What are essential foods to bring?

[FamilyVan]

He he. Yak dung stories are always so much fun to tell.

Sent from my XP7700 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[hsi88]

I will probably never venture out more than a few weeks at a time on a boat size most would call weekenders or day sailors, so I tend to eat out of packages and cans. One pint of alcohol lasts a long time. I rarely cook, but plan to look into a pressure cooker as one pot meals are what I prefer other than frying for breakfast. And coffee of course is a staple, poured into a camping thermos to keep it hot. Chef Boyardee for under a buck makes a good meal anytime and I eat it right out of the can (with hot sauce). Meals like Ramen noodles work well with hot water and I basically use half the pack of salty spices they provide and add other ingredients that don't contain all that salt. I rarely use a cooler and don't feel the need for a fridge. Most bottled drinks taste fine at room temp. I eat this way because food takes up room on a small boat. Especially fruits and most vegetables, although some would point out that cans are terrible space eaters. I take vitamins to supplement what I don't get while on the boat (or at home). I eat out a lot and enjoy someone else's hard work and effort in meal preparation. Of course only possible because I don't do any ocean cruising. I love this thread as it inspires some thought. My needs are pretty simple right now, but you never know what the future might hold.

[northoceanbeach]

Oh no. I have heard so many conflicting opinions on alcohol stoves I don't know what is true. I dont want propane necessarily. A simple alcohol stove like the boat originally came with would be best.

[goat]

Originally Posted by hsi88

One pint of alcohol lasts a long time.

Maybe for the stove it does.........

goat

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Don C L

You are right! I have been delinquent! From now on I will be well stocked with runny lentil porridge and Yak dung! Uh, did you happen to bring any back with you?

Well I suppose that's better than lentil porridge and runny Yak dung.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by northoceanbeach

Oh no. I have heard so many conflicting opinions on alcohol stoves I don't know what is true.

OK, here's the "truth:"

PRESSURIZED alcohol stove can be dangerous.

NONpressurized stoves, like the Origo, are not unless you're super stupid.

It's not necessarily the fuel itself, but the stove that makes the difference.

[oldragbaggers]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

OK, here's the "truth:"

PRESSURIZED alcohol stove can be dangerous.

NONpressurized stoves, like the Origo, are not unless you're super stupid.

It's not necessarily the fuel itself, but the stove that makes the difference.

Isn't that what we've been saying???

[Don C L]

Many years ago I had a pressurized alcohol stove. My eyebrows are just starting to grow back.

[Ziggy]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

They are little orangy-red berries that have been considered a "super food" in China for thousands of years and became trendy in the western world about a decade or two ago. How much better they are compared to other berries is questionable (all berries are high in antioxidants and nutrients), but they are the only dried berries easy to source here in Greece.

You need to need careful eating them if you are taking any medication, as they do interact with some drugs like Warfarin.

They are a bit of an acquired taste and not as sweet as other dried fruit, but I enjoy munching on them. As an added benefit there is always the thought that they may help to counteract all the chocolate I consume .

SWL

Thanks, SWL--I never heard of them before. But I think I'll stick to blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries.

[Ribbit]

I use a slow cooker a lot. I use vacuum food flasks (nice big opening) as slow cookers.

On my Kelly Kettle (not suitable for boats, but a half of an average newspaper will boil 2.5 pints of water in about 3 minutes - I have never had to buy fuel for it), I cook the food, sometimes a couple of ingredients at a time (a fresh ingredients Goulash, for example), then add them to a pre-heated vacuum food flask, sealing it up between hot ingredient additions.

The food is still piping hot, 12+ hours later.

A second vacuum food flask handles the rice or pasta. They will slow cook beans too (can start cooking the night before, and if the water is cooled off a bit in the morning, drain out and top up with boiling water, if they need a bit more cooking). Lentils too.

'Snack type' cheap dehydrated pasta in sauce type meals in sachets, dried soups, also cook great in them, and if I get cold, I can grab some of the contents for a very hot quick snack.

This is the sort of thing I use:

Thermos ThermoCafe Vacuum Insulated Large Food and Beverage Bottle, 1.3-Quart - Walmart.com

eta: DO NOT assume that the flask is a good one. These stainless steel flasks can have a pretty high failure rate, so use it in earnest before having to rely on it, and while the warranty is intact to exchange it if faulty! Check content temperature at 4 hours, 8 hours, 12 hours, and 16 hours, and you will know if it is ok.

I also use drinks vacuum flasks for a days worth of hot coffee or tea (don't put milk in with the tea, add it after pouring, as tea with milk goes funny in a flask).

I used to get tins of Carnation condensed milk, but they do toothpaste tube type containers now, and they work great. I don't touch soya milk (or anything soy that hasn't been fermented - a friend had a soya factory, and the stuff killed him - Asians ferment soya beans for very good reasons).

I no longer use artificial fats (margarines) other than to grease some threads up in an emergency (I don't eat mineral grease either and marg is just as useless for us). Most oils don't do us any favours either, I used to use a lot of olive oil, but since the recent study showed around 80% of olive oil was fake, I don't touch that either. So it's back to lard, dripping, and butter for me.

I hope my boat has an Origo twin burner on it when I get it (I am a recent convert, having gone from not even considering boats with alcohol stoves - all thanks to bad experiences with pressurised ones), but if not I won't worry too much (probably change it at some point). But I have just got a 5100 heater/stove, and I like the look of it.

I did find some cheap fuel:

5Gal Denatured Alcohol - Walmart.com

Which looks to be about the same formulation as our Methylated spirits over here. I'll pick up some of those cheap heavy duty plastic diesel/gasoline gallon cans and decant it into those for safe storage (must get a small funnel as well).

I have a 12v thermoelectric cooler over here, and am quite impressed with it. So will pick one up. I like the look of this Coleman 40 quart, and it shouldn't be too bad on the batteries (I'll fit extra batteries anyway, along with a couple of solar panels, plus I will be running the diesel engine properly under load regularly to improve its condition, as I'm a diesel engine nut):

Coleman 40-Quart PowerChill Thermoelectric Cooler with Power Cord, Black/Silver - Walmart.com

Food wise I like the big 2ltr Kilner storage jars, they are square and fit close together (I have loads of them full of different home made liqueurs at the moment). Can store dried onions, dried mixed veg, lentils, split peas, type stuff in them, and also can use them for pickling (it doesn't take much vinegar to pickle a well crammed jar of chopped cabbage and raw onion, for example, and I only use ordinary malt vinegar, and it works well). A little hand operated food processor should cope well enough for that.

I hope you can buy big jars of marmite in America, as I won't be able to fly with any. Also I hope there's a source of liquid Oxo in the big square jars. If not, will have to buy the cubes if available, or inferior substitutes.

When I first left home, I lived on beans on toast for quite a while (amazingly I still like them, especially home made and slow cooked in a Gazpacho type soup as a sauce), then a friend who was a chef gave me some lessons.

Basically if you have onions, butter to fry them in, garlic, chopped mushrooms, some curry powder, chuck in a bit of this and a bit of that, as long as you like the this and that, do some rice, and you are away. Once you have done one thing ok, you are pretty much able to follow a recipe, and after that, you can get creative. I used to do most of my cooking in a wok. I do like pressure cookers though (it's ideal for cooking veg properly - which means thoroughly, undercooked they don't do us much good).

Same with bread. Once you get the proportion of ingredients in your head for one type of bread, you are pretty much there for every type of bread.

A lot of people are frightened of trying, because they don't want to spoil stuff. Properly cooking a Goulash gets people over that, because it is a communal effort. Properly cooked, Goulash must be stirred constantly. This is tiring, so get everybody involved in preparing it, share getting the ingredients, share preparing the ingredients, then everybody takes turns in stirring it. Everybody involved, everybody learns.

And you can party while you are cooking! What's not to like?

[Sea Dreaming]

Ribbit - try coconut oil. Buy it at Costo or in bulk from amazon. Fantastic to cook with! Great even alone. We use it for everything! We eat it, rub down after a shower with it and even brush our teeth with it - its antimicrobial and makes teeth very white. I use it for hair conditioner.
You can use it to remove gums paint and epoxy too
And, it washes up easily. Best stuff ever.

[Ribbit]

Originally Posted by Sea Dreaming

Ribbit - try coconut oil. Buy it at Costo or in bulk from amazon. Fantastic to cook with! Great even alone. We use it for everything! We eat it, rub down after a shower with it and even brush our teeth with it - its antimicrobial and makes teeth very white. I use it for hair conditioner.
You can use it to remove gums paint and epoxy too
And, it washes up easily. Best stuff ever.

SD I will definitely try this. A few people I know and trust have recommended this to me over the years (people who have also had major problems with other oils), but it isn't available locally to me.

It does seem to be widely available in America, so I will stock up with it when there.

One thing I keep forgetting to ask them about it though, is what is it like for making bread?

I find making bread with an oil tells me straight away whether it is any good for me or not (lard, dripping, and butter = no problem for me).

PS Will have to try and remember this Costco. About the only shop I have heard of in America, is Walmart (you can probably tell from the links I use).

PPS I just checked - amazon over here do it! Never thought to try them.

[Sea Dreaming]

Where are you Ribbit? There are Costco store almost world wide. Might be one closer than you think. Coconut oil works great in bread. Very light and similar to butter. We mix in our coffee for a snack. Quite filling and delicious.

[Bulawayo]

Enjoyed your post - however, really suggest that you reconsider the thermo electric fridge - it shall eat your batteries alive despite various adverising claims. Rather get a compressor fridge that is far more energy efficient. A thermo electric fridge shall typically keep food cooled to around a max of 25 deg C below ambient. Brilliant until the weather get hot and the cool box is working 100% of the time sucking the life out of your batteries whilst having an internal temp that destroys the contents. We have been there and done that = get a Waeco (budget) or National Luna/Engel portable fridge/freezer that use compressors. They are not cheap new but are more affordable second hand. You'll soon regret the thermo electric choice. Best wishes.

Originally Posted by Ribbit

I use a slow cooker a lot. I use vacuum food flasks (nice big opening) as slow cookers.

On my Kelly Kettle (not suitable for boats, but a half of an average newspaper will boil 2.5 pints of water in about 3 minutes - I have never had to buy fuel for it), I cook the food, sometimes a couple of ingredients at a time (a fresh ingredients Goulash, for example), then add them to a pre-heated vacuum food flask, sealing it up between hot ingredient additions.

The food is still piping hot, 12+ hours later.

A second vacuum food flask handles the rice or pasta. They will slow cook beans too (can start cooking the night before, and if the water is cooled off a bit in the morning, drain out and top up with boiling water, if they need a bit more cooking). Lentils too.

'Snack type' cheap dehydrated pasta in sauce type meals in sachets, dried soups, also cook great in them, and if I get cold, I can grab some of the contents for a very hot quick snack.

This is the sort of thing I use:

Thermos ThermoCafe Vacuum Insulated Large Food and Beverage Bottle, 1.3-Quart - Walmart.com

eta: DO NOT assume that the flask is a good one. These stainless steel flasks can have a pretty high failure rate, so use it in earnest before having to rely on it, and while the warranty is intact to exchange it if faulty! Check content temperature at 4 hours, 8 hours, 12 hours, and 16 hours, and you will know if it is ok.

I also use drinks vacuum flasks for a days worth of hot coffee or tea (don't put milk in with the tea, add it after pouring, as tea with milk goes funny in a flask).

I used to get tins of Carnation condensed milk, but they do toothpaste tube type containers now, and they work great. I don't touch soya milk (or anything soy that hasn't been fermented - a friend had a soya factory, and the stuff killed him - Asians ferment soya beans for very good reasons).

I no longer use artificial fats (margarines) other than to grease some threads up in an emergency (I don't eat mineral grease either and marg is just as useless for us). Most oils don't do us any favours either, I used to use a lot of olive oil, but since the recent study showed around 80% of olive oil was fake, I don't touch that either. So it's back to lard, dripping, and butter for me.

I hope my boat has an Origo twin burner on it when I get it (I am a recent convert, having gone from not even considering boats with alcohol stoves - all thanks to bad experiences with pressurised ones), but if not I won't worry too much (probably change it at some point). But I have just got a 5100 heater/stove, and I like the look of it.

I did find some cheap fuel:

5Gal Denatured Alcohol - Walmart.com

Which looks to be about the same formulation as our Methylated spirits over here. I'll pick up some of those cheap heavy duty plastic diesel/gasoline gallon cans and decant it into those for safe storage (must get a small funnel as well).

I have a 12v thermoelectric cooler over here, and am quite impressed with it. So will pick one up. I like the look of this Coleman 40 quart, and it shouldn't be too bad on the batteries (I'll fit extra batteries anyway, along with a couple of solar panels, plus I will be running the diesel engine properly under load regularly to improve its condition, as I'm a diesel engine nut):

Coleman 40-Quart PowerChill Thermoelectric Cooler with Power Cord, Black/Silver - Walmart.com

Food wise I like the big 2ltr Kilner storage jars, they are square and fit close together (I have loads of them full of different home made liqueurs at the moment). Can store dried onions, dried mixed veg, lentils, split peas, type stuff in them, and also can use them for pickling (it doesn't take much vinegar to pickle a well crammed jar of chopped cabbage and raw onion, for example, and I only use ordinary malt vinegar, and it works well). A little hand operated food processor should cope well enough for that.

I hope you can buy big jars of marmite in America, as I won't be able to fly with any. Also I hope there's a source of liquid Oxo in the big square jars. If not, will have to buy the cubes if available, or inferior substitutes.

When I first left home, I lived on beans on toast for quite a while (amazingly I still like them, especially home made and slow cooked in a Gazpacho type soup as a sauce), then a friend who was a chef gave me some lessons.

Basically if you have onions, butter to fry them in, garlic, chopped mushrooms, some curry powder, chuck in a bit of this and a bit of that, as long as you like the this and that, do some rice, and you are away. Once you have done one thing ok, you are pretty much able to follow a recipe, and after that, you can get creative. I used to do most of my cooking in a wok. I do like pressure cookers though (it's ideal for cooking veg properly - which means thoroughly, undercooked they don't do us much good).

Same with bread. Once you get the proportion of ingredients in your head for one type of bread, you are pretty much there for every type of bread.

A lot of people are frightened of trying, because they don't want to spoil stuff. Properly cooking a Goulash gets people over that, because it is a communal effort. Properly cooked, Goulash must be stirred constantly. This is tiring, so get everybody involved in preparing it, share getting the ingredients, share preparing the ingredients, then everybody takes turns in stirring it. Everybody involved, everybody learns.

And you can party while you are cooking! What's not to like?

[Ribbit]

Originally Posted by Sea Dreaming

Where are you Ribbit? There are Costco store almost world wide. Might be one closer than you think. Coconut oil works great in bread. Very light and similar to butter. We mix in our coffee for a snack. Quite filling and delicious.

Blimey the things you learn on this site SD!

Just done a search and there's 27 branches in the UK, unfortunately the one in Wales is the opposite side of Wales from me (the rest are in England).

It's about 8 weeks before I fly out (all things being equal), so will have to visit it when I get back.

Bulawayo, you got a lightbulb to go on in my brain. I had completely forgotten about 12v fridges (that can be mains and gas fired too) that are so widely used. Great idea!