General survey on cookware onboard on 'smaller' cruising vessels

[Pizzazz]

On a 31 footer, Ibise daily the following: electric pressure cooker, stainless steel pan, two mixing bowls and a cutting board. Utensils are silver, glasses are crystal, plates are porcelain. Glasses break one a month but it is OK. As others have said, the pressure cooker is a must.

[Matt Johnson]

FYI- Tefal sells a nesting nonstick set that is cheaper than the Magma version.... eBay or Amazon is a good location to buy them cheap.

Matt

[Hoodsail]

tea kettle to heat water while keeping the hot liquid contained while sailing. still deciding which is better for making coffee, a French press or 1 cup plastic filter. the press is safer when under way but the coffee cools some during prep...nested pans with covers, small 6" skillet non-stick. have 2.5 drawers dedicated to utensils, cheese grater, peeler/cheese slicer, spatulas, variety of sharp knives - paring to chef. still working on assembling the best mix of cookware...might also check out, Carolyn@theboatgalley.com for ideas also. thnks Dave

[jstevens]

I'm one of those who has never fully down sized my kitchen pots and pans when I moved them to a galley. I definitely have an excessive number of pans. Fortunately I have a large bulkhead space in the galley to hang my go to pans and a large locker for the rest. Also staying dockside for the last 4 years for health reasons has made me susceptible to purchasing even more stuff.

That said, if you put a gun (a really serious gun) to my head and demanded that I get rid of everything except 3 pans, I guess I would settle on the following:

1. 2 qt Saucier or Chef's Pan. This is a cross between a saute pan and a sauce pan. I can saute, fry, braise or stove top roast in it. Also works for cooking rice and pasta. It is large enough to prepare a meal for 1 - 3 persons.
2. 7" non-stick fry pan (I prefer the ceramic coating like Green Pan). This great for cooking eggs or frying chops.
3. A pressure cooker. I used to have a small T-Fal cooker, the base of which was a 3qt Chicken fryer. It was the right size for most of my cooking and the base was another pot for when I was the family host for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately the top started to fall apart after 15 years. I couldn't find the same cooker and ended up with the 6 liter cooker. Just too big and it gets rarely used.

I would never down size to that inventory, but I know I could cook all of the dishes I might want with those pans.

John

[hamburking]

I carry as little as possible. One good (tall) pot and one good frying pan. 2 mugs, two sets cutlery, 2 big bowls for eating. This was for me sailing alone or with one of my kids. If both kids came, I would eat from the pot.

I found that whatever was aboard would usually end up dirty in the sink. So having less meant less stuff in the sink.

I'm also a big fan of the origo stove. Great stove.

I kept a plastic (peanut butter) jar full of fast food condiment packets...hot sauce, soy, wasabi, salt+pepper, etc. Not only does this save a ton of space, but my kids would have a great time looking for the "spices" for our one pot dinners.

[slowneasy]

I have a Stanley French Press which keeps the coffee nice and hot and much safer than the glass version it replaced. It's pricey but if like the stanley thermos it will last for a very long time. Below is a link to Amazon there may be cheaper places to buy. Mine was a gift.

https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Stay-...gateway&sr=8-3

There are also several smaller double wall french presses available on Amazon. I have one of those at the house and it works well also. Though it doesn't insulate as well as the Stanley one.

If you need a grinder I love my my Hario Skerton mill.

[Lake-Effect]

I like how the "smaller" cruisers include anything under 50 ft But yeah even those have limited prep and cooking area. Some great ideas in this thread.

For the two of us, we have the Stanley "Adventure" french press, a basic kettle, and a decent nesting camping cooking set (skillet, small pot, lids) and a small nonstick pan. We have 2 cutting boards, two decent prep knives, a few utensils, SS insulated mugs and some Corelle-type plates and bowls. Most of this stows nicely in a plastic utility container with wheels so it rolls nicely out of the rear quarterberth area. We cook on a portable butane burner, and/or on a BBQ ashore when available.

My wife is a professional cook and she's done magic with this simple stuff.

[Aswayze]

On my small cruiser I am somewhat limited by my desire to always be able to fit my pots and pans into a somewhat limited locker entrance so I don’t get any pots and pans that are as wide as I usually use at home but that said, I have hit on a few things that have ended up working particularly well in my little galley:


This is a 160mm Zebra brand “billy can” which is a popular pot for the fieldcraft cooking guys. Not only does it fit well where I want to store it, but it also happens to EXACTLY fit the Galleyware bowls which next perfectly in it. It also has a lid which locks securely when the bail is up and the entire operation sits very solidly on my cooker with the pot holders making it very stable when cooking in rough conditions.


I sawed down one of the Seateak plate racks and use the old US Army Melamac mugs with it. This allows not only storage but I can toss wet plates and mugs directly on the rack and they dry nicely dripping down onto the counter where I have the water just sneaks past the edge of the stove and on down to the bilge. I can next 5 mugs in there just fine and although they can be a bit more skittery than the fancy rubber bottomed mugs they are unbreakable as all get out and you can fling them at your enemies if needed. Similarly, I use surplus US Army utensils since they nest up nicely and have big loops on the handles which make them easy to hang on a hook to dry instead of having to have them sitting on something to dry after washing up. Seemingly small stuff but it helps a lot.


We tried using these collapsible silicone tea kettles with pretty good results but ended up shifting to a small camping sized kettle instead. Even the small silicone one as slightly too big for what we needed. If you happen to like a lot more water or coffee than me, they were pretty slick.


Totally totally totally worth the hassle. If you can swing it, get one of the Engel fridges. Mine really sips the power and is a lot nicer than having to deal with ice. I resisted this for entirely too long.

[Sam8989]

I can honestly say, that my 4 Cuisinart nonstick pans seems to be extremely well made with a durable rough high quality nonstick coating. I also like to believe, that a company like Cuisinart takes that extra little step to ensure their products, even no stick pans, are that little bit better made than the competition. I believe Cuisinart is all about high quality and great technical design. More on cookwared.com

[Adiona]

We too have had our share of damaged and scratched Teflon pans so I learned from a friend to put a square piece of felt or fleece or non skid material between the pans big enough to hang over th edges. Quiet and it somewhat extends their life. I believe the shorter life of non stick has something to do with the higher heat of propane stove so I only use the good stainless ones. They clean up nicely and can be scrubbed when necessary with baking side which releases any burnt on stuff.

[Pizzazz]

Note that Teflon is not food for you after it has been scratched (which happens after the first few uses). Some people say it is poisonous. Better to stick with steel pans (or iron if you do not mind the weight).

[Mike OReilly]

Here’s a good summary of the state of the research/knowledge regarding teflon toxicity by Kurt Van den Broeck, Ph.D. Organic Chemistry, KU Leuven.

https://www.quora.com/Is-Teflon-PTFE-poisonous-toxic

Quoting from the summary (so a summary of the summary):

Simplistic answer would be that Teflon (a brand name) or PTFE, (polytetrafluoroethylene) -as most polymers- is not toxic, since they can’t be absorbed by our system. They just pass our gastrointestinal tract.

Obviously it is not so simple.

Teflon in e.g. non-stick cookware is not stable if you (over)heat them…. Toxicology is not a straightforward subject. Animal studies have shown that it has an effect on e.g. monkeys but it is very hard to tell if the actual concentrations as found in human population is or would be harmful for humans.

There is a debate about toxicologists if it is harmless or dangerous.

[Trailer Sailor]

I bought my Cresimo 68 oz. stainless steel coffee carafe on Amazon after reading all the reviews. There were over 2,300 reviews which gave it an average rating of 4.4, which is pretty good. The carafe has certainly lived up to the claims made in those reviews. It doesn't leak at all, even when turned upside down and shaken, and the double walled stainless steel provides long lasting thermal retention. I couldn't as for more. I would buy this coffee carafe again if anything ever happened to mine.

Here's the link on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[nhschneider]

Many years ago, my mother gave us a set of nesting stainless steel sauce pans that included a 6-quart stock pot and 10” straight-sided frying pan. I don’t remember the brand name but reportedly it was made by Cuisinart with removable handles and thick stainless steel bottoms. They are a pleasure to cook with and although the Teflon coating on the frying pan is in pretty bad shape, we still use it. Unfortunately, I don’t believe they’re made anymore.

We also have a 12-quart pressure cooker that we use from time to time, mostly to cook dried beans. We have a good selection of bakeware as I like ‘homemade’ cookies and I will often make three large pizzas before we start a long passage - it makes an easy meal to eat and a great night watch snack plus it tastes great, if I do say so myself. I consider myself to be a pancake connoisseur but it’s too hard to feed everyone at the same time (they’re not good enough for me if they’re kept warm in the oven) so I switched to making scones, almost the exact same ingredients as pancakes but a batch comes out of the oven and everyone can enjoy them hot, including the cook. Very easy to make - sometimes if I’m making them on a rough part of a passage, I don’t even measure my ingredients and they always seem to come out great. Something warm and sweet from the oven does wonders for moral if people are uncomfortable.

Great topic! Eating and drinking are two of my favorite things to do!

Fair winds and calm seas!

[sailorchic34]

I have a mishmash of regular pots and pans. 8-inch fry pan, a 12-inch fry pan, 12 inch griddle and several 1 to 2 to quart pots. of course I have a large pot storage drawer also. I don't use a pressure cooker. yes they cook a little faster, but I don't find it that useful, except perhaps for canning.