Cooking on board.

[NornaBiron]

This is our first year as liveaboards and I can give you exactly what we spent on Camping Gas on our way down to the Algarve. We carry 3 bottles which we rotate and you will be surprised just how long Camping Gas lasts for. Firstly just forget about rip off Britain...£30 a bottle in Mylor and pretty much everywhere around Falmouth.
Gigon in France it was 24eu (all these prices obviously exchange)
Ilse Cies in the Spanish Rias 20eu
Cascais Portugal 16.50eu
Alvor Portugal 14.25eu
Lagos Portugal 12.80eu

When in the marina we use a microwave, toaster, kettle and have also invested in a small portable induction hob. This makes things far far more civilised. The only problem we have encountered is if you forget to switch off our electric oil filled radiator it will trip the electric if you put the hob on as well. We do use the gas alongside the hob and my wife can cook pretty much anything...including a full on Sunday roast.. we have a Smev Oven. We as many others use our Cobb and now, because I really detest having to clean the thing, have found somewhere that sells the Cobb foil liners which you can just lift out and throw away when you have finished cooking.

ps my wife would also like to give a tip...invest in a Mr D Thermal cooker...she says it is fantastic for stews and casserole's.

Save your money on the very expensive Mr D and buy a Wonderbag instead, which does exactly the same thing at a fraction of the price, using your existing pans. And use a large cake tin or foil tray on the Cobb and there is no messy moat to clean at all.

 

[OldBawley]

Even a wonderbag is over the top. It´s all the same old hay box.
When I cook a big pot of Whelks ( I use a small whelk trap when anchored for a few days ) I cook the whelks together with herbs, spices and vegetables for 5 minutes, then put the casserole in the cockpit with a mohair blanket around it and a lot of kapok cockpit cushions around it.
Next morning the pot is still so hot I can´t put my fingers in the soup to get the whelks out of their shells. Don't forget, above 45 ° C it is slow cooking and the snails get tender.
The cleaned muscle of the snail can then be frozen, or better canned.
Power food.
Not exactly whelks, in the Med I catch the Murex sea snail. Same but a bit smaller than a whelk.

 

[Garry & June 'Friendship']

Even a wonderbag is over the top. It´s all the same old hay box.
When I cook a big pot of Whelks ( I use a small whelk trap when anchored for a few days ) I cook the whelks together with herbs, spices and vegetables for 5 minutes, then put the casserole in the cockpit with a mohair blanket around it and a lot of kapok cockpit cushions around it.
Next morning the pot is still so hot I can´t put my fingers in the soup to get the whelks out of their shells. Don't forget, above 45 ° C it is slow cooking and the snails get tender.
The cleaned muscle of the snail can then be frozen, or better canned.
Power food.
Not exactly whelks, in the Med I catch the Murex sea snail. Same but a bit smaller than a whelk.

lol wonderbags I can just about live with but mohair blankets and cockpit cushions is way too agricultural...this isn't the 19th century.
Mr D may be expensive but wife loves it and what keeps her happy is good enough for me !!

 

[Lyndsey Doyle]

Good morning, I would like to comment that you all seem to lead very complicated lives.

The Taylors paraffin cooker on my vessel is some 50 + yrs old ( made in Maldon, Essex to a high standard of British engineering) and takes 90 seconds to 'spool up'. It looks good too. Very good indeed in my view.

Personally I love opening my eyes when I wake up, and looking around the cabin and seeing the gleaming, inviting copper kettle.

It's not all about brute efficiency, or economy either (though paraffin and Jet A1 are cheap and global). I have learned that cooking is a spiritual experience. No pun intended!

I' m not being 'funny', but do others choose their sailing lifestyle for aesthetic or philosophical satisfaction, and gladly accept embrace little delays and inconveniences, or do some constantly hunt the very latest technology with instant response time?

What's the actual point of it all unless you are in love with your boat? Otherwise, I would jack it in.


I will try and upload a photo. if poss Regards LD

PS sorry about the mess, I don't have any 'posed shots' to hand, that is a random historical snap during the course of a previous gimbal improvement, just to give a taste of the "ambience", as they say down here.

More shots to follow of the Taylors 'in action' if anyone would like. (A 'niche' interest if ever there was..)

PPS I have only recently registered on this forum, I would be very interested in exchanging galley photos!

 

[boatmike]

Actually Lindsay I agree with you! Boating is such a diverse thing and you only have to look around any marina or anchorage to see that. I have owned a vintage wooden gaffer and loved it but moved to AWBs because of the high maintenance. Then to multihulls (which you might hate but I loved as much in different ways), and now in my dotage have downsized to a 33 ft MoBo because it keeps me boating and is less work. I remember Taylor spirit stoves as a love/hate thing. I am now at the other end of the spectrum though and trying to get the best compromise now I have lots of leccy power. Don't loose the faith though, I know exactly where you are coming from and look back on my "gaffer days" with great fondness!

 

[boatmike]

This is our first year as liveaboards and I can give you exactly what we spent on Camping Gas on our way down to the Algarve. We carry 3 bottles which we rotate and you will be surprised just how long Camping Gas lasts for. Firstly just forget about rip off Britain...£30 a bottle in Mylor and pretty much everywhere around Falmouth.
Gigon in France it was 24eu (all these prices obviously exchange)
Ilse Cies in the Spanish Rias 20eu
Cascais Portugal 16.50eu
Alvor Portugal 14.25eu
Lagos Portugal 12.80eu

When in the marina we use a microwave, toaster, kettle and have also invested in a small portable induction hob. This makes things far far more civilised. The only problem we have encountered is if you forget to switch off our electric oil filled radiator it will trip the electric if you put the hob on as well. We do use the gas alongside the hob and my wife can cook pretty much anything...including a full on Sunday roast.. we have a Smev Oven. We as many others use our Cobb and now, because I really detest having to clean the thing, have found somewhere that sells the Cobb foil liners which you can just lift out and throw away when you have finished cooking.

ps my wife would also like to give a tip...invest in a Mr D Thermal cooker...she says it is fantastic for stews and casserole's.

Useful information Garry and June. Looked at the Mr D and it appears basically to work on the same principle as a slow cooker without the need to be "plugged in" all the time. I certainly concur that slow cooking is great for casseroles and stews. We will certainly take ours with us as it will be useful. It appears that many use a portable single burner induction hob and as I am doing a galley refit I am probably inclined to hard wire in a 2 burner domestic one at 3000w but of course you are right that you cant switch everything on at the same time without tripping out the supply. A good rule is that if it will run off a 13 amp supply it's OK for shore supply (13amp x 240v = 3120w) but you have to be aware that often shore supply has a considerable voltage drop due to long cables and 13amp x 220 = only 2860w so basically 2 hob rings is the practical maximum without tripping and if you boil a kettle at the same time it will go OTT. So careful management is important as you indicate...

 

[boatmike]

Supplimentary question then. As there are microwave ovens available with grill and conventional convection oven features do any of you lot use a microwave on convection rather than a gas oven? Trying ours at home it appears to bake totties very well (Yes I know you can microwave them but I like crispy skin) but we have still to experiment with other things. Frankly if it will roast a small joint or a chicken using less than 2500w it is a contender for replacing the gas oven. We don't use it at home very much as we have a twin oven Rangemaster, but that might be a bit heavy for a 33ft boat so we will experiment further with the microwave as a convection oven at home before shipping aboard.

 

[OldBawley]

Just an example of why I like diversity in energy.

In December 2001 We ware under way from Santa Maria Di Leuca to Corfu.

In those days weather forecasts ware not what they are now, and hard to get. Mid December, so even the coastguard station in Leuca was closed, had to rely on navtex and SSB broadcasts.
Anyway, we made a dash for it, starting late afternoon, sail trough the night and have daylight to pass the narrow between Albania and Corfu.
Met some very bad weather, had to seek shelter behind Othenoy island.
I had never before sailed in 30 knots of wind at night, boy oh boy.
A bigger yacht that left with us had even more problems. The poor guy never sailed again after arriving at Corfu 4 days later.
We ware stuck two weeks on the deserted island. Not quit deserted, maybe 10 people living there in Winter. No ferry´s due to the storms, no phone, no water, no leccy but lots of fresh oranges.

Not even a shop. Pericles from the taverna loaned us whatever he could miss food wise, up to the last chicken on the island.
Our first contact with Greek hospitality.
Snow on deck each morning.
To cold in the morning for gas to burn. That island is where we learned to cook on the wood stove.
We had a very enjoyable time on Othenoy.

I realize most people are not so stupid as to get into situations like that, still we remember Othenoy as a lovely island, after all, if you want plain normal life you´d better stay at home.

 

[Garry & June 'Friendship']

Supplimentary question then. As there are microwave ovens available with grill and conventional convection oven features do any of you lot use a microwave on convection rather than a gas oven? Trying ours at home it appears to bake totties very well (Yes I know you can microwave them but I like crispy skin) but we have still to experiment with other things. Frankly if it will roast a small joint or a chicken using less than 2500w it is a contender for replacing the gas oven. We don't use it at home very much as we have a twin oven Rangemaster, but that might be a bit heavy for a 33ft boat so we will experiment further with the microwave as a convection oven at home before shipping aboard.

My better half has used the convection oven feature on our microwave for occasionally making cakes although she says it does not do as good a job as the Smev gas oven. Also (and I don't know if this specific to ours!) be very careful with the amount of heat which is pumped out of the top of the microwave in convection mode. I noticed on ours just in time before it would probably have melted an interior panel...it gets very very hot. So hot infact that now if she does want to use it for cakes I carry it into the cockpit for her to use.

 

[Tranona]

More shots to follow of the Taylors 'in action' if anyone would like. (A 'niche' interest if ever there was..)

Glad you like your Taylors - I like mine for the same reasons.

However it was not made in Maldon but at varying locations on the South coast depending on who owned the business at the time. Has been in Warsash for many years, now owned by Seasure.

 

[boatmike]

Interesting Garry. Ours is a Russell Hobs and although it gets warm you can still rest your hand on top. I guess it's a matter of how well insulated they are. For microwave use they don't need to be well insulated I suppose but for more conventional cooking they do so it's something to watch for.

 

[Heckler]

So what is the cost of Camping Gaz in France and Spain then? I have seen it at higher than UK prices in Brittany but perhaps less further south? I also see caravan owners talking about other brands of Gas obtainable from Supermarkets. The big problem as I see it with CGaz is the tiny bottles. If there were bigger bottles like Calor available then perhaps I would not worry about induction cooking.
I am also interested in what Graham says regarding roasting. Never had much success ourselves. What do others think? What brands of oven do you have?

21 euros in Albufeir marina, 12 ish euros in Portimao hardware shop.
S

 

[FullCircle]

Mike, you bought a teak table from us some years ago.... We changed our Eno Gascogne for a Nelson Spinflo and find the hobs, grill and oven far superior, and roasts well. We also have a Cobb, and I cooked our Christmas roast on it a couple of years ago, worked perfectly, and we slow roasted the veg in the moat. The interesting part of the Cobb is that you can carry it round while you are cooking if you want, and put it on the deck or sole, as it is very well insulated. We have found that the real cobblestones are around 50% more efficient than the counterfeit ones. Briquettes and charcoal do also work well, but seem to burn a lot hotter, sometimes not alwasys a good thing.
We also have a pressure cooker which does things a lot quicker than a MrD (but we have one of those too) and can be well loaded with veg. Saves a lot of gas by quick cook techniques.
Mr D is well recommended for soups, stews, curries and bread/cakes(but no crusts, bit odd). but you need to plan ahead. Definately the most fuel efficient cooking method, and we store it in the aft cabin when full and cooking to leave more space in the galley.
We also changed over to silicone moulded oven trays and cake tins - they fold up to nothing and cant be broken or bent.
Kettle is a 2 cup 850w from Aldi for £5.99 and we can use it from our inverter if we need, but we also carry the whistling kettle for gas work when needed.
We also invested in a gas switchover, and have both propane and butane regulators with a variety of bottle fittings worldwide. We also carry a filling/transfer kit, and generally stick to propane as it works better in lower temps than butane. Remember to carry weighing scales, and mark each bottle with its tare weight for filling accuracy.
Would like a combi microwave but can't find the galley space in our 35ft.
I can see the logic for your electric hob, just isn't in our plan.
Best of luck.

 

[boatmike]

Hi Jim, thanks for that. I think the difference as I have said before is that now we have a MoBo we are not going to be economising on electricity as much as we were with the catamaran. I have performed some experiments with our Russell Hobs microwave at home using the convection alternative and it works remarkably well with much more even cooking than the gas oven we have. It runs on 2500 watts so a bit over 10 amps so should be fine on shore supply although unthinkable on 12v of course! If we have an induction hob as well it will of course be either/or so we will certainly need a gas hob as well if we run the MW. We have a slow cooker too and this will probably do a lot for us, and a gas bbq sat on the aft rail outside will I am sure get a lot of use. My quandary as you indicate with yours is space. I could probably mount the microwave above the worksurface but I don't like heavy things high up for obvious reasons so am debating dumping the conventional oven and putting the mw in its place low down. Whatever we do its going to be a compromise and depend very largely on how we use the boat, but having fitted a relatively quiet 4KW diesel generator we wont be stuck for power if not hooked up to shore supply. If it were not for this I might be tempted to invest in a top of the range cooker like you have to run on gas but the one we have just does not get used. It burns everything at the back and undercooks at the front!

 

[blampied]

Hi Jim, thanks for that. I think the difference as I have said before is that now we have a MoBo we are not going to be economising on electricity as much as we were with the catamaran. I have performed some experiments with our Russell Hobs microwave at home using the convection alternative and it works remarkably well with much more even cooking than the gas oven we have. It runs on 2500 watts so a bit over 10 amps so should be fine on shore supply although unthinkable on 12v of course! If we have an induction hob as well it will of course be either/or so we will certainly need a gas hob as well if we run the MW. We have a slow cooker too and this will probably do a lot for us, and a gas bbq sat on the aft rail outside will I am sure get a lot of use. My quandary as you indicate with yours is space. I could probably mount the microwave above the worksurface but I don't like heavy things high up for obvious reasons so am debating dumping the conventional oven and putting the mw in its place low down. Whatever we do its going to be a compromise and depend very largely on how we use the boat, but having fitted a relatively quiet 4KW diesel generator we wont be stuck for power if not hooked up to shore supply. If it were not for this I might be tempted to invest in a top of the range cooker like you have to run on gas but the one we have just does not get used. It burns everything at the back and undercooks at the front!

Hi Mike
Mounting the microwave high up ?
I was also worried about safety, how to secure it.
I was also concerned for lack of hand hold outside just forward of the cockpit, lack of a first natural something to grab when going forward from the cockpit onto the side deck.
Fitting a grab handle outside the boat just forward of the cockpit solved both problems, gave me the hand hold I wanted but also provided a very secure fixing point for the microwave on the inside.

 

[boatmike]

Good point Paul. I already have grab handles both sides. Will review.

 

[boatman61]

Why don't you get the Spanish red bottles.. they work fine

 

[GrahamM376]

Mounting the microwave high up ? I was also worried about safety, how to secure it.

Mine is mounted high up. Fixed some "upside down" shelf brackets (so they're hidden behind it) and bolted a piece of ply to them. Marked around the microwave feet and cut some ply donuts, screwed and glued down, for the feet to sit in so it can't slide around when heeled. Then have a cam buckle strap all the way round which would hold it even if inverted.

 

[boatmike]

Well after all considerations I have replaced the old oven with a shiny new "Dometic Moonlight" which has 3 burners and a grill inside the oven. We have also bought a Tefal induction hob which should get lots of use methinks. Looked at combination microwaves but frankly they are either too big and heavy or like others have said on here the smaller cheaper ones get very hot when on convection so we will stick with the existing microwave that will be stowed when not in use. We also have a gas BBQ to go on the aft rail, a slow cooker and electric kettle and toaster so are happy to go with that. Now concentrating on fitting my nice shiny new 4 blade props and replacement anodes etc ........

 

[Artic Warrior]

Ive just been reading what Morgans cloud had to say about his Force 10 and he had many many problems with it.
Shame because my Taylors 41 is getting old and I like the idea of a force10