Any professional or hobby cook here who wants to shear their Secret recipe?:
All I can add is if working on a tugboat and making bacon, figure 1 pound of bacon per man. At least thats how we did it.
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In rough weather where a sit-down meal is not possible, I like to bake a fresh loaf of bread with a generous amount of honey added. Both the smell of it baking and eating it seems to settle the stomach and it is easy to rip a piece off and eat it with one hand.
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Many fishing boats here with two or three crew have a breadmaker. The ingredients are all normal pantry items and they typically use about 500 watts only.
Michelle’s Brownies (My talented, charming, and beautiful wife…who is sitting next to me ensuring I give proper credit. The pokey knitting needles are a strong incentive to follow her suggestion) In a microwave safe bowl, melt 2 sticks of butter. Stir in 2 cups of white sugar, 4 eggs, a dash of vanilla, lunch of salt, and a cup of flour. CAREFULLY fold in about 3/4 cup of cocoa powder (Hershey’s Special Dark is the upgrade) and one cup of chocolate chips. Spread in a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake for about 22 minutes at 350 or until a toothpick comes out clean…poke it in a couple of places as the chocolate chips can give false readings. Let cool a bit, then slice. Best when warm w/ice cream and homemade raspberry jam.
Lasagna: Brown 1# of ground beef, add 2TBS Italian seasoning and about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper. Dump in a 28-32oz jar of spaghetti sauce, then set aside. To a 15oz container of ricotta cheese, stir in one egg, and 1/4 cup of grated or shredded Parmesan cheese.
Spread 2 cups of the meat sauce in a 9 x 13 pan, gently press in 4 UNCOOKED lasagna noodles lengthwise, then break a fifth noodle to fit the gap across the end of the pan. With a spatula, spread the ricotta on the noodles and sprinkle with about 1 cup of shredded mozzarella, and then top with 1 1/2 cups of the sauce. Add uncooked noodles too the top of the sauce as above, put the rest of the sauce on top of everything, then sprinkle another cup of mozzarella across the sauce
Cover and bake for about 50min at 350. Uncover for the last 10min. Let rest for 10-15min then cut and serve
Work Boat food. Easy, tasty.
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I’ve been in a couple of ships that ran out of store-bought bread. The second cook started baking loaves daily, and the galley door would be ringed with heads poking in at coffee-time.
When my wife and I rode a towboat from Alton to Memphis in the early 70’s, the standard crew putdown of lesser boats was “They eat store bread."
The cook was a retired Navy Chief who had been cook for the Kennedys at Hyannis.
Cheers,
Earl
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Easy bread: 1 1/2 cups warm water, stir in 2 tsp dry yeast, a generous squeeze of honey (or a TBS or so of sugar/molasses/maple syrup, etc) and let sit for 15 -20 min. Stir in 3 cups of white flour (add a TBS of salt and 2 TBS of olive / vegetable oil OR melted butter after the first cup). When combined, cover loosely and let rise for at least 8 hrs, or up to 24 hours…do NOT knead.
Preheat a cover cast iron Dutch oven for 30 min in a 450 deg oven. While preheating, dump/scrape out the dough to a well floured sheet of parchment paper, dust the top with more flour. Shape it to something vaguely round and then place the parchment and dough in the Dutch oven and return to the oven. Bake for 45 min, then uncover and let brown for 10-15 min. NOTE: trim the parchment back once the lid is on the Dutch oven or make dang sure it is tucked inside.
Optional: when stirring in the flour, add a 1/4 of dried onion and a generous TBS of dried rosemary (rub it around in your hands to crush it a bit).
Have butter ready when bread is done.
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Sounds good. I don’t know what recipes were used in those ships I mentioned.
My wife’s been making me organic mixed-grain bread for years. She got her start with the book “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day”.
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