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

[CarinaPDX]

Once you open the butter put it in a French butter dish in order to keep it fresh and spreadable without refrigeration.

[southpaw]

Don't forget to check your canned food periodically to make sure the cans aren't 'blown', i.e. the ends have become convex. This indicates they are contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism poisoning.
Sam of 'DX' died of this in the Indian Ocean in 1988 when his inexperienced crew, Yogi, served him a bad can of mushrooms (Yogi recovered).
According to 'Joy of Cooking', blown cans can be salvaged by boiling the contents (with additional liquid if necessary) in an uncovered pan for 15 minutes, stirring periodically. The organism can't survive in the presence of oxygen. I've done this and it does work - still here.

[Steadman Uhlich]

Originally Posted by 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

That WOULD be COOL! :big grin: (Pun intended!)

Seriously, as a foodie, I can see the appeal of having a BIG selection of frozen fine foods for a very long cruise with crew/family. NO Tv dinners! But a great selection of frozen fruits, meats, etc. Blueberries, strawberries, etc.

I enjoyed reading your post.

[Roniszoro]

Google Beth Leonard. Take a look at her lists and books. She and Evans Starzinger have sailed multiple circumnavigations without refrigeration, spending months in areas with no food available except what they had aboard. If it worked for them, it will certainly work for you.

[Badsanta]

D&D I checked out that shuttle chef cooker and whilst it looks great at $500 it costs more than my hob. Maybe one day. I hope it works better than the other brands. Thanks for pointing it out. I also liked the sprouting containers.

Sent from my SM-G860P using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[barnakiel]

Well, I like to look at food from three viewpoints:

- long range sailing, (nutrition/volume)
vs.
- long range running, (energy)
vs.
- mountain climbing. (energy/nutrition/volume (weight))

I rank taste above all that, much as I know this is personal and not relevant.

Now, if I were to go longest, with minimum fuss, it would be pasta and fat (e.g. pasta, fried garlic, olive oil). BUT, for obvious reasons, I do not: we normally stock with perhaps 100 varieties of food even before a short passage. We are not going for K2 summit in winter, we are not running a half marathon every day, we have a boat and the boat has voluminous lockers: no reason to look for optimum weight/quality when we can have what we want/like.

You must remember most of sailing is done at very low revs and adjust your calories accordingly. Unless you want to get very fat very soon. Sailing (other than competitive) is a very very sedative work and low stress / low intellectual effort. Eat accordingly. / Eat responsibly. ;-)

Have fun provisioning and eating. Take some extra, go for variety.

Cheers,
b.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Steady Hand

Seriously, as a foodie, I can see the appeal of having a BIG selection of frozen fine foods for a very long cruise with crew/family. NO Tv dinners! But a great selection of frozen fruits, meats, etc. Blueberries, strawberries, etc.

What was the longest offsupermarket cruise you were on?

Why not take fresh food?

A whole cow could be easily fitted into any Baloon. I am not sure why the company does not offer them as optional extras ...

image attribution: taak.me

b.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by southpaw

Don't forget to check your canned food periodically to make sure the cans aren't 'blown', i.e. the ends have become convex. This indicates they are contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism poisoning.
Sam of 'DX' died of this in the Indian Ocean in 1988 when his inexperienced crew, Yogi, served him a bad can of mushrooms (Yogi recovered).
According to 'Joy of Cooking', blown cans can be salvaged by boiling the contents (with additional liquid if necessary) in an uncovered pan for 15 minutes, stirring periodically. The organism can't survive in the presence of oxygen. I've done this and it does work - still here.

I cannot for the life of me think of a single good or even half decent reason to try and salvage the contents of a blown can.

The only cans I have had problems with are those produced by Golden Circle in Queensland ( they can for other brands as well (the cans have maybe half a dozen ribs around their midriff .. easily spotted). None lasted beyond 12 months without blowing.

That said I've had no other blown cans and I have had slow moving product aboard for up to 10 years ( note to self... don't buy Spam again )... currently working through the last of the mushrooms bought in P Arenas 4 years ago....

[TheThunderbird]

Pasta
Honey
Condensed milk
Biscuits and dried bread
Grains cereals and spices/sauces of all sorts
Hard cheese
I hate bottles, no beer and little wine

[D&D]

Originally Posted by Badsanta

D&D I checked out that shuttle chef cooker and whilst it looks great at $500 it costs more than my hob. Maybe one day. I hope it works better than the other brands. Thanks for pointing it out. I also liked the sprouting containers.

Our pleasure. The Shuttle Chefs are an investment, but the 'dividends' are delicious and plentiful! They most certainly work. Here are a couple pics of last night's indulgence (lamb shanks on sweet mash with sprouts garnish) as well as one of an earlier Shuttle Chef favorite (beer damper) with sweet lip & veggies...

[roverhi]

We bought the commercial can size dehydrated/freeze dried vegetables etc. from our local Mormon Survival Food Dealer. The Mormons are urged by the Church to maintain a survival stash of food so are good source of information and supplier for long term storage foods.

This was quite a while ago so hopefully the quality of foods has gotten better. For dried foods, things like onions, garlic etc. all seem to taste the same as you are probably used to in dried package soup mixes. Okay, but you know where they came from. We found the dried cheese to be a good thing to add to other ingredients in casseroles but not very good by itself. Dried green peppers were also great additions to stews, spaghetty sauce, and chili. Most of the other stuff was so unappetizing that it spoiled before we finished a can.

If you are going anywhere near an area with a French influence, take plenty of peanut butter. Seems the US is the only place that consumes large amounts of it so it is very expensive and only in small jars. The availability of quality of bread upped our consumption of Pbutter and we quickly ran out. Fortunately, we scored a stash from a returning cruising boat that had over stocked. Canned butter is another must have but doesn't seem to keep much beyong six months so hard to stock up. It was readily available out of NZ, not cheap but affordable even in the most remote areas.

Pop Corn and dried shrimp chips were really great for snack foods, stored well and didn't take up much space.

My wife found 'Joy of Cooking' as a great resource for ideas on how to use some things like Papayas that are exotics to those who don't live in tropical areas. Greens and fresh vegetables were the things we missed the most. Green Papaya was about the only thing we found outside of heavily populated areas in Polynesia.

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

What was the longest offsupermarket cruise you were on?

Why not take fresh food?

A whole cow could be easily fitted into any Baloon. I am not sure why the company does not offer them as optional extras ...

image attribution: taak.me

b.

I'm not sure I understand what you posted. A cow in a balloon? Do you mean packaged in plastic?

[HighFly_27]

Hello All,

I need a little more information about Tainted Food from Cans.

**** I read (here) where a man died from eating mushrooms from a can. Were the mushrooms spoiled or what happen to them ?

a. Were they processed improperly and contaminated at the cannery or what ?

b. I read where the cans are defective, they leak or allow air in and the contents are spoiled or what ? Perhaps a small pin hole and it's not noticed.. what then ?

Bottom Line Question:

How do I know when the contents are un-fit to eat i.e. how do I inspect the cans/ food ?

I'm aware of -- bad smell, darken color, leaking can, etc., but what am I missing here ?!? If the contents were processed with bad guy bacteria already there... I'd never know it until I was sick, or worst, dead like the man that ate the bad mushrooms.

Please, give me some clarifying information on, " What to Look for When Eating Food from Cans. "


Thank You,

Avery

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by socaldmax

I'm not sure I understand what you posted. A cow in a balloon? Do you mean packaged in plastic?

I think he's referring to a bovine version of haggis.
I must add that to my list of what to do with oats .

SWL

Edited to add:
Ideas for oats on boats:

Porridge (cooks perfectly just by sitting in a thermos with boiling water)
Muesli
Bircher muesli
Granola (hard to stop munching this)
Baked oatmeal with apple or carrot (scrumptious warm, good cake-like snack when cold)
Cookies (good ones can be made even if you have run out of eggs and butter)
Muffins
Pancakes
Apple crumble
Bread (Beth Leonard has an excellent recipe, it keeps beautifully moist)
Rissoles (particularly good in veggie and salmon ones)
Haggis

Any more suggestions? I use this fantastic boat staple by the trailer load (only a slight exaggeration ).

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by HighFly_27

Hello All,

I need a little more information about Tainted Food from Cans.

**** I read (here) where a man died from eating mushrooms from a can. Were the mushrooms spoiled or what happen to them ?

a. Were they processed improperly and contaminated at the cannery or what ?

b. I read where the cans are defective, they leak or allow air in and the contents are spoiled or what ? Perhaps a small pin hole and it's not noticed.. what then ?

Bottom Line Question:

How do I know when the contents are un-fit to eat i.e. how do I inspect the cans/ food ?

I'm aware of -- bad smell, darken color, leaking can, etc., but what am I missing here ?!? If the contents were processed with bad guy bacteria already there... I'd never know it until I was sick, or worst, dead like the man that ate the bad mushrooms.

Please, give me some clarifying information on, " What to Look for When Eating Food from Cans. "


Thank You,

Avery

You can pick a blown can by staining on the label and then a nasty little black spot on the tin...
A nice shiny can... should be no probs. I often get cans developing a bit of surface rust... I just prioritise the consumption of those ones....

Mind you chinese mushrooms would be a worry but try finding anything else these days.

There was a recent health drama in Oz with frozen blueberrys(?) from China.

Moving right along... I use tinned mushrooms, corn and peas to bulk up packet soup at lunchtime...on the days we aren't having noodles y tabasco