Galley References

• The Voyager’s Handbook, by Beth A. Leonard
  This book covers more than just galley information; but with regards to your galley and provisioning it has a number of useful sections, including space management, bug management, provisioning (including what you most likely will and will not find outer island),  and storage (such as how to make things last longer).  We particularly like the various tables detailing what (in exact quantities) they provisioned their boat with and what was available around the world.  If you’re just heading out and have no idea how much flour to carry, this is a great place to start … of course you’ll want to modify to your own tastes and needs.



• Joy of Cooking, or Other All purpose Cookbook
  Typically this will be a large cookbook, but it is worth making room for.  Make sure it contains conversion charts, equivalents, and substitutions.



• CD-ROM Cookbook(s)
  We started out with the Joy of Cooking on CD-ROM, but at that time it had a number of bugs and didn’t always run correctly, so we switched over to Sierra MasterCook 6.0 Deluxe Collection with Betty Crocker … which we love.  This one CD contains about 20 of the Betty Crocker cookbooks.  Being on CD-ROM allows for advanced ingredient searching and the ability to edit and/or add recipes and cook books.  The downfall is that you have to get out / boot the computer, but you can’t beat the various searching options and the quantity of recipes (not to mention tips).  Sierra MasterCook also offers other cookbook series, such as a Cooking Light Set. It's magic for when you get a random collection of ingredients and have no idea what to do with them.



• Cruising Cookbooks
  The advantage of most cruising cookbooks is that they stick to simpler methods and simpler ingredients.  Typically they also have preservation and storage ideas. 
  
  We particularly like Cruising Cuisine, by Kay Pastorius.  Many of the recipes in this book are really simple and provide an easy way to do things.  In the front section she lists a number of websites and some phone numbers for various provisioning items (such as powdered eggs and a variety of dehydrated foods).  The downside of this cookbook is that many of the recipes use ingredients only found in major ports (we’ve had quite a bit of luck with substitutions though).
  
  Another good book is The Essential Galley Companion, by Amanda Swan-Neal.   Again the recipes are simple, and in this book, most of the ingredients are too.  Our only complaint with this book is with its organization and sometimes generalities;  you need to be able to read between the lines a bit.  The front sections of the book provide great tid-bits for provisioning and storage.
  
  There is also a set of K.I.S.S. Cruising Cookbooks out there by a female cruiser.  We don’t own this set, but have borrowed our friend’s on more than one occasion.  I particularly like the home ‘batter’ sections where you can make Baking, Brownie, Pancake, etc mixes (especially handy after you leave the states and can no longer find those easy baking mixes).



• Pressure Cooker Cookbook
  If you plan on using a pressure cooker and are new to it, or aren’t familiar with how to convert a ‘normal’ recipe to a pressure cooker recipe, than a simple pressure cooker cookbook will be quite useful.  You can go with a small one, what you really need is cooking times and conversion techniques rather than full blown recipes.



• Specialty Cookbooks
  Such as a Fish cookbook and/or something specific to the area you will be traveling.  Two books we really enjoy are; Fish and Shellfish A to Z, by Sunset (which includes fish identification, buying, and cleaning guides), and Taste of the Pacific by Susan Parkinson, Peggy Stacy, and Adrian Mattinson (which includes a section on tropical fruit identification and typical preparation).  Also if you have a favorite ethnic food (such as Italian, Thai, Chinese, etc), you might want to consider a specific cookbook in that area … but be careful and make sure it is SIMPLE and doesn’t call for many exotic ingredients, which you won’t be able to find once you leave home.

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