Living on a sailboat means not being able to go to the store for the last minute ingredient in a meal. This part isn’t really new to me as we lived thirty minutes from a grocery store when we lived on land. I shopped once a week and The Captain would stop on the way home from work for the occasional extra gallon of milk. The difference now, is space and refrigeration.
With the new healthy living phenomena we’re all becoming more aware the advantages of eating right. We stay away from processed food, sweets, gluten, and even meat. This means shopping smarter, eating at home and having the stores available when you need them.
Not only is it more fun to cook when you have the ingredients on hand, it’s cheaper to feed your family with a bit of planning.
Two weeks ago we talked about soup. Having the right stores on hand makes creativity easier. Sign on with me, prepare to re-organize your kitchen and together we can discover the right stores for your galley.
So let’s get started with Eggs, dairy and fats.
Unless you are vegan or allergic to eggs, instead think egg substitute, you’ll want to have a dozen or two on hand at all times . Refrigerated, eggs will keep from 3-4 weeks. By themselves, they can be boiled, poached, fried or scrambled. You can make them into omelets, or soufflés. Eggs work well in sauces, pancakes, pasta and cakes, not to mention other baked goods for leavening.
Eggs are versatile and are always available for an emergency breakfast at anytime. Keeping a few hard boiled eggs on hand you can whip up tuna, chicken, salmon or ham salad spread in a jiffy.
Milk is a commodity that we’ve had to be more inventive about since moving aboard. Refrigeration is very limited and thus, instead of buying 4 gallons of milk a week on my supply trip, I stock up on Long life milk or UHT, ultra heat treatment milk. Neither of these need refrigeration until openned. There are expiration dates, but they can sit in my cupboards for a month or more.
I really only use the long life milk for cereal, soup and pudding. My other sources of milk are powdered fat free milk and buttermilk. Oh, yeah, did you know about powdered buttermilk? This is great and you can find it in the baking section of your local grocery. No need to have quarts of buttermilk that you can’t use all at once. 4 tablespoons of this powder to 1 cup of water adds a wonderful flavor to pancakes, scones and biscuits. This is a must for every pantry shelf.
Rounding out my dairy stores are large and small cans of evaporated milk, which is a great addition, when I don’t want to open 4 cups of long life milk, to sauces, gravies and baked goods.
I keep a can of sweetened condensed milk on hand for those occasional sweet treats. But, more important several cans of table cream grace my shelves. This is a heavy cultured cream close to sour cream and can be used as a substitute. This little gem will enhance soups, casseroles and dips. A tablespoon of this 7.6 oz can goes a long way and I can store the remainder in a small container in the refrigerator.
I do keep 8 oz. of sour cream in the refrigerator as it stores well. This comes in handy for dips and salad dressings. We keep no bottled dressings on board as I can make small amounts with each new salad we make and no storage concerns. When available I also keep 8 oz. of plain yogurt onboard.
Rounding out our discussion today is the all important solid fats, namely butter. I keep as much unsalted stick butter onboard as I can as this is a common ingredient in all the bread baking I do. Unlike in the states, I can also get inexpensive sweet cream butter in the islands as it tends to be a subsidized commodity. Irish Butter is our favorite spread for biscuits and sweet breads. In the back-up locker is at least one can of canned butter and Crisco lard for those delectable pastries.
Take a moment to look at your pantry and see if you have these basics. I assure you, they will come in handy in a pinch. Check how many of each you have on hand. Some pantries/freezers I’ve seen have way more than they can use in a year and others too few. Go ahead and put a note on the refrigerator and over the next several weeks concentrate on your egg, dairy and fat use. Find the right quantities for you and build your grocery list accordingly.
Do you have specific stores on your shelves or do you impulse buy because you’re not sure?
Oh I’m a terrible impulse buyer. And I generally have on hand less than half the ingredients needed for any single recipe. I’m afraid if I lived aboard ship, I’d be borrowing from the neighbors (if there were any!) constantly!
Okay Carrie, just stick with me and we’ll get your galley all set up and I promise it will be painless.
I do have the powders buttermilk. It keeps a long time and is wonderful in recipes calling for buttermilk. (Which I would NEVER have in the fridge) My project this evening is to clean and organize my pantry shelves. If I do not, I tend to lose things and then buy more thinking I am out. Only to find later that I have 4 bottles of soy sauce or three of worchestershire!!!
Carol organization is part of the key. I used to have that problem too with those item I seldom used, but needed when I needed them. Lists are better for me and I usually have a grocery list posted close at hand and add the item I just emptied to it. That way I always know.
Very interesting and informative! I did pick up some powdered buttermilk recently and it made some awesome waffles.
Isn’t dry buttermilk great. Now I just need to find it here in islands. I didn’t pack enough when leaving the states, or I’m using too much along the way. I’m not sure the captain would agree with the second possibility.
It sounds like you have these things down to a fine art! I’m going to pick up some powdered buttermilk right away. Any time I need it for a recipe, I end up throwing most away. Thanks for the tip!
Patricia, glad I could help. I think you’ll find it convenient. Mine sometimes gets hard and stuck together both stored in the refrigerator or the cupboard, but mixing it with hot water breaks up the chunks nicely. I guarantee you don’t want to get stuck with biting into a chunk.