OK, How Do You REALLY Feel About Cooking Aboard ?

[lorenzo b]

We love to cook, and go out to good restaurants, especially ethnically diverse cuisines. One of the reasons we have a large boat, it holds a full sized commercial stove, two bay deep sink, chest freezer and refer. We do the dishes by hand, or rather Joyce does. Just like camping in the woods, everything tastes better on the water after a day of knocking about.

[barnakiel]

To anybody at the planning stage, my faves:

- triple burner plus oven, LPG,
- two chamber sink, central or HCH style.

Oh how I wish one day I will have such onboard ;-)

b.

[sadia]

I don't like cooking on the boat.

[Curmudgeon]

Cooking on the boat is different. The issue is ingredients. If you are out of supermarket range for awhile, you run out of fresh produce, so there are fewer salads, etc. There is also more limited refrigerator and freezer capacity on the boat.

On the boat, we grill alot of fish. We also make more "one dish" meals (e.g. stews, chilis) that can be reheated and eaten while underway.

[Hannah on 'Rita T']

Originally Posted by cabo_sailor

I've actually done that on board and there wasn't a clean dish or pot or pan afterwords.

Go back to the original Yorkshire pudding and it's all in one dish: put the roast in the oven on a high heat to sear it and then when you reduce the heat, pour the Yorkshire batter around the roast. Only one roasting pan to clean up. We do this with filet roasts, smaller roast means more Yorkshire.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Hannah on 'Rita T'

Go back to the original Yorkshire pudding and it's all in one dish: put the roast in the oven on a high heat to sear it and then when you reduce the heat, pour the Yorkshire batter around the roast. Only one roasting pan to clean up. We do this with filet roasts, smaller roast means more Yorkshire.

Excellent idea... gonna give that a go... when I've an oven again...

[zeehag]

boaty--come on out here-is an oven in the air--lol--i has an oven and no one for whom to cook.........LOL... loves yorky puddin, too.....

[jtallen2489]

My parents both were great cooks. I have cooked all my life, and enjoy the creative process. I see no need to stop just because one lives on a boat, just takes planning, and thinking ahead how you will cook a big meal on a small 2 burners and one small oven. I have a smoker that I will hang off the stern along with the dinghy :-)

[mrohr]

Love to cook on board,had a book years back:"Meals in 1 Dish From Around the World" .Thats my theme for dinner . My wife is a gourmet cook and always cooks at home but when cruising I'm the Man! Now I get to make all my quick,yet delicious ( to me) meals that satisfies washed down with wine and a sunset.
Cooking when underway in bouncy conditions is very challenging and I'm quite good at it;of course no gourmet meals and wine, but simple one pot dishes that keep body and soul and crew together. Seasickness and burns along with falls are serious dangers in these conditions so you really have to have your act together to pull it off. I think it all through in detail before ducking below to all that noise and clatter with your onions and peas racing around the counter and cabin sole. Of course you will be strapped in to prevent falls and free your hands to catch that egg as it passes by again, you can wear bib foulweather pants to protect from spills ,but the biggest obstacle is seasickness. I find it best to avoid inhaling the combustion products from the stove and be ready to nip topside for a gasp of fresh air at the FIRST sign of dizziness. All is served in bowls ,cleanup is done as cooking and prep progresses to keep things manageable. I,m really writing about moderate sea conditions here, since in rough conditions things may devolve to peanut butter on a slab of bread or a hard boiled egg hurriedly passed up to the thankful helmsman. I added a salt water foot pump last year that has become my favorite improvement as it frees up 1 hand.
Thinking about this further I just remembered that i worked as a short order cook in college and so learned to revel in mayhem.