Provisioning for an Atlantic Crossing?

[Gerry]

Instant gravy mixes really pep up all sorts of foods. Porridge is easy to eat and filling even when the weather is too rough to prepare anything else as it dosn't slip off the plate!
Excellent vac packed smoked chickens available in the canaries with one month shelf life, eaten cold or heated with afore mentioned gravy mix and some veg.
loads of snacks for the long night watches, its dark on average for 12 hours a day!Batteries for the MP3 player and loads of audio books. Enjoy, took us 32 days, don't ask, but what an experience!

 

[DolphinLady]

Cabbage, that has not been refrigerated, lasts for ever, along with onions and garlic. The cabbage makes salad or a vegetable. Mung bean sprouts are also easy and tasty on passage. The Canaries offer some delicious seafood in cans such as octopus and squid which can liven up spaghetti sauces. Have fun! Spend the whole day planning a delicious dinner, best served just before sunset. I have crossed 6 times now, only once with refrigeration. Served up roast dinner every day on that trip! A walk in freezer helped. My last trip was on a 30' wood boat and we ate really well. Water is precious and shampoo works well in salt water. A brief rinse in a cup of fresh feels nice though.

 

[kingfisher]

1) Don't buy anything from the refrigerated section of the supermarket. Unless you have a fridge on-board and are certain that it won't fail, that the generator won't fail, that you won't run out of fuel
2) learn to bake bread
3) Marks & Spencer has good canned curries
4) As said: log where you store what. Or have a system (cupboard1=junk&sweets, cupboard2:breakfast, cupboard3:wheat,rice,pasta,..)
5) Write the contents of the can on the top with a permanent marker. Can wrappers have a tendency to fall off in humid environments. It's difficult to guess the contents of a can without wrapper.
6) Have two or three survival meals: things that will *never* go off, and are easy to make. Ex. M&S Chicken Tika and rice; Pasta, canned tomatoes, canned tuna. Keep these seperate. They serve to ease your peace of mind in case where all goes pear-shaped, you still have a few meals. Even when weekend cruising, I have those, so if I arrive late and all is closed, I can still offer the crew a meal:
7) The job of cook is the most important function on board. If the food is good, the crew is happy. If the food is bad, the crew will whine and complain, and makes them happy.
8) You can never have enough rice or pasta. What's the point of going hungry for a few pence. Calculate the amount needed, and *double* it.
9)Cook pasta and potatoes in sea water

Does anybody have any experience with dried ham or bacon on board for long journeys?

 

[ccscott49]

Spanish ham, the leg type parma thingies! Last for ever! Tinned ham is good, if you get good ones, like "ye olde oak", used to be able to get tinned bacon, not sure if you can now. Maybe one of the old colonial stores might still have it. I just freeze mine, but vqacumn packed and in the fridge, lasts at least a month, I forgot a packet once, was OK. Well I didnt die anyway!