The Trauma When a Foodie Goes Liveaboard

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by brownoarsman

Do tell! I have only ever baked potatoes. Do they make manifolds with a flat spot for Dutch ovens?

Baked potatoes, fish, veggies....wrap in foil and toss on manifold.

Could add a flat bit of cast iron to the manifold for slow cooking while under power.

Internal combustion is obcenely inefficient...might as well use all that waste heat.

[Wayfarer1008]

Nesting pots that can be put into an oven, a small stove top pressure cooker is pretty much what you need along with a good kitchen Knife. The only thing I could see adding is a portable swing stove of some form to cook stuff if its ruff while underway.

[Delancey]

Mentioned earlier, Chinese cleavers are great. Cuts Dyneema like a champ too!

[SV DestinyAscen]

Originally Posted by Delancey

Mentioned earlier, Chinese cleavers are grea.! Cuts Dyneema like a champ too!

Off topic aside... I had a cleaver made from properganda leaflet holding shells fired from China onto Kinmen (Taiwan's fortress island right off Xiamen). My friend gifted it to me and claims the metal quality was superior because they were designed to stay in large piece and not cause sharpenel.

I wish I knew what happened to it... I think it may have ended up with one of the kids.

[Delancey]

Personally I avoid Chinese tools wherever possible. These cleavers though, wicked sharp!

[JPA Cate]

A wee bit off topic, but you saw Delancey's pic of the cleaver, and may have noticed the rust on it...Just like Jim's Chinese cleaver, and mine, if i would let it. Mine is usually shiny, because I use really fine wet-or-dry, to de-scale it. It is purely an aesthetic consideration, for me, there is no transfer of the rust onto the food.

Ann

[Blair1]

I'm a really big Breville fan and would suggest picking up their All In One. It's a high quality food processing unit that is very compact, easy to store on a boat and allows you to get very creative while cooking in limited space . It does blending, whisking, mashing, chopping and slicing in one small unit.

https://www.breville.ca/all-in-one.html

I'd also grab their Fast/Slow Cooker which is actually a pressure/slow cooker. I don't live aboard but in the summer on my sailboat for week's on end and I use it to sauté and cook meals quickly with limited power. I'm able to make rice dishes, beans, stews, curries in little as 20 min and fall of the bone meat in 40 min. The pressure also infuses the flavors beautifully if you use it right.

Good luck with living the dream. I still have another 25 years.

[Eggbah]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

The biggest issue with the "best knives" on a boat is of course rust. The best sharpened knives are of course regular steel ones not the ss ones (no matter what the marketing hype tells you). So on a boat it will always be an extra effort to keep the good ones from rusting. Regular use and sharpening seem to accomplish a lot as far as keeping them rust free. And the fancy ss knives can be used when entertaining the guests. One big plus of good ole' non ss knives is that they can be purchased at yard sales for a buck or two and thus can be stocked up in decent quantities. But they do require vigilance and regular use to keep sharp.

IMO a good reliable knife to cooking is what a good reliable weapon is to soldiering. Everything else is ancillary.

Wiping with oil after use should prevent rust.

[Island Time O25]

Originally Posted by Eggbah

Wiping with oil after use should prevent rust.

+1

I also keep them in an oiled cotton rag.

[Juho]

There's no need to make any worse food in the boat than at home.
Except that
- sometimes we may run out of fresh ingredients
- no freezer (can be fixed)
- some problems with mastering heat distribution in the gas oven
That's about all, otherwise keeping standards up.

[sck5]

I always thought one of the best parts of cruising was to try different things, among them food. I dont WANT to eat the same as I do at home. I want to try something new. The people wherever you cruise also eat. They might give you some good ideas. Try it!

[boatman61]

Book into a marina close to KFC, Taco Bell and Macdonalds.. and a few few diners in walking distance..

[sck5]

One big advantage of buying plastic food at a fast food joint is that they dont go bad very quickly. They already are bad! I think most of the stuff at Taco Bell is actually a petroleum product of some kind.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Book into a marina close to KFC, Taco Bell and Macdonalds.. and a few few diners in walking distance..

Funny story...went ashore in to small town in Grenada on a Sunday, searching for a place for lunch. Nothing was open except the very out of place KFC. We walked around town several times trying to find another option, but finally had to eat at KFC.

[SailingSolus]

You really need very little more than a couple of good pans, good knives, a board, and some heat to produce really great food. Start with great ingredients, and try not to screw them up, basically. Though it seems impractical to haul around things like giant stand mixers, food processors, and sous vide appliances on boats....