Pretend you have a fully functioning kitchen and filtered water. There is no limit to how much food you can bring, but you have to carry it. What would you bring?
Looking for some ideas as I will be stuck on an island for a week next month and will need to feed two people. I can devote a lot of time to making the meals, so it doesn’t need to be simple stuff. There’s pots and pans and such already there.
1lOlive oil, 2lsunflower oil, kosher/sea salt, pepper (mill), 500g butter, 500g mayonnaise, thyme, marjoram, flour, cornstarch, 500ml cider vinegar, 8 lemons, 8 tomatoes, 2 heads romaine, 12 y. onion, 6 red onion, 3 red peppers, 1kg broccolini, 6 artichokes, 12 eggs 2kg basmati rice, 1kg fingerling potatoes 2 whole ducks, 4 whole chickens, 1 beef 2 pork tenderloins, 1 whole chinook salmon, 2 dungeoness crab, 2dz pemequid oysters, 4 racks lamb ribs 75% chocolate, 500g pistachos, 500g marcona almonds, blueberries and raspberries
Wow, that sounds amazing! What would you cook with that specifically?
Hard to answer that because basically the first part is pantry items, then some veg, then meats for entree/mains, and finally some dessert/sweets/snack. So whatever I feel like that day I’ll cook.
been a chef ove 35+ years, this is the best “desert island scenario” I’ve come across…usually it’s just 1 item forever type things…
…plus I’ve given it some thought over the years.
- 2kg wheat flour
- 1kg cornmeal
- 1kg flaked corn
- 1kg chuño
- 1kg eggs (around 15 large ones)
- 1kg jerky
- 400g lard
- 400g grating cheese
- 400g powdered milk
- 300g tomato paste
- 200g sugar
- 1kg salt, seasoning, dry yeast, and vitamin C tablets (for the drinks)
Total: 9.7kg. I can comfortably carry 10kg just fine. The first four items already give me around 18 Mcal, enough for the whole week, the rest is just fluff to get comfy.
If the time period was longer I’d probably worry about vegs, but I’m not carrying something that is mostly water if I have water from the island.
Your list will be likely very different from mine as it’s for two people and you probably don’t go through tomato paste as quick as I do. Also 10kg is something to carry comfortably, if you aren’t picky on carrying a lot of weight for short amounts of time you could add way more food to the list.
2000 calories a day, two people, 7 days, so around 28,000 calories
The absolute lightest you can get that is around 4.5kg(10lbs) of peanut butter.
I’m assuming you have unlimited water at the location.
To make a meal plan that’s actually edible for an entire week, I’d suggest you’ll need a bit more than that. So maybe bring only 1kg of peanut butter.
Premade pancake mix that only requires water, and the flavored instant oatmeal packets would be good for breakfast. Both go well with some peanut butter in or on top of them for extra calories. Some jam wouldn’t hurt either.
You should probably bake some bread so bring some flour, a little bit of salt, and yeast, then bring butter and cheese to spread/put on top. A can or two of tuna is a good here to add protein/flavor/variety, you can make a cheese tuna melt on your fresh bread. You can also make peanut butter and jam sandwiches.
Switch up your carb for dinner to rice, brown would be best if you aren’t so worried about cooking time. Try looking up recipes for a Dahl for a couple nights, you’ll need to bring lentils, onion, and spices. I’d also suggest making a pulled pork which will feed you for 2-3 days if you bring different sauces (bbq, teriyaki, etc.) For the third dinner, I’d probably try to bring some sausages and do them up in a tomato sauce over the rice with some cheese on top.
Then for fruits and veggies, I’d fill out whatever space/weight I have with some bananas, apples, and carrots because they’re easy, cheap, and transport well.
The only refrigeration you need during the trip is for the Cheese, Pork, and Sausages, which should fit into a smaller cooler with an icepack.
You’re probably looking at around 30-40lbs of food all in.
This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!!
I don’t entirely understand the question. Do I have to carry the food on my back the whole week, or do I just have to carry it to the fully functioning kitchen, and then stash it in the fridge/cabinets? If the latter, is this the same thing as weekly grocery shopping?
Kayak to the island then carry it in to the kitchen. The trouble is that my normal shopping trip is too heavy to carry on my back on one trip, and would take up too much room on the boat.
