Walden at Sea

[maxiSwede]

Since brine is water saturated with salt (about 25%) I guess their lives will be short. :D

I certainly hope yours will last a lot longer... ;D

BTW preserving fish in brine on fishing vessels is said to be good for 7 weeks.

[Manannan]

One more thing on this fishy discussion...

Before talking about canning, brine, and keep this 3 foot tuna for weeks, remember, sushis are good, then also raw tuna marinated in soy sauce and teriyaki sauce, or marinated in lime or lemon tahitian style etc.. etc..Then grilled,  (seared) fried, cold with MaxiSwede's homemade mayo, or in salad. In stew, wonderful !! and leftovers from all that are even good for breakfast... But  before everything..., catch the fish, and that for me is the main problem !! ;D

[sailorflo]

Capt Smollett wrote:

>allows one more opportunity to meet, interact and become immersed in where one is.<

One of the best times I ever had was working as an illegal migrant farm worker in Italy harvesting the wine grape crop, hiding from the local police when they came around checking for illegals.

Hope the statue of limitation is past  ;D

Didn't the Pardeys write a book about the 'Cost Concious Cruiser'?

Oded

[Shipscarver]

$1 a day. Wow! Sounds like a great project.  I couldn't provision for that, and I'm a veg.
However, most folks believe that there's nothing like an "old yoke" at dawn. :)
When I was a kid, and Mama kept the cave clean for us, we did our "emergency" eggs with paraffin. And, more often varnish (it may have been shellac I can't remember for sure) and then coated them with beaten egg white before putting them down in a bed of either sawdust or grain. I do remember, for sure: 1: the eggs had to be fresh from the hen (not a store because they refrigerated them, a big NO - NO); 2. The wet eggs had to be dried sitting on an ink blotter, and a touch up done after they dried (you could break the shell picking it up if left on the bare table); 3. They had to be stored big end up.  I hope someone else remembers if it was varnish as I remember, or shellac which seems more logical.
We also used to can eggs, by blanching them in boiling water and putting them down in quart ball jars, and sealing with care.
I was dragged, kicking and screaming, to help put up at least 200 quarts each of tomatoes, potatoes, corn, and peaches every year, in addition to eggs, and popcorn (the easy one). And, then there was the cucumber pickling in 15 gallon crocks, and the sweet bread and butter pickles in ball jars.  Of course the fun started when my Uncle and Dad supervised the 100 gallons of red wine and 50 gallons of blackberry wine produced every year, a smell not easily forgotten.  Wahooooo! But, the floating powers that be might frown on a bubbling barrel of red.

[newt]

Wow! Lots of good information floating in the bilges around here. :)
Shipscarver, I am just dying to know how long those paraffin coated eggs lasted- a week, a month, a year? And when did they start tasting funny, or smelling funny when you broke them open.(They may not have been bad, but my wife would not have eaten them)  I had heard my mom doing something like this too during the depression.
Manannan- if we run into each other in port, you can just have fish from my locker. I have a kid that lives for trolling off the sailboat. Every time we see a flock of gulls diving he puts in his concoction of lures in and comes up with one or two tuna. Getting blood out of the cockpit is my major problem. I think he is going to start cleaning all fish in the dingy.
One last question MaxiSwede- do you just throw the fish in the brine (past cleaning) or do you anything special to prepare them for their final swim?

[Shipscarver]

Hey Newt -
I don't remember how long eggs lasted at max for shelf life. But, I do remember doing them at Thanksgiving eve, and having them New Years morning.  Tastes like eggs. :) Of course, Mama always said to break each egg into a cup before adding it to the pan so you wouldn't waste a batch with a spoiled egg. I wouldn't say it is the reason, but we also cooked eggs with onion, pepper, tomatoes, and cheese when we had it.
BTW - I grew up on powdered milk, the canned condensed was too expensive to waste for anything except baking. I think when folks don't like PM, the reason is, no fat. Their response is just the other side of the coin from mine. I think cold skim milk is kinda heavy, but a treat. However, I REALLY can't handle regular milk. 
Gee, it is hard to believe that there so many Doubting Thomas sailors when it comes to canning fish. Doesn't anybody speak Norwegian anymore?
::)

[Auspicious]

I'm a little late to the party on this thread, so please forgive me for bouncing around.

Disclaimer: I have a fridge and a freezer. For longer trips there is only so much space and I have been trying out ways to both reduce the stuff that has to be chilled and to minimize the number of items I "stock."

Eggs can keep a long time. The issue as I understand it is that when the internal membrane dries air gets in through the porous shell and the egg will spoil. I bought refrigerated eggs from Tesco in England and finished the last of them off about two months later in Annapolis. All I did was flip the whole Styrofoam package over a couple of times a week.

The components of bread (flour, yeast, water, etc) keep a very long time. I do miss my old stand mixer, but it doesn't take much longer to do everything by hand. I have an oven but no thermostat so I have to keep an eye on it.

maxiSwede is right on about making your own mayo. Again, the components last indefinitely. I use a KitchenAid immersion blender (you need at least a small inverter) to make mayo. It takes less then a minute. I haven't done it with a whisk (yet) but mayo predates electricity so it must be do-able.

I've had great luck with UHT milk. In my grocery it is in the aisle with international and organic foods. It is available in six-packs of half-pint drink boxes which works wonderfully for me. Once opened it should be used or chilled.

I keep a couple of boxes of blueberry muffin mix (includes little cans of blueberries). Makes for nice breakfasts and late-night snacks.

Lock & Lock containers are much better IMHO than Rubbermaid or Tupperware. I have yet to experience a spill.

One piece of conventional wisdom that doesn't work for me at all is to use hanging nets. I understand the ventilation issue, but the movement while sailing seems to quickly bruise and wear through the skins of whatever is in the net. It isn't worth the mess below to me.

sail fast, dave

[maxiSwede]

Newt -

I cannot brag of actually having any personal experience with this , yet.

I would do it like this though. Firstly, do what you usually do before cooking fish. Like gutting, cutting the head and tail off etcetera. Then either scrub(right word) the scales off or skin the fish.
Then either cut fillets or just pieces from the fish. Put in a tight container and fill it up with brine... I guess. erh, good luck buy the way  ::)

BTW, I could do with a lesson or two from your son in fishing from the sailing boat too.

I used to fish a lot when I grew up, but that was in lakes and rivers. Feel slightly lost when I try it at sea.. . there's a lot of water around  ;D ;)

[newt]

Actually my son is one of the laziest fishers around, maybe that is why he is so good. He just doesn't stress too much about it, yet he always manages to bring in mackerel, tuna etc...
Have you seen these lines that just come off a spool? I will try and get a picture of it.  Heavy line (30 kg test) with a steel leader and then a blue spoon or wooden lure of some type, He just throws it in when we are about 10 meters deep and lets it troll behind the boat. Best speed seems to be between 3-5kts. He ties the line to a cleat, and sometimes puts a bunge cord in to relieve the strike stress.

[maxiSwede]

Thanks for the tip, Newt.

I for one, like that 'Lazy Fishing' approach. And everything else that can be done without much effort

;D