Kaholee's new stove

[bcooke]

Hey Allen,

I just saw some pictures of your proposed stove/oven and its location.

After telling myself for a year that I didn't really need or want an oven I think I need and want an oven (for baking cookies on drizzly Maine days).

Can you pass on any info about your setup?

I myself have been toying with an oven that faces forward (mounted athwartships?) with the oven door opening forward over the settee. I can imagine spilling food on the cushions which would be bad but it also means I can stick the oven back where the sink was and not lose any settee length. If I could find something small enough (around 20" wide) then I might go ahead with it.


-Britton

[Rachel]

Baking aboard is wonderful. Cookies, bread... Mmmm. I'm not much into cooking ashore, but aboard it seems much more appealing. Even baking bread, with the numerous times you have to punch it down, let it rise, etc. doesn't seem bad when it's only two steps away from whatever else you're doing. And on a cold day - heaven.

Plus it's a way you can take totally dry, long-term stowed ingredients and make something amazingly fresh and alive.

Dang, now I need an oven too.

R.

[Tim]

Dang, now I need an oven too.

Danger! Danger Will Robinson!

I myself have been toying with an oven that faces forward (mounted athwartships?) with the oven door opening forward over the settee.

I think there's actually a lot of merit to that idea. The reality is that gimballed stoves don't work nearly as well as everyone wishes, and in the worst conditions you have to secure the gimbals anyway.

Deep pots and sound pot clamps seem to be the offshore choice regardless of whether one has a gimballed stove or not. I've read some respectable arguments for mounting the stove athwartships without gimbals.

If you mount athwartships and don't have any gimbals, just don't try baking a cake when the boat's heeled 15?...unless it's two layers so you can offset the angles when you assemble it!

Just be sure you're comfortable using the stove wherever it ends up.

[Duncan]

Dang, now I need an oven too.

Not that I get many "culinary ambitions" aboard, but it strikes me that a stove-top camp oven might do the trick? I think a pressure cooker might be the all-around "best thing", but I haven't even got that ambitious yet.

[bcooke]

Dang, now I need an oven too.

For occasional cruising I would think an oven is a luxury. For a liveaboard I would think it is almost essential. :-)

Tim. I agree. Lyn Pardey says about the same thing in her book The Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew. I don't think any of her boats ever had/have a gimbaled stove. If the Pardey's can manage without gimbals then I guess I can suffer through too. Gimbaled might be nice but considering how often they would be needed it seems silly to give it much priority in my case.

Duncan, I have read about the camp ovens and what I have read doesn't speak too highly of them. For occasional use I guess they would be okay. I would like to try the pressure cooking bread making sometime. Lot's of people get the knack for it and make it work. In my case I am just thinking of spoiling myself. A real oven is clearly a luxury. There really isn't any way to seriously justify it. It is just very nice. (and I don't think you could bake cookies in a pressure cooker)

-Britton

[Duncan]

Duncan, I have read about the camp ovens and what I have read doesn't speak too highly of them. For occasional use I guess they would be okay. I would like to try the pressure cooking bread making sometime. Lot's of people get the knack for it and make it work. In my case I am just thinking of spoiling myself. A real oven is clearly a luxury. There really isn't any way to seriously justify it. It is just very nice. (and I don't think you could bake cookies in a pressure cooker)

-Britton

I was just shooting from the hip about the camp ovens - my experience is limited to making bread on a stick over the campfire.
I have a deplorable weakness for oatmeal raisin cookies, though.
I'll be sure to anchor downwind, and find an excuse to pay a visit when the aroma wafts by.

[Rachel]

I have a deplorable weakness for oatmeal raisin cookies, though. I'll be sure to anchor downwind, and find an excuse to pay a visit when the aroma wafts by.

Aha!
As a somewhat shy person, I almost never get up the nerve to visit other boats. Considering the potential social benefits, I'll have to put another check-mark in the "plus" column for an oven.

[Eric]

As a somewhat shy person, I almost never get up the nerve to visit other boats.

Sounds like a case for Powdermilk Biscuits ;-) I bet they'll cook fine in a dutch oven...

[keelbolts]

They do help shy people do what needs to be done, as I recall. Has your family tried 'em?

[Allen]

Can you pass on any info about your setup?

I got the stove on eBay. It has all the necessary functions, cook top, oven, broiler. The gimbal system and pot holders I got seperately.

I myself have been toying with an oven that faces forward (mounted athwartships?) with the oven door opening forward over the settee. I can imagine spilling food on the cushions which would be bad but it also means I can stick the oven back where the sink was and not lose any settee length. If I could find something small enough (around 20" wide) then I might go ahead with it.

We got by with a fixed camp stove for years, but then we were not living aboard for extended periods, a week at the most. When I decided to actually go for it, it was apparent that a serious stove would be necessary since, while I'm not the sailing gourmet (although I did write the Sailing Gourmet column for my sailing clubs news letter for a while), I do like to bake and broil (Margarita Pie Recipe follows). I figure most of my sailing is going to be a reasonable heel angles, so the gimballed stove should work quite well.

Mounting the stove in a fixed athwartship position would work, but the oven would be almost unusable. I would also share your concern with dumping stuff on the cushions. If cooking while under sail is not a design requirement, though, a fixed stove should work quite well. You could always remove the cushion while cooking to prevent spillage from hurting it. You could also get one of those small gimballed single burner stoves for any time you needed to fix soup, coffee, etc in a seaway.

From looking at Tim's pictures it looks like the stove I have might just do the job for you. Maybe Tim could provide the measurements for us. :)

Margarita Pie

- 4 egg yokes
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14oz)
- 1 gram cracker pie crust (9in/6oz)
- 1/3 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
- 4 teaspoons lime zest
- 2 tablespoons tequila oro (gold)
- 1 tablespoon triple sec

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine the egg yokes and sweetened condensed milk.

3. Add the lime juice and whisk for one minute.

4. Add the lime zest, tequila and triple sec, whisking until combined.

5. Pour into pie crust.

6. Bake for 12 minutes (14 in T or C depends on your altitude)

7. Let stand for two hours.

8. Refrigerate.

[Allen]

Baking aboard is wonderful. Cookies, bread... Mmmm. I'm not much into cooking ashore, but aboard it seems much more appealing. Even baking bread, with the numerous times you have to punch it down, let it rise, etc. doesn't seem bad when it's only two steps away from whatever else you're doing. And on a cold day - heaven.

Plus it's a way you can take totally dry, long-term stowed ingredients and make something amazingly fresh and alive.

Dang, now I need an oven too.

R.

Rachel, I do enjoy cooking, and since it's something you kind of have to do anyway, this is a good thing. :) When you are living on a Triton, I think cooking can make the difference between a good and bad experience. My military experience always seemed to agree with the old adage, "an army travels on its stomach". As long as you have good food, most everything else can be forgiven. ;) Thus, my little boat is now (or soon will be) equipped with the best small stove I could find and a refrigerator.

[Duncan]

You could also get one of those small gimbaled single burner stoves for any time you needed to fix soup, coffee, etc in a seaway.

That sounds very sensible to me. I've been noticing these even in photos of boats which also have a larger gimbaled stove/oven.

I think it's probably because they hold the pot more securely and they don't have the momentum and leverage of a heavier stove/oven. Even with gimbals and fiddles and potholders, I have never felt very comfortable heating things up on a larger rig that's swinging around a lot.

[Tim]

Even with gimbals and fiddles and potholders, I have never felt very comfortable heating things up on a larger rig that's swinging around a lot.

That legitimate concern is the basis for the thought of installing a fixed stove in a transverse direction, rather than longitudinal, even on (especially on?) ocean-going boats.

Gimballed stoves, even if weighted, can swing wildly at sea, and are far from foolproof. So, in the worst conditions, the stove frequently needs to be secured anyway. Deep pots and potholders are required on any seagoing boat, and the argument is that high-sided pots and secure pot clamps are at least as effective, if not more so, than gimbals for keeping food in the pot--and on the stovetop.

The other argument for a transverse stove in a seaway, as described above, is safety. When a stove is mounted longitudinally, as typical in a gimballed installation, the cook tends to stand right in front of it. Should a pot full of something hot (which they tend to be) be thrown off the stove, it's likely that it can end up right on the cook, possibly causing harm.

With a stove fixed in place and mounted the opposite direction, the cook would be forward (or aft) of the stove, and the typical side-to-side motion of the boat would tend to throw the stove contents sideways, away from the cook, if they were to spill. Since the most violent motion of boats is usually side-to-side, rather than fore and aft, this thought is one to consider carefully.

There are good arguments either way. Gimbals are typical, and work well enough in most conditions. But I think that a transverse stove orientation without gimbals (but with lots of deep pots and very secure clamps) has a lot going for it, assuming the appropriate thought is put into its use and operation.

Gimbals are good for normal angles of heel, but not for serious conditions when the boat is bouncing every which way. Clearly, they work, but one should never think that they are ideal for use all the time.