How would cuisine be developed in Space?

[Jestersage]

One of the things going around the dinner table is: how would a space colony (O'Neill/Lunar/Mars) develop their cuisine, assuming they can grow their own vegetation and meat?

We have issues with different gravity, different atmospheric pressure, and etc. It's not just in terms of cooking (i.e: forget about tossing with your wok), I think even taste would have to be adjusted.

ISS/Mir/Skylab doesn't really count because you have scientist who knew it's gonna suck, and they are in microgravity.

[Scotius]

Taste gets dulled in microgravity, so it would be mostly Tabasco, hot chilli peppers and other spicy things mixed together for maximum 'oomph'. And jerky - astronauts love jerky

[tater]

Yeah, Sid Gutierrez told me that packets of taco sauce were like cigarettes in prison on shuttle.

Presumably things would be more normal in a non-microgravity environment. Proper cooking would require better air scrubbers I'd think. Perhap such a kitchen would be a special room where the whole room is evacuated very well (think of the grease trap for the vent hood!).

[Racescort666]

I didn't realize that your question was in regards to "on the surface" rather than "in transit". Hypothetically, the atmosphere of whatever colony would be standard pressure so water boiling would be the same temperature. Primarily, cooking is for 2 reasons, killing food-borne pathogens and increasing the caloric value of the food you're cooking. Also taste but that's not too hard to get around. 

For actual cooking techniques, microwave for sure but water bath cooking (sous vide) might not be a bad idea either. You'd probably want to eliminate hot oils as well so no deep frying. Hypothetically, a soup could be heated in an induction cooker like some of the newer stoves. I suspect that dishes in liquid or semi-liquid form would be the best for cooking and consumption. 

It would probably be a good idea to limit particulate seasonings so basically every type of seasoning would have to be liquid or gel. Hot sauce is already popular but there are many other types of sauces that could be easily implemented. Too bad that dried spices would probably be a problem but fresh spices wouldn't be bad. They'd have to find a way of making them into gels to preserve them. The more I think about it, the more that preserving spices seems like a problem. I've never tried to cook anything without dried spices so I've got no idea how flavor would be affected. 

Taste would be an interesting one to experiment with because much of your sense of taste comes from smell as well. In lower gravity (on the moon or Mars as you suggest) VOCs would behave differently and could affect how your nose collects them. This is already evident on the ISS as has been reported. 

Thinking out loud: what do they do on submarines?

[DerekL1963]

17 minutes ago, Racescort666 said:

Thinking out loud: what do they do on submarines?

Pretty much everything you do in your home kitchen in the same way you do it in your home kitchen.  The only real difference is we have filters and electrostatic precipitators in our ventilation system to scrub particulates from the air.

There's no particular need to avoid frying, or to have your spices in anything other than their usual forms, or any other such nonsense.  (At least not at 1g.)

(USN Submarine Service, USS Henry L. Stimson SSBN 655.)

Edited November 2, 2016 by DerekL1963

[cubinator]

I would definitely not do any cooking in an Apollo-style pure oxygen atmosphere...

[wumpus]

On 11/2/2016 at 5:49 PM, cubinator said:

I would definitely not do any cooking in an Apollo-style pure oxygen atmosphere...

Wasn't that over after Apollo 1?  I thought they went to a O2/He mix for Apollo 8 and beyond.

[DerekL1963]

14 minutes ago, wumpus said:

Wasn't that over after Apollo 1?  I thought they went to a O2/He mix for Apollo 8 and beyond.

Nope.  60% O2/ 40% N2 at atmospheric pressure on the pad, bled down to 5psi during ascent, then purged (by venting while backfilling with pure O2) to pure O2 over the next 24 hours.

[Jonfliesgoats]

Fermentation is possible.  I could see Kimchi being an option.  It could be a nice treat to open up your Kiimchi pots as you finally arrive at mars.  The cabbage would have a few years to ferment,. The down side: CO2.

In microgravity, fermentation may not completely occur in the pits without some kind of stirring, too.

Edited November 4, 2016 by Jonfliesgoats

[Nuke]

On 11/2/2016 at 1:01 PM, tater said:

Yeah, Sid Gutierrez told me that packets of taco sauce were like cigarettes in prison on shuttle.

Presumably things would be more normal in a non-microgravity environment. Proper cooking would require better air scrubbers I'd think. Perhap such a kitchen would be a special room where the whole room is evacuated very well (think of the grease trap for the vent hood!).

i guess in space one need not worry about dropping the soap.

[tater]

Good food is important, and given the limited options for raw materials in a long-term space habitat, cooking it in a way that maximizes the joy of good food I think would be important for people cooped up in small spaces.

@DerekL1963, supposedly food on submarines is decent, is that the case? I suppose that if the mess there can sear food, and otherwise do what is required to make food have all the aspects of good food (taste, texture, etc), then maybe it's not that hard to deal with, even in space. Obviously microgravity is a special case (and very tough).

Edited November 4, 2016 by tater

[DerekL1963]

29 minutes ago, tater said:

supposedly food on submarines is decent, is that the case? I suppose that if the mess there can sear food, and otherwise do what is required to make food have all the aspects of good food (taste, texture, etc), then maybe it's not that hard to deal with, even in space. Obviously microgravity is a special case (and very tough).

Much depends on the cooks of course...   But yeah, the food is generally better than the rest of the Fleet (in part because the boats get a larger budget per person and more latitude in varying from the recipe cards).  If you're at or near 1g there's no particular reason why you can't cook just like you would here on Earth.

I suspect (as a hobbyist cook) that in microgravity, your biggest problem is going to be splatter from frying/boiling as it's going to travel further.  (Until you're at low enough levels that frying/boiling is sufficient to turn the food or cooking liquid into a projectile in it's own right).  Sautes and stir frys at fractional g will be interesting too, probably mostly a matter of practice though (again, unless we're talking absurdly low).   Which puts us right back up against the "we know nada about fractional g" wall again.

[tater]

Inductive cooktop, and perhaps a serious hood system that traps even more smoke/grease. You are right, even lower gravity would be an issue in that respect (in terms of the distance such particles can travel).

[Racescort666]

@DerekL1963 you seem to have a better grasp of this than I do. I totally agree that at/around 1g there's no reason cooking would be any different from what's already common here on the surface (or under it). 

A splatter guard would be a way to cut down on projectiles under low g. If it's too low, you might have trouble keeping stuff on the bottom of the pan though and we're back where we started.

I ended up reading a bunch of articles on space food and Chris Hadfield talking about how salt had to be dissolved in water and pepper is suspended in oil to be used on the ISS. Also how they tend to use tortillas instead of bread. Then I ended up reading about the infamous roast beef sandwich which ended up getting crumbs floating all over the inside of Gemini 3.

[Toonu]

34 minutes ago, tater said:

Inductive cooktop, and perhaps a serious hood system that traps even more smoke/grease. You are right, even lower gravity would be an issue in that respect (in terms of the distance such particles can travel).

Smoke can be removed/reduced by using microwaves maybe?

Edited November 4, 2016 by Toonu

[Shikashi]

On ‎02‎.‎11‎.‎2016 at 10:24 PM, Racescort666 said:

I didn't realize that your question was in regards to "on the surface" rather than "in transit". Hypothetically, the atmosphere of whatever colony would be standard pressure so water boiling would be the same temperature. Primarily, cooking is for 2 reasons, killing food-borne pathogens and increasing the caloric value of the food you're cooking. Also taste but that's not too hard to get around. 

For actual cooking techniques, microwave for sure but water bath cooking (sous vide) might not be a bad idea either. You'd probably want to eliminate hot oils as well so no deep frying. Hypothetically, a soup could be heated in an induction cooker like some of the newer stoves. I suspect that dishes in liquid or semi-liquid form would be the best for cooking and consumption. 

It would probably be a good idea to limit particulate seasonings so basically every type of seasoning would have to be liquid or gel. Hot sauce is already popular but there are many other types of sauces that could be easily implemented. Too bad that dried spices would probably be a problem but fresh spices wouldn't be bad. They'd have to find a way of making them into gels to preserve them. The more I think about it, the more that preserving spices seems like a problem. I've never tried to cook anything without dried spices so I've got no idea how flavor would be affected. 

Taste would be an interesting one to experiment with because much of your sense of taste comes from smell as well. In lower gravity (on the moon or Mars as you suggest) VOCs would behave differently and could affect how your nose collects them. This is already evident on the ISS as has been reported. 

Thinking out loud: what do they do on submarines?

I usually make spice sauces made from carrots, buttloads of spices and pepper, and some habaneros or hotter!

[micr0wave]

Heat convection is gravity dependant. Boiling water might not work the same way it does in a submarine.

[kerbiloid]

Martian special dish: Martian Lutefisk.
Made of tilapia and natural perchlorates,
Best with boiled potatoes.

Also different dishes of Japan cuisine which require raw fish (tilapia) and spices.
And boiled vegetables.

Edited November 4, 2016 by kerbiloid

[Jestersage]

19 hours ago, Jonfliesgoats said:

Fermentation is possible.  I could see Kimchi being an option.  It could be a nice treat to open up your Kiimchi pots as you finally arrive at mars.  The cabbage would have a few years to ferment,. The down side: CO2.

Kimchi is also spicy and coated in sauce too, so in theory it's good. However I find it relatively bland compare to Tobassco.

It would be interesting, because all cuisine must be derived and compared with its parent style. This makes food that require maillard reaction difficult to produce in space, I think -- namely Chinese and Korean cuisine (sorry, we don't eat noddles all the time), but also a good steak... while food rely on stew and boiling (sous vade and indian curry) a good choice?

Maybe they can go utilize microgravity for some special food?

[James Kerman]

Heston Blumenthal could probably cook up an edible rocket.

Also, has NASA got any feasibility studies that combine a centrifuge and a deep fryer?

[YNM]

I'd imagine splashes would generally be a worser problem in varying degree than down here... Both in transit or in a colony.