Advice on Best Foods to Take for Food Value for Long Passage

[HighFly_27]

Great Advice.... Wow & Wow Again to You All,

My eyes have been opened on what to expect on a long passage... food wise. I was approaching my Food Provisioning like it was black n' white shopping list. Now, I can see the error of my ways. I did have cans & cans of -- green beans, chicken & rice, baked beans and on & on or like items on my list.

Canned foods were suggested and I forgot about this. I grew up on a dairy farm in PA. We butchered & canned a lot of food from our farm. I can still see all those (100's) mason jars lined up on the shelves in the cellar.

My favorite food was wild game. No# 1 pick is a yearling deer. My grandmother would fry the venison (thin sliced) in a big iron skillet. She'd lay the meat on fresh baked bread with butter & some other seasoning added-on. Today, I'd give $ 50.00 bucks (+) for this meal. We had an abundance of -- wild turkey, pheasants, grouse, rabbit, squirrel on our farm. Wild turkey & pheasant tops my list. I can still see & taste them when they were just taken out of the old cook stove oven. The cook stove was wood or coal fired, it was replaced in the late 50's. The best meals in my life were cooked on this old kitchen stove, great memories.

Deer jerky was mentioned, we smoked hind quarters of venison in our smoke house, great food. I had a border collie (Molly) & we'd play a little game. I'd stick small strips of deer jerky in my shirt pocket. I'd leave just a little of the jerky stick out of the top of my pocket. Molly, must have been a surgeon in another life. She'd pull out the jerky like a surgeon would with great skill. She loved it and I'd get a big belly laugh, fond memories.

I'm rambling now, thanks a lot to everyone.

Avery

[accomplice]

Excellent advice from Seaworthy Lass and others.

I think it is important to differentiate provisioning for a long excursion from privisioning for a long passage. While on passage, one cannot rely on calm seas nor on occasional reprovisionings. When preparing for a long passage (few weeks) I might prepare and freeze many trays of lasagne, prepare and separately freeze beef stew, etc. -- things that can be easily reheated underway. When preparing for a long excursion, I stock with the things that are locally in abundance.

[oregoncycle]

I have often before taking off for the unknown tracked down ethnic food stores and have had great conversations with the owners and employees about food from their countries. Items that they import are the most popular items from their home countries and are often found in even the smallest stores when I visited their country. Many items I have taken home and tried, some I liked and some I hated, but I keep photos on my phone of the stuff I liked. When you can't read Greek or Turkish it is nice to know that can is tuna and not sheep bone marrow in feta.
Also peanut butter and Nutella as must haves in my book.

[Bulawayo]

Hi Onestep ......you are right, 'cept tinned peaches are on our basics provisioning list along with a few tubs of ice cream!
There is nothing quite like have both at some very remote location. Yum.

[Grateful]

Originally Posted by seasick

Butter, I always carry many pounds of butter either stored in tightly sealed containers submerged in brine or more recently refrigerated. The secret to life is butter. Butter and salt. It just makes all the foods previously mentioned, wonderful.

Heck, put enough salt and butter on it and I can eat it indefinitely.

Can't have too much butter.

Just don't think you can have too much butter especially in the higher latitudes.

I believe it was the great naval architect Nathanael Green Herreshoff who said that he didn't have patience for iceboxes because the only thing you must keep in an icebox is butter, and the only reason you need butter is to help bad cooking slide down your throat.

I also believe that his opinion about butter is about the only one I do not share with Mr Herreshoff...

[jheldatksuedu]

For dried food storage, I use 3 liter pop bottles, they are indestructible, same as 2 liter but larger opening. I use to use 2 liter for water bottles on back country backpacking when done with them and time to pack out you could stomp on them, to crush them flat to pack, and then if needed you could blow them back up and reuse them, If have done this numerous times to the the same bottle and never a leak. I store everything that fits through the top in them, from flour to powdered milk to beans and noodles. I enjoy mac and cheese every once in a while, often make it with canned tuna in oil, and use the oil to make the cheese sauce. On purchase, I separate the noodles into the 3 liter bottles and store the cheese pack in a flat sealed storage bin.

Yeast is the most expensive ingredient in bread. I used to make sour dough but had trouble keeping the starter on the boat. I now make homemade ginger ale, and it keeps the yeast going. In a 2 liter bottle, add 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tps lemon juice (I use 1/6 tsp citric acid powder,) 1/2 tsp powder ginger and the first time a 1/2 tsp bakers yeast. Fill with water, leave a little head space, mix a couple times during fermentation and in a day or 2 you have ginger ale ready to drink. When you want a glass carefully pour off the top without mixing, when a cup or so is left, add the ingredients, skip the yeast and keep it going. When you want to make bread, use some of the lees in the bottom of the bottle for your yeast. What makes this better than sour dough starter is it's sealed. I have left the almost empty bottle set for a over a month, added the ingredients and 2 days later ready to drink. It seems refreshing even without refrigeration. The bubbling carbonation will cool it some. It should have about a 1/4 percent of alcohol, nothing to get excited about.

See some of my good ideas and the bottles and home made filling funnel on my website.

Good ideas

I think it is good to have a glass of naturally fermented stuff everyday for health reasons. For sour dough and this bread with unkown rise times, I modify a bread maker by putting a switch in the motor circuit. Then I can wait extra time till the bread rises properly and cook it on the quick bread setting with the motor off.

I also eat peanuts in the shell, eat about 2 dozen a day and 1/3 of the shells get eaten too, any unbroken ones, I get lots of fiber that way, and fiber is something you don't get much of typically on a boat. Interesting thing, the first couple months your excrement is much like horse manure, then your body seems to adapt, and it goes back to much like normal, no pain or anything. A side benefit is the cleanness, I normally use 5 sheets of toilet paper, refolded between each wipe, normally 3 or 4 wipes is good, that first month I could use the same 5 sheets over and over for 4 or 5 times. If your somebody that follows the plan that the only thing that goes in the head is stuff that went through your mouth, this reduces waste paper and tp expense. The shells that don't get eaten often start my charcoal grill when I have some fish or hot dogs, or they go into the wood stove.

[CarinaPDX]

Lots of good input.

There is a great variety of canned foods beyond the regular supermarket inventory. And as you travel you will encounter even more. So look around. (In the UK they have canned entrees that can be great for a quick and tasty meal - I filled a shopping cart at M&S.) When tired and hungry even a Dinty Moore stew or can of chile is welcomed.

Sometimes local meat can be unappetizing, so canned meats are very useful and can be used in many ways. Brinkmans is a highly recommended source for quality meats. I have taken summer sausage along - it has a shelf life of a year (check out Costco).

I like to take the canned veggies and sauce for making a stir fry (along with chunked meat). Try to get as much variety and flexibility as possible. Sauces are great.

Take some fun foods along for a change of pace. Cake mixes (birthdays?) are very welcome. If doing pancakes or waffles stock some berry syrup as well as maple syrup ("pancake" syrup has no place on my boat).

While sailing we all burn a lot of calories. It is important to have a large stock of snacks, especially nuts and chocolate. To keep awake munch on a few chocolate-covered espresso beans. Many cruisers like M&Ms, probably because they are scarce and expensive elsewhere. Cookies are also popular. I never had a problem with left over snacks...

Baking bread on the night watch is an enjoyable activity, and fresh bread is always welcome. (Buy the 2lb bag of yeast at Costco and freeze or refrigerate if possible.) Sprouting is easy and the fresh, crunchy green food is welcome - get a plastic sprouter and variety of seeds. Consider taking along a small basil plant and other herbs - they are much better than dried.

I kept a large stock of powdered drinks which had electrolytes - think Gatorade, Isostar, etc. I avoid the caffeinated variety of energy drinks, but replacing electrolytes is essential in the tropics.

Ultimately every cruiser evolves their own program so just pick and choose from the ideas for what will work for you.

Greg

[Rohan]

Originally Posted by HighFly_27

I had thought that fishing would be a good source of food. However, I sort of ruled fishing out with widespread ocean pollution.

Where do you think the fish you get in restaurants or the tuna in cans in the supermarket comes from? The ocean! Rivers/lakes are often polluted around the world, but I think you are pretty safe with most ocean fish.

[Juho]

I have just few more additions (and repetitions) to what was already said.

- You can assume ocean fish to be clean by all standards (just read about ciguatera as Steady Hand already recommended)

- Freezer sure helps if you have enough electricity for it

- Protect your food from bugs

- Someone had a whole Serrano ham hanging from the cabin roof (yum)

- No reason to eat any worse at sea than at land (availability of fresh vegetables is more or less the only limitation, unless you can grow also them on the boat)

[HighFly_27]

Rohan & All,

I'm aware of all the seafood sold on the super market shelf & fast food seafood places. I started a thread here, and got scared off from the folks that ate tainted sea food and got sick, some very sick. I had a friend that flew a helicopter that spotted fish for a big commercial seafood company. He traveled a long distance (ocean wise) to harvest sea food from the ocean. I don't remember the ocean locations and this was back in the mid 1980's. That was 25 years ago and the oceans have become a lot more polluted now.

I need to acquire more knowledge ref. fish specie that are safe to eat 99.9% of the time. I'm aware of the heavy pollution areas around costal locations i.e. river outlets, bays and lakes.

If I ate tainted fish and became very sick in my shorthanded situation, it may/ could be to my demise (perhaps death). So, now I go full circle and ask myself... was it worth the risk.... probably not. I'll be wiser on this (fish) subject in the near future. I'll try or learn from the old salts when I'm actually out there in a ocean area that's being commercially fished.

Avery

[D&D]

Lots of great suggestions here!

Our long-passage experience suggests two food categories that are both difficult to sustain over a long passage (as in between visiting people where you can re-supply!) and great to enjoy eating; they are fresh greens and fresh bread. We supplement those categories with an EasySprouter and a Shuttle Chef thermal cooker...

With one supply of sprouts growing and a ready-to-eat supply in the frig -- You'll need the 'Set' unit -- the EasySprouter provides both a steady supply of fresh, healthy greens as well as a variety of tastes through the myriad of different types of sprouting seeds available.

Easy Sprouter Set, Floating Impressions

The Shuttle Chef thermal cooker not only provides fresh, warm breads and cakes (and a huge variety of other meals as well!) but it does so using only a tiny fraction of the cooking energy required using a 'traditional' oven or cooktop. So it's a win-win-win in terms of excellent food, great food variety & very economic operation. All that, plus the convenience of meals being prepared when conditions suit...and then available to eat over a time 'window' of several hours or more, i.e. ready to eat anytime (i) you are hungry and (ii) the weather suits mealtime!

Shuttle Chef 6000W, Floating Impressions

Fair winds and following seas!

[El Pinguino]

The best 'fresh green' to take along is cabbage.... peel it instead of hacking lumps out of it and it will last a very long time... having them last for 3 months in the tropics is my 'personal best'.

and also.... just cut the stem back a bit and wipe the fresh wound with vinegar when you buy them.

[socaldmax]

I've given this topic a lot of thought. The only solution that comes to mind is about 20cuft of fridge and a 30cuft freezer in a 45' catamaran with 2 staterooms turned into pantry. LOL

Seriously though, I RV a lot and it's got a pretty small fridge. I've done severl longer trips (38 days ea) and generally ate better than at home, with lots more BBQing than usual.

As far as a boat goes, I was thinking in terms of buying freeze dried veggies and fruit in bulk, powdered eggs and milk for after the fresh stores are gone, lots of pb&j, lots of crackers, lots of rice, bacon, steaks, roasts and tons of frozen hamburger patties. What I noticed with the patties is I can use them for burgers (with home made buns) but I can also use them as 1/4lb sections of ground beef, so if a Hamburger Helper recipe calls for 1/2 lb beef, pull out 2 patties and let them thaw. Time to make spaghetti, pull out 3 or 4 patties, and add spaghetti sauce, etc. I've made dirty rice, "dirty mashed potatoes" (with the 99 cent mashed potato packs) and so forth. I also enjoy pb&j on crackers, or tuna salad on crackers.
I love to eat a variety of foods, especially Japanese I grew up on that - miso soup, sushi, tempura, shabu shabu, sukiyaki, tons of rice) plus curry dishes, Filipino dishes, Mexican, Italian, etc, and I can cook all of them. The trick is to have enough freezer space for the beef, chicken, pork, etc.

I don't know how much of this was helpful, but I think you could can a lot of the ingredients you need, or seal a meal stuff that's less perishable and truly eat like a king your entire journey. Maybe get a med. sized fryer for some fried foods occasionally (while anchored only) and learn to make your own bread, buns, pizza dough, cakes, etc.

When I was on the sub, the cooks baked fresh bread cinnamon buns (sticky buns) every morning at 4am. That heavenly smell would wake up everyone on board, even if they just got to sleep after 2 days. I'm looking forward to baking my own whole wheat bread and buns, but I'm not going to do sticky buns - too tempting!

All of the other posts had great info, I think canning is the way to go in your case. You might consider a few solar panels, enough to power a freezer, if not a fridge and freezer. Engel makes some very high quality portable units - not cheap, but worth the money.

[Gerrycooper56]

Originally Posted by seasick

Butter, I always carry many pounds of butter either stored in tightly sealed containers submerged in brine or more recently refrigerated. The secret to life is butter. Butter and salt. It just makes all the foods previously mentioned, wonderful.

Heck, put enough salt and butter on it and I can eat it indefinitely.

Can't have too much butter.

I provision with two thoughts in mind.

1) Survival food in mass quantity mostly a wide variety of floor, rice and beans, stowed deep lest the mast goes by the board.
2) Really yummy, one pot, feel good,
comfort food like, chowders, chile, curries, shepherd's pies, etc that I can make with fresh bread and eat for several meals.

I could eat dog poop if you put enough salt and butter on it.
Can't possibly stow enough butter. Cabbage, fresh and pickled as sauerkraut and kimchee.

Good multivitamins.
Popcorn
As mentioned by SeaworthyLass, Whole grains all sorts in quantity.

Just don't think you can have too much butter especially in the higher latitudes.

You can buy Anchor New Zealand butter in cans that requires no refrigeration until opened. Essentially lasts 'forever' unopened.


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[Seaworthy Lass]

One tip I have is to buy a little vacuum sealer. I was researching good electric units and had just decided our inverter was unlikely to handle one when I spotted a cheap flimsy looking plastic unit for about 10€ that included about a dozen resealable bags.

I didn't expect much of it, but it has been brilliant!

I really struggled beforehand keeping cheese fresh during summer. I tried all the tricks of wrapping it in vinegar soaked paper towel, soaking it in brine and even soaking it in olive oil, all only with limited success.

To keep bags uncontaminated I place the cheese into small thin plastic freezer bags first and chop off excess plastic. Several small lots can be sealed at once and the air pumped out again each time one is removed. It is the same pump that is used to vacuum seal wine: