Food preparation for long voyages without refridgeration

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

I don’t think you find healthy food on supermarket shelves....

The location of the shelf or the size of the store is not a factor regarding health. The determination is reading the ingredients.

[bobnlesley]

One of the competitors (I don't recall which) in the Golden Globe and other long distance races of that era had a 'sponsorship' deal with his local butcher and brewery: Having built a heavily insulated cool-box in his boat, the brewery supplied several dozen cans of his favourite beer to the butcher, who froze them solid, along with a deal of fresh meat. The outside of the cool-box was lined with frozen beer cans, with the meat packed in the centre; apparently he still had a few cold beers and fresh meat at the end of the passage.

Having suffered the misfortune of our fridge expiring on the day after we reached the Marquesa islands, we spent six months sailing through French Polynesia without refridgeration, so can offer first hand experience:
Canning/jarring meat is easy/simple and works well
Butter will keep in sealed jars topped with a strong salt solution
Even in the Tropics, cheese will last un-refrigerated for much longer than you might expect, beyond that it can be kept long term submerged in vegetable oil.
Margarine and mayonaise will live happily unrefridgerated
You can quickly acquire a taste for warm rum-punches/G&Ts and once word gets around the cruising fleet, you will find no end of people who are happy to chill you a few beers during the day and/or drop off some ice-cubes to add to the rum-punch come sundown. Notwithstanding which, I will concede that you quickly begin to assess which is the 'best' of the local grocery store options on the basis of who sells the coldest beer.

[shanter]

But I would be careful with eggs. Of course, they should be fresh and they will keep for a relatively long time if not refrigerated. But then you really have to make sure that the eggs are well done. So use them only for baking or something like that. Otherwise I love beans, chickpeas, generally all the legumes you can find in tins...you could also make your own energy bars...with granola or something like that...first of all it takes up little space, is easy to eat and satiates relatively quickly and for a long time...I can't remember exactly what goes into it, but oatmeal is the basic ingredient as far as I can remember. You can also do quite a lot with nuts and vegetables in general...like a béchamel sauce, but instead of milk and butter, just use cashew nuts...pour hot water over them and then mix...it will be super creamy and at least as good as a béchamel sauce. A dream for Mac and Cheese! Give it a try. ;-) Do you think that, in general, plant products can be kept longer than animal products?

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by shanter

But I would be careful with eggs. Of course, they should be fresh and they will keep for a relatively long time if not refrigerated. But then you really have to make sure that the eggs are well done. So use them only for baking or something like that. Otherwise I love beans, chickpeas, generally all the legumes you can find in tins...you could also make your own energy bars...with granola or something like that...first of all it takes up little space, is easy to eat and satiates relatively quickly and for a long time...I can't remember exactly what goes into it, but oatmeal is the basic ingredient as far as I can remember. You can also do quite a lot with nuts and vegetables in general...like a béchamel sauce, but instead of milk and butter, just use cashew nuts...pour hot water over them and then mix...it will be super creamy and at least as good as a béchamel sauce. A dream for Mac and Cheese! Give it a try. ;-) Do you think that, in general, plant products can be kept longer than animal products?

Regarding bad eggs:

We were being super careful about causing ourselves any injury or illness this summer so we wouldn’t have to visit places packed with Covid patients.

Being cautious with our non-refrigerated eggs was a part of that.

I became able to tell if eggs were going bad. They have a distinct, weird smell which is not like the “rotten eggs” sulfur smell. I can’t describe it, but it’s almost fishy smelling.

You crack open the egg in a separate container, then sniff it before putting it into the food.

Toward the end of the summer almost half the eggs failed the smell test and many had black mold like gunk in them.

You see or smell something wrong... you throw out the egg.

[Stewie12]

When we left the UK we took a lot of tinned food and put it under the cabin sole and lockers. (The cabin sole is a good place to keep red wine as well but white turns into Madeira wine with the heat ).We removed any paper labels and varnished the tins and then put a sticky on label over the varnish. Worked well and the tins lasted for years. Towards the end of the tins the labels came off and it was a bit of a lottery as to what was going to be in the tin when it was opened. So we might have been hoping for a tin of soup but got fruit instead. That was always good for a laugh. It was a good way to store food and use it to supplement fresh food when we could get it.

[Captain Puget]

I used to do a lot of dehydrating and canning. We are now moving more to freeze drying.

25+ years shelf life
More nutritious
Tastes better
No refrigeration

It’s easier too, if you have a shore base. I just make bigger meals an freeze dry the leftovers. Also, when things are “in season” I buy in bulk directly and process at the peak of freshness.

[oldbuzzard]

One niggling problem rears its head: trash. Aluminum cans crush easier than steel to use less storage space. Wash your containers after use for a cleaner trash.

We obtained some one gallon wide mouth screw top jugs that held salad dressing for our dry storage.

Box wine. No glass bottles. Remove the bag from the box and store the bags in plastic bins. Ours are in the bilge. Dont forget to label the bags or its pot luck when you open it. BUT.. if you didnt like that kind of wine, you wouldnt have bought it.

We also have an ARB dc fridge.

Happy cruising.

[Stewie12]

When we left the UK we took a lot of canned food with us. We removed any paper labels and varnished the tins and then put a new sticky label on the tin. We kept many of the tins under the cabin sole, which is also a good place for storing red wine, but not white as with the heat it turns into madeira wine. The tins lasted for years, although towards the end the labels came off so you did not know if you had soup or fruit, but that was always good for a laugh. The tins were handy to supplement fresh food when we could get it.

[Greg Mason]

We left with about 125 jars of canned meats, (chicken, beef, sausage) canned butter and cheese (in brine), ready to eat right out of the jar or in a prepared dish. Jars were wrapped in socks and mapped out on the boat where they were stored. Leaving Mexico, we just bought those cooked chickens and canned them, instead of doing all the cooking aboard. As we were advised, if you don't eat spam at home now, you won't on your trip either. At the time, Mexico was a little light on pasta, but now we see a whole new selection when we spend our other half of life there.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Captain Puget

I used to do a lot of dehydrating and canning. We are now moving more to freeze drying.

25+ years shelf life
More nutritious
Tastes better
No refrigeration

It’s easier too, if you have a shore base. I just make bigger meals an freeze dry the leftovers. Also, when things are “in season” I buy in bulk directly and process at the peak of freshness.

Please give some examples of recipes you use, how you dry that and how you prepare it later on. We’re considering to start this as well

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Chotu

(...)



But regular foods in a standard supermarket aren’t healthy by a long shot.

That's the American definition of a supermarket store. Here any store that sells a combo of fresh food / processed food / basic home drugs (shampoo etc) and liquor is called a super.


The choice of fresh food in a Spanish super is quite awesome - of course I say choice - some people will choose processed food but then again to each their own, no?


I too, sometimes, eat processed food - e.g. beer. But only small amounts.



b.

[TrentePieds]

Is there a bit of an irony here :-)?

OP's name sounds very Dutch to me. When I wuz a lad, just a few miles north of the Low Countries, we didn't have refrigeration, and neither did the Dutch. Preservation of food relied essentially on smoking, drying and/or salting of meat and fish, and on keeping spuds, "greens", and "hard" fruit like apples in a root cellar.

In consequence, in order to get through the long winters - much longer than 3 or 4 weeks - a cuisine developed that would see you through from Michaelmass till the end of Lent. Such things as yellow pea soup with fatty bacon were among the favourites, and nowadays, in this 'ere colony, soupe aux pois is still a favourite in Quebec. ALL the incredients for French Canadian - or any other pea soup - will keep perfectly well in plastic canisters and mason jars in the bilge of a boat.

The lesson to be learned is to work up a two week meal plan consisting of such old standbys made from things that do NOT REQUIRE REFRIGERATION at all!

I think it was Ann Cate who mentioned how to keep eggs. In my "crooz'n'learn" days, my kedgeree was always a smashing success with the students. Rice, eggs, tinned tuna for want of fresh salmon. Curry sauce of a strength to send you up the rigging!

Flapjacks made from a homemade mix emulating "Aunt Jemima" is just fine.
The mix keeps perfectly well in a plastic cannister. Eggs and bacon, of course.

If, in addition to the cast iron post for the pea soup and other "one pot" meals, you keep a cast iron griddle you can have fresh nan (bread) every day.

The secret is to be systematic about you PLANNING. Planning is a prerequisite for provisioning. Set up a plan for a two week rotation of meals that you can make from non refrigerated food stuffs, then provision accordingly, and stick to the plan. If you are still at sea at the end of the two weeks, just start the plan all over again. Your provisioning will, of course, have recognized that you are going to do that.

Remember that refrigeration only exists because so much of America is inimical to human habitation ;-0)!

TrentePieds

[shanter]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Regarding bad eggs:

We were being super careful about causing ourselves any injury or illness this summer so we wouldn’t have to visit places packed with Covid patients.

Being cautious with our non-refrigerated eggs was a part of that.

I became able to tell if eggs were going bad. They have a distinct, weird smell which is not like the “rotten eggs” sulfur smell. I can’t describe it, but it’s almost fishy smelling.

You crack open the egg in a separate container, then sniff it before putting it into the food.

Toward the end of the summer almost half the eggs failed the smell test and many had black mold like gunk in them.

You see or smell something wrong... you throw out the egg.

that's really good that you paid attention to that, especially this summer. Nobody wants to go to the hospital these days ;-) I mean, you can never avoid it a hundred percent…you can always eat something that has gone bad…but of course you can always pay attention to what you eat as well. Eggs actually last longer than one may think. But it is important that eggs are NEVER put in the fridge. Once they are stored in a cool place, they will go bad more quickly if the cold chain is interrupted. Otherwise, if you always keep them outside / non-refrigerated, they have their own protective layer around the shell (or in the shell?), which makes eggs last much longer than stated on them. To be honest I have never smelled a bad egg...I have also read that you could check them by putting them in a glass of water and when they sink to the bottom they are still fresh...when they rise up they have gone bad...they rise up because there is some air inside the egg. Is that actually true that you can’t use eggs anymore when they don’t sink to the bottom? Mine was already swimming on the surface and I got rid of it - but I didn't let it stop me from opening the egg and seeing if it was really bad...it had been almost six weeks after the expiration date. In my opinion it still smelled and looked normal (except that the yolk was already a bit more liquid)...I played it safe and threw the eggs away...what about you? Would you still use such eggs for baking for example?

Oh well, crack open the egg in a separate container is always useful I do it every time I use eggs...I don't want to have a rotten egg in my food. And it is also easier to fish the shell out again ;-)

[Montanan]

Might I suggest items from this menu.

https://youtu.be/Gxtsa-OvQLA

[Mike OReilly]

It interesting to see the approaches to menu and planning. We used to plan specific menus and meals, but have slowly evolved to just knowing what kinds of foods we like, in what volumes. We have a provisioning list that we use as a guide, but we don't plan many specific meals. We usually provision for about three months at a time, but sometimes go for six or more.

We alternate galley duties (between me and she). My meals tend to be more... haphazard . I'm usually guided first by the need to eat anything fresh that might be heading for the compost pile. If we have a central item that can be the focus, but after that I usually just take a look at our provisions, and see what moves me. As long as I have enough spice, I can usually make something quite palatable.

Which brings me to spices... Having a good selection of spices is a must. We have a spice wrack with a couple dozen spices. AND we have reserves in deep storage where we can replenish as we go along. We also keep a small garden of herbs (basil, tyme, chives, oregano, mint, etc.), and we grow sprouts along the way.