Quite often in restaurants or cafes you can find dishes supposedly from the ship’s menu. Well, there are Red Navy or Sailor’s Borsch, and there is also a different kind of it. However, almost all of these dishes are completely different from the fact that for many years the real sailors had been on the menu. A cook on a ship is not a regular person.
Sailor’s food, of course, did not consist of solid delicacies, but was nutritious and often quite tasty. Considering that at the time of the sailing fleet there were serious problems with preserving products for a long time, these were dishes cooked mainly from corned beef and salted fish that could be stored in barrels for several months and vegetables, such as cabbage, potatoes, carrots, beets and onions, oil and some fruits.
Bread is also not a product of long-term storage, so the ships had stocks of crackers, and later pasta. Especially for sea cuisine, a method of canning meat and fish was invented. But from this rather limited range of products, ship coca in the galley prepared several types of dishes that were almost the same on the ship, which went under the flags of different states. Here is a small menu of naval cuisine for a long time on the Russian ships. The first dish is shchi or borsch. Meat, potatoes, cabbage, carrots and onions. Schi prepare very simply. Meat is poured with water and cooked almost until ready, then add potatoes and salted cabbage. Carrots and onions are fried in cotton, sunflower or olive oil and added before cooking is completed.
If we add beets to this, then it will be borscht. Beets are also better to fry with onions and carrots. Add spices, pepper and Lavrushka. It is very tasty to eat with mustard or sour cream. You can decorate with finely chopped greens.
The second dish for a long time entered the menu of sailors is pasta in a naval manner. Pasta cooked separately and salted water. After cooking, washed. Onions are fried in vegetable oil, boiled meat scrolled in a meat grinder is added to it, you can also use canned food. Add spices and this fried with onion mince mixed with pasta.
What did the sailors drink?
Well, in modern times it is compote or kissel. It is curious that the first sailors are addicted to such beverages as tea, coffee and cocoa.
But a few centuries ago, the sailors had their own special drinks. Remember from the books about the famous Flint: Yo-ho-ho and a keg of rum. Exactly. This is the most rum and was a favorite drink of sailors in those days. Even in the contract that the sailor signed, when chartering to the ship it was recorded that a portion of the rum was laid on the sailor every day.
But in the middle of the 18th century, the English admiral Nelson Vernon violated this order. He ordered rum to be diluted with water. Of course it was not so tasty and they began to add lemon and sugar to this drink. And if it is heated, then it was tastier and acted much more strongly. But the sailors were still unhappy with the admiral and called him Old Grog for his constant habit of walking on deck in a waterproof raincoat, called the “grogr.” Over time, the nickname of Nelson Vernon was reduced to one word Grog, and later it became the name of the drink. Thus appeared GROG.
Sharp-tongued sailors called the fortress grog around the world. Nord meant pure rum and West pure water. So grog north-west fortress represented rum half diluted with water. And the north-west-north contained 2 parts of rum and one part of water. West-North-West is two parts of water and only one part of rum …
The tradition to include alcohol in the diet of seafarers has to some extent been preserved even now. Well, do not remind of the front hundred grams. But in the submarine fleet there is still a dry wine on the menu. As medicine says, this is a very useful drink, of course, if it is used in moderation. Wine relieves fatigue, overwork, it tones and promotes good digestion. In addition, it has bactericidal properties. Very popular with Navy mulled wine – a red table wine with sugar and spices, cloves and cinnamon.
Drink it hot, slowly, in small sips, sometimes with strong hot tea. Excellent cold medicine. Enjoy your meal)))
