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Old 02-10-2020, 09:43   #91
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

This was the only way I cruised for many years...

After my little box refrigerator died a few weeks out I trashed it and reverted back to the old tried and trusted way which included canned food, dehydrated food (including milk) etc and oiling eggs (turning them every week ) and buying fresh veggies when and where possible that have a long shelf life, like potatoes and cabbages, oranges pineapples apples etc...

Dried jerky; both meat and fish. Nuts, raisins and cookies for snacks etc ... it is actually very easy to stock up on food without having to have a refrigerator.

Golden rule as well is to have a fishing line trolling aft, and if you catch excess fish, salt and dry them for snacks etc...keep veggies in a net so they can air out and dont over fill the net. keep out of sunlight if possible, if you have the means, bake your own bread, plenty of stove top systems and recipes, get a stainless steel pressure cooker, best cooking pot for a cruising boat. ...
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Old 02-10-2020, 09:56   #92
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

Moitessier would cover his eggs with vaseline to prevent air getting through the shell and it kept them going longer without getting bad.

Otherwise I often tip a can of peas and carrots into a pressure cooker, add some rice, maybe a small tin of tuna, when the relief valve pops I reduce the flame and wait 3 minutes, and voilà, all the juice from the can has been absorbed by the rice, no water has been wasted, and it's not bad eating.
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Old 02-10-2020, 10:14   #93
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

My wife and cruised without refrigeration for 2 yrs in the tropics. We stocked up every 6 months with mostly canned and bought the best brands for quality. Canned butter, canned whole cooked chickens and canned Canadian bacon were favorites. Canned stewed and diced tomatoes were most often used for salad making. We tried dehydrated but found hydrating was a hassle and went back to canned because most already had water. We bought a stack of 12 dozen eggs fresh from the chicken farm and they lasted without coating a few months before we finished them off. Most of our meat was from catching fresh fish daily and trading fish/lobster with big boats for "red meat". A pressure cooker without pressure was used to bake bread and with pressure for mostly fish.

Mayonaise was a major issue at first. We originally stocked up with the smallest jars and used it up in the same day. After a few months being out and around cruisers with 10-20 yrs experience we switched to buying quarts jars...they were most often using the larger jars. The brands with highest preservative are best...Blue Plate was the chosen brand back then. We never had mayo go back with just the two of us and the quart size.

We wrapped glass items in the plastic bags newspapers are delivered in. They cushion and help contain minor breakage...which we never had.
To keep rust away every can was marked on top with content and dipped in hot wax with labels on. It was a minor hassle to keep wax out when opening but not a deal breaker. I would caution from using any coating on cans that could be hazardous to your health...it's almost impossible to open and keep every particle of coating out of the food.
We grew sprouts the whole time and used different beans. My advice on that is to try a bunch of beans to see which you like best. Flavor varies widely.

So that was 50+ yrs ago and i wouldn't flinch at cruising again without a fridge.
We almost delayed our cruise because we couldn't afford refrigeration but decided to go anyway. It took about 6 wks to adjust and we never again cared about it again. We actually turned down offers of free ice from large powerboats who had ice makers. It's more fright hype than reality. Warm drinks were no different than cold ones, etc.
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Old 02-10-2020, 10:41   #94
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

Ahhh... this thread is music to my ears. I'm working on creating a meal concept for sailors that doesn't require refrigeration and still maintains nutritional content and taste. It's a real challenge, right!?
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Old 02-10-2020, 13:18   #95
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

What is wrong with shopping.

I grew up on preserves, it wasn't that there weren't local shops, although there were no supermarkets. My parents liked buying from farmers and preserving. I got over it at a young age. Dipping my arm into the opaque liquid of the egg barrel was interesting once.

If you want preserves to last a long time then unfortunately resorting to chemical preservatives is the best answer. The same preservatives now in supermarket food which many commentators here are rejecting. My mother added sulfites to preserves for long term storage. You knew when there was too much because the vegetables etc came out bleached. The egg preservative was sulfite based as well. Sugar was used for fruit preservation.

I like shopping in local markets overseas. Supermarkets can be interesting as well. The most fascinating supermarket I experienced was in Noumea. They had a wine rack with Champagne bottles priced over AUS$2000. Every cheese ever made in France but strangely virtually nothing from New Zealand or Australia.

And a word of warning about unwashed eggs. My Father was a doctor. He taught me that eggs from the barrel had come directly from the arse end of a chicken. A very good source of Salmonella. Wash the eggs and your hands before cooking.

Now I have said that, the best provisioning list I have read is from Francis Chichesters' book, Gypsy Moth Circles the World. His own account of circumnavigating in 1965-66.
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Old 02-10-2020, 15:08   #96
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

Tristan Jones himself left us with many useful suggestions for voyaging without refrigeration in his excellent (and highly opinionated!) book, "One Hand For Yourself, And One Hand For The Ship".
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Old 02-10-2020, 18:10   #97
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

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Originally Posted by Wckoek View Post
Say, you are going on a 3-4 week long voyage on a small boat without refrigeration, how do you provision for food and stuff?
Facebook has a user group on sailing food provisioning tips. Might be worth a look.

Also google "provisioning your boat for (insert food type here)" and you will get a list of sites, articles and blogs.
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Old 02-10-2020, 22:44   #98
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

Here's one for the brave.
We were given an old Boer farmer's trick before sailing Cape Town to St Helena to Rio in a boat with no refrigeration.
My farmer father-in-law gave us a sheep which was cut up and then suspended in a drum 800 mm above lots of hot coals into which he sprinkled half a cup of sulphur which cold smoked the meat.

By the time the coals had died out the meat was still raw but covered in a layer of yellow sulphur. On the voyage the meat hung in an unventilated locker - care must be taken not to let the sulphur rub off.

We had our last leg of lamb the night before we reached Rio after 35 days at sea. Before cooking we scrubbed off the coating and we were amazed that the meat was still raw and bloody and delicious when cooked.

Eggs also lasted well washed and lightly rubbed with vaseline.
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Old 03-10-2020, 00:22   #99
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

Lots of dried goods in Asian grocery stores. Also those Japanese curry cubes are great, just boil whatever vegies you have on hand and put the cubes in at last minute. Takes 10 mins for restaurant quality curry.
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Old 03-10-2020, 01:23   #100
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

Read somewhere that in antiquity eggs were kept for years by painting them. Chinese, Egyptians? Obviously using an eggshell finish!


But really, I think it was supposed to reduce the porosity of the shell.


Not tried it myself but would like to hear of anyone has.
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Old 03-10-2020, 01:50   #101
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

Not sure about painting but theres that thousand year old egg thing in china. The egg whites become transparent and the yolk is copper green. You can make a side dosh with those shelf stable tetra pack silken tofu. Google “thousand year old egg with tofu”
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Old 03-10-2020, 02:50   #102
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

Adding to Skipmac’s suggestions which are right on target:
coat the farm-fresh, unwashed, unrefrigerated (ever) eggs in vaseline
polynesian markets may have canned whole chickens from NZ and good corned beef hash
get a wheel of hard cheese - the upside will get moldy but yu can cut that off as you take off slices for meals.

My first crossing was 30 days in a gaff-rigged Tahiti Ketch with one very small winch and no refrigeration, Hawai’i to Marquesas. Not many boats had refrigerators in those days (late 70s).

Oh yes, fishing line and some lures!!
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Old 03-10-2020, 02:52   #103
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

PS. Please be conscious of the packaging that things are in when you buy them and don’t throw anything that is not completely biodegradable into the ocean! Pack it to your next destination.
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Old 03-10-2020, 02:57   #104
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Graham View Post
Here's one for the brave.
We were given an old Boer farmer's trick before sailing Cape Town to St Helena to Rio in a boat with no refrigeration.
My farmer father-in-law gave us a sheep which was cut up and then suspended in a drum 800 mm above lots of hot coals into which he sprinkled half a cup of sulphur which cold smoked the meat.

By the time the coals had died out the meat was still raw but covered in a layer of yellow sulphur. On the voyage the meat hung in an unventilated locker - care must be taken not to let the sulphur rub off.

We had our last leg of lamb the night before we reached Rio after 35 days at sea. Before cooking we scrubbed off the coating and we were amazed that the meat was still raw and bloody and delicious when cooked.

Eggs also lasted well washed and lightly rubbed with vaseline.
How do you keep the meat from touching the side of the locker when the boat is rolling or listing? Wouldn’t that cause the sulpher to come off and get maggots?
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Old 03-10-2020, 03:40   #105
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Re: Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

We had fresh meat vacuum packed in Cape Town. The beef lasted for months but the lamb went off within a week or two.
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