Normally I feature some more or less fancy recipes of some selected food-creations I was preparing for my fellow crew mates and myself on the various trips I´ve made on various yachts. That´s mostly Pasta, Thai kitchen or just plain simple classics like Steak or Beouf – with slightly changed recipes to fit the rather limited circumstances in terms of kitchen-space or raw materials available on a sailing yacht.
But not this time. It´s different now because I want to dedicate this article to the simplest of all possible food recipes on a boat. A plea for the simple joy or the sausage sandwich. But behold! It´s not the ordinary sandwich, some random sausage between two tasteless dry pale white wheat sandwich slabs – it´s the real one. The one and only. The good one. The German bread-made sandwich.
German bread. There is nothing like this anywhere in the world.
We Germans are unique in many ways and our addiction to really good beer and bread is just one. Back in the German history there was a time when our state wasn´t united in a bigger kingdom and “Germany” as a nation was comprised or more than 300 (!) smaller principalities. In each there was an own sovereign, some princes, some kings and even an Emperor at some stage. But due to this splitting of the nation, each principality has had its own rank of craftsmen of which the baker was just one (another one was the butcher which explains the richness of German sausages).
Same goes for the stand of the bakermen and it took Germany some hundreds of years to having developed the most variants of bread in all sorts and forms thinkable in the world. German “black bread” is kind of sacred in my country – I know a lot of people who take loafs of “their” bread with them to their holiday locations in all over the world because “there is nothing like German bread” to be found anywhere else. So far, so good: That´s for explaining our fixation on bread.
A true and honest Sandwich – best on a boat!
You know this bad feeling when after hours of sailing your stomach (empty now for hours) is suddenly bringing itself back to your attention with lots of pain reminding you that you haven´t filled up this empty hole and that it now urgently needs your care. You are simply hungry as hell! But it´s too late for cooking something (or the seas are too rough – you need it big. You need it fast. You need it now!
That´s when the tempting prospect of two rich, dark, whole-wheat slabs of finest fresh bread are coming to your mind, garnished thickly with slices of meat – most of all piled up to mount to a centimeter thick layer of tasteful yummy sausage, be it Prosciutto, Salami or Baloney. You do not need anything more now, just bread and sausage. The simple joy of biting deeply into this handful of paradise, of munching the brad and tasting the real taste of a men´s dish is just incomparable.
Of course, you may fancy up your sandwich with pickles, slices of green cuke. With tomatoes, pepper or even onions. Add ketchup, mayonnaise or mustard at will. You may as well have the sausage topped with a slice of Emmentaler, Cheddar or – best if you as me – Leerdamer cheese to brighten things up. I once (had some time for preparation) also featured an egg sunny side up, which was the highlight and climax of a 4-hour´s watch drawing to an end. Have a freshly brewed hot tea or coffee (LINK) served alongside – believe me, there is nothing better on a tough, long and tedious sailing day in your hands to eat than a simple sandwich. Or, as we call it in Germany: The “Klappstulle”.
You may also like to read:
Cooking offshore – the art of galley ballet
My favorite recipes for underway
Vegetarian Sailing action