How Do You Cook Onboard?

[hellosailor]

Interesting gizmo, must be fun if you have to clean the grid.

I think their "heat pipe" claim is all bilge wash. The metal grid is conducting heat directly to whatever is atop it (like sitting on a griddle) and the distributed water is serving to moderate the heat and ensure no spots go over 212F.

More of a "griddle with a fixed analog thermostat control" than a cluster of heat pipes.

But then, I'm more of a plain pot and plain knife guy in the galley, anyway. My can opener is one of the few one-trick ponies allowed on board.

[sarafina]

I have used it camping and on the boat. It's not as good as my huge cast iron dutch oven (that is only used camping, too bulky for the boat) but it does a nice job on cobblers, corn bread, cake, anything that doesn't need a real crusty crust. You cook in bags, with the food contained inside the bag, so it sort of steams. I think it's something like the effect of a pressure cooker; less fuel for more heat. I have done stoups and stews in it as well, and meals that were vacuum sealed before embarking and needing only heating I never did meat, because I put that on the weber, but I suspect you could poach a chicken or fish nicely in it as well. It'd not big or heavy or expensive, so it's an easy addition. I suspect you could rig up something similar with small old metal ice cube tray liners or whatever.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Interesting gizmo, must be fun if you have to clean the grid.
I think their "heat pipe" claim is all bilge wash. The metal grid is conducting heat directly to whatever is atop it (like sitting on a griddle) and the distributed water is serving to moderate the heat and ensure no spots go over 212F...

I've never used these, and wouldn't want to be seen as endorsing them. I am, however, curious about, and wouldn't discount, them, out of hand.

As Sara indicates, the grid doesn't really come into contact with food.

The heat pipe phenomenon is legitimate, and it appears, from their patent application, that that's what they're using.
U.S. Patent No. 4,793,324
➥ US Patent 4793324 - Cooking assembly and method for cooking

[sarafina]

well, Hellosailor, I paid enough attention to the product to figure out that the food does not come in contact with the grid, so I haven't had that charming experience, and I've never been able to successfully bake on a griddle anything higher than a flapjack... and I've never heated vacume sealed meals on a griddle either... but I have made alot of really yummy baked desserts and slightly steamy breads on this baby... but whatever, ymmv...

[Island Mike]

We have a force 10 3 burner/oven, we use it like we were in a house, although in the hotter months we tend to use our Magma grill alot for the evening meal. We use the oven in the winter not much in the summer. We also try and have some meals that do not require the oven or grill. Salads, cheese/crackers, Rum and coke etc...

[nautical62]

I've had 4 boats so far using propane ovens, alcohol and single burner gimbaled stoves. My favorite for summer sailing is a camp stove in the cockpit. For the single burner, I had a bracket inside and one outside.

When sailing through the night, I sometimes use those backpacker meals that cook in a pouch via a chemical reaction. No way to burn myself with those and no need to go below.

Lobster on the grill over fire on the beach works fine too.