What do you guys keep aboard for shelf-stable food?
Posted by RikkiLostMyNumber@reddit | sailing | View on Reddit | 63 comments
I'm getting psyched for my boat to splash soon and will be hitting the grocery store to stock up for the season. I buy fresh food whenever we use the boat, but like to have seasonings, canned goods, rice and pasta, stuff like that aboard in some quantity so my other trips to the store are easier. I'll also have some MREs aboard just in case, I've used them before when I got stuck somewhere with no other options. What do you guys like to have on board?
dwkfym@reddit
I have a pressure canner at home. A bit healthier than MREs, tastes just as bad, but you can get creative what you do with it after you open them up (please follow scientifically tested recipes)
SVAuspicious@reddit
You're doing something wrong.
dwkfym@reddit
I think the difference is in how we perceive MREs to taste like
SVAuspicious@reddit
My point is that home canned food can (ha!) and should taste as good as freshly made. My Branston pickle tastes just like a jar off the shelf at Tesco. My pasta sauce is better than anything you can buy in a jar anywhere. My wife's tomato basil soup (homegrown basil!) is much better than Campbell's. My barbecue sauce did wonders for my social life when I was single (*grin*).
I was reacting to "just as bad," not your standard of comparison. That isn't to say I'm impressed with MREs.
I've been home canning over 40 years, and carrying my food across oceans for 20 years. If I can help you get product simply ask.
dwkfym@reddit
theres 0 texture left in anything you make, idk how that tastes like its freshly made at home. I agree though sauces and stuff is excellent. the bell bbq sauce was really good too.
SVAuspicious@reddit
Not my experience. You may be cooking food too long before canning, or processing too long, or running pressure too high. I can't explain why our outcomes are so different.
Not sure what the "bell" barbecue sauce recipe is. Mine is below. Getting everything together in a boat galley (or anywhere) is a few minutes as everything is a pantry item. A minute to dice onion and open a can. Processing time is longest. I just sit at the nav station and do something else and keep an eye on the pressure gauge of my canner.
Barbecue sauce
Oil
1 small onion, finely diced
1 8oz can tomato sauce
½ cup sugar
1½ tsp molasses
¼ cup vinegar
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
4 tsp chili powder
2 tsp salt
¼ tsp dry mustard
Sauté onion in oil until translucent. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Will keep at least a week in fridge.
dwkfym@reddit
I'll look into it a bit more. So that ones probably safe, but its not exactly the most food safety conscious thing to just come up with your own recipes to can for a bunch of reasons. Discussion is beyond the scope of this group though. I stick to USDA, NCHFP, etc recipes that has been tested scientifically, partially because I don't want to be at sea and get botulism, and delay treatment because it took me so long to get back to the hospital.
SVAuspicious@reddit
Ah. Ball, not "bell."
My barbecue sauce has it's roots in the Ball Blue Book in the '80s (story below). When NCHFP (the voice of USDA on food preservation) https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can was formed in 2000 I followed them and adjusted. In truth I haven't adjusted that recipe in some years, and what I posted is scaled down linearly from the recipe for three gallons (obviously 24 pints) I usually make. NCHFP and Ball and HealthyCanning.com are all okay with swapping fresh tomatoes and canned. I use commercially canned tomatoes without extra salt or sugar.
The 37th Edition of the Ball Blue Book is available at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Blue-Book-Preserving-Digital-ebook/dp/B0136ZFKRS#detailBullets_feature_div . The latest edition is 38th which doesn't seem to be available anywhere, including from Ball. I have a pdf I got from somewhere - I don't recall where. It looks like a preprint proof so probably stemmed from a discussion with someone at Ball (the canning one, not the aerospace one).
I am NOT a rebel canner. Definitely food safety conscious.
As you may know, botulism is extremely rare in the wild. The reason for focus on it is that the bacteria Clostridium botulinum is extremely hard to kill. Use practices that kill that and you're safe from everything else. That's a good practice especially, as you note, when medical care is days if not weeks away.
My barbecue sauce story.
In my first job in 1982 (naval architecture and marine engineering, Webb '82) the company I joined had a summer picnic. The company paid for the venue and burgers and hot dogs while everything else was potluck. The senior secretaries who made up the organizing committee assigned me (young single male) to bring barbecue sauce. Clearly the expected me to buy jars at the grocery store. Ha! Before Internet other than a few sparse cooking resources on Usenet so I toddled off to the library. A cycle of research and testing to find something I was happy with and I made a couple of gallons. I used Ball quart jars (not canned, just handy). It was a hit. People put it on everything. Word got around pretty fast since all the contributions were labeled (and I wanted my jars back).
The following week, the unattached single women (engineers, drafters, accountants, contracts, secretaries) seemed to find reasons to stop by my desk. The older senior secretaries invited me home to dinner to meet their daughters. My social life exploded. This was a real adjustment for me. Not my experience previously.
I was very early in my cooking journey. I was now motivated. I spent evenings and weekends at home watching cooking shows. This was the golden age of public television cooking shows so I learned from real luminaries.
sail fast and eat well, dave
MathematicianSlow648@reddit
Me too. Parents spent the depression on a remote Island on the West Coast of Canada. Canned preservation of food was required to survive. I was taught these skills as a child. The knowledge served me well. Fresh caught tuna canned at sea is delicious two years later. A large frozen turkey bought cheap a day after Thanksgiving filled more than a case of quart jars. Many jars of jams, jellies, stews, were also put down. We always had a good supply of lids aboard and the jars were reused.
SVAuspicious@reddit
My grandmother did some canning but apparently used techniques we'd now consider rebel canning. When we cleaned out her house in the '90s everything left on the shelf was disposed of. I've kept up with latest recommendations from the US National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP), The Ball Big Blue Book of Canning (which isn't blue anymore), and HealthyCanning.com . I recommend the latter because it explicitly addresses old techniques that are no longer safe. The US Extension service has good science-based material as well although some states and counties have more depth and detail than others. My state (Maryland) extension only addresses gardening (which is good to have, but not enough in my opinion).
The NCHFP recipe for tuna looks straightforward.
I can in quarts and mostly pints and store them in athletic tube socks. I've never had any breakage or lids come loose. I too carry plenty of lids. I've standardized on wide mouth and also use the jars with vented lids for growing sprouts which are nice when the last cabbage is naught but a memory.
I'd value comparing your experience with the whole process especially storage to mine.
sail fast and eat well, dave
FairSeafarer@reddit
Tip: put rice & flours & other perishables affected by humidity in sealed containers. Actually, our flour and rice are in 5 gallons buckets, sealed with a twist rubber lid. They are probably available smaller than 5 gallons. We live on board full time, hence the 5 gallons.
SVAuspicious@reddit
I probably sail more than most people, so my stores may be different.
Cans - several sorts of beans, range of tomato products, tuna, clams, other odds and ends
Jars & bottles - condiments, home canned sauces, soup, and chutney
Dry - rice, flour, sugar, salt, range of pasta shapes in Lock-n-Lock containers, eggs, herbs and spices (a couple of dozen
Dehydrated - mushrooms
Frozen - chicken, beef, pork, lamb, peas, carrots, bagels, sourdough sandwich bread
I can manage to feed four for a week if they aren't too fussy. Dairy, produce, and fill-in and I can go two weeks and eat pretty well.
Cruising need not be camping.
sail fast and eat well, dave
RickGVI@reddit
Dried mushrooms are great. We buy whole shiitakes.
SVAuspicious@reddit
I love mushrooms. I buy them fresh and dry them myself. Cheaper. Takes a while. Do it just before you top up propane, not after. *grin*
RickGVI@reddit
Hey there DS!
SVAuspicious@reddit
Holla.
RickGVI@reddit
I’ve always enjoyed your writings on feeding crew well underway.
SVAuspicious@reddit
Thanks for your kind words. I really enjoy feeding people. Some of the stories I hear from crew about sailing with other skippers just make me sad.
My wife has been traveling a good bit to care for her father so I've had the kitchen to myself. A couple of days ago I made five lasagnas to feed the freezer for future trips. Last weekend I made five chicken pot pies.
I've come a long way since 1965 when my first cooking effort was a ketchup and potato chips sandwich on rye bread. *grin*
Envy you living in Coral Bay.
sail fast and eat well, dave
RickGVI@reddit
Spam! Deviled ham, Chata brand taco filling, refried beans, flavored beans like chili beans, corned beef hash, freeze dried eggs. We kept freeze dried veggies, but that was overkill. Onion powder and granulated garlic and cajun season were good enough. Gravy mix.
We put rice, pasta, flour, beans in lock-n-lock containers.
Our provisioning for Bahamas was epic. But everything was cheaper in the Dominican Republic. French islands are awesome for canned duck confit and more.
We had dehydrated hiker meals an emergency ration bars in our ditch bag.
Imodium. Pepto Bismol. Ex Lax. Bonine. Ibuprofen.
Secret-Temperature71@reddit
Well you can can/bottle your own meat. We use powdered, full fat milk. Find it in Spanish places or Walmart with a Spanish clientele. Canned tuna.
dwkfym@reddit
you can also get ultrapasturized milk. Tastes way better than powdered milk (actually, identical to normal pasturized milk), but takes up more room than powdered milk. also called 'box milk'
dilligaf0220@reddit
Tetra boxed UHT milk FTW! Forgot one in the truck of my car, for 6mos, still tasted fine.
Artimus_Plyed_409@reddit
The old timers always had a few cans of Dinty Moore rolling around in the bilge for e-supplies.
husqofaman@reddit
Can’t believe I had to scroll this far to see someone mention Dinty.
Yugpmoc@reddit
That stuff is great so long as you don’t read the label.
CapnJuicebox@reddit
Canned tuna fish in oil and Kraft dinner. Add one to the other. Consume.
Saltines and sardines. Add one to the other. Consume
Fishing line, fishing hook. Add one to the other. Catch ocean food.
One live cat. This helps prevent the other food from getting perished. In case of real emergency, it makes a pleasing sound and vibrates to keep you calm.
Beans and rice.
yowhywouldyoudothat@reddit
I will ignore the fact that you listed cat as an answer to shelf-stable foods.
vanatteveldt@reddit
A cat is an answer to tuna and sardines for sure
MongolianCluster@reddit
I found it very hard to ignore.
millijuna@reddit
Various soups in cartons… we do a fair bit of winter sailing, and there’s nothing quite likelike a mug of tomato soup while sitting at the tiller on a cold sunny day.
We also keep various shelf stable curries and boil in bag type things, instant rice, and so forth.
RoastedElephant@reddit
As a cheaper alternative to hiking meals/mre's, if you get a dehydrator you can dehydrate whole meals & sauces like curries, pastas, risottos, etc that can be heated up with a splash of water. There's a [YouTube channel] (https://youtu.be/zGFdSrEOwHs) that does this for long distance hiking and it translates well to long passage sailing.
dolphin_striker@reddit
Boxed wine
RikkiLostMyNumber@reddit (OP)
Tried that. Don't do it if you can't keep it cool. It gets mad hot inside my boat on the mooring with the hatches closed in summer, absolutely cooks this stuff.
tench745@reddit
I have read that keeping wines in the bilge below the waterline and against the hull helps to keep them cool. I'm not a wine drinker, so can't attest to its efficacy.
IncredibleVelocity4@reddit
Same for your MRE’s. They won’t last one summer. Mountain House might fare better.
C19shadow@reddit
Mount house but font use thier containers get food grade buckets with seals on the lids a little of food production places will give them away
Sir-Realz@reddit
Canned fish a hot boxed wine breakfast of champions.
frogbearpup@reddit
Dried beans or lentils or both
Rice, quinoa, pasta
Tinned tomatoes and other veggies
Jars of olives and roasted red pepper
Boxed tofu
Crackers and chips
Boxed milk or powdered milk
Tinned coconut milk
Trader Joe's tinned dolmades (been years since I've had these)
Protein Powder
Peanut butter
Tortillas if not planning to make your own
Flour, sugar, yeast
Chocolate bars, gummies/jellies
sola_mia@reddit
Oh great list! Forgot all about boxed tofu. And hell to the yes on the dolmadas.
sola_mia@reddit
A question dear to my heart...
Babybel cheese. Once found in a camping bag after a year unrefrigerated and it tasted delicious. Now I always keep on board in many flavors. And for that matter individual string cheese. ( Find it in bulk for cheaper)
Shelf stable milk and like mentioned above but more expensive, the juice box size if you don't drink a lot of milk.
Canned tamales, stews, etc
Fancy sardines and saltines
Pasta for days
Ghee and coconut oil aside from the regular oils
Bulk Freeze dried vegetables for beans and rice and so much more
I cook a lot so I brought just about all my spices aboard in smaller zip pouches that fit in a narrow box
Smoked sausages last much longer
Jerky
I'm sure it's terrible for me but Pillsbury roll tubes last quite a while in the cool. So fast and clutch on rare occasion
Fancy ramen packs from Asian market
Lots of canned and ' kid ' size fruit cups. Dried fruit.
Gourmet high protein oatmeal packs
Peanut butter, honey, individual jellies
Highest quality water additive powders: hydration, probiotic, immune, protein, caffeine
Tomatoes in every form except fresh.
More beer than I care to admit
Broths and bouillon
frogbearpup@reddit
Ummm I would like a case of these, please! Didn't even know this existed.
sola_mia@reddit
20 years ago I would have been too snobby to consume. Now I can't believe what I deprived myself of. There are some regional specialty ones, but honestly the Hormel brand really scratches my itches.
vballbeachbum1@reddit
Beer crackers sardines olives cheetos tea
Canuckleheadache@reddit
Great question with great responses. This’d be a good one to cross post to liveaboard.. can’t really add much to what’s been said. Big spice cabinet with lots that may never be used, various canned veg, tomato sauces, pastas, rices. And lots of Tea
gomets1969@reddit
Hardtack, questionably tinned victuals, chocolate, tobacco, and rum with lime. We like to keep it authentic on board.
archlich@reddit
A full bar of liquor
larfaltil@reddit
Cans of "peas, corn & carrots". Dried mushrooms, wakame & rice. Cook the rice & dried mushrooms in the vege liquid in the can. Add the wakame & veg from the can. Serve with whatever meat you have.
Tinned corned beef & or mutton. Tinned tomatoes. Tins of braised steak & onions (not much meat, lots of gravy). Potatoes & onions.
Biggoofywhiteguy@reddit
Ramen that comes in the cardboard tubs can be pretty good. Kipper snacks.
whyrumalwaysgone@reddit
Canned food of course, baking stuff. In a lot of Central America you can get stuff in bags instead of cans, like refried beans, sweetened condensed milk, mayonnaise, etc. Stows better than cans
Arizona_Sailor@reddit
All the provisions mentioned Idahoan potatoes
Fishing gear Rum or whatever suits ya Various nuts, pretzel rolls, Cheezits, chocolates Gourmet olives, pickles Jerky Chilorio (meat).
Sir-Realz@reddit
Canned fish of corse
colombian-neck-tie@reddit
Cocaine, ciggies, beer and chips
Saltlife_Junkie@reddit
My 4 course meal plan as well. Also helps me keep the wait off⬆️
morrowgirl@reddit
Milk juice boxes are great for coffee. You could also use them for overnight oats - equal parts oats/dairy/add in chia seeds for fiber (fiber and fluids help keep you regular), yogurt if you have it. Maybe metamucil to help with the aforementioned regularity.
Some other boat meals include ramen bowls with chicken pouches, Annie's (add in frozen veg if you have access to it), those tasty bite pouches (rice and vaguely Indian dishes). There is some overlap with ski trip meals and boat meals for me.
Sea-Oven-7560@reddit
TVP if seasoned properly is a decent substitute for ground beef, I’m not a vegetarian but I thought it tasted fine.
frogbearpup@reddit
Oh yeah, this stuff is awesome! Soak in soy or Worcester and season liberally!
morrowgirl@reddit
I've never heard of it but I'll have to look into that.
Shhheeeesshh@reddit
Ever been to taco bell? That’s why that can’t call it beef and are required to add the Y.
DarkVoid42@reddit
i have 1 month worth of those civilian hiking meals.
morologous@reddit
Same - a number of “Mountain House” freeze dried backpacking meals. Just add boiling water. The food is pretty good and intended to fuel physical activity.
frogbearpup@reddit
I used to love these but then had food poisoning from one during a crossing. And... Never again.
Waterlifer@reddit
We carry a number of the better backpacking meals, some breakfast, some dinner-like, aboard as a contingency, and occasionally pull a couple of them out. Go to REI and get some of the ones that have good reviews, try them at home first, pick a few favorites and get those.
Unlike backpacking, weight isn't limiting, so you can include wet-canned items. I choose items that will last for a summer and just take them home and eat them if they are unused. This opens up all kinds of choices. Pick ones you like.
We carry dried noodles, rice, hot cereal, and flour.
We carry canned soup, because it is easy to heat up and a real pleasure on a cold, wet watch.
We carry tomato paste and the spice packets that can be mixed with tomato paste and water to make spaghetti sauce.
We carry canned tuna fish, and peanut butter, and cans of chili, and sardines, and summer sausage, because they are full of protein and store well. (Don't bring food you don't like though)
Crackers are more compact and keep better than chips.
sailingtroy@reddit
Canned chili. Freeze dried camping food from mec. Tea bags. Ginger candies.