Cook Books

[Janice]

I would like to take three or four cookbooks along in addition to my handwritten one of favorites. Please tell me your opinion of the best cruising cookbooks.

[Vasco]

Joy of Cooking, very handy and comprehensive.

[clausont]

So far, we like "The One Pan Galley Gourmet". Can be found on Amazon.

[svHyLyte]

[GordMay]

The Good Old Boat Galley Book CD in PDF format:
Good Old Boat - Collections

[SilentOption]

I'm in Japan right now and I think a good book on the many ways to cook seaweed would come in handy.

Just in case you get in the dire straights and drift into a weedline. You won't go hungry!

[wcsailor]

I suggest these two:

Cooking on the Go, by Janet Groene
The Cruising Chef Cookbook, Michael Greenwald

I don't like to cook but found that I enjoy food prep and am more adventuresome in the galley than I am at home in the kitchen. Maybe it's cause while aboard I have more time, or that mealtime is one of the day's highlights, or we have guests over for happy hour and a meal, or a combination of all those reasons.

Bon Appetit

[d0ug]

A reality check for those people going cruising for the first time. My wife who was a good cook bought a few cookbook they said on the cover they where for cruising.
The reality the list of ingredients in most of the books can only be purchased in US supermarkets. And once you get to places like in the Caribbean things like biscuit, tomato soup, canned tomatoes, butter, spices, fresh vegetables, bread, herb [fresh parsley], cream soups, cheddar cheese, beef broth and your cooking sherry don’t exist or in the large city supermarkets.
You either put a couple tons of stores in your boat or plan on eating rice and beans, baking your own bread, and learning to eat what the local eat.
I think these books where made for the group of cruisers that sail up and down the inter coastal water way.

[Delezynski]

The Joy of Cooking is great. Often, if you don't have an ingredient, it will tell you how to make it.


You might also think about picking up a copy of the "Master Cook" computer program. There are tons of free recipe books to download directly to it.

Next, if you are going to be in an area, look for books that talk about exchanging items. When we were in Mexico, we found a great book that translates what cheese in Mexico is the same as one in the USA.

Also, keep in mind that often you can find better items in foreign countries. Just because you don't find the brand you used to like, does not mean that they don't have something that is equivalent or better.

Greg

[Soft Air]

Most items in foreign countries are better than the massive items made for the US Market

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by d0ug

The reality the list of ingredients in most of the books can only be purchased in US supermarkets.

You are right with that one!
Every "supermarket" in Tonga had only 1 brand of tinned fish, tuna, and it was the same inedible brand!

Half way accross the pacific on a 3 week passage and I'm reading Cruising World recipe section: July 2008 edition p 46:
Japanese Noodle Soup
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups Bok Choy
3 slices Kamaboko

KAMWHATTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?

Search the bilges for the Bok Choy but was buggered if I could find the Kamaboko


Mark

[Badsanta]

Come on, you got your sliced Kamaboko, pureed Kamaboko. spicy habernaro Kamaboko and the ever popular pickled Kamaboko with wasabi sauce. But your right only in the states I dont carry it either!

[Agur's Wish]

I still get tempted by cookbooks but with the internet there just isn't any reason for them. Just put "Best ___________ recipe" on yahoo or google and you'll end up with tons of recipes to choose from. Then it is as simple as saving to your documents as a text document and then printing it off. Start looking for recipes while you have internet and then you can access them later while you're underway. You save space and you save money by not buying a cookbook that you use for two recipes. At least that's what I used to do. There are so many great recipe sites like recipelink.com which has great copycat recipes of your favorite restaurant dishes, epicurious, all your favorite TV chefs like Rachel and Paula....and it's free. I try to feature recipes about once a week on my blog and these are all recipes I have fixed on my boat.

[cabo_sailor]

First Mate Mary has the right of it IMO. I subscribe to three different cooking magazines and I do love to cook. But that's mainly for home cooking. For the boat we try most of the recipes at home. Whether they came from a magazine, a cook book, the net, wherever. If it's tasty, simple (leave out the pickled gekko tongues), and can be conceivably be prepared almost anywhere, then it gets added to my recipe software with a tag for "boat".

I currently use the "Big Oven" software and while not perfect it takes care of my needs and gives access to over 160,000 online recipes. The published galley guides sometimes have some useful ideas but I think that if one knows how to cook the guides are unnecessary. You take what you got and maybe fake a couple of things ya ain't got. I must admit that reading one galley guide's instructions for how to drown a goat put me off my feed for quite a while. Good thing I like vegetarian as well as omnivore.

I will say this much more and then shut up. We tend to take way too much on board in the way of food. If I took all the ingredients for all my favorite recipes I'd need a bigger boat. I'm learning to work with what I got. Who knows, maybe I'll add to the list of galley guides some day!

[stuartcnz]

"The care and feeding of sailing crew" by Lin Pardey with Larry Pardey

ISBN 0-393-03726-6