Canoe cruising requires a lot of food and cooking supplies. This document will show you everything you need to bring with you into your canoe and how you can make some of these items.
A wooden canoe box is fastened shut with leather straps and placed in the middle section of a canoe.
1. The Canoe Box: Containing the Food
Most of your items should be carried in a single box or chest, for the sake of saving space. If on a long cruise the large portion of his food supply may be kept in different parts of the canoe, but the box should contain sufficient for at least three meals and can be restocked at stores when stopping for the night or at a camping. The larger the amount of room you have for your box will, the more comfortable you will be.
Your canoe box may be made of wood, tin or galvanized iron. A box made of wood doesn’t cost much and can be made easily. If properly produced and taken care of, it can perform its task well. However, a box of either tin or galvanized iron will be far sturdier and is therefore preferable if money isn’t an issue.
Water-proofing Your Box
Your box must be water-tight. If your box is made of wood, special attention must be paid to joining and dove-tailing and the box should be varnished inside and out with shellac or boat varnish. Dimensions must be precisely catered to the the varying sizes of the canoe and the amounts of provisions it will carry. Each canoeist must first determine what amount and variety of eatables they will carry, and then construct the box according to their needs and their stowage room in the cockpit.
The Dimensions of Your Box
The following things should be kept in mind when figuring out the dimensions of your canoe box.
If made of wood, quarter inch or 5/16 stuff (pine) will do.
If made of wood, quarter inch or 5/16 stuff (pine) will do.
The cover should be two inches deep and the handle by which the box is carried should be a thin, wide, flat strap tacked to the cover.
If the box is stowed under the deck, consider including a handle on the top of the box, within reach of the hand, so that the cover can be removed and articles obtained from the box without taking it from under the deck.
Turning Your Box into a Seat
If used as a seat the cover, follow these steps with your box:
Create a hinge on one side and have two hooks fastened at the ends on the other.
For the back rest, two pieces of three-quarter inch pine can be screwed to the sides, running horizontally six or eight inches from the aftermost end of the box.
Holes can be bored in them an inch apart and cut opposite each other, through which a quarter-inch brass rod is passed for the back rest to play on.
As the lower end of the back rest strikes the end of the box near the floor when in use, it may be "slanted" as inclination demands by changing the brass rod from one set of holes to another.
2. Provisions, Pans and More
Before you can store food, you must first seal it in tin cans. The website, Amazon, makes tin screw-tops for jars and canisters that are perfectly water-tight. Order several of these tops, of assorted sizes, and have a tinsmith make the tin cans of the dimensions you desire, so that they will nest in the box closely. The same company will also furnish you with a pint or quart earthen jar with water-tight screw-top, perfect for storing butter.
Organizing your Box
Here is how you should organize your tins within your box:
Tin cans can carry coffee, tea, sugar, flour, rice and alcohol. For fluid cans, there is a special screw-top.
Pepper and salt can be contained in small spice shakers.
Eggs can be safely carried in the tins with the flour, coffee and rice.
Bread and bacon (or salt pork) must be wrapped in macintosh and put near the top of the chest.
Canned goods, condensed milk, baking powder, etc., go in their own cans.
Vinegar goes in a whisky flask (mark it to avoid mistakes)
The alcohol stove and utensils necessary to cook a meal should go in the box. This includes things like coffee pots, cups, forks, knives, spoons, frying pans and plates.
The coffee pot should be small size, with its handle and lip riveted.
Cups and plates should be of tin or granite ware.
The fork and knife have their sheaths of leather inside the box cover.
The plates should nest in the frying pan
The frying pan should have no handle and should be fastened inside the chest cover by two buttons, so that it may be readily released.
The knife and fork have a sheath for a pair of small blacksmith's pliers. This instrument serves as a handle to the frying pan and a lifter for everything on the fire and can always be kept cool.
A three-quart tin or granite ware pail is necessary for stews, and two smaller ones (two-quart and three-pint) may be nested in it.
Put the can of condensed milk in the smallest pail. It will be out of the way and won't make the rest of the things in the chest sticky.
If you carry potatoes, onions or other vegetables, always have enough in the chest for three meals.
Waterproof Bags and Their Uses
The surplus supplies of provisions, such as vegetables, extra bread, crackers, flour, meal, pork or bacon, etc., should be carried in waterproof bags. Here are how waterproof bags should be made:
They are made of unbleached muslin, sewn in a lap seam, with a double row of stitches.
When sewn they are dipped in water and slightly shaken to remove the drops, and then while wet a mixture of equal parts of boiled oil, raw oil and turpentine is applied to the outside with a brush. This takes about a week to become thoroughly dry.
Another coat is put on without dampening the cloth, and if a little liquid drier is added to the mixture, this coat will dry in four or five days.
Having prepared several bags are put in the bag, and its mouth is inserted in that of another bag of the same size, the latter being drawn on like a stocking as far as it will go.
For additional information on how to pack your canoe box, check out the video below:
Utensils, Pots and Pans
The alcohol stove and utensils necessary to cook a meal should go in the box. This includes things like coffee pots, cups, forks, knives, spoons, frying pans and plates.
The coffee pot should be small size, with its handle and lip riveted.
Cups and plates should be of tin or granite ware.
The fork and knife have their sheaths of leather inside the box cover.
The plates should nest in the frying pan
The frying pan should have no handle and should be fastened inside the chest cover by two buttons, so that it may be readily released.
The knife and fork have a sheath for a pair of small blacksmith's pliers. This instrument serves as a handle to the frying pan and a lifter for everything on the fire and can always be kept cool.
A three-quart tin or granite ware pail is necessary for stews, and two smaller ones (two-quart and three-pint) may be nested in it.
Put the can of condensed milk in the smallest pail. It will be out of the way and won't make the rest of the things in the chest sticky.
If you carry potatoes, onions or other vegetables, always have enough in the chest for three meals.
3. Portable Ovens: Cooking on the Go
A canoeist's portable oven is made of two small basins, one of which has "ears" riveted to its rim, so that when it is placed bottom up on the other the ears will spring over the rim of the second basin, making an oven that is not air-tight, allowing gases to escape. The basins should be made of sheet-iron, as they are easy to clean and can make soup well. Do not put your oven in your chest because it will leave smut everywhere.
Choosing Your Canoe Stove
There is no perfect canoe stove, but here are a few tips you can keep in mind when shopping for one:
The "Flamme Forcé" is probably as good as any. It takes up a little more room than the folding "pocket" variety, and it does not give more heat; but it burns for a longer time, and is not top-heavy when a heavy pot or pan is set on it. For cooking in large utensils have three of these flamme forcé alcohol lamps, light them and place them side by side, and you can cook in this way a dozen slapjacks at once on a big griddle, if you like.
Danforth makes the best stove fluid you can find; use it if you can.
Be careful when using "folding stoves" ashore to burn wood in: they are smutty, red-hot and cumbersome.
If possible, don't carry an oil stove. If you really have to, put the nasty thing in a large bucket, and only use it when absolutely necessary.
For more details on canoe stoves, visit Canoeing.com.
4. What to Eat
Now for edibles in general, besides what I have already mentioned. Here are some tips on what you should and shouldn’t bring:
Condensed milk is a good thing, but avoid condensed coffee, condensed eggs and condensed beef
Self-raising or Hecker's prepared flour, wheat, rye, Indian or Graham, is easily made into bread and slapjacks.
Pilot bread will keep an indefinite time, and it tastes alright.
Indian meal is very nutritious and easily made up, as it requires nothing to lighten it; scald it before using when it is not fresh.
Canned tomatoes, corn, fruits, beans, soups, salmon, etc., are easy to prepare, and can be stored as ballast in the canoe. Mr. Hicks, of the Toronto Canoe Club, prepares meat in cans for ballast as by dicing it up and layering it in its fats, before sealing it away. This should work just fine.
The Brunswick canned soups are the cheapest made, are easily prepared and as wholesome as any; but I have known squeamish canoeists who would not use them because they didn't like the looks of the powder to which they are desiccated.
Dried beef, corned beef, lemons and sardines make good additions to an outfit.
Potatoes, onions and other vegetables should be procured en route as needed, if possible.
Exact Measurements
Some people need a more practical model of how much food they should take on a cruise. Below, I've laid out the exact amount of provisions I carried on a week-long cruise last autumn. I did not run short of anything at the end of the week, but I barely had enough provisions left for three meals:
