How Do You Cook Onboard?

[cat man do]

We used a Magma BBQ on the last boat and a gas burner with disposable cartridges as pictured. Reasoning being was that 90% of our cooking is Asian style and done in a wok.

When these start to look manky after about 3 years , just chuck it and get a newie [about $20-00]. You can use it up top on a hot still night and even take it ashore to use.

We have even seen them in boats that cost $300,000+ in banks of 3.

I don't really want gas below in the next one and was never really impressed with metho on my boat 10 years ago, but have heard that now you can get metho burners/ovens that work as good as your home oven.
A byproduct of home brew spirits, the bit we throw away, is metho.

Has anyone had experience with new metho ovens/burners.?

Dave

[hellosailor]

In the US, metho is "methylated spirits" aka "alcohol". We sure as hell don't throw that part of anything brewed away, that's how you change real beer into "alcohol free beer".

Alcohol is alcohol, emits more water vapor than any other fuel, burns colder too. And the invisible flame is blamed for more fires than most other fuel sources, too.

No thanks, I'd rather eat cold food.

Those little butane stoves though...simply marvelous for occassional cooking. Here they are often $17 including a hard plastic carrying case, found in any oriental supermarket.

[mudnut]

Originally Posted by cat man do

We used a Magma BBQ on the last boat and a gas burner with disposable cartridges as pictured. Reasoning being was that 90% of our cooking is Asian style and done in a wok.

When these start to look manky after about 3 years , just chuck it and get a newie [about $20-00]. You can use it up top on a hot still night and even take it ashore to use.

We have even seen them in boats that cost $300,000+ in banks of 3.

I don't really want gas below in the next one and was never really impressed with metho on my boat 10 years ago, but have heard that now you can get metho burners/ovens that work as good as your home oven.
A byproduct of home brew spirits, the bit we throw away, is metho.

Has anyone had experience with new metho ovens/burners.?

Dave

"Seen it on $300,000 boats"Come camping some time,I got the same thing,and ya can allways see it in the boot of a $300.00 car.I thought about banking them and also agree with no gas D/under.Run a pressure cooker on it,there is ya oven,and cooking in a wok is also simple.Never had anything to do with metho cookers.I've got a funny
feeling it would be like the heaters,kero fumes to a degree,you can not vent everything 100%,but I am sure their a sorce of fire just the same.Mudnut.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

In the US, metho is "methylated spirits" aka "alcohol". We sure as hell don't throw that part of anything brewed away, that's how you change real beer into "alcohol free beer".

Alcohol is alcohol, emits more water vapor than any other fuel, burns colder too. And the invisible flame is blamed for more fires than most other fuel sources, too.

.

This is the bit that send's the "Moonshiners" mad, send's em blind, and makes you're arm's drop off.


Dave

[GordMay]

In the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, metho is called methylated spirits.
In the US it is called denatured alcohol.
In Europe, it may be called spirits, brennspirits (Germany), alcool a bruler (France), or alcool etilico denaturato (Italy).

Denatured alcohol/Metho is a mixture of (about 90-95%) ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH) and (about 5-10%) methyl alcohol (CH3OH), and in some cases a dye is added. The methyl alcohol is poisonous, and is added to prevent the methylated spirits being used as cheap drinking alcohol. Often Naptha is substituted for the methanol.
The energy released from burning ethanol is approximately 30 kJ/g. For comparison, the energy released during the combustion of propane and butane are about 50 kJ/g and 49 kJ/g respectively.

[tdw]

Cat Man,
We've just installed gas stove into the Raven, the metho mongrel had to go. We also have a stern mounted home made ss bbq that takes a wok beautifully, we use it constantly. OTOH when we went gas inside we installed a pressure gauge on the line. While we always shut the gas off at the bottle after we've finished cooking the pressure gauge is an excellent back up when you stop the gas temporarily and need to relight. It tells you at a glance whether there are any leaks in the line.
Cheers
Andrew

[cat man do]

Hi tdw, got a couple of s/s beer keg's and thought of converting one into a BBQ, and Ultimate BBQ's make a nice S/S and baked enamel one as well, which I was going to build in like all the gin palaces, but with epoxy softening around 50o thought it may not be the best idea i've had.

Think we'll just end up with a fancy 4 burner houshold s/s cooktop, with no oven down below for the night's when it's pissing down rain and blowin' .

90% of cooking will be done outside.

Dave

[tdw]

Cat Man,
I'll try and take a couple of pics of our BBQ next time I'm onboard. (Might take a couple of weeks cos I one legged at the moment but that's another story) The previous owner who built the thing, whether by design or accident came up with a great piece of gear. It's not smooth, rough as guts in fact, but damn it works. Whats more the burner is now getting on for twenty year old and while the casting shows some exterior surface rust that is all the deterioration there is. Only major problem is that the tap is hard to adjust for anything other than 'off' or 'Mt Krakatoa'. New tap will sovle that.
Regards
Andrew

[rtbates]

Sailing is a get away and to expect my wife to cook would be rather stupid and not in my best interests. Sandwiches rule. When we do cook it's on the grill. See where we sail, Texas, it's HOT and the last thing anyone wants is more heat in the cabin.

[cat man do]

It's hot in OZ as well and I ain't eating sandwiches for the rest of my life.

Big uncooked mackeral between 2 bit's of bread just doesnt sound right to me.

Dave

[Cocoa Moe]

Ahoy, Since I have shore power most of my cooking is done in a crockpot or elec skillet. I use a smoker on the dock and grill a lot of fish and shrimp of course when that happens a rum front usually moves in and someone might even break out a guitar I love this place

...Key West,an island made quirky by a dangerous slant of light angling from the tropics THOMAS SANCHEZ from Mile Zero,1989

[urgayle]

Hello, Everyone! This is my first post to the forum. My husband and I are laying the foundations to begin living aboard part time while we make preparations for going full time in a few years. Of course, part of those preparations is learning how best to cook onboard, ao I've been reading this thread and soaking up as much info as possible. I do have one question, though. I noticed that most folks use a pressure cooker. What kind do you use? The one I used with my mom canning foods as a kid was HUGE and weighed at least a thousand pounds . And what advantage is this over a crock pot? Thanks for indulging a newbie!

[Strygaldwir]

A crock pot takes a long time to cook. Its energy consumption is a constant amount over a LONG time. All the crockpots I know of operate on electricity. So, if you're going to use one, you'll have to provide 110 volt, A.C. energy over a long time. Most cruising boats, when they are out cruising, consider this either impossible, or at least hard to provide. When you're tied to the dock and have shore prower, it is not a problem. Out at anchor????

The Pressure cooker lets you prepare meals VERY quickly, in relative terms. They are also usually powerable by your propane or whatever type of fuel you use. This makes them VERY attractive for cooking where energy consumption is an issue.

The Pressure cooker we have is about 6 quarts. Don't know the brand, I think we got it at Walmart. Works GREAT. Turns difficult cuts of meat into tasty treats!

Good luck.

[Pblais]

Welcome to the forum!

I'm not a big pressure cooker user but I'm about ready to surrender and get one. Your mom's old pressure cooker was a dangerous heavy nasty thing. The new modern designs are made of better materials and are a lot safer to use.

The real advantage is time to cook and second fuel required to cook. Instead of cooking at boiling water temperatures you are cooking at steam temperatures under pressure.

You find you can use things like root vegetables and tougher cuts of meat that take a long time to cook. On the hook you really won't want to use a slow cooker as the AC power they take takes a lot of batter power that has to be recharged some time. You'll probably want to use propane or maybe CNG. Propane burns the hottest.

You won't have a huge supply of stove fuel and a trip into town with a dinghy and a propane tank can take up a fair amount of time too. There are a lot of pressure cooker web sites and the good news is it's the same thing aboard as ashore. You could get one now and just use it once in a while until you start to get used to it.

I pulled this link on Google. You can find many more too. This one seems to cover all about what they are and how to use it plus adds a lot of recipes.

ALL ABOUT PRESSURE COOKERS

This site talks about your mom's cooker and explains about the new ones. After going through a lot of reading myself it seems if you want to get into it - spend the money on a good cooker. Don't bring your moms aboard.

[Auspicious]

I live aboard my boat in a marina, plugged in all the time. I have both a pressure cooker and a crock pot. I only use the crock pit to make chili and soup, since the pressure cooker is more convenient for everything else.

I used to have a Pressure Magic pressure cooker; I lost custody of that in a divorce. <grin> I now have a Kuhn-Rikon pressure cooker that I like much better. I make dinner with the pressure cooker two or three times a week.