How Do You Cook Onboard?

[Harriet]

Capt. Jason,
Sorry it took so long to respond. It seems that my internet connection, rather than cooking, is the biggest problem onboard.
To answer your question, yes. Although lately the weather has limited us to motorsailing. Realize that we sail a catamaran, so my stove doesn't need to be gimballed, nothing spills, and cooking underway is not a big deal. I must admit, though, that the only real cooking I do underway is making my husband's breakfast (usually PB&J but sometimes bacon & eggs) and usually sandwiches for lunch. We are generally at anchor by dinner time.

[CaptJason]

I singel hand alot so I get amazed by people who actually do more than watch for traffic and adjust sail trim I guess a big cat doesn't do alot of healing over, but I would still be concered with bacon grease. Good luck in all your sailing.

[Cool Change]

I have a two burner propane stove, a small Cuisinart convection oven, a breadmaker, a BBQ on the rail, and a microwave, I generally rely on frozen food from the supermarket but do at times cook real meals.

[sy Dolce Vita]

The poll fails to recognize the fact that we all use multipull systems ie BBQ, Stove w/oven , Microwave ,Preasure cooker,and lets not forget the Turkey fryer for the beach thing , which is also good for Country Low Boil or Boiling or steaming your Summer Crabs (lobster)

Michael

[CSY Man]

Dinners at anchor is usually cooked on the stern Barbie Grill.
(One get six-pack gas bottles at the Sam's club places for less than half price of the marine stores...$1,99 vs.3,99)

Breakfast at anchor usually on the 3 burner propane stove in the galley.
No microwave, no inverter, never missed it.

Got good fridge and good freezer, but with only short to medium trips, 2 to 4 weeks, we never had to stock up on lots of food, use a pressure cooker, smear the eggs in vaseline, freeze dry stuff and all that.

Since we are part-timers and sail once every 1 or 2 months, we tend to splurge and have vacuum packed filet mignons, double-smoked real German bacon from the European deli, organic brown fresh farm eggs, good reserva wine, gourmet coffe with cognac for after dinner drinks and so on.

(Wish I could eat like that at home every day... )

It was a different story when I lived aboard 18 years ago with a young bride...(A different one)
We were boat poor most of the time, lots of canned soup, rice, pasta, rum mixed with water and lime, lean stuff...And it showed on the waist line, the CSY Man had 40 lbs less displacement than nowadays....

So, as others said, cooking is not a problem on most boats, cleaning and washing dishes are usually the chore..

[GordMay]

Pressure Cooker Timing Charts (and more):
http://missvickie.com/howto/times/howtomeat.html

[witchcraft]

We cook primarily on our two burner passive alcohol stove. It works just fine. Yes we do cook underway, carefully. It if looks like there is a lot of wind coming, we heat things and put them in a thermos before pulling out. That includes boiling water in one, for making of tea, coffee, and those ever present instant soup packets. of course there is always the sandwhich when its rough.
Now that we have rails, we will be purchasing a BBQ.
Happy eating
witchcraft

[Pblais]

We have a 3 burner plus oven (Force 10) and a Magma propane Grill. I grill more than not when the weather is nice. The oven is nice if you can pop something in as you head into an anchorage. It can have food ready when the anchor is set and you are ready to eat. I tend to cookon the ovej in the morning but grill in the evening.

[Strygaldwir]

We have an oven with burners, plus a grill. We use the grill when we are docked/anchored. When we do our next long sail, we will prepare food ahead of time and just microwave it. The first couple of days neither of us had much of an inclination to cook and while we are underway, seemed like not much time. Thus we ate soups and things we could heat quickly.

Keth

[sv_makai]

While underway or many times at anchor the Admiral uses a thermal cooker. This is a highly insulated carafe with a covered pot inside. Basically you bring the inside pot to a boil on the stove and then put it into the carafe. The residual heat then continues to cook the food. It increases the time it takes to make dinner, but reduces the the propane use.

The second advantage is heated foods stay HOT for 6 or more hours. Great for soups and stews we usaually eat while passagemaking.

Well first I have to admit my wife does almost all of the cooking. I seem to get seasick if I try to cook underway. As a result, she gets what ever she wants for her galley. Force 10 3 burner stove, and the pressure cooker is made by Pro Selections. This is the best piece of equipment we have ever purchased for the galley. We do have a magma charcoal BBQ, but only use it while at the dock, after the tragic loss of two beautiful steaks. Some anchorages are calm enough to use it, but it was in a rolly anchorage that we lost our steaks.
Microwaves are evil
Actualy, that is the one concession my wife has made in the galley. I do not want to feed one of those power gluttons, so she has agreed to do without.

[GordMay]

Which ‘Pro-Selections’* pressure cooker have you: Pressure Magic or Rapid Chef, and which size? Do you know how are they* are related to ‘Fagor’?

* Pro-Selections: http://www.pro-selections.com/
** Fagor: http://www.fagoramerica.com/presscookers/

We have the 6 Qt. Pressure Magic. I do not know if the two companies are affiliated, but the design is completely different. We got the Pro-Selection specificly because of the design. That being said, I will let my first mate tell about it, as it is her toy.
Hi Gord,
The main difference is that with the one we have not only is it very heavy but the way it is designed you can let the pressure off and open it and add veggies or other items after the meat is cooked to the desired consistancy. Also if you just are not sure about the amount of time to cook it or if you added enough of your spices..... you can open it and add it to taste.
With beans lentles etc. You can fallow the basic instructions but check it and make sure all is well and done enough as you go along.
I love it !!

[captain323]

I am hungry just considering all of the menus of this post, but I do have to ask if anyone cooks the fish they catch? I am hoping to filet off the transom, and after perusing West Marine's 445+ USD fish cleaning station, figured I could do a bit better. Was thinking of a residential cutting board with two hooks off the port transom rail for gutting/cleaning? Any thoughts?

-Captain may be a bit of a stretch, but I'm still hungry.

[Vasco]

If it's not rolling too much I clean the fish on a side deck, if it's rolling I do it in the cockpit. A couple of buckets of water takes care of the cleaning. When spearfishing we clean them on a deserted beach and take the carcasses etc.well out to dump them. All you need is a good knife and a board.