Sail - July 2018

JULY 2018

PHOTOS BY

CAROLYN SHEARLOCK

ON DECK GALLEY TIPS

need any special treatment besides removing the plastic wrap. If they start

to wilt, use them in a cooked dish instead of eating raw—you won’t notice

that they’re not crisp. Hard squashes, like spaghetti and acorn squash, will

last a month or more with no special treatment other than protecting them

from bruising. Once cut, the entire squash must be used.

Citrus Fruit: Oranges, grapefruit, lemons and limes all last several

weeks to a month if you wrap each one individually in foil and protect

them from bruising. Store away from other produce, as citrus will cause

other fruits and vegetables to ripen and rot more quickly.

DAIRY PRODUCTS

Again, carrying enough milk for breakfasts and sour cream for happy hour

dips takes up a lot of refrigerator space, which you’ll begrudge if you’re out

for more than just a few days. Another bonus of using non-refrigerated alter-

natives is that you don’t have to worry about food going bad.

Instead of trying to find space for multiple large cartons of milk,

buy boxed UHT milk in Tetra Paks that only have to be refrigerated

once opened. Boxed milk also usually comes in quarts, so it doesn’t

take up much space even when it does go in the fridge. Boxed

milk can sometimes be tough to locate in grocery stores,

but most do carry it; it’s often in the Latin foods aisle or

with baking supplies or coffee. Almond and soy milk

are also sold in Tetra Paks.

You can make your own sour cream from non-

refrigerated ingredients by adding one or two tea-

spoons of white vinegar, lemon or lime juice to one

8-oz (250 ml) can of media crema (similar to half and

half and sold in the Latin foods aisle of most grocer-

ies). Stir well, refrigerate for half an hour, then use as

you would regular sour cream.

ORGANIZATION

Having less in the refrigerator alone will greatly improve

things by making it easier to see what’s there and i nd

the items you need. However, by taking just a few more

simple steps you can improve the situation further still.

h e key is to have an organizational plan and always put the same

categories of items in the same places. h is, in turn, will both help you i nd

items and reduce the time the fridge is open, greatly lessening the power

required to run it.

Getting cold drinks out, for example, is the reason behind the major-

ity of times the refrigerator is opened on our boat. So we don’t just put

“drinks” in one area, but go a step further and always put beer, water, sodas

and iced tea in the same order, from let to right, and always put the warm

ones in the back, so there’s never a doubt as to which are the coldest.

Bins are almost imperative in large top-loading refrigerators, since by

using several layers of bins, it’s easy to remove the top ones to quickly get

to items below. Bins will also help protect fragile items, such as greens

and eggs. Keep drinks (and meats, if necessary) in the bottom layer

where it’s coldest and produce on the top where it’s warmest and won’t

have anything falling on top of it.

Although I now have a front-loading refrigerator, I i nd that bins are still

useful to keep like items together and organized so that I can get things out

quickly and not lose any more cold air than absolutely necessary. Bins also

make it easy to see if I’m getting low on something. I have a sepa-

rate bin, or drawer for snacks, produce, eggs and medications.

Drinks are in designated spots, as is everything else. Even

let overs are always put in the same place!

My preference is bins with solid bottoms and venti-

lated sides, so that anything that spills is contained but

cold air can still circulate. If you can’t i nd any the right

size, get solid ones and then use a drill or Dremel tool

to make ventilation holes. Using bins also helps when

it comes time to defrost the refrigerator. You can simply

remove the bins and put spare pillows and blankets over

them to keep the contents cool.

Frozen food goes into a cooler. Defrosting any time the

frost gets over ¼in thick on the evaporation plates will

signii cantly lessen the power used. Small boat refrigera-

tors (particularly front-loading ones) are also subject to

more temperature l uctuations than home refrigerators,

as there is less cold mass and less cold air overall inside.

For this reason, meat, poultry and seafood are best kept

in the freezer (if there is no room in the freezer, put in

the coldest part of the refrigerator, which is usually the

lowest area). Before casting of , I remove the meat from

any bulky packaging in may have come in, bone it if neces-

sary and repack into packages that contain just enough for a

single meal. Every day, I then remove that evening’s meat from the

freezer and let it defrost in the refrigerator section.

CONCLUSION

Once I rei ned how and where I kept everything, we could eat well with plen-

ty of fresh meat and vegetables. Even with a tiny 3-cubic-foot refrigerator, we

can easily go two weeks without a reprovisioning run. And that means that

we get to spend more time in wonderful but out-of-the-way places! s

Carolyn Shearlock has lived aboard and cruised for 10 years on two very dif-

ferent boats: a monohull Tayana 37 (with a top-loading refrigerator) and now

a Gemini 105M catamaran (with a front-loader); currently based in the Florida

Keys, she’s the author of theboatgalley.com, where you can also purchase

her book, Storing Food without Refrigeration

Load your provisions into bins for easy access

(below); inset: there’s no reason to have to do

without fresh vegetables and meat