•Vac packed beef kept at the bottom of a fridge between 1-3 degrees can last 10 days. If you can get it marinated in red wine, longer. Brined with salt petre longer still.
• Pork will last less time and chicken the least time of all so should be packed on top of stack to use first.
•Pre order meat to arrive just before departure. Make sure fridge has been turned to lowest for a while.
•Meat keeps best in one “entire” piece without bones and packs fit closer together keeping colder.
Are you the only cook or working together with someone else? Consult before drawing up shopping list.
•Recce the town. Talk to people.
•At leisure buy and stow nonperishables. Kitchen rolls, cleaning materials etc., any plastic boxes and crates for fruit and veg.
•(A good time to pick up and determine weight of packs of meat to order.)
•Be looking at range and prices of canned goods, pickles, sauces and dry goods; pasta, rice, flour etc.
•Look how things are packed and think about how you will dispose of packaging- or reuse it.
•Have water, juices, long milk delivered.
•When all in place, last of all select fruit and veg in different stages of ripeness. Handle carefully to boat in time to sterilize and dry before stowing.
What to buy & How best to keep it
Different cooks will have different aptitudes and aspirations. Cook what you are comfortable with.
•Aim to make food as interesting and varied as possible throughout the voyage.
•Other than usual store cupboard standbys, tea, sugar, breakfast cereals etc. look in your own cupboards at home and keep shopping lists of what you use.
•Then from the first fresh meat meals make a list. As much “Short lived” fruit and veg should be planned at this time.
•You will only be able to plan meals for the first five days or so. After that it will be a matter of improvisation-checking nets and including what needs eating.
•Take extra sugar, vinegar and spices to preserve or extend the life of anything that needs rescuing. After this time of plenty you are on longer term foods:-root veg, hard skinned squashes and hard cabbage, cured and canned meat.
Your Aim is to get the best out of your resources - by buying food cleverly and keeping it in optimum conditions.
Do not skimp on long term dry staples from accountable weevil free sources. They will store indefinitely in large air tight plastic boxes. Likewise, if the opportunity arises, lay down cans of meat you know the provenance of.
•Try to source fruit and veg from slower grown more natural systems at different stages of ripeness.
•Avoid supermarket root crops that may have been mechanically scrubbed and refrigerated in plastic packaging.
•Fruit and more perishable veg -tomatoes and peppers keep best in freely swinging nets in a current of air. Check every day.
•Store heavier hard skinned fruit and veg;- melons, hard skinned squash, hard cabbage, sweet potatoes low down in plastic baskets in an airy dark place. Ideally out of the sun on deck.
•Unripe fruit and veg wrap in newspaper and introduce to nets as they empty.
•Buy eggs as fresh as possible that have not been refrigerated. Transfer to plastic boxes and turn every other day.
How long things will last -
Will depend on the temperature and level of free flowing air they are in.
Fridge space is priority for vac packed fresh meat, cheese, butter and processed vac packed meats.
•Unripe avocados 10 days
•Cauliflower 6 days
•hard red/ green cabbage 30 days
•Potatoes-buy a selection 60 days
•Sweet potatoes- above 60 days
•Butternut squash-above 60 days
•Green tomatoes 20 days
•Green peppers up to 20 days
•Cooking apples wrapped 20 days
•Green oranges up to 25 days
•Hard green melons 30 days
•Green beans kept in fridge 9 days
Any left over fridge space keep for bagged salad, and green veg.
Handle all carefully. Guard against bruising.
Water stowage/Watermaker
In very extreme conditions a person can need up to a gallon of water per day to drink on top of cooking and washing. Allow 30-50% safety margin.
•Lin Pardy recommends 5-6 pints per person per day-or 1 cup for tooth brushing & washing. 2 cups for cooking. 4 cups for tea and coffee and fruit punch, with 10 cups left for twice a week wash down, clothes washing and hair washing.
•One cup of sea water contains two rounded tea spoons of salt.
•For cooking vegetables use 1 part salt water to 3 parts fresh water.
•Boil eggs in all salt water.
•For bread making use all salt water with no additional salt.
Bring on the watermaker
•Every boat is different, but if you are lucky enough to have a water maker it will save you weight and space and there will be less plastic to dispose of from extra drinking water containers.
•Chiscos on a twenty day trans Atlantic crossing with four crew made an average of 125 litres per day. The “Dessalator” makes 70 litres of water per hour. By running the generator and water maker together for a couple of hours each day we generated an average of 5-6Kwh using 1/3 Litre of diesel per Kwh.
•That is 2 litres of diesel a day and the batteries topped up, which equates to a happy crew and a joyous cook!
Rubbish
When deciding what to buy think how you will dispose of the packaging.
•Think of the materials used. Will they go back into natural systems if they have to go overboard out at sea.
•No plastic can go overboard. Paper and cardboard torn into small pieces will. Plastic coated cardboard can not.
•Buy plastic coated juice cartons with folded rather than fused bottoms so that they will flatten neatly and stack.
•If possible buy things in foil packs that will fold and take ashore rather than in jars or plastic bottles.
•If you do buy things in jars, choose ones with wide necks that will come in useful.
•Avoid aluminium cans.
Try to make rather than buy prepared foods like blister packed pastries and individual fruit yogurts that take up premium fridge space. eg yogurt can be made as required and there are no plastic pots to get rid of. www.easiyo.com
Cooks Tips
Aim to cook fresh as long as possible
•Aim for variety, contrasts and surprises.
•Avoid letting a pattern develop.
•Never uncomfortably overfill people. At the same time do not let people get too hungry and grumpy.
•Be aware people may be sea sick. Subtly include ginger in dishes. Have melba toast and morning coffee biscuits available.
•Be aware of blood sugar levels for a job in hand. Have energy drinks and easily available rocket fuel on hand and a tin of buns.
•Always aim to conserve and maximize resources.
Always have a little surprise up your sleeve-
•Fortune cookies after a Chinese meal. Pop corn. A fruit cake.
•Create and enjoy the ritual of crew coming together in a shared pleasurable experience. A time to build comradeship and accommodate communication.
•Even when it gets to corned beef hash, have some newly pickled crunchy red cabbage.
•Keep them crunching and wondering what will come next.
