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What’s in My Galley

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Last Updated on September 13, 2023 by Amy

I love to cook, and while I certainly am not cooking complicated foods like I did when we lived on land, we are certainly not suffering. David and I eat very well aboard Starry Horizons; three square meals, healthy snacks, lots of fresh food.

Thankfully, our galley has a lot more space than most boats do. It’s nowhere near the space I had before, but it’s more than enough for our purposes. And I’ve filled it with convenient tools – often designed for boats – that serve multiple purposes or take up less space than their regular counterparts.

Here’s what I have in my galley.

Cookware

Magma 10 Piece Gourmet Nesting Stainless Steel Cookware Set with Non-Stick – 5 pots and pans with 2 lids and 2 handles taking up very little space!  The non-stick works really well. Read my Magma Nesting Pots Review.

My new Magma Nestling Cookware set.

4 Quart Pressure Cooker – I use my pressure cooker every day. It speeds up the cooking process for a lot of foods, meaning we use less cooking gas. I especially use it for cooking dry chickpeas, beets, or carrots.

Collapsible Tea Kettle – David and I drink tea regularly (usually iced), and David loves oatmeal for breakfast. Having a collapsible kettle greatly reduces the space a kettle takes up!

Mini-Rice Cooker – We have rice most nights with dinner, and a small rice cooker (3 cups like this one) is perfect for our size. We can make enough for leftovers, but if we have a big group, we can just use a pot on the stove to cook a larger amount.

Baking

I don’t bake as often as I used to. My oven onboard (an Eno) is smaller than the standard American oven, and ovens are not as efficient with cooking gas.

Set of Two Pyrex Dishes – Excellent baking dishes for brownies or making a roast.

Silicone Muffin Cups – These muffin cups are great for baking a small batch of muffins or for mise en place.

Silicone 3-Piece Baking Set – I like this set because the edges of the pan is firm so the pan won’t lose its shape, while the silicone makes it easy to clean up. The round dish is great for frittatas or cakes, while the loaf pan is perfect for homemade bread.

Dinnerware

We have eight sets of dinnerware onboard, although many times we’ve had more than eight people for dinner. In the cruising life, being invited for dinner often means bringing your own place settings. It’s also meant that the few times I’ve had family or other non-cruisers over for dinner, our neighbor-boats were happy to lend us place settings too! Especially if leftover desserts were returned with the dishes.

Corelle Livingware 16-Piece Dinnerware Set – Supposedly unbreakable, I liked this simple blue and white pattern.  We actually had the plates and mugs already, but we ordered another set and then some extra bowls because we use bowls a lot.

Plastic Wine Glasses – Light, delicate glassware is hard to keep on a boat. Some cruisers opt for heavy, solid glassware while others, like us, opt for the light, unbreakable plastic imitations. I love these wine glasses.

Nautical Themed Wineglass Charms – My mom gave me these years ago. Since we hand-wash everything, the charms live on our stemware. It’s a fun way for guests to know which glass is theirs.

Measuring & Mixing

OXO Good Grips 6-Piece Measuring Cup Set and OXO Good Grips 6-Piece Measuring Spoon Set – Great, easy set of measuring cups and spoons.

OXO Good Grips Mixing Bowl Set with Black Handles, 3-Piece – I love these mixing bowls.  They have a nice handle, spout, and non-slip bottoms.

Hamilton Hand Mixer with Storage Case – The storage case makes this perfect. It sits upright, taking up less space, and keeps the mixer attachments with the unit.

Prep Work

Cuisinart Mini Food Processor – This is the perfect size for sauces, hummus, and dressings.

Swissmar Borner 7-Piece Mandolin – I like this mandolin because it comes with a “bowl” to catch the cut food and store the set. I’m able to cut slices evenly and quickly with my mandolin.

Cookbooks

Miss Vickie’s Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes – Hundreds of recipes for meals made in the pressure cooker, plus very handy tables for how to cook anything in the pressure cooker.

The Boat Galley Cookbook – An excellent resource for cooking onboard, including what to do when you can’t find certain ingredients.

Storage

Seal-a-Meal Vacuum Sealer –  I don’t use this very often – I don’t like that it’s not reusable plastics – but it is the best way to store meats long term.

Rubbermaid Commercial Storage Container – This is perfect for large pasta salads to feed a crowd, or for Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day dough.

Thermos – prepping hot water is part of our checklist, so we can easily enjoy hot tea or cocoa, especially in the winter months.

Miscellaneous

Collapsible Silicone Funnel – Perfect for pouring into small containers. I often have to buy bagged spices and wash and reuse my spice jars, so this funnel is perfect for refilling the spice jars and hardly takes up any space.

Ergonomic Kitchen Mat – We FREAKING LOVE this mat! When I’m cooking in the galley or David’s washing dishes, this saves our backs and feet.

Bar10der Bartending Tool – Another gift from my mom, I do like a well-crafted cocktail, and this has everything we need in a small package!

Tongs & Spatulas – The spatulas are 100% silicone so that you won’t melt them if you rest them on the lid of the pot for a minute, and they also won’t heat up.

7 Comments

  1. Hi Amy,
    I was wondering, now that you’ve been on the boat for awhile, were there changes your list? More specifically, the items that have worked out so well you can’t live without. Also items that you’ve added since. Love the posts!
    Thanks

    1. Hi Bob! Thanks for reading. We got rid of the popsicle maker. I could do without the vacuum sealer really. A lot of places the meat is either already vacuum sealed, or I can ask the butcher to do it for me. The Magma set has been amazing. We eat a lot of rice, so I use the rice cooker a lot.

      A few items we’ve added (with my amazon affiliate links):
      Reusable straws: https://amzn.to/2KFA5u3
      Flip & Tumble bags are way easier to store and stash: https://amzn.to/2KFA5u3
      IceMule recently saved our butts when freezer went on the fritz: https://amzn.to/2rpKfGh

  2. Amy, you need to make your galley stronger. Fountaine Pajot have built the galleys very weak. I’d suggest you change the oven and hot plate cookers ( find a deep ocean and ceremonially throw them overboard- I think your galley was much the same as in the Lipari ‘ Seabbatical ). Look in the Smev range and get a hot top with 3 gas and one electric element. Change the oven to a taller one with a separate griller. Install a dish washer ( they use less water- and there are some great ones for yachts). Then install a microwave oven that is also convection and a steamer. You will be living on your yacht for a long time , try to make the galley strong rather than just substitute with plug in appliances.
    Go to some caravan-RV shows for idea’s
    Best of luck, be comfortable.
    Thanks for all your posts
    Kind Regards

    Colin Webb
    ‘Zenith’

    1. Thanks for the tips Colin. For now, we are not going to be replacing any of the appliances that came with the boat. No sense in replacing them while they work fine.

      No dishwasher needed – that’s what I have David for!

      I did see at the boat show a lot of ovens that were convection and microwave in one! Something to think about for the future…

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