How Do You Cook Onboard?

[Seeratlas]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

If you use propane, you could probably cook around 200 chickens on a 20 lb tank. Maybe more. There's an inherent inefficiency to using heat (engine/genset) to make electricity, to turn it back into heat again (stove / oven). Cut out the middle man! :-)

No question propane cooking is efficient, only negative is that it might, and occasionally does, go

BOOOOOOOM!!!!

Plus, its a whole system you don't need if you're going to have plenty of electric anyway. On a small boat, propane makes a lot of sense. Once you have the room for a fixxed diesel genset, supplemented by solar and or windgen and, well, I can tell you after decades of experience, electric rocks. I'll trade the loss of conversion efficiency to screwing around carrying tanks, adapters, something to lug them into town and back to get em charged, etc. etc. etc. any day. I'm not a big fan of open flames on board, anywhere, but that's just me. I was in Newport Beach harbor in southern california years and years ago when there was this BOOOOOM.

Everyone will tell you, "oh that was a long time ago, lots of advances since then" etc. etc. etc....well in august...

Victim of boat explosion dies | TOP STORIES | WVEC.com | News for Hampton Roads, Virginia

Man injured when sailboat explodes in Ocean View marina | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com
April 10, 2001
Condo Cabo San Lucas Real Estate Cabo San Lucas-Casa del Mar-Villa La Perla

Like I said, set your own priorities. Hell , pure hydrogen used for cooking would probably be even more efficient.....

seer

[fastcat435]

There is off course the inefficiency of cooking electric however id=f the electricity is made with solar or wind power it becomes very efficient and if you ad the induction cooking system to this you start to become very efficient since very little heat gets lost like with gas cooking. in case of gas or another fossil fuel burner a lot of heatg is lost in space and that heat is normally in the saloon area where we prefer to get it cooler.
I prefer electric induction cooking anytime because of its efficiency , the safety and the fact that it generates very little heat in the living area.
We have gone all electric as of this year. The Italian company smeg now has a marine range of induction cookers, stainless steel combination hot air ovens with microwave, and even a dishwasher for the luxury yachts among us that only consumes 500 watts for a cycle.

SMEG Corporate - Official site

[Factfind]

However you cook, if you are cooking with any kind of sea running I recommend cooking in your foulies, at least the top. I can't tell you how many times I have been saved in 30 years at sea from a scalding by having some fabric between me and the suddenly airborne, (fill in your choice, pasta, boiling water,coffee).

When you get saved remember me.
FF

[fastcat435]

hallo Factfind come along on a catamaran sometime in force six and cook and have a 3 course meal with us on our non cardanic stove and oven , it works
greetings and a good weekend

[Jack Tar]

Pre Prepaired either just warm it up or eat it cold. Depends on the food.

[Factfind]

Fastcat, Wait, you mean on your boat you aren't heeled over 25deg. and getting thrown around when you make dinner?

That's cheating!..or very smart!

[Extemporaneous]

Can't be sure your pail is galvanized but if it is..........
I'm not sure if just heating galvanized metal has the same affect, but if you cut it with a cutting torch, it give off poisonous gas.

Originally Posted by Skylark

I couldn't answer your poll, my cooker doesn't fit a category.

[easterly]

I cook with propane, 2 burner stove, Magma grill, and a microwave. The poll does not allow multiple choices.

[DaveyJones]

I really like this thread. One of my all time favorite things to do is eat. It's right up there with sleeping.

I have to chime in here although I don't have a large boat yet, or even a sailboat. I have been lurking around and have a plan in the works.

In the mean time for the past year I have been living in my RV three weeks out of the month while working out of town. While it's not a boat the kitchen is a lot like a galley except for moving while your in it. Although it's legal to ride in a fifth wheel while towing I don't think it would be a good time to cook. Not as safe as a cruiser.

A couple of things everyone should be aware of when using propane for cooking, water heaters, and heating the cabin is there are two dangers to worry about besides fire.

One being a propane leak which will result in explosion or just bad to try to replace oxygen with while breathing. Propane comes out of the tank as a gas. Most RV type setups have regulators and valves that will shut off the gas in the event of a serious leak as soon as there is a set amount of flow rate.

The other problem is a build up of CO2. Also not good to breath and is a silent killer. No smell at all.

Not sure of the legal requirements on board but in an RV you need a CO2 detector, an LPG detector, and a smoke detector.

These would be a good investment for any boat.

Remember LPG and CO2 are heavier than air. So unlike smoke detectors these detectors should be mounted low where gas may settle first.


Any open flames in a small enclosure requires ventilation for the CO2 as well as being a good idea for the humidity created by the open flames.



I have been using a pressure cooker for several months and it rules.




I'll go back down in the hold now and be quiet.

[hellosailor]

David, I think you mean CO, carbon monoxide, not carbon dioxide CO2. While neither will support life, only one is outright toxic. As CO is usually produced as a hot combustion gas, it will also typically RISE since it is hotter than the surrounding room temperature. There's some debate about how high or low the detectors should be, because of that.

High CO levels will knock you out and then kill you. IIRC, high CO2 levels usually will result in waking you up, as the body tries to deal with them. CO2 is only a problem in that it displaces air (oxygen) in your lungs, CO binds with your hemoglobin and renders your blood incapable of carrying oxygen for quite some time.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

High CO levels will knock you out and then kill you. IIRC, high CO2 levels usually will result in waking you up, as the body tries to deal with them. CO2 is only a problem in that it displaces air (oxygen) in your lungs, CO binds with your hemoglobin and renders your blood incapable of carrying oxygen for quite some time.

To build on this....

CO2 levels in the blood is how the body regulates it's breathing.
Your body has a CO2 gauge built in.
If levels rise you breathe faster and/or deeper.
If they fall your rate/depth decreases.
It is how we stay alive.

High levels of CO2 will simply excite you to a level that you feel you cannot breathe/catch your breath. It will drive you to some action of escape. These levels will never occur inside a boat or RV unless it is a submarine that is sunk.

Now...........CO is different. It displaces O2 in the blood and puts you to sleep fooling the CO2 gauge you have. But my opinion is that you would have to have a couple of burners on for a mighty long time while passed out drunk to die from that..........but I have not tested it.

[Rez]

I was onboard a sailboat which had a sudden alcohol stove induced fire. Three adults with fire extinguishers were barely able to stop it. Couple of grand interior damage. It made me think about being at sea and having a fire.

So we are all electric except for the grill that hangs off a rail. Convection microwave, induction stove top. This stuff is not as power hungry as you may think. The induction top can bring a pot of water for pasta to a boil is less than 4 minutes. And the cook top does not get hot. When something like pasta is cooking we have an arrangement that locks the pot down to rails along the side of the cook top. The kitchen has its own inverter, nothing else draws that much.

1200 amp hr. AGM battery bank. Our engine has a 140 amp alternator and the generator is just a little more. We have a fair number of solar panels and between those and using the engine when the wind dies or we need more speed, we mostly turn on the diesel generator because it needs to run for its own health. We did have a couple of wind generators but those big blades were kind of scary.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Rez

I was onboard a sailboat which had a sudden alcohol stove induced fire. Three adults with fire extinguishers were barely able to stop it. .

When I was a kid I tried to burn our first boat when a metho stove went up. I squirted a full extinguisher of chemical powder and it did nothing. I was actually beginning to get worried untill Mum gently dropped a fire blanket over the lot.

That white powder took ages to clean Poor Mum LOLOL

[DaveyJones]

Yes, your right I mean Carbon Monoxide.

Also it is not heavier or lighter than air so I guess it does not matter as long as you can hear it while sleeping.

I guess on mine they installed it next to the LPG detector for convenience.

Due to a lot of campers dieing from it it's common to see detectors on all RV's.


I doubt if many people fall asleep and die while cooking, but some people probably use the stove to generate heat. There are lots of warnings on the documentation that comes with a propane stove.

[DaveyJones]

All of the boat fires I've seen so far were electrical.

I would rather abandon a boat with a battery fire before having a propane explosion though.