story1

"As a young apprentice, I had to take my turn in the galley preparing the evening meal for the officers. On one occasion when it was my turn, the Captain told me to make a rice pudding." ( Like many lads of his age, I imagine that he had not done much cookery while he was at home, and this was the right opportunity to impress the Captain with his knowledge of all things to do with ships and the sea.)
"So I went to the storage bin for some rice, and took a large handful and put it into a dish. To my horror, the rice was full of weevils wriggling about . I quickly put the lid back on the bin and hurried off to the galley, where I proceeded to pick these nasty little critters out of the rice.
After 10 minutes or so of this, there were as many weevils as there had been when I started! So I got some dried milk, water and a knob of butter and added these to the rice and popped it into the oven.
At dinner time, I served it up to the Captain's table with a certain amount of anxiety. All the officers tucked in, and when the meal was over, the Captain said to me, "That was a very nice rice pudding, Hayes,.............but next time, don't put so many
carraway seeds in it!"."

Tales my father told me
when I was young. Story 1

Early days in steam ships were hard for the men who sailed them. There was no refrigeration, and so fresh meat was only available in the first few days after leaving port. The ship would keep a supply of live chickens, These would have to be slaughtered, plucked and cooked. Often the meat would be salt beef or salt pork which were kept in kegs in the lower part of the ship. Fresh bread was not available. "Hard tack" or ships biscuits were the norm. These were as hard as bricks and could only be eaten after being soaked in water!

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