risk vers the advantages of pots and pans with just the dog ear handles worth it on a small cruiser?

What is the biggest one meal pot needed for 2 people?

[Pblais]

Lynx,

I think the above is about storage. Your traditional long handled pot that fits on the stove at home just wastes a lot of storage space. "dog eared" pots that nest take the least amout of storage.

I would want a large pot you can boil water in and have enough freeboard to avoid sloshing the water on the cook. A nested set of cookware like used for camping will take the least amount of space.

One pan we recently started using a great deal looks like a flat bottomed wok with dog ears. Calphalon makes an "every day" pan. You can do fry pan types of things, wok types of things, plus be able to simmer stew type meals. You can use high quality cookware aboard but you can't bring a set of 8 pots with lids and expect to not waste a lot of space. We also carry a tall stock pot and a short stock pot that both have dog ear handles. The three nest together. You could go with smaller sized pots.

It's how you cook, what type of stove you have, and what food you want to prepared. A three quart pot for two could be fine for "one pot" meals, but a 4 quart would leave more room.

[GordMay]

Lynx wondered: "... What is the biggest one meal pot needed for 2 people?"

I'd suppose about one potfull.

[Pblais]

Base on trips in the mountains that I used to do backpacking. The following is a minimal rule of thumb as far as how much and how long.

Two hungry people will generally be well fed with 2 full soup bowl sized portions of a stew or some such one pot meal. basically assume everyone will eat seconds. You might add a few things on the side or some type of desert. If you preceed the whole affair with two stiff drinks the evening goes just fine.

To really cook fast and save fuel you adjust the cook time. You can cook a one pot meal with minute rice or pasta with veggies / meat in one pot start to finish starting with cold water in about 15 minutes by just throwing the ingredients in as you go. Using a cover at the end let it stand a bit to save on fuel it will continue to cook and still be hot in 5 minutes. A three quart pot a is nice size. A good lid helps as well. All this and boiling water in the morning will use about 3/4 liter of white gas per week. Adjust fuel volume upward for alcohol downward for propane.

[zackc]

I have a three burner stove with ovan. The only porblem is you cant use the burners and ovan at the same time. So I got a three burner gas stove that fits right on the top of the electric stove. Now I can use both at the same time.

[lcdittmar]

Greetings!

When we are cruising Lake Michigan on our 23 foot sloop, we take frozen pre-cooked meals. Typically, we pack for five days of cruising before provisioning. Even then, we stick to the one-pot cooked meals. Our general guideline is 50% dinners out and 50% on the boat.

Thanks for starting this interesting thread!

CaptainLar and Eileen
Michigan USA

[Hunter42]

We're currently gunkholing in the Sea of Cortez and my cooking for the past week has been minimal . . . unlike the previous year, it's windy and the seas are too rough for cooking while at sea, then when we anchor for the evening a 'coctail party' usually breaks out somewhere with appetizers!

I did use by pressure cooker on the three burner Force Ten before we left San Carlos and mighty glad I did, otherwise it would have been cold sandwiches for a couple of days.

Galley Wench

[rleslie]

One of the conditions my wife set when she agreed to go cruising was that she does not cook. I have three choices: a) she will make me peanut butter sandwiches b) I do the cooking c) eating ashore. We usually choose "c". A small price to pay to keep her happy and aboard. Is anyone interested in buying a seldom used Origo Stove/oven [grin]

Roger