A Holiday Gift Idea

When good friends Carolyn Shearlock and Jan Irons began cruising with their husbands, they discovered that boat cooking is different from cooking ashore. The space is smaller, there’s no grocery store 5 minutes away, you have fewer prepared foods and electric appliances, and food storage is much different.

And, they discovered that there really wasn’t a comprehensive cookbook designed for cruisers. They made do with the cookbooks they had, adapting recipes to the realities of cooking aboard a boat. When they couldn't get foods such as sour cream, English muffins, spaghetti sauce or yogurt, they learned to make our own. Other times, they experimented with substituting ingredients – maybe the result wasn’t identical, but it was still tasty.

As Carolyn and Jan traded their recipes, tips and substitutions with each other and other cruisers, they realized that they weren’t the only ones who wanted a comprehensive galley reference. So they set out to write it, turning their folders of notes into The Boat Galley Cookbook, researching and experimenting whenever they found gaps in their knowledge.

You could say that it took them four years from 2008 to 2012 to write the book, or you could say that they have been working on it since 1998 when they went on their first bareboat charter prior to owning their own boats. But the good news is that it’s now available ( retailers noted at the bottom).

At 451 pages, The Boat Galley Cookbook is the one comprehensive galley guide needed on every boat, whether for a weekend sail or a cruise around the world:

• 800+ recipes made from readily-obtainable ingredients with hand utensils, including numerous choices to suit every taste: not just one cake but 15, 19 ways to prepare fish, 9 regional barbeque sauces, and so on.

• Step-by-step directions to give even “non-cooks” the confidence they can turn out tasty meals without prepared foods.

• Practical tips from substitutions, provisioning and food storage to troubleshooting oven hot spots and more.

• Detailed instructions on unfamiliar things like making yogurt and bread, grilling virtually every food imaginable, preparing and cooking freshly-caught fish and seafood, cutting up and boning meat, cooking in a Thermos and baking on the stove top, as well as lots of tips on how to do things more easily in a tiny, moving kitchen.

• All this in an easy-to-navigate format including side tabs on the contents to help you find your way and extensive cross reference lists at the end of each chapter.

The Boat Galley Cookbook is available in over 90 countries worldwide in print form; electronic editions (Kindle, Nook, iTunes and more) will be available shortly.