Help: Getting set up for cooking and coffee, at marina and underway (270 SDA)

Creekwood said:
This is what I use but mine is stainless steel:
View attachment 85624
Click to expand...

+1 These are great, they heat fast as they are quite hot and the cans are easy to store.

One more thing I wanted to add on this topic was that I tend to "cook" outside the cabin and "heat" in the cabin. I do not want the greases or odors from cooking to permeate the cabin fabrics.

We do a lot of meal pre-planning and store in zip lock bags (frozen or not) and the meal planning also allows us to gauge storage needs. On extended trips we tend to keep the frozen items for later in the trip as it allows them to defrost and keep other items cold. The first few nights would come from the fridge.

As you spend more time on the boat you will come up with meals that are easy to prep at home and serve on the boat.

-Kevin
 
I think the only thing we’ve used the stove in the cabin for in the last three years is cooking eggs for breakfast.
Most other meals we have on the boat are pre-cooked and if they need to be hot we use the microwave.
Disclaimer: Whenever practical, we do try to eat dinner at restaurants on most boating sleepovers. Boat meals are primarily an easy breakfast or lunch. My wife cooks dinner at home all the time so it’s nice to give her a break, and my having a touch of OCD, I really appreciate not having the cooking mess in the boat.
 
rtp said:
Any other advice RE: cooking aboard is very welcome.
I did have one other thought RE: coffee - nothing really wrong with bringing a double wall insulated thermos, like a Hyrdroflask growler - I do this at the range for shooting competitions and 12 hours later, coffee is still 'warm enough'...
Click to expand...

For coffee we have a small single-serve Keurig and it works well - its the Mini-K model. We brought it home for the winter and how my wife is reluctant to put it back on the boat. Of course you need AC power for this.

If you want to make coffee at home and take it in a thermos, I HIGHLY recommend one of the "old fashioned" Stanley Aladdin vacuum insulated bottles. I have a 1.5 quart model. If you preheat it bottle before adding your coffee it will stay VERY hot for a LONG time. I had coffee in mine for 14 hours and still burned my mouth. I've had still reasonably hot coffee 24-36 hours later.
 
One other thing about the round Magma kettle grill that's not totally clear. They have a model that is both a grill and a stove. With this model you can remove the grate and flame diffuser and have a place to set a pan over direct heat. You get direct flame, and less grime on your pan. It's fairly easy to do, but I usually use a tool of some type so my hands don't get all dirty from the grate.
 
If you are a scrabbled egg purist that prefers only straight egg and cooked to order you are going to be limited to some of the ideas presented above. I am not so here are my "pre-cooked" gotos for eggs that I prefer over egg only

1) Scrabbled egg casserole, pre cooked in the oven with bacon, onion, potatoes etc. etc. add all you want. Cook it and cut into squares and freeze them.. I think its better the next day anyway.

2) Drive down to Los Favoritos on Dobson and Chandler in Mesa Arizona and buy a 1/2 a dozen breakfast burritos, cut in half because they are huge and almost too big to eat... freeze them at home. Grab one for each day you will be on the water. Try to not eat them while at home, but blame the dog or kids if they are all gone before your next trip on the water.

3) Add "Hatch Valley 505 Green chile" in the jar from costco to everything and anything, especially eggs, regardless of the situation.

My point being you can out think the menu and cooking options alot easier than the equipment you have. What we say is "Run what ya brung" and don't change your equipment, change your preparation... This strategy paid off for 4 days isolated here last weekend.

I have worn out my Magma kettle grill and I am thinking about replacing it with a new one. Its the bomb...

wetherrill.jpg
 
Last edited:
Got some good news to reduce the thinking required - no problem with grilling on the boat itself at my marina.

Now just waffling between the round kettle magma and a rectangular with either double burners or a warming second level grill.

Advantage of the round Kettle is being able to remove grill and throw a wok or coffee percolator on it. Disadvantage - single burner and no warmer area...

Rectangular w/2 burners or 1 + a warming area - advantages for us:
When we do corn, potato foil mixes or chicken, steak, ... I almost always use a second heat area on low or warmer.
Disadvantage - no simple way to do a wok or percolator other than on grill itself, which I guess kinda works but probably not real fast?

We really only do coffee in the am, so it’s an option to do a single electric or propane burner for coffee, or just a coffee maker.
 
Maggieiscrazy said:
True. But when compared to propane. Butane is quite a bit more expensive. I have friends that are so cheap they refill their 1 pound propane tanks. You can buy them for three bucks!
Click to expand...
Are they sailboaters? ;)
If I take the boat away for a weekend, its roughly 30 to 50 miles each way at 1mpg so about $500 in fuel alone up here. I can throw in the cost of a couple cans of butane and not even notice.
 
for coffee we use such a coffemaker :

https://www.google.com/search?q=gus...oECBEQAg&biw=360&bih=612#imgrc=MtrMjsYnqZWQ5M

works great , you can also very quickly get hot water from it while on shorepower. before we get underway we make a thermos full of coffee . we cock in the cockpit with a gas stove like in #20 . it works also very good. the microwave is used for things like a burger or hot dog .

its fun to organize and prepare a good meal on board !

i agree the 'open flame' policy cannot include inside your own boat - thats only your business.
 
I got things more or less sorted. In the case of my 270DA, I picked up a Chulux (yeah, never heard of them either) K-cup, with some refillable k-cups. It slides under the cabinet if need be, but also fits to the right of the KISS grill snugly. It also seems to hold ~16oz of water for more normal-sized (for us) coffees.

chuluxk-cupcoffeemaker_med.jpeg


Went with a Magma Catalina 2 grill, as I really dig having a warming grill. The infra-red and non-infrared are basically the same grill, with 3 slide-in plates + a glass inset in the top as the only differences. I'm not sold on infrared, but will likely remove 1 or 2 of the plates in practice, thus removing the 'infrared' across most of the grill, depending on what we're cooking. Amusingly, while it seems everyone ever thinking of buying a boat...now is during the COVID situation, apparently everyone with a boat was apparently also buying marine grills and everything related to them back in June, down to nearly everything from Magma being on 'national backorder.' Wound up with the grill coming in just in time for the 4th, cookware, etc..... while the swim platform mounts were nowhere to be found...but finally got it all together.

Lots of additional pics, links and other random stuff at my blog, here: http://myrandomthoughts.net/BoatJourney/index.html
 
rtp said:
I got things more or less sorted. In the case of my 270DA, I picked up a Chulux (yeah, never heard of them either) K-cup, with some refillable k-cups. It slides under the cabinet if need be, but also fits to the right of the KISS grill snugly. It also seems to hold ~16oz of water for more normal-sized (for us) coffees.

chuluxk-cupcoffeemaker_med.jpeg


Went with a Magma Catalina 2 grill, as I really dig having a warming grill. The infra-red and non-infrared are basically the same grill, with 3 slide-in plates + a glass inset in the top as the only differences. I'm not sold on infrared, but will likely remove 1 or 2 of the plates in practice, thus removing the 'infrared' across most of the grill, depending on what we're cooking. Amusingly, while it seems everyone ever thinking of buying a boat...now is during the COVID situation, apparently everyone with a boat was apparently also buying marine grills and everything related to them back in June, down to nearly everything from Magma being on 'national backorder.' Wound up with the grill coming in just in time for the 4th, cookware, etc..... while the swim platform mounts were nowhere to be found...but finally got it all together.

Lots of additional pics, links and other random stuff at my blog, here: http://myrandomthoughts.net/BoatJourney/index.html
Click to expand...

Here's a pic in place. Sure with the power button were not on the right hand side, but fits well enough anyways.
KitchenCounterWithCoffee.png
 
Creekwood said:
This is what I use but mine is stainless steel:
View attachment 85624
Click to expand...
@Creekwood I ordered one of these from Amazon that will arrive tomorrow and am going to give it a shot this weekend. With all the horror stories of the Kenyon Kiss, there's no way I'd risk a fire unless I sent it back to the factory to be re-worked.

You mentioned using yours in the cabin. Do you put anything underneath it as I've read the reviews that seem to indicate there isn't much shielding underneath and it could burn/melt the surface underneath. I thought about getting a couple of silicone baking mats to put underneath it to use on top of the Kiss cover or up on my table in the cockpit.
 
Cap'n Scuba Steve said:
@Creekwood I ordered one of these from Amazon that will arrive tomorrow and am going to give it a shot this weekend. With all the horror stories of the Kenyon Kiss, there's no way I'd risk a fire unless I sent it back to the factory to be re-worked.

You mentioned using yours in the cabin. Do you put anything underneath it as I've read the reviews that seem to indicate there isn't much shielding underneath and it could burn/melt the surface underneath. I thought about getting a couple of silicone baking mats to put underneath it to use on top of the Kiss cover or up on my table in the cockpit.
Click to expand...
I put in on top of the glass Kenyon cooktop so I have never noticed whether it is hot underneath or not. I doubt it gets that hot though.
 
Good to know, thanks! I didn't think that the glass cover would be much of an issue. Because of the gap underneath it would actually act as a heat shield. Though I may feel like boiling water for coffee and cooking eggs up on deck so the baking mats may come in handy for use on the cockpit table. I saw some reviews on Amazon with pics showing char marks on a wood table top. Of course what they don't say is if they left it on for hours running wide open or what they did to wind up with that result.

I'd really like to have an induction cooktop, but with no genny I'd only be able to use it dockside and I'd rather just put that money into the next boat!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,100
Messages
1,425,935
Members
61,018
Latest member
IslandGirls1020
Back
Top