the explorers journal - The Explorers Club

A FAR OUT ISSUE SPECIAL
E x t r e m e C u i s i n e
food for the epicurean adventurer
F u t u r e F o o d s
dining well beyond the van allen belt
"Among the challenges for interplanetary missions is
that food will have to be resistant to degrading due
to exposure to radiation," says Charles T. Bourland,
former director of NASA's space food program and coauthor
of the recently releASED ASTRONAUT'S COOKBOOK
(SEE PAGE 59). SPACE FOODS, HE NOTES, MUST ALSO be loaded
with antioxidants to counter the effects of radiation
on the crew and have plenty of calcium to arrest
bone loss. ANOTHER THING HE SUGGESTS WE CONSIDER IS
THAT THESE FOODS WILL BE MADE primarily FROM PLANTS
AND CELLULAR MATRICES PROPAGATED IN SPACE, WHICH WILL
RESULT IN A LARGELY VEGETARIAN DIET. NONETHELESS, SAYS
BOURLAND, IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE COMPUTER-CONTROLLED
FOOD SYNTHESIZERS MADE POPULAR BY SCIENCE FICTION
MAY ONE DAY OFFER A HOST OF TEXTURED PRODUCTS, which
will PROVIDE TASTE SENSATIONS we fondly ASSOCIATE WITH
FAVORITE DISHES HERE ON EARTH.
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Such offerings are already taking hold in the culinary
world in the form of "molecular gastronomy," a scientific
discipline launched in 1988 by Oxford physicist
Nicholas Kurti and Hervé This, now scientific director
of the Fondation Science & Culture Alimentaire in
Paris. Its purpose: to use the tools of physics, chemistry,
and biology to investigate the process of culinary
transformation—why, for instance, a soufflé swells.
"Take an egg for example," says This. "If we heat it,
water evaporates and the proteins denature and polymerize
to enclose water. The result is a cooked egg.
But is there another way to do this The answer is yes,
with alcohol, which also denatures proteins. If you put
a whole egg in alcohol, and you are patient enough, the
ethanol will permeate the shell and promote coagulation.
After a month, the result is a strange coagulated
egg called a Baumé, after the French chemist Antoine
1970s artist's concept of human settlement in space. image courtesy NASA