To cook on a canoe you will be needing some food supplies and utensils. It’s a good idea to carry everything in one box so that everything is conveniently grouped together for cooking on board and easily carriable for when you go ashore. If you are going on a long cruise, it’s also a good idea to keep most of your food supplies in different parts of the canoe. The box should have enough supplies for at least three meals. You can replenish it with the larger supplies storage when you stop for the night or at a campsite. Keeping the larger box separate from the smaller box will make the cruise more comfortable.
Box Tips – Size and Material • Your box could be made of wood, tin or galvanized iron. o Using wood can be less expensive, work well, and you can do it yourself if you want. o But a box made out of iron or tin will be much more durable. • Make sure the box is water-tight especially if made of wood) • Because canoes come in different shapes and sizes, pick a box that will fit comfortably in your canoe.1/4 inch pine wood
Heavier pine wood for the bottom (if box will be used as a seat)
The cover: 2 inches deep
The handle: Thin, wide, flat strap tacked to the cover
If your box will be stored below-deck:
You can have the flanges of the cover fall over the sides of the box with the strap attached to one end and fastened to the other end by a hook. This way, you can remove the cover and take items out of the box without having to take the box out.
If your box will be used as a seat:
You can hinge the cover on one side and have two hooks attached on that other end. For the back-rest, screw two pieces of ¾ inch pine to the sides running horizontally six or eight inches from the farthest end of the box with holes one inch apart. Pass a ¼ inch brass rod through for the back-rest to play on. This will allow it to recline by changing the rod from one set of holes to another.
Use several water-tight tins so that nothing mixes or spills inside of the box.
The Consolidated Fruit Jar Company in New York makes tin screw-tops for jars and canisters that are water-tight. You can order these tops, in assorted sizes, and have a someone make the tin cans in the sizes you want. They can also give you a pint or quart earthen jar with a water-tight screw-top. This jar can keep butter safe for a long time in hot weather and can be lowered in a net into the water without leaking.In the tin cans:
coffee
tea (or cocoa)
sugar
flour (or meal)
rice
alcohol
Store salt and pepper in small spice boxes with perforated bottoms
Eggs are safest in the tins with the flour, coffee and rice
Bread and bacon should be wrapped in macintosh and put near the top of the chest
Vinegar goes in a marked whisky flask
Canned goods can stay in their own cans
Alcohol stove and cooking utensils in the box
Small coffee pot with handle and riveted lip
Cups or plates made of tin
Fork and knife sheaths inside the box cover
Plates nesting in the frying pan
Frying pan with no handle, and fastened so as to be easily accessed
Knife and fork with a sheath
Pair of small blacksmith's pliers to serve as a handle for frying pan
A three-quart tin and two smaller ones nested in it
Waterproof bags for extra food provisions, clothing, blankets.
Using several bags instead of one or two large can save space.
A canoeist's portable oven is made of two small basins, one of which has "ears" riveted to its rim. The basins should be made of sheet-iron so they can easily be kept clean. These should not go in the provision chest, as they will dirty everything with which they come in contact.
There is no perfect canoe stove. The "flamme forcé" is good because it takes up a little more room than the folding type, 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.
Folding stoves to use ashore and burn wood in will get in your way so avoid them and never carry an oil stove. If you feel like you absolutely have to bring a stove, put it in a large bucket, and only remove it when absolutely necessary.
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. Indian meal is very nutritious and easily made, Canned tomatoes, corn, fruits, beans, soups, salmon, etc., are easy to prepare, and can be stored as ballast in the canoe.
Here is an example of how Mr. Hicks, of the Toronto Canoe Club, prepares certain kinds of food in cans for ballast:
"Get a number of flat square tin cans made like oyster cans, of a handy size to lie under your floor boards. Then cook a turkey, some chickens, a sirloin of beef, etc. Cut the hot meat up into large dice-shaped pieces, and put it in the tins hot, then pour melted fat in till the tins are full, and then solder them tight. Put up fruit in square flat cans in the same way.” - American Canoeist
I haven’t tried this myself but it seems like an excellent idea. The Brunswick canned soups are cheap, easily prepared and filling. Although, not everyone likes them because of the powder that they dry to. Try adding dried beef, corned beef, lemons and sardines. Gather potatoes, onions and other vegetables along the way if needed or possible.
If you’re not sure how much of each food item to bring on a cruise, here’s a list that I used for a week-long trip, which worked out great.
1 lb. sugar (cut loaf)
1/8 lb. tea
1 lb. flour
1-1/2 lbs. crackers
1/2 lb. lard; 1/2 lb. rice
3/4 lb. coffee
1 lb. butter
1 can condensed milk
3 loaves bread
3/4 peck potatoes
1/2 peck meal
1 pint molasses
2 oz. pepper
1 bottle pickles
1 bottle yeast powder
1 qt. salt