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Unimportant question about the food on NCL.

UKLloyd

By UKLloyd,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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UKLloyd

UKLloyd

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Sorry, Was just sitting here thinking and thought I would ask the question.

 

When I think of cruising, I automatically expect decent food. With good quality ingredients. So i was just wondering, How much of the food on NCL is actually made on the ship? Or is everything frozen on board and defrosted. Do they even bake their own bread fresh?

 

Sorry, Just thought that this board has so many knowledgeable members, Wouldn't hurt to ask. It doesn't change anything for me, Still love cruising NCL, Just curious is all.

 

Thanks for any answers.

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chengkp75

chengkp75

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Sorry, Was just sitting here thinking and thought I would ask the question.

 

When I think of cruising, I automatically expect decent food. With good quality ingredients. So i was just wondering, How much of the food on NCL is actually made on the ship? Or is everything frozen on board and defrosted. Do they even bake their own bread fresh?

 

Sorry, Just thought that this board has so many knowledgeable members, Wouldn't hurt to ask. It doesn't change anything for me, Still love cruising NCL, Just curious is all.

 

Thanks for any answers.

 

About the only thing most cruise lines don't bake onboard are the hotdog and burger buns. The bakery has special machines that will roll out 29 dinner rolls at a time, or roll out baguette loaves. Even sandwich bread is baked onboard, and sliced in the bakery. There are even special machines that press the dough into the tart forms precisely.

 

Loaves or rolls are placed on full baking sheets, these are then put on racks that take a dozen trays, and then the rack goes into an oven where a turntable holds 4 racks (so 48 full baking sheets per oven), and rotates the racks like a rotisserie (except the spindle is vertical). There are also proofers where the dough is put on the racks (4 at a time) in a temperature and humidity controlled cabinet to rise.

 

Due to USPH food sanitation regulations, very little food comes aboard already prepared and frozen, and nothing gets made ahead of time and frozen.

 

Yes, the proteins (meat, fish, poultry) come on frozen, but that is because you cannot keep thousands of pounds of meat fresh for a week.

 

Soups are made from scratch in 35 gallon steam kettles. Vegetables are steamed in 30 lb batches in pressure cookers the size of a dining table. Racks similar to the bakery racks, that will take 10 full baking sheets will be used in ovens to cook meats and fish, and the ovens can be conventional, convection, or steam injection cooking.

 

I've had to repair virtually everything mentioned.

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bobg529

bobg529

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As far as I know, the meat is frozen and the majority of the rest is fresh. And yes, they make all breads on board.

 

 

I'm not sure of ALL of the meat being frozen. I remember being on a tour of the ships galley multiple times and seeing them cutting beef into steaks, etc. I think it may be a mixture of fresh and frozen meat. The baking operation is amazing to see in person as well. The behind the scenes tours are really fascinating.

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roger001

roger001

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On one cruise, at the dock a vendor was preparing to load huge quantities of fruit (i believe it was) onto the ship. The head chef was on the dock sampling all the items and rejecting major quantities of it, much to the dismay of the vendor.

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chengkp75

chengkp75

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I'm not sure of ALL of the meat being frozen. I remember being on a tour of the ships galley multiple times and seeing them cutting beef into steaks, etc. I think it may be a mixture of fresh and frozen meat. The baking operation is amazing to see in person as well. The behind the scenes tours are really fascinating.

 

They may bring some specialty meat in fresh, but even frozen meat is defrosted prior to prepping and cooking. The chefs will advise the provisions staff what is on the menu for the next couple of days, and provisions will get the product into coolers for defrosting. It is much cheaper to purchase say a whole beef tenderloin and then cut it into filet mignon, than to have it come prepared. On many ships, there is a "meat prep" room, where they will cut the steaks and such, using a bandsaw, and it is much easier to do this when the meat is at least partially frozen. There will also be a "fish prep" room where they break down whole fish into portions, and a "veg prep" and "salad prep" rooms for those items. So, lots of the scullery work is done before the food moves to the main or specialty galleys for cooking.

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chengkp75

chengkp75

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On one cruise, at the dock a vendor was preparing to load huge quantities of fruit (i believe it was) onto the ship. The head chef was on the dock sampling all the items and rejecting major quantities of it, much to the dismay of the vendor.

 

Yep, even the stuff that is accepted will be graded into three groups: use today, use soon, and good for the trip, depending on ripeness. A major time consumer for the provisions gang is to go through every box of produce daily, not only to rotate its position in the stacks (to even ripening), but to hand pick out any fruit or veg that looks like it is going off, to prevent spread to the rest of the box.

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casofilia

casofilia

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On one cruise, at the dock a vendor was preparing to load huge quantities of fruit (i believe it was) onto the ship. The head chef was on the dock sampling all the items and rejecting major quantities of it, much to the dismay of the vendor.

 

We have, more than once, stood at the rail in the early afternoon of the first day and watched ship's officers examining the produce that has been lined up on the dock before it was loaded. There were also port authority or police with dogs checking too!!

 

Mike

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casofilia

casofilia

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Have just had another thought; the ship went through their supply of bananas after leaving Los Angeles before we had cleared all the Mexican ports of call. The last ones were decidedly bruised, you could tell the way they prepared them at breakfast!! I asked about bananas one morning to be told "We will NOT buy bananas in Mexico".

 

Mike

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anonmom

anonmom

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About the only thing most cruise lines don't bake onboard are the hotdog and burger buns. The bakery has special machines that will roll out 29 dinner rolls at a time, or roll out baguette loaves. Even sandwich bread is baked onboard, and sliced in the bakery. There are even special machines that press the dough into the tart forms precisely.

 

Loaves or rolls are placed on full baking sheets, these are then put on racks that take a dozen trays, and then the rack goes into an oven where a turntable holds 4 racks (so 48 full baking sheets per oven), and rotates the racks like a rotisserie (except the spindle is vertical). There are also proofers where the dough is put on the racks (4 at a time) in a temperature and humidity controlled cabinet to rise.

 

Due to USPH food sanitation regulations, very little food comes aboard already prepared and frozen, and nothing gets made ahead of time and frozen.

 

Yes, the proteins (meat, fish, poultry) come on frozen, but that is because you cannot keep thousands of pounds of meat fresh for a week.

 

Soups are made from scratch in 35 gallon steam kettles. Vegetables are steamed in 30 lb batches in pressure cookers the size of a dining table. Racks similar to the bakery racks, that will take 10 full baking sheets will be used in ovens to cook meats and fish, and the ovens can be conventional, convection, or steam injection cooking.

 

I've had to repair virtually everything mentioned.

 

This is so fascinating! Why do they bake dinner rolls fresh, but not hamburger buns?

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chengkp75

chengkp75

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This is so fascinating! Why do they bake dinner rolls fresh, but not hamburger buns?

 

Dinner rolls don't have to be as consistent in size and shape as most people expect from burger and dog buns. It is cheaper to buy these from a place that mass produces them. Though the "dough roller", which cuts a large piece of dough into 29 smaller pieces and then rolls these into round balls, does a pretty good job of uniformity, no one really compares two dinner rolls to each other.

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geegee1

geegee1

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They bake terrific breads. It is frankly amazing how good their bread is yet the biscuits they make have a kinship to hockey pucks.

Just amazing.

The pretzel breads are usually amazing. But I still have yet to find a good English Muffin, which is disappointing.

 

On one cruise, at the dock a vendor was preparing to load huge quantities of fruit (i believe it was) onto the ship. The head chef was on the dock sampling all the items and rejecting major quantities of it, much to the dismay of the vendor.

 

On our last 2 Breakaway cruises you could see them loading the ship in Port Canaveral with produce and other provisions. Pretty cool to see these giant boxes being lifted up.

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