Do you cook using salt water while cruising?

[AnsleyS]

Being from Maine, we always cook our lobsters in sea water. I get a pot of it from the chain wash pump. Easy to run it for a while and then fill the pot. Come on up and try it!

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by AnsleyS

Being from Maine, we always cook our lobsters in sea water...

Lobster, boiled or steamed, in sea water, maintains its characteristic ocean taste.
But, if you don't live by the sea, add ±1/4 cup of salt [preferably sea salt, but iodized will do], for every gallon of water.

To check if your lobster is done, crack open, where the carapace meets the tail. If it’s done, the meat will have changed, from translucent to white. If it is not, continue to boil it, until it is.
You’ll also know your lobster is cooked, when you tug on an antenna [or small leg], and it pulls away easily. This may not always be reliable.

Once lobsters are cooked, remove from pot, and place immediately into an ice bath, to stop the cooking. Alternatively, remove lobster, from pot, a few minutes early - they will continue to cook, for 3 ➛ 5 minutes, or so, allowing the meat to absorb some of the moisture from the shell.

FWIW: Lobster [Atlantic] has less calories, less total fat and less cholesterol [based on 100 grams of cooked product] than lean beef; whole poached eggs; and even roasted, skinless chicken breast. Lobster is also high in amino acids; potassium and magnesium; Vitamins A, B12, B6, B3 [niacin] and B2 [riboflavin]; calcium and phosphorus; iron; and zinc.

[Mike OReilly]

There's really no need, from a water conservation perspective, to substitute salt for fresh if you are boiling something that uptakes the water. Pasta, rice, couscous, or making sauces, or other. It's pretty easy to ensure virtually all the water is used in the cooking. There's little waste.

Cooking anything hard-shelled, like seafood, eggs, or anything just steamed, could be done with salt water. That would make sense.

[Katapult Mike]

Originally Posted by Zanshin

I know a lot of cruisers, including myself, that have cooked pasta with 100% seawater. I don't know of any, including myself, who have done so twice.

LOL! Plus one. ALl salt water made the pasta inedible. I did regularly use half saltwater and half fresh for pasta. Maybe I shouldn't have, but it tasted OK to me.

[RaymondR]

Can you steam pasta?

[pjShap]

I cook pasta in a pressure cooker, simultaneously with the sauce and just a little added water. No waste, nothing to pour off. You just have to get the proportions right.

[SailingHarmonie]

Cooking with seawater is just a matter of simple arithmetic. A liter of seawater contains about 35 grams of salt, or about 7 teaspoons, or more than 2 tablespoons of salt. Thats a LOT of salt.

Just figure the amount of salt you would add to the pot when using freshwater, and make adjustments as required. For example, if you normally boil pasta in 2 liters of water and add a teaspoon of salt, that's about 150 ml of seawater to the pot. For a grand total of a 7.5% savings.

If the water is being boiled anyway, there is no concern about biological contamination.

In most cases (as in the above example), the amount of fresh water saved is quite small. If it is worth the hassle, only you can decide based on your boat, and your personal water use/supply equation.

The normal cooking recommendation is 1 tablespoon per 4 liters of pasta water. Four liters of seawater contain over NINE TABLESPOONS of salt. YUCK! How high IS your blood pressure???

[JPA Cate]

Our previous boat had a sea water pump to the galley sink, and carried a gracious plenty of two 25 gal. water tanks (~ 94 l.). We did not cook with sea water. But I did wash the dishes in salt water. We never ran out of water, even on the long passage to the Marquesas.) We always carried an extra 5 gal. fresh water in the cockpit, as a safety margin. We also carried separately another 5 gal. in a sun shower, for rinsing off. Saved up our laundry till we got to port. We used about 1/2 gal. per day per person. You do need to be vigilant with water.

It was a fairly user friendly way to manage small water capacity. Eventually, we installed a small 1 l/hr. water maker.

Ann

[dlj]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Our previous boat had a sea water pump to the galley sink, and carried a gracious plenty of two 25 gal. water tanks (~ 94 l.). We did not cook with sea water. But I did wash the dishes in salt water. We never ran out of water, even on the long passage to the Marquesas.) We always carried an extra 5 gal. fresh water in the cockpit, as a safety margin. We also carried separately another 5 gal. in a sun shower, for rinsing off. Saved up our laundry till we got to port. We used about 1/2 gal. per day per person. You do need to be vigilant with water.

It was a fairly user friendly way to manage small water capacity. Eventually, we installed a small 1 l/hr. water maker.

Ann

Wow! that is mighty small water usage! Just did a 27 day crossing, thought I did quite well, we used 1.1 gallons per person per day....

dj

[SailFastTri]

Those who consume a lot of salt are physically impaired in a number of ways. Do the research. (I’m not going to try to convince anyone.)

[Mike OReilly]

We average a bit less than 1 gallon/person/day. That's normal usage. We aren't really trying to conserve. We use what we need. But we are very conscious of water usage, and use it wisely.

The salt water tap at the galley is a big help, but mostly just to do dishes. We wash in salt, and then give things a fresh water spritz. Our head is a composter, so uses almost no water; again just a little spritz to keep things smelling like roses (or the soil roses might grow in ). And our shower is a converted bug/pesticide sprayer that we mostly use in the cockpit. We often use rain water, or even spring water, but if that's not available, we'll use our tank water.

I just can't see much of a benefit to using salt water for most cooking. Other than some seafood, and steaming, there's little waste in using potable water to cook with. Most of it gets absorbed in the food, so it goes to hydrating the crew either way.

[ullar]

I'm surprised for a small number of people here who have used salt water for cooking.

When on open ocean we regularly used salt water to cook pasta (1/3) and potatoes (1/2). And of course for doing dishes, with fresh water rinse.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by ullar

I'm surprised for a small number of people here who have used salt water for cooking.

When on open ocean we regularly used salt water to cook pasta (1/3) and potatoes (1/2). And of course for doing dishes, with fresh water rinse.

I just explained the reason:

I just can't see much of a benefit to using salt water for most cooking. Other than some seafood, and steaming, there's little waste in using potable water to cook with. Most of it gets absorbed in the food, so it goes to hydrating the crew either way.

I suppose if you're into extreme water conservation, you can probably eek out some small savings. But for the most part, you're not saving much water by cooking absorbing foods like pasta or potatoes with salt water. Just use the right amount of fresh. If you end up with extra, save it for a simple stock. Works great.

Absolutely, washing with salt is a big savings. As is not using fresh water in the head. But cooking really doesn't save a lot.

[Don C L]

Aside from poaching eggs, cooking with water in general seems to just waste too much fuel, even in a pressure cooker, on my little boat. If I need a boiling pot of water for pasta, or something in a pressure cooker, I probably should make different food choices. But again, this is when water, fuel and space are in short supply.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Aside from poaching eggs, cooking with water in general seems to just waste too much fuel, even in a pressure cooker, on my little boat. If I need a boiling pot of water for pasta, or something in a pressure cooker, I probably should make different food choices. But again, this is when water, fuel and space are in short supply.

You need a bigger boat , or at the very least, bigger tanks .