Auspicious

There are very few things that can't be made at sea on a small boat. A souffle comes to mind - it can be too bumpy. Other things may be too space confusing or messy to do by choice. I often make lasagna before departure and freeze it but it takes too long, uses too many dishes, and makes too much of a mess for me to willingly take on underway. Shoreside techniques usually apply, sometimes with additional emphasis. Mise en place as I described early in this thread helps for all the same reasons it does ashore. In addition you get all your knife work done so you can clean and stow your knife. Putting your knife down, even for moments, is often not safe and putting it in the usually metal sink is hard on the knife. Get knife work done and store the knife. Other techniques are more unique to boat cookery. You can usually identify who did the most cooking on a trip, at least in bathing suits, by the ring of bruises around his or her hips from wedging in while cooking. *grin* Mine are nearly permanent. On monohulls the cooker (cook top and oven) is gimballed so it swings with the motion of the boat. It can be disconcerting to see it swinging with abandon while the liquids in the pans stay level with the top of the pan. Unfortunately the balance changes significantly when you open the oven door so latching the gimbal while getting food in or out is well advised. This avoids ending up with a roast or casserole all over the floor or your lap. On catamarans and most power boats cookers are not gimballed although they really should be. Good quality cookers also have clamps on rails around the cooktop to hold pots in place so they don't slide.

I would like to point out that meals on delivery are different from meals when people are cruising. Delivery meals also vary greatly from skipper to skipper. Mine is different from @JohnT's. I usually alternate cooked breakfasts (eggs, French Toast, oatmeal, pancakes, crepes, etc) and yogurt/fruit/cereal. Early in a trip lunches are mostly sandwiches and fruit; later they tend toward repurposed leftovers as bread and deli meats peter out. On longer trips we bake bread and freeze deli meats. Also on longer trips we make yogurt as John does and also grow sprouts as a counterpoint to longer lived produce like cabbage, carrots, and celery. Dinner is the main meal of the day but also repurposes leftovers. Roast chicken leftovers end up in a stirfry in a day or so. Much of course depends on the boat. Some have no refrigeration, some have refrigeration but no freezer, and some have lots of cold storage. A delivery skipper has to be adaptable. John appears to have a different watch system than I do. I use the conventional commercial and military 4-on/8-off system. No dog watch. Not ever. With me and three crew the crew stand watches and I do weather, navigation, and cooking. I eat better that way. *grin* Menu planning depends greatly on gear on the boat and temperatures. Lasagna is great in cold weather and shoulder seasons, not so good in tropical summers. I always manage a snack bag. This keeps folks entertained. A lot of eating is from boredom, not hunger. It also keeps people from rummaging about in my fridge. *grin* I have delivered boats for charter before also. It's much the same as factory delivery for private owners. Tools become an issue. They can equally be an issue on private deliveries. "We have everything you need" is often not true. *grin*

Downhill since the demise of Harold McGee's column.

I would advise against that. The smoke and oils smell like food. Think ... bears. Cook away from where you sleep, haul food into trees, and don't let odors accumulate in your tent, rain fly, or bedding.

Leftovers. Almost always leftovers. My wife of Italian heritage ALWAYS makes too much food when it is her turn to cook dinner. *sigh* Just keeping up to avoid wasting food is a challenge.

I'm with you @Norm Matthews. It's silly what people think they can charge for. Oh - whole grain bread sliced thin, decent cheese of your choice, a couple thin slices of tomato, and some red onion also sliced thin. I toast one side of the bread in a dry skillet, put mustard on one toasted side and mayo on the other. Build the sandwich toasted side in and toast again in a skillet until the outsides are toasted and cheese just begins to melt. That will be $2.45 please. *grin*

Hello John, Which Miura 31 do you have? Head forward or head aft? I prefer head aft for a place to dump wet foulies. You have a long trip in front of you. Enjoy St. Helena and/or Ascension. My approach to provisioning for long trips with stops (like ocean crossings) is to plan for having to miss a stop and then a bit more. *grin* So Falmouth UK to Azores I provision to make Bermuda plus extra. Four people in a 31' boat is a lot of people. I assume you are talking about deliveries on larger boats. I have a different approach to time zones. I shift when we can see the dock. I worry about crew getting a sift an hour longer or shorter. It doesn't seem fair. I agree with you about frying. Not a good idea on board underway. I tend to cook ahead - so if I roast a pork loin with vegetables I make a lot as the leftovers go into sandwiches and/or faux barbecue. Chicken turns into salads and stir fries and tacos. You are clearly a better fisherman than I. I'm why it is called "fishing" and not "catching." I tell crew that if they can get a fish within a couple of feet of the boat I'm all in. The first bit is up to them. *grin*

This is worth noting. I've been places where the base price differs for locals and tourists. There are always exceptions but I don't go to those places either. Discounts to regular customers are one thing quite different from fleecing visitors.

Most of what we do is prepared: my pasta sauce, my wife's tomato-basil soup, my vegetable soup, refrigerator pickles (water bath only), as well as a few basics (tomatoes and beets mostly). My wife is making her first foray into jellies. We had some left over small jars and thought they would make nice gifts. We carefully measured the capacity (2 oz) and went looking. Lots of 1.5 oz jars with one piece lids. No lids and bands. Gave up and bought Ball 4 oz jars. Brought them home and they are exactly what we already had. *sigh* Not quite sure what the 4 oz is a measure of but we're happy. A little confused, but happy.

I have full and half-size aluminum sheet pans from Sam's Club. House brand and I don't know who makes them for Sam's. They've been great. Sometimes hand wash and sometime run them through the dishwasher. No issues.

I'm quite serious. Advertising one price and charging another is illegal. Yep. Court. Take a stand for what you believe in. My club, the Cosmos Club of Washington DC has a very strict no-tipping policy. The clubs in our circle that I have visited on reciprocity, including the East India Club in London, have similar policies. At the Cosmos Club we have health care for our staff and a generous retirement plan. Annual bonuses are in the budget and distribution is based on feedback from the members and from senior staff. That means back of house staff have their efforts directly recognized just as front of house staff do. Different yacht clubs operate differently. Eastport Yacht Club in Annapolis, Capital Yacht Club in DC, and New York Yacht Club in NY are all different. Reciprocal visitors may have different procedures than members. I can't speak to the Hamilton Princess. I use the St Georges Dinghy Club (America's Cup, Newport to Bermuda Race, and Annapolis to Bermuda Race) and Royal Bermuda Yacht Club in Hamilton (reciprocity). I avoid places with automatic gratuity. Sometimes I get surprised and object. Perhaps I travel in places you don't and see things you don't. I've had restaurants in the BVI list gratuity as tax (no tax on food there) and others in Martinique just charge different amounts than on the menu. I have seen gratuities added in the US without a disclaimer on the menu. Principle is not entitlement. Personally I prefer no tipping pricing models as in most of Europe. In the absence of that I will tip as earned as in the US. Mandatory gratuity simply is bait and switch by the owners.

Great. We're on the same page. BS NA & ME Webb '82. There shouldn't be any air in your plumbing. *grin* That means the process of sucking CO2 out of the air to make carbonic acid starts at the tap. If anything, it reinforces the value of plumbing a steam oven. Regardless the pH will not lead to gumming up the tracks or anything else. That is entirely due to particulates which won't make it through the membrane. Your TDS numbers look reasonable. Out of the well we see around 800 mg/l and around 250 mg/l from the cold taps after particulate filter (the big blue one) and softening. Hot water runs between 250 and 500 depending on how long it has been since I flushed the water heater. I can't sample between the particulate filter and the softener without taking things apart. I clean the faucet aerators once a month (it's easy and I don't forget). Every other month I soak shower heads in vinegar overnight and flush the water heater. Flushing the water heater has made my wife a lot happier. Stuff builds up in the bottom. That seems to keep us on top of things without RO. I have a couple of ROs in boxes here in my shop waiting for installation on boats. *grin* Where does your brine discharge go? Back down the well-head?

That makes no sense at all. I'm in the marine industry and deal with RO watermakers all the time. Someone was making something up. Your RO system should be producing water with a TDS of 300 mg/l or lower; with a little maintenance (clean pre-filters and flush the membranes once in a while) should be 100 mg/l or lower. This is the cleanest purest water you'll find. Generally debris and other build-up comes from minerals in water. There won't be any to speak of in RO water. I suggest pushing back--hard (ha!)--on the source of information and asking for more specifics on how pure water is a problem. I expect that you'll have found that since you installed RO your coffee maker needs to be cleaned less often. If you route RO water to shower heads you'll have found, once cleaned, your shower experience is better. Once you clean the aerators in your faucets they will be better and stay better also. If you change a float valve in a toilet it will refill faster. All due to reduced calcium and iron and other minerals in your water. Oh - use less shampoo when you wash your hair and the soap will rinse out more easily in the softer, more pure water. Have you tested the pH of your water? It should be right at 7.0 coming out of the RO unless you have other treatment after the membrane. RO water is not corrosive than water with minerals in it. For years we were told to only use distilled water in clothes irons. Distillation is a purification method functionally equivalent to RO. If there is real science to the contrary of above I'd like to see it. With footnotes please. Here is what reverse osmosis filtration is: water under high pressure is run through a filter membrane with an orifice size at the molecular level. Not only does that filter out salts and other minerals but viruses and bacteria as well. The efficiency is rather low so you'll have a brine discharge that goes somewhere of about 90% of your inflow. This is fine making fresh water from sea water - we just pump the brine back over the side. Not sure where it goes in a home system and what the impact is on your water bill.

You raise a good point. It is valid for anything in the home that has an orifice. We have high iron content hard well water so I'm painfully aware of the issue. Faucets, shower heads, toilet fills, coffee makers, tea kettles, and yes icemakers are all affected. Unless you use water from a different source there is no difference between filling a steam oven tank at the sink and plumbing it in.

It's water. It comes from the same place and is the same chemical. Whether you pour it into an ice cube tray or a tea kettle its the same. The plumbing isn't a big deal either: flexible copper pipe and a vampire tap. There is water all over most kitchens. Sink, dishwasher, maybe icemaker, maybe bar sink. Often there is a powder room on the other side of a common wall with the kitchen; more water. Heck, you can get plumbed coffee makers, including from Keurig for those so inclined. Pulling an electrical circuit is a bigger deal. Given the cost of the appliance another $150 seems a pretty small price to pay for the convenience. What happens if you run out of water part way through cooking? The reservoir is only 1.4 qts in Thermador ovens (Google is my friend). I couldn't find a hard-plumbing option for Thermador. Miele has one. I'll return to my original simile. You wouldn't put up with a tank you have to fill for the icemaker in your refrigerator. Why put up with one in a steam oven? The question is philosophical and is not in any way intended to reflect on @Raamo's choice of appliance. The manufacturers (all of them) should give consumers the option. Now about that plumbed coffee maker.... *grin*

It's hers and you have no right to it. You should apologize. Try this: "I'm sorry I keep pushing your for your flan recipe. I think it's really great and I hope that you'll pass it on to someone so it isn't lost. I hope I haven't made you uncomfortable." You aren't entitled. Think about her not yourself.

Heidi and I posted a number of links to books. I would be remiss if I did not include the website of my friend Carolyn Shearlock at The Boat Galley . Carolyn just posted an article about cabbage that leads to thoughts of my own. If you're going out for a day sail or a weekend you just take what you want and don't worry about it so much. If you'll be away from shops for longer managing perishables takes more thoughts. This does not only apply to people crossing oceans. It applies equally to those cruising the Bahamas or even running the ICW. Even if you stop in marinas every night getting fresh produce can turn into a day-long exercise when you don't know where anything is and don't have ground transportation. We can start with greens. Bibb lettuce doesn't last very long. Iceberg and romaine last longer. Cabbage lasts longer yet. That means some meal planning. Fragile greens like bibb lettuce and field greens get eaten first, in the first couple of days. Wedge salad and Caesar salads are day three to five. Spinach lasts about the same amount of time. Too much longer than that and cabbage is your big deal for greens. About halfway through your cabbage (earlier if you want greens on your salad) start growing sprouts. I like alfalfa, broccoli, radish, and mung but YMMV. With regard to sprouts, since I home can I nearly always have Ball jars (is the choice between Ball jars and Mason jars like the difference between "soda" and "pop?" I digress). I've juggled my meal plan to include pasta (homemade canned pasta sauce) or vegetable soup (homemade canned soup) in order to free up a jar. I use sprouting lids from the Sprout People with good results. I am still hunting for a good source for seeds that don't have hideous shipping charges. I've just placed an order with a source in Amazon Prime. We'll see how that goes. Input from others is appreciated. Other produce has similar issues to greens. celery, carrots, and most roots last longer than most fruits. Avocados don't last long so use them early. Tomatoes last about as long as romaine lettuce. Oranges last a good while and apples longer. Which leads to an issue for me. The conventional wisdom is to use nets for produce. Just don't. Even if you secure nets so they don't bang into things vibration and the lovely gentle swinging will turn oranges into juice and apples into sauce. Poor choice. Yes, ventilation is important. I have much better luck with baskets on the counter over non-skid than nets. Nets are great for clothes in berthing areas, books in the salon, and boxed treats. Treats lead to the all important snack bag - the subject of another post.

I rest meat. It has never occurred to me to rest a casserole. I don't have any trouble cutting and serving lasagna right out of the oven.

I had a Thermador six burner gas cooktop in a previous home. I loved it. Still miss that thing. Two of the burners had an ultra-low mode that used a little circuit board to turn on and off. A nearby lightening strike fried that control board. Thermador covered it under warranty (they could have used "act of God" as an out) with no problems. They didn't give me any grief about self-install either. That was great - sped things up tremendously. My mind is reeling a bit over the whole water tank concept for a fixed appliance. No one would accept a water tank for the ice maker in a refrigerator. Why for one in a steam oven? Why is it not permanently plumbed in?

Hi @Anna N, I've bought pork loin with think "tails" in Martinique and the Azores (Horta on Faial). It looked to me much like the tail you see on a beef tenderloin. I just tucked it back on itself to make the thickness more even. Your comment makes me think - I will have to hunt through the meat case at my regular grocer here in Annapolis. I've only provisioned in ON twice so your experience there is more relevant than mine.

Another favorite for longer trips is pork loin. Note that most boats have gimballed cookers with two burners and a small oven. You have to work around that. *grin* Note I'm usually cooking for four. Roast pork loin is a very handy dish at sea. It is easy to make so make extra. Leftovers can be thinly sliced for sandwiches. Additional leftovers can be shredded (two forks) and a jar of store-bought BBQ sauce dumped over it for faux barbecue. Start with 2 or 3 lbs of boneless center cut pork loin. If one end is particularly thin fold it under and tie it with cooking twine. Scrub potatoes and carrots and peel if you like (I peel carrots and not potatoes). Cut potatoes into eight pieces and carrots to 3 or 4” long. Cut celery to about 4” long. Scatter the vegetables in the bottom of a lubricated pan (I use disposable 13 x 9 aluminum pans on delivery, a regular pan on my own boat) and lay the pork on top. Extra credit for sliced apple on top. Salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, and a spray of olive oil. Cook at 375°F for 35 to 40 minutes or until internal temperature is between 140 and 150°F. You do travel with an insertion thermometer, right? Place on a cutting board and tent with aluminum foil for about 10 minutes before slicing. I serve with sauerkraut. If you aren’t often a fan of ‘kraut try heating it with diced apple and caraway seeds. You may be surprised. Alternative sides are roast Brussel sprouts (fresh or frozen) or green beans (fresh or canned). You might also try stuffing, especially if you add something sweet like dried cranberries.

You didn't eat on the way out and on the way back in? *grin*

@Thanks for the Crepes: Small boat cooking can be a challenge. I spent a wonderful summer on a Catalina 22 pop-top sailboat with a girl friend about fifteen years ago. Cooler, no fridge, horrible alcohol cooker and a grill. It is well that I'm an early riser as my GF couldn't function without coffee and it took half an hour to perc a pot on the alcohol burner. Everything else was made ahead or done on the grill. Not so very different from the small cabin cruiser you describe. Good food storage has become more accessible over time. Really good insulated coolers like those from Yeti are so much better than the Igloos and Colemans we grew up with. Although expensive they are so robust that over time they are cheaper: no costs for replacement handles, hinges, latches, and hold downs. For preparation at home an inexpensive vacuum sealer like those from Foodsaver make a big difference in food life. The days of 'burping' a Rubbermaid or Tupperware container are primitive compared to silicone sealed latching containers like those from Lock-n-Lock. Absolutely life changing aboard in the pantry, fridge, and freezer. At home and on my own boat I try to avoid waste. On delivery there is more. For example if departure is close enough to home I'll make up casseroles (lasagna, tuna, goulash) ahead in disposable tins or vacuum sealed bags and freeze them hard. Lasagna is just too much work underway but cooking it is easy and it is always well received. A couple of hard frozen 8x8 tins of hard frozen casseroles wrapped in foul weather gear and other clothes will even survive a short plane flight. I've shown up at a boat where the freezer wasn't working and schmoozed some space in a local restaurant freezer until we could get systems sorted. I usually rotate breakfasts between cooked (not quite full English, but close) and cold yogurt and fruit and maybe cereal. Some places in the world cereal is hideously expensive. In much of the Caribbean I'll buy Grape-Nuts at home and carry it in. *grin* Great with yogurt. I bake bacon in one and two pound batches and refrigerate it in bags to use as needed: breakfast, salads, some entrees.... Nothing wrong with sandwiches. You can freeze lunch meats and extend availability. Frozen cheese isn't great but better than nothing. When the lettuce gives out you can grow your own sprouts for a little green crunch. Definitely planning. No planning survives contact with the enemy and in our case the "enemy" is the sea. When crossing international borders you really have to pay attention to limits on food. Certainly anything that might attract fruit flies (not because of the fruit flies - they are just a measure of sensitivity) is an issue. Fruit and veg are limited to avoid insect, bacteria, and virus that might affect local agriculture. Generally whole fruit and veg are an issue but prepared foods are not. Since you have to buy food to account for delays that may not be endured there is a lot of food prep the day before landfall. Coleslaw, mashed potato, maybe fruit salad, soups -- cross your fingers for settled weather otherwise perfectly good food goes over the side. Cans and frozen are usually okay. @BubbleheadChef referred to this in some of his posts.

Some thoughts about cooking on board followed by a very simple recipe. Mise en place is critical aboard for all the same reason it is ashore. There are some additional reasons. Especially underway something may come up that requires your attention. If you have something on the heat and are part way through intermediate prep bad things can happen. My approach to mise en place at sea is a little different. I start prep on the last thing I need first and slide it to the back edge of the cutting board. Work from last to first. That means I can scrape things from the front to the back into the pot or pan when I start cooking. There are exceptions: before I leave I "calibrate" grinders (pepper in particular) so I know how many grinds for a teaspoon. Measuring spices I use my palm. I know what a pile of stuff in my hand looks like for various measurements. Something really simple that goes over well on board: Chicken Adobo courtesy of Tom Hale on Tadhana 1-1/2 to 2# chicken cubed to bite sized pieces. 100 ml soy sauce, 100 ml white vinegar, 2 Tbsp minced garlic (I prep this ashore but it is hard to beat the jarred sort aboard), 3/4 tsp ground black pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, 3 bay leaves. Marinate the chicken if you have time (ZipLoc bags or Lock-n-Lock containers work great) or just sauté the whole thing. Serve with rice. This goes nicely with a tropical fruit like mango. It keeps well when vacuum sealed or frozen.

I agree Heidi. Ms. Vanderhoof weaves engaging stories intermingled with lovely recipes. Also of note and worthy of space--even the limited space aboard--are: The Boat Galley Cookbook: 800 Everyday Recipes and Essential Tips for Cooking Aboard by Carolyn Shearlock The Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew by Lin Pardey The Voyager's Handbook: The Essential Guide to Blue Water Cruising by Beth Leonard I also find a mainstream cookery book like Joy of Cooking in an edition from the late 40s or early 50s when refrigeration was not ubiquitous and there wasn't a single purpose appliance for every task to be useful. I'm most fond of the 1951 third printing (1953) of JoC. For those who really love cooking and particularly if you plan a cruise off the grid (or are underway) is On Food and Cooking by Dr. Harold McGee. This seminal work gives you the ultimate basis for substitutions and figuring out for yourself what to do with something you haven't faced before. No substitute of course for asking the locals. *grin*