The astronaut's cookbook - Charles T. Bourland

Astronauts, cosmonauts, and a very limited number of people have experienced eating space food due to the unique processing and packaging required for space travel. This book allows anyone with a normal kitchen to prepare space food. Since some of the processing such as freeze dehydration, and packaging cannot be accomplished in the normal kitchen, many of the recipes will not produce the food that would be launched in space, but will prepare food similar to what the astronauts would eat after they had added the water to the food in space. Many of the space foods are prepared to the point of ready to eat, and then frozen and freeze dried. Food preparation in this book stops at the point of ready to eat before the freezing and dehydrating takes place.

Recipes in this book are extracted from the NASA food specifications and modified for preparation in a normal kitchen.

In addition, astronaut home favorite recipes and NASA quarantine food recipes are included. NASA developed an extensive frozen food system for the International Space Station Habitation Module. The Habitation Module was cut from the budget, so these foods were not used, but some of the favorite recipes are in this book. NASA also developed a complete food system for planetary missions based on crops that could be grown in space. Some of these vegetarian recipes are also included in the book. Each recipe has the source identified such as Shuttle, International Space Station, astronaut favorite etc.

The book will contain the following chapters: Introduction, Appetizers, Beverages, Bread and Tortillas, Cookies, Sandwiches, Desserts, Main Dishes, Soups and Salads, Vegetables, and Future Space Foods.

Interesting tidbits of space food history will be spread throughout the book. Examples like; did NASA invent Tang?, who was the first person to eat in space?, the Gemini sandwich fiasco, why there is no alcohol in U.S. space food systems, astronauts favorite food, etc.

This book will be of interest to anyone wanting to taste and serve space food, chefs for special meals, teachers for use in the classroom, and anyone with a general interest in food and space.