Advice on meals on Passage

[Tom and Maje]

Over the past three years I've done off-shore passages of a week or more twice a year. This past spring we sailed from St. Martin to Europe. We don't used highly processed foods. I do pre-cook and freeze passage meals. I also cook and freeze ratatouille. We make good use of our pressure cooker preparing the make ahead meals and underway. I make a menu plan and make sure we have all the ingredients on board for the meals. We have things for snacking, nuts, peanut butter, crackers, boiled eggs, apples, and cheese. We also carry vegetables that don't need refrigeration. We use shelf-milk, but get the organic kind.

We also have 6 hours shifts when it's just my husband and me. The only formal shifts are at night. During the day, one of us is always up.

Maje

[KidSheeleen]

A great site for recipes, general sailing tips is BoatGalley.com Lots of tips on food, storage general live aboard cruising. A great lady hosts it!

[JPA Cate]

Gazza,

Some people do fit small microwave ovens, mainly for re-heating, and cooking veg, and run it off the inverter. We have never found it necessary to do so. A heavy bottomed skillet, and a flame tamer of some sort (called trivets here in Oz), and a lid for the skillet that fits it well, and the lasagne, etc, is all easily reheatable, without scorching.

Ann

[njwilliams449]

Like Ann and Jim, we find our pressure cooker invaluable, and have some recipes (like a fine pea and leek risotto from Suzanne Gibb's cookbook) that can be prepared in 10 minutes+cooking time to minimise time below. In lumpy seas we tie one side on to make sure it doesn't become a projectile. Jenni has after extensive searches bought an Omnia oven which cooks bread on the stove top in the shape of a giant doughnut, so we have fresh bread each day. You can find them online at - Home | www.omniasweden.com -we can't recommend them highly enough.

[bob fleege]

My advice get an Engel or other 12 volt freezer. Also up date or enlarge your current Fridge. In the freezer you can store premade items. In the fridge I like lots of pork like salami, sausage, pork tenderloins.. It stays fresh much longer by far then beef or chicken. I also bring lots of canned salmon for salmon croquets, salmon salad with egg, and salmon on iceberg lettuce. I like iceberg for easy wedges and it can last a long time in the fridge also cabbage for coleslaw. I brings large containers of biscotti for a breakfast snacks.Lots of small prepackaged nuts for snacks. Experiment with canned sides like German potato salad, 4 bean salads, greens, and canned items like that. Easy to add to for lunch or dinner. There are boxed chicken stocks that you can add veggies with and canned chicken fish etc. some are Thai or Taco flavored and you just add coconut milk and you have a wonderful soup. Fig nutens are great for a sweet snack late on watch. Boxed milk is also easy to carry along. Get a Cuban Reel and build a few meat lines with some large bungee and high test line to catch fresh fish to add to your menu. These are just a few tried and true ways we eat well aboard my S/V Partager.

[a64pilot]

I’ll only add to try cold brewing coffee if your in hot weather.
I need coffee, can’t do without it, but if it’s stinking hot, I don’t really want hot coffee, but cold coffee can be quite refreshing, and doesn’t require hot water that can scald.
We are doing without a microwave, just don’t have the room, or are not willing to give up that much room for one.
So far we haven’t really missed it, To be completely truthful it’s the Wife who does the food prep, not me. But she does not want a microwave, I have asked several times.
An Engle etc. does use considerable power so before you go that route be sure your electrical system will support it.

[roland stockham]

Think about stadbys for if it is rough. I take porridge oats mix in a handful of dried fruit and poor on boiling water then stand till cool enough to eat. Instant hot meal and even works when seasick.

[TheThunderbird]

As an Italian gourmet and cook, eating with best porcelain dishes l can afford, Japanese cutlery and Norwegian bowls/French pans, l feel....APPALLED

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by TheThunderbird

As an Italian gourmet and cook, eating with best porcelain dishes l can afford, Japanese cutlery and Norwegian bowls/French pans, l feel....APPALLED

So you really are a snob.........huh. Who knew?

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by TheThunderbird

As an Italian gourmet and cook, eating with best porcelain dishes l can afford, Japanese cutlery and Norwegian bowls/French pans, l feel....APPALLED

Get invited to many beach potlucks? A second time?

But I suppose you don't miss such plebeian activities... we've been known to eat food cooked in cast off aluminium pots off paper plates with plastic utensils. Oh, the horror... I sure wish I was a real cruiser.

Jim

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Get invited to many beach potlucks? A second time?

But I suppose you don't miss such plebeian activities... we've been known to eat food cooked in cast off aluminium pots off paper plates with plastic utensils. Oh, the horror... I sure wish I was a real cruiser.

Jim

How about wrapping a fish in aluminium foil (or banana leaves) and chucking it in the hot coals on the beach, doesn't get any better.....

[Anthony jayne]

I can not think of any thing nicer than improvising a easy way to cook food and enjoying the results. Can't wait to join this fraternity on the oceans.

[Neziak]

We sous vide all our food on board and finish off either on the bbq, pan or grill. We pre-prepare all our meat with seasoning with fresh herbs then vaccum seal in individual portiins. All done in port when the boat is steady and there is shore power. Freeze or refrigerate afterwards.. Then sous vide in the sink. A sous vide circulator form somebody like ANOVA is pretty cheap these days. Remove the food when you are ready and sear / brown. Advantage is that it does not matter if you need to delay the meal. Everybody can have the meal they want as they are individually packaged. And there is very little cleaning up.

[jstevens]

I didn't notice any post on using a vacuum sealer for meals prepared before departure. On any passage longer than a few days I prepare and vacuum seal meals for the first few days, as Ann Cate recommended. The vacuum sealing is really not absolutely necessary, but it helps with maintaining freshness and also slightly reduces the package volume. I don't use these packages as boiling bags. I try to avoid having a large volume of hot water on the stove. I just open the bags and dump the contents into a sauce pan or skillet.
I also pre-cook a lot of rice and pasta (very al dente) and either vacuum seal them or just put them in ziplocs. This provides convenient bulk filler for each meal, that can be added to the pot at the end and just re-heated. I found that vacuum sealing allows the cooked rice and pastas to keep for several weeks without refrigeration. After 3 weeks those sealed bags become balloons.
So on my passages the first week we have a combination of pre-cooked and fresh-cooked meals, depending on weather and crew condition. After 7-10 days it's down to canned or dried meats or meatless meals.

John

I should add we sterilized the inside of those rice and pasta bags before filling and sealing them.

[carstenb]

before we leave on passage, I make large quantities of chili con carne, pinot beans and an all-purpose spaghetti sauce (all-purpose for spaghetti, lasagne etc).

These we vacuum pack and refrigerate. We find that if done properly they will last a couple of weeks at least.

I also usually keep UHT cream on board. Used with canned mushrooms and spices these make an excellent sauce for virtually anything from meat to fish to veggies

Tortillas generally will last longer than bread and are excellent if you are not into baking. Canning meats via pressure cooker is certainly possible and we do it but our vacuum packing is easier and works for us.

French pressed coffee is ok and it is usually possible to keep from spilling the hot water (although we had one very rough voyage where we didn't have anything hot for a couple of days).

There are commercially canned stews etc that are pretty good - we keep at supply on board just in case. The same goes for those "just add water" noodle dinners.

WE don't have a freezer, although we will add one this year before going into the caribbean - we found the caribbean to truly expensive and it will not be less so this year with all the damage from the hurricanes.........