Baking bread on board.

[Bobbo]

For many years I have been going ashore and using a camp oven to bake bread while cruising. I have always carried, and used, a pressure cooker, an old aluminium Hawkins. Recently I have been reading about using the pressure cooker, without the jiggler and without the gasket, as a dry stove top oven, so I thought I would give it a go.
I cooked a beautiful loaf......and melted the safety plug in the lid of the pressure cooker!
This is not a big deal. A new plug only cost me $10.00. Also, I was not too surprised, after all, the plug is supposed to melt if the cooker boils dry. But it begs a few questions. 1/ What did I do wrong? 2/ Have the people who advocate using a pressure cooker as a dry stove top oven ever actually tried it?
I have cooked bread with water in the pressure cooker as described in "Sailing on a Small Income". And it works fine, but the bread is rather grey, and even though it tastes good it does not look appetizing and you don't get that glorious smell of baking bread that is half the pleasure of home made bread, after all.

I have since cooked good bread in the base of the pressure cooker using a heavy cast iron lid from another pot instead of the pressure cooker lid. That works well, too.
I would be interested to hear of any other cruisers with on board bread cooking experience.

[Ozzie]

Bobbo welcome if we have not done so before.
I have cooked damper many times in a cast iron camp oven when traveling around Oz with great success. The only difference I assume in a pressure cooker is you don't have the heat from coals on the top section. I have an old PC same brand and the lid's stuffed anyway so I'll give it a go and see. We only have metho on SritzigII what were you using as a heat source.

[Yara50]

Some of the newer pressure cookers don't have the fusible plug, but rely on the rubber seal to fail. My home one has the complete pressure control assembly that you can remove, and also if you using as an oven you need to remove the rubber seal. Some recipes for using the pressure cooker as an oven, have metal egg rings on the bottom, supporting your baking tray off the base. Difficult to control temperature though, just guess work.

[Bobbo]

Thank you Ian. This solves the problem. The only pressure cooker I have ever used has been my old Hawkins.
Ozzie, if you use your pressure cooker with it's original lid you will certainly melt the safety plug. There is a firm in WA that sells parts for Hawkins if you want to resurrect your old cooker.
I have found that metho is barely adequate for bread, and cooking in the cabin, at least in the tropics, heats the cabin unbearably. In my Investigator (Zoe Amelia) I have a two burner gas stove but I also carry an old kero Primus stove. I have brazed brass feet with holes in them onto the legs. This allows me to bolt the stove to a board with wing nuts and bake bread on the floor of the cockpit. I now use a cast iron lid from a camp oven which works perfectly for baking. I use three egg rings and a trivet to raise a stainless steel bread tin up from the bottom to facilitate air flow. The tin is 150mm dia and 90mm deep. This gives me a loaf that weighs in at about 350 grams which lasts me about 3 days. As Ian points out, getting the heat right was a bit tricky until I began to use a heat tamer between the flame and the base of the pot. The result is perfect loaves everytime. More details will follow if you are interested.
a few years ago I set out to test some gear, meaning to stay overnight, and got caught with 10 days of really heavy weather. I was tucked in nicely at an island but I ran out of food and water. The food part was not too bad ( it probably did me good) but the water was a problem. I had no luck with distillation pits dug in the sand (as seen on TV, as they say) I got enough to keep me going by tying plastic bags around foliage, but I can tell you that the resulting green soup garnished with caterpillars and sundry bugs will never catch on as a beverage. I had plenty of time to draw diagrams though, and now another use for the pressure cooker is as a distillation plant boiling sea water and running it through a condenser coil. It does not taste too good because of the aluminium pot but its a better option than drinking caterpillar soup; or dying. It would not work at sea, but on an island there is plenty of wood, plenty of sea water and plenty of time. The smart thing, of course, is NEVER to assume you are just going for an overnighter. But we live and learn.
I have had my little Zoe Amelia for about six years and I love it. I have tried several sail configurations, such as a cutter rig with a bowsprit, a yawl rig with a little jigger mounted in a S/S tube, but I,m sure no one would be surprised that she sails best in her original format. I have a couple of 3.600 sweeps that stow along the life lines and when the conditions permit I use one of these as a bowsprit and I use an old sail I have had for thirty years. It is 10.6 sq/metres with a 3.600 foot. I set it flying. On the odd occasions when all is propitious this set up pulls like a train. It makes a great slot with my fully battened main and I get hull speed for lovely big gobs of exhilarating sailing.
As an all round fun machine for an old codger I really think the Investigator takes some beating. I have never had a fright in her.
Someimes I just anchor her in the Pioneer River and my 8 year old grandson has stop over for a couple of nights. we watch the Sun come up and go down, sometimes catch a fish and tell each other stories. It would be worth buying her just for that, let alone the other voyages that are available with such a well designed boat.
Great forum! Best wishes, Bob.

[Ozzie]

I thought I’d bump this 10 year old thread, for no other reason that it’s lovely reading if your relaxing over the break. I’ve finished everything I need to do and I’m doing just that. The bread part is interesting on its own but the rest is gold as well.

Note Bob’s use of sweeps and his further use of one of them as a bowsprit with oversized heady. Great stuff.

I also note he’s tried other rig configurations. I need to get out more. Sounds like shiploads of fun. The heartwarming interaction with his grandson reminds you of why we sail.

Thanks for this great thread Bob.

Edit just noticed when Bob had the boat up for sale the inventory stated…
“ pair of 3.600 sweeps and ingenious rowlocks. Pair of aluminian plates that fit on sweeps to convert them to beaching legs.” interesting stuff.

[Geoff]

Thanks Ozzie this is great. Reinforces a point you’ve made before, about how much freedom we have to experiment and play with our boats. Would be nowhere near the fun if we had to comply with any rigid class rules.
I have just moved to Hervey Bay and still ‘moving in’ but will be getting out straight after Christmas.
I do like reading about the landing legs although I prefer a board and lines at this stage of my readings. Think it will be good for camping on K’gari.

[Andrew]

Bob has a great story with Zoe Amelia, thanks for reviving it Ozzie. Plenty of food for thought there with the sweeps/beaching legs/ bowsprits. Bob was doing similar style Island cruising to what Teria does, and only a couple 100kms south of here.

Perhaps a collapsible coleman camp oven (or similar) for the serious bakers out there? It may have a tempetature gauge but is designed to be used on hot flames (like gas, shellite or kero, not meths).

Carry a stash of rice, plenty of water and fuel incase of a 10 day plus worst case scenario like Bob endured! Bob's right though its a good idea to have way more water/fuel than you expect to use if cruising in open waters for small craft.

Good luck Geof with sailing on Hervey Bay, one of the world's hidden gems

Keep messin around in boats in 2024, Cheers

Andrew

[Ozzie]

Yep, he certainly enjoyed his boat to the max Andrew.

I’ve only every run out of water once, on a motorcycle trip to K’gari (Fraser Is.) mid 70s. It had been raining heavily and we harvested rainwater off puddles on the sand near Indian Head. Wood was too damp to get a fire going to boil and purify it so we used the chlorine tables . Nowadays they come with a neutralising tablet to kill the chlorine taste. We tried instant coffee. Discovered a new drink “iced chlorinechino” proved you’ll drink anything if your thirsty …never went anywhere without extra water again.