Passage Food

[Knowazark]

OK, so cooking when you're holed up in a quiet bay somewhere watching the sun set is a different prospect to trying to cook when bashing to windward on an ocean crossing.

What are your favourite "passage foods" or meals that you cook when you're in transit or making an ocean passage?

[Roy M]

High carbohydrate (pasta, rice, couscous, potatoes), cooked with some protein and fat (olive oil, bacon, fish or meat or cheese, and whatever green stuff is available, and whatever onions, garlic, olives, or canned tomatoes are in the reefer or bilge. Cook them up in a single pot. Serve with something fresh, such as bean sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, or similar homegrown treats and more olive oil and balsamic vinegar, with more olives. Follow with chocolate, in whatever form is easy to concoct. Make enough to have leftovers to microwave for the off watch at 2 AM. Food is easier to provide than sex at those odd moments when a watchkeeper is bored, cold and disheartened. Keep the helmsperson happy and attentive and hopeful for food, sex, a warm dry berth, and landfall. Ice cream is a close cousin to orgasm.

[SabreKai]

I do two dishes when Im underway. One is for when the weather is decent and the boats not banging round too bad. I don't like to have the galley stove hot in bad weather.

So, for decent weather, Cruisers grub (hot)

1 tin of pork n beans.
2 onions, fried
1 tin of tuna fish

Mix and heat, serve in a deep bowl with bread.


In nasty weather its Cruisers grub (cold)

1 tin of pork n beans
1 tin of spam or tuna
3 pickles, diced

Mix in a bowl, serve with bread or a bun.


Yeh, I know it sounds gross but give it a try. Its tasty stuff.


Sabre

[Pblais]

What are your favorite "passage foods" or meals that you cook when you're in transit or making an ocean passage?

Most of my serious weather foods are from mountaineering. Hot wins over cold all the time. Wine with proper napkins when available is nice for the special occasion too. You might try some of the freeze dried meals in a pinch. You can actually make your own versions and substitute canned goods. You can bring water to a boil, throw stuff in and in 3 minutes shut the burner and serve in 5. It works with pasta or minute rice. Canned meat if you have it and doing one pot meals will make a crew happy to be eating.

Food needs to be a motivating force when you have hard work and ugly weather. It may be the bright spot of the day. A good crew gives just a little bit more knowing what is for desert for dinner. When nothing else matters having something to look forward to does matter a whole lot. The psychological effect is huge. Cooks rule!

You can have a few complicated meals as you generally don't have terrible weather the whole trip but you need slam dunk out of the park meals when the situation requires extra effort - like when it sucks out there. You can poll the crew before the trip to find out what they like and don't like. You may need a little extra motivation for one crew member more than another. This is a poker game so stack the deck in the cooks favor. Anything hot generally is a hit. Anything one pot is easier than everything else.

Also some instant, just eat it, it's in this bag is worth doing too. It may not make you a hero buy they need extra energy and they need to eat. Plan for the three types of meals. Hold back a slam dunk when it matters. After 7 days the quality matters less than the temperature. A great cook knows when to lead with aces and when 5's will do. Historically the role of the cook is important.

[Hud3]

If you have a freezer on board, make up some one-dish meals and seal them with a VacSealer. Pull them out one by one the day before, and transfer them to the fridge side to thaw. They help cool the fridge that way.

To heat, drop the sealed meal into hot water, or heat in the microwave if you have one. Serve in a paper plate with high sides and eat with a spoon in rough weather--one hand for the dish and one for the spoon. We've been on some very rough passages, and always had a decent hot meal, every evening, when other boats were scooping peanut butter out of a jar or gulping handfuls of trail mix because it was too rough to cook from scratch.

Our typical main course choices were beef bourguignon, chicken cacciatori, chili con carne, roast pork loin with gravy, meat loaf with gravy, rattatouille, chicken in sherry cream sauce, chinese vegetables with chicken, lasagna, Mediterranean style chicken stew, and spaghetti with meat sauce. These all freeze well, are very tasty, and can be eaten with a spoon.

You can cook the pasta, toss with just a little olive oil, and vac seal. I chose smaller pasta like penne or rottini, versus linguine or fettucini since it can be eaten with a spoon. It separates and acts like normal pasta when heated and unsealed. Same for rice--add a little butter. It doesn't clump up. The dry mashed potato mixes are very good and easy. We had salads for the first week or so, then canned vegetables. One small glass of good wine with the meal is the final touch.

A well-fed crew is a happy crew.

[Wotname]

Favourite rough weather mid latitude dish is a jaffle; assuming your bread supply is still OK. Filling of your choice, hot, easy to handle, super easy to cook and no dishes. In my mind, its the nautical equivalent of the Cornish Pastie as made famous by Cornish miners.

Probably has a different name in the US and maybe even in NZ

[Janice]

OMG Knowazark - Your quote "Some people are like slinkies - they serve no real purpose in life, but they always bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs. " is the funniest I have ever seen

[Knowazark]

A jaffle?? OK, I'm going to need an explanation on that one (preferably with 8x10 glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back)

Presumably a jaffle is some sort of filled sandwich type thing. I recall having a cast aluminium toasted sandwich maker on our family yacht many years ago that made 2 toasted sandwiches at a time on a stove. The toasties ended up with the filling sealed inside as they were heated. Good stuff, can be held in the hand and little mess.

Janice, yeah that quote always gives me a smile - I only wish I could find out who actually said it. I find it helps me to be more patient with idiots when I can just identify them as "slinkie people".

[Janice]

We always used an sandwich (jaffle) iron when camping. We made sandiches and pies and they were great fun. I had an electric sandwich maker years ago too.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Knowazark

What are your favourite "passage foods" or meals that you cook when you're in transit or making an ocean passage?

We make a lot of long passages so we try to eat as well as when on the pick or on shore. The only difference is the amount of fresh food.

We use more calories when at sea too so we eat more! And still lose weight.

We go beresko with pasta, rice, vegtebales, meat (often canned at sea) UHT cream, lots of focaccia and foccaica pizzas etc Anything that tasets great

Also the person who is ON watch does the cooking with the meal time set at the change of watch so Cook has HOURS to think up and prepare each meal! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Cooking quickly to get to bed is a bad way. Take the time and make each meal special.

In heavy weather we try to eat the same but if we know we are in for a bash we might make a Foccacia Pizza so we can have pizza slices ready to go


Mark

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Knowazark

A jaffle?? OK, I'm going to need an explanation on that one (preferably with 8x10 glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back)

Sorry I can't do the 8x10 glossies but I have read a good description of a jaffle and have posted it below:

Presumably a jaffle is some sort of filled sandwich type thing. I recall having a cast aluminium toasted sandwich maker on our family yacht many years ago that made 2 toasted sandwiches at a time on a stove. The toasties ended up with the filling sealed inside as they were heated. Good stuff, can be held in the hand and little mess.

[fishwife]

See here Cast Iron Jaffle Iron | Rome Round Jaffle Maker | Camping

and for a lot more Google

Good grub

[Knowazark]

Yep, gotcha. Been there, done that but know them by a different name (generally called "toasties" here - derivative of toasted sandwich). Have seen single and double jaffle irons - don't currently have one, but may investigate.

Jaffle just reminds me of a type of candy - a hard orange candy shell over a chocolate centre. "Jaffa - the chocolate orange mouthful". Possibly also good passage food, but probably not recommended as a complete diet

[fishwife]

Jaffa cakes, I have a friend for whom they are the answer to all life's travails. I quite like them as well