flipCanned Beef and Rice, Galley Style
Canned Beef and Rice, Galley Style
Why this dish? Aboard the Firecrest, Gerbault's diet was limited to canned goods, rice, and rationed fresh water. Rice and canned beef made the hot meal of many evenings at sea, cooked on the small stove between spells at the helm.
A sailor's one-pot meal: rice swelling in rationed water, mixed with shredded canned beef and a sautéed onion. Nourishing, simple, made to be cooked with one hand while the other steers the boat.
Aboard, you don't dine, you feed. My kerosene stove pitched, and I watched over my rice like a treasure, for I counted the water for cooking by the ladle. I'd open a tin of beef, shred it into the pot, an onion if I still had a good one — and there was my king's supper under the stars. It's not the table of my New York friends, but after a day at the helm, nothing ever tasted better.
- •Rice — one cup (base)
- •Canned beef (corned beef) — one tin (protein)
- •Onion — one (aromatic)
- •Fresh water — twice the rice, rationed (cooking liquid)
- •Lard or oil — a little (fat)
- •Salt and pepper — as supply allows (seasoning)
Canned Beef and Rice, Galley Style
A sailor's one-pot meal: rice swelling in rationed water, mixed with shredded canned beef and a sautéed onion. Nourishing, simple, made to be cooked with one hand while the other steers the boat.
Why this dish? Aboard the Firecrest, Gerbault's diet was limited to canned goods, rice, and rationed fresh water. Rice and canned beef made the hot meal of many evenings at sea, cooked on the small stove between spells at the helm.
Aboard, you don't dine, you feed. My kerosene stove pitched, and I watched over my rice like a treasure, for I counted the water for cooking by the ladle. I'd open a tin of beef, shred it into the pot, an onion if I still had a good one — and there was my king's supper under the stars. It's not the table of my New York friends, but after a day at the helm, nothing ever tasted better.
Ingredients (period version)
- Rice — one cup (base)
- Canned beef (corned beef) — one tin (protein)
- Onion — one (aromatic)
- Fresh water — twice the rice, rationed (cooking liquid)
- Lard or oil — a little (fat)
- Salt and pepper — as supply allows (seasoning)
Ingredients
- Long-grain rice — 200 g (base)
- Corned beef — 1 tin (200 g) (protein)
- Onion — 1 medium (aromatic)
- Water — 400 ml (cooking liquid)
- Oil — 1 tablespoon (fat)
- Salt, pepper — to taste (seasoning)
Method
- Slice the onion and sauté in oil until golden.
- Add the rice, stir for a minute to coat.
- Pour in the water, lightly salt, cover and cook on low heat until absorbed (about 15 min).
- Shred the corned beef with a fork and stir into the rice at the end of cooking.
- Pepper, mix, let rest 2 minutes off heat and serve steaming, straight from the mess tin.
How it was made : Canned corned beef and rice were staples of shipboard provisions between the wars: cheap, energy-dense, and non-perishable as long as the tin stayed sealed. Fresh water, however, was the ship's gold — you cooked with just enough to avoid running out.
The contemporary twist : A dash of hot sauce and some fresh herbs turn this "galley rice" into a very trendy sailor's rice bowl.
Sources : Alain Gerbault, À la poursuite du soleil, 1929
Alain Gerbault · Charactorium
