elstaffe’s Reviews > The Astronaut's Cookbook: Tales, Recipes, and More > Status Update

"On the ISS there is a limited amount of alcohol that is brought up by the Russians. The official Russian position is that they do not allow alcohol in space, but some of the cosmonauts have friends at the launch center." (170)

"The cans had to be measured, heated, probed, and otherwise abused to see what would happen to them in potential worst-case spaceflight scenarios. They even had to pose for engineering drawings before they could be approved. All space food items have special drawings made, just as if they were a bolt or other piece of flight hardware." (142) pose?

"3 tbsp Emeril's Original Essence[TM]" (103) I beg your pardon

"Caution: If you are in microgravity and plan on using your tortilla as a Frisbee, save the filling step for later. Unevenly spread filling can affect the flight handling characteristics of the tortilla Frisbee and may lead to scattered globs of filling or tortilla Frisbee art adhering to cabin walls." (80)

"Because of the odor problem, bananas and oranges have lost some of their popularity with crews. Some space shuttle commanders, whose word is final, have been known to order 'no bananas on my flight.'" (58) and yet they're chill with canned tuna??

"Some astronauts find the smells objectionable, especially if they become nauseated when entering microgravity (and about half of them do). It would seem like the solution is to seal the fruit and veggies in air-tight bags. Unfortunately, that speeds up the metabolic activity, and spoilage is accelerated." (58)

"1 cup .. cold cereal*
1/3 cup of powdered milk
2 tsp of sugar or 1 packet artificial sweetener
1/2 cup cold water
1 resealable ... bag
1. Put all the ingredients in the bag.
2. When ready to eat, add water and reseal the bag.
3. Shake the bag to dissolve the milk and sugar.
4. Open the bag and eat immediately with a spoon.
5. Write a note to yourself to never do that again unless you become an astronaut." (35)

"The 'secret' was the second freeze drying. Otherwise, it takes boiling water to rehydrate them, and boiling water is not available on NASA spacecraft." (33)

"NASA freeze dries the eggs, adds water back, and freeze dries them a second time. ... The basic scrambled egg formulation has been around since the Apollo days. Originally a commercial company made them for NASA. When it went out of business the company gave the 'secret of the eggs' to NASA to use for space shuttle flights." (33) THE SECRET OF THE EGGS

"In the recipes that follow, the SS stands for 'space shuttle/space station.'
SS SCRAMBLED EGGS" (33) VERY IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION