When cooking on a canoe you have to prepare a certain amount of food, supplies, and utensils. All of these should be able to fit inside a single box or chest, for the convenience of having everything on hand and ready for the user, as well as the journey to and from ones canoe.
For long cruising, a larger portion of food supply must be kept within different parts of the canoe: a smaller box that contains enough storage space for three meals, and a larger box for greater storage space for food, as well as comfort for the canoeist.
A box in which holds food could be referred to as a "grub box", usually made up of wood, tin, or galvanized iron. While this box is un-costly to start with, one could also make this grub-box themselves. If properly made and taken care of, this box would not only serve it's purpose of holding food, but this option would also be preferable to some people compared to spending money. As long as this box is able to withstand the rocking of the boat, is water-tight, and varnished inside and out (if this box is made of wood), the grub box should be perfect for a canoeist.
Search for a great "Grub Box" at Amazon.com
Because all canoes are structured differently, this grub box could be varied in size to accomodate for different canoes. To make this box, the canoeist must first determine the amount of eatables this box will carry, as well as construct the box according to their storage needs and storage room.
If this box is made of wood, the best size would be a quarter inch, as most canoes can accomodate to these sizes. If the box is to be stowed under the deck, the best option would be to have the flanges of the cover fall over the side pieces of the box, the strap tacked to one end of the piece, carried over the cover and fastened by a hook to an eye in the corner end piece in reach of the hand, so that the cover may be removed and articles obtained from the box without taking it from under the deck.
If this box is to be utilized as a seat, the top and bottom pieces have to be heavier by about 3/8 of an inch. The cover should be two inches deep and the handle (by which the box is carried) should be thin and wide with a flat strap tacked to the cover. Focusing on the details of creating the grub box as a seat: the cover may be hinged on one side and two hooks fastened at the ends on the other, the backrest two pieces of three-quarter inch pine screwed to the sides, running horizontally six or eight inches from the end of the box. Create holes in them, an inch apart and cut opposite each other, a quarter-inch brass rod 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.
To make sure the grub box doesn’t mix or spill, water-tight tins should be used. These jars don’t have to be fancy and can be assorted in sizes, common mason jars can be used and are preferred, as they are perfectly leak proof. These jars can also be utilized for butter, as they ensure the butter can be kept sweet for long periods of time in hot weather.
I recommend these water-tight tins from Amazon.com, as they come in different sizes and can be utilized for many different foods.
The alcohol stove and utensils necessary to cook a meal should go in the grub box. The coffee pot should be of small size, with handle and lip riveted. If soldered, they are likely to melt off.
Cups or plates should be of tin or granite. The fork and knife should have their sheaths of leather inside the box cover, the best way to store the plates within the nest in the frying pan, which should have no handle, and is fastened inside the chest cover by two buttons, so that it may be readily released. Next 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 may be nested in it, of two-quart and three-pint capacity, respectively. 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.
The tin cans may carry the following items:
Salt and pepper already sold in small spice boxes with two covers, making these two items already prepared and ready to bring canoeing.
The surplus supplies of provision should be carried in waterproof bags, and they can then be stowed wherever necessary to properly trim the canoe.
Having prepared several bags, the provisions are put in the bag, and the mouth of the bag is to be inserted in that of another bag of the same size, the latter being drawn on like a stocking as far as it will go. If several bags are used instead of one or two large ones, the canoe can be trimmed and packed to better advantage. These waterproof bags may be used also for clothing and blankets.
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, thus making an oven that is not air-tight, allowing gases to escape. The basins should be made of sheet-iron, and, as their interiors can easily be kept clean, they answer very well for soup dishes.
There is no perfect canoe stove. 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. 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.
Beware of "folding stoves" to use ashore and burn wood in. They are the greatest possible nuisances—smutty, red-hot and cumbersome. Don't carry an oil stove. But if you really must, put it in a large bucket, and only remove it from this receptacle when absolutely necessary.
I have not tried this method of preserving provisions, but the theory is excellent, and I do not see why it would not be a feasible scheme. 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.
"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. Get as much meat in as you can before putting in the fat. Put up fruit in square flat cans in the same way. There is your ballast, and heavy stuff it is. When the provisions run short let the crew feed on the ballast. The preparation described is far more nutritious than canned corned beef, is more palatable, and will keep indefinitely—that is, throughout a very long cruise."
I have not tried this method of preserving provisions, but the theory is excellent, and I do not see why it would not be a feasible scheme. The Brunswick canned soups 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.
As it may puzzle some neophytes to know how much of each article of food to take on a cruise, I give below the exact amount of provisions I carried on a cruise of a week last autumn. I did not run short of anything at the end of the week, but I had not provisions enough left for three square meals: