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What's For Dinner?

J

Jeff M. Hopper

SOC-14 1K
I'm doing research for the "Standard" Terraforming Package thread, and I'm finding all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff under the heading of "Space Food". This is an article about a completely synthetic food created by NASA:



If you thought food pills were bad, at least you never had to deal with the horror of purely synthetic food. As part of a space experiment in 1965, twenty four men volunteered to be fed nothing but a food made from pure chemicals for nineteen weeks. I should say that that twenty four men started, but only fifteen finished. No, the other nine didn't starve to death. The experiment proved quite successful from a medical point of view and everyone who finished was perfectly healthy. It had more to do with the fact that the "food" wasn't even as solid a meal as a pill.

It was syrup. Looked like weak corn syrup. Tasted like weak corn syrup.

No wonder they had to be locked up for the duration of the experiment. One unguarded window and it was "Hello, cheeseburger!"

For any aspiring cooks with access to an organic chemistry lab, here is the recipe. Frankly, I'm holding out for an omelette.

Composition of an artificial diet entirely composed of purified chemical compounds

Amino-acids
l-Lysine·HCL 3.58 g
Sodium L-aspartate 6.40 g
l-Leucine 3.83 g
l-Threonine 2.42 g
l-Isoleucine 2.42 g
l-Proline 10.33 g
l-Valine 2.67 g
Glycine 1.67 g
l-Phenylalanine 1.75 g
l-Serine 5.33 g
l-Arginine·HCL 2.58 g
l-Tyrosine ethyl ester·HCL 6.83 g
l-Histidine·HCL·H20 1.58 g
l-Tryptophan 0.75 g
l-Methionine 1.75 g
l-Glutamine 9.07 g
l-Alanine 2.58 g
l-Cysteine ethyl ester·HCL 0.92 g

Water-soluble vitamins
Thiamine.HCL 1.00 mg
d-Biotin 0.83 mg
Riboflavin 1.50 mg
Folic acid 1.67 mg
Pyridoxine.HCL 1.67 mg
Ascorbic acid 62.50 mg
Niacinamide 10.00 mg
Cyanocobalamin 1.67 mg
Inositol 0.83 mg
p-Aminobenzoic acid 416.56 mg
d-Calcium pantothenate 8.33 mg
Choline bitartrate 231.25 mg

Salts
Potassium iodide 0.25 mg
Potassium hydroxide 0.83 g
Manganous acetate 18.30 mg
Magnesium oxide 0.38 g
Zinc benzoate 2.82 mg
Sodium chloride 4.77 g
Cupric acetate 2.50 mg
Ferrous gluconate 0.83 g
Sodium glycerophosphate 1.67 mg
Calcium Chloride·2H2O 2.44 g
Ammonium molybdate·4H2O 5.23 g
Sodium benzoate 1.00 g

Carbohydrates
Glucose 555.0 g
Glucono-δ-lactone 17.2 g

Fats and fat-soluble vitamins
Ethyl linoeate 2.0 g
α-Tocopherol acetate 57.29 mg
Vitamin A 3.64 mg
Menadione 4.58 mg
Vitamin D 0.057 mg

Now that's good eatin'!
Click to expand...
 
After reading your post I just had a mental picture of an old HEE HAW sketch that had granpa dressed up in a lab coat.

When the crowd yell out "Whats for supper!"

he reads off your post and the crowd yells out "Yum Yum"

Sorry..I'm still giggling over here in radioactive tumbleweed country
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The scary part, Jeff, is that looks like the ingredient list on a lot of processed foods, today!
The only thing missing is the aspartame.
 
Flavor is a problem. Texture is a problem. Its one thing to make something edible and nutritious, its quite another to also make it appetizing as a food product. Spirolina algae is a good candidate for a nutritious, fast-growing, hardy food source - but pond scum just doesn't look very yummy on a plate.
 
Well, my greatest discovery when I was 7 that there is no difference between Natural & Artificial Flavours both are synthesized in a lab. Been trying to eat healthy ever since.
 
Originally posted by Jeff M. Hopper:
Its one thing to make something edible and nutritious, its quite another to also make it appetizing as a food product.
Click to expand...
I was listening to a documentary on the radio recently about food around the world. It was pointed out that what is and what isn't acceptable as food is largely cultural.

For example, I like mashed potato but in some parts of the world it is considered revoltingly slimey. On the other hand I would struggle to eat grubs or locusts, yet for some they are a staple part of the diet.

So maybe for people who grew up in space (those born in an asteroid belt, etc) artificial and/or algae foods are acceptable ... its the food with veins or sap that is gross.

Regards PLST
 
Originally posted by Hemdian:
I was listening to a documentary on the radio recently about food around the world. It was pointed out that what is and what isn't acceptable as food is largely cultural.
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I'm leaning more that way. I can easily see cultures living in space having meals of TVP meat with extra protein provided by insects, breads and pastas made with algae flour, and desert being sweet fruits like strawberries. Everything but the strawberries would be fairly repugnant to westerners.

(Except maybe the TVP. Apparently the standard hamburger patty at McDonalds is a TVP product and the Chicken McNuggets are actually the flavored and pressed meat of a bottom-feeding fish.)
 
Malcolm Reynolds said, "Yes ma'am, genuine Alliance Nutrician Bars. One of these will feed a family of four for a month, longer if you don't like the kids much."

YUMMY
 
And not forgeting ...

Mm-hmm. They call it "Mudder's milk." All the protein, vitamins, and carbs of your grandma's best turkey dinner, plus 15% alcohol.
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... which many visitors (except Jayne) found revolting, yet the locals swilled down quite happily.

Regards PLST
 
Originally posted by Jeff M. Hopper:

Amino-acids
l-Lysine·HCL 3.58 g
Sodium L-aspartate 6.40 g
l-Leucine 3.83 g
l-Threonine 2.42 g
l-Isoleucine 2.42 g
l-Proline 10.33 g
l-Valine 2.67 g
Glycine 1.67 g
l-Phenylalanine 1.75 g
l-Serine 5.33 g
l-Arginine·HCL 2.58 g
l-Tyrosine ethyl ester·HCL 6.83 g
l-Histidine·HCL·H20 1.58 g
l-Tryptophan 0.75 g
l-Methionine 1.75 g
l-Glutamine 9.07 g
l-Alanine 2.58 g
l-Cysteine ethyl ester·HCL 0.92 g

Water-soluble vitamins
Thiamine.HCL 1.00 mg
d-Biotin 0.83 mg
Riboflavin 1.50 mg
Folic acid 1.67 mg
Pyridoxine.HCL 1.67 mg
Ascorbic acid 62.50 mg
Niacinamide 10.00 mg
Cyanocobalamin 1.67 mg
Inositol 0.83 mg
p-Aminobenzoic acid 416.56 mg
d-Calcium pantothenate 8.33 mg
Choline bitartrate 231.25 mg

Salts
Potassium iodide 0.25 mg
Potassium hydroxide 0.83 g
Manganous acetate 18.30 mg
Magnesium oxide 0.38 g
Zinc benzoate 2.82 mg
Sodium chloride 4.77 g
Cupric acetate 2.50 mg
Ferrous gluconate 0.83 g
Sodium glycerophosphate 1.67 mg
Calcium Chloride·2H2O 2.44 g
Ammonium molybdate·4H2O 5.23 g
Sodium benzoate 1.00 g

Carbohydrates
Glucose 555.0 g
Glucono-δ-lactone 17.2 g

Fats and fat-soluble vitamins
Ethyl linoeate 2.0 g
α-Tocopherol acetate 57.29 mg
Vitamin A 3.64 mg
Menadione 4.58 mg
Vitamin D 0.057 mg

Now that's good eatin'!
Click to expand...
[/qb] [/QB][/QUOTE]

Yup, Pop Tarts are yummy. NOT!
 
Originally posted by Hemdian:
For example, I like mashed potato but in some parts of the world it is considered revoltingly slimey.
Click to expand...
That part of the world would be where I grew up. I will still not eat mashed potatoes (though the spinach was slimier, the potato consistency was... well, I won't describe it, in case anybody's eating) except from a few sources.

Originally posted by Hemdian:
So maybe for people who grew up in space (those born in an asteroid belt, etc) artificial and/or algae foods are acceptable ... its the food with veins or sap that is gross.
Click to expand...
What book/show is that from? I seem to recall something (maybe a ST episode) where organic foods were mocked. "You are going to eat that? It came out of the dirt! Eeeewwwww!"
 
Originally posted by Fritz88:
What book/show is that from? I seem to recall something (maybe a ST episode) where organic foods were mocked. "You are going to eat that? It came out of the dirt! Eeeewwwww!"
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Fritz,

It's an attitude found in quite a few books/movies/TV shows actually.

I remember a line in one of the early ST:TNG episodes that sums up my dislike of the Star Dreck franchise. The XO who later grew a beard sneeringly answered a query from some alien who was looking for an escaped food animal. We don't imprison animals to eat them, the pompous asshole declaimed straight out of the PETA playbook. Of course you don't, you smug clown. You've got replicator technology and the choices it provides you, the fellow you're insulting has neither the machines or the choice.

Niven dropped similar food bits in many of his Known Space works. Louis Wu punches up a meal while piloting the Quantum II hypership Beowulf Schaeffer had flown to the Core and is surprised to recieve a 'handmeal' that comes apart in 'layers'; i.e. a sandwich. In another story, the protagonist is mildly shocked when the two women he and his buddy picked up in a bar purchase 'raw' food and prepare a meal by hand for them all.

Cherryh plays with this idea too. In one of her Merchanter novels, a habitat-raised character announces their revulsion at eating anything that once had 'blood' only to have his companions tell him that the fish and chicken he routinely eats have blood too. He then modifies his complaint to anything that has 'red blood'. Apparently no one bothers to tell him what color chicken blood is!


Have fun,
Bill
 
Bill, maybe I am remembering something from Downbelow Station (though not that scene).

OT alert
And, yes, ST:TNG was the "Can't we all just get along" version of ST.
(And, ST:DS9 was the soap opera version, ST:V was "Alien of the week", and ST:E was the "How often can we show Blalock in her underwear in one episode?" version.)
Kirk would have found a way to shoot Q - permamently. Mal (Firefly) would probably have found a way to sell him to the Reavers for a profit. (Though it would be fun to see what Q would have done to Jayne.)
 
Originally posted by Fritz88:
Bill, maybe I am remembering something from Downbelow Station (though not that scene).
Click to expand...
Fritz,

The Cherryh scene I'm partially remembering is from Heavy Time(?) or it's follow-on book. On the Merchanter timeline, they are pre-Downbelow Station and deal with the construction and manning of what will becomes Mazian's Fleet by the Earth Company in the Sol system.

... and ST:E was the "How often can we show Blalock in her underwear in one episode?" version.)
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I posted a 'review' of the ST:E premier epsiode on the TML when the series first began. That review was not well recieved to say the least. Thanks to Ms. Blalock, one question I asked was why Vulcans had tits. There was no real answer other than the usual Star Blecch pseudo-biological goobeldeegook.

My re-write of the scene in which Starfleet decides over the objections of the Vulcan 'ambassadors' to launch Enterprise early in order to return the Klingon home was not well recieved either. The phrases uttered by Fleet Admiral Dangerfield; "Moose! Rocko! Help the ambassador find his passport." and "How'd you like to make five bars of latinum the hard way?", did not sit well with some List members. ;)


Have fun,
Bill

P.S. Oddly enough, I enjoyed what little of the last few seasons of DS9 I saw because the Federation was no longer populated by saints.
 
Well something easier to remember is in Bujold's Vorkosigan's sage in which Cordelia hated eating any meat protein that wasn't vat grown. H. Beam Piper also had vast vat beasts which only grew useable meat, providing tons of beef even on a planet without any meadows or way to feed them.

Personally, I cannot stand curry in any form, yet a large majority of the world enjoys them. Of course most of the haut cuisine sauces and the like, all were developed before refrigeration was readily available.

The main reason I didn't like Enterprise was simply that they didn't know what they were trying to do. If they tried to portray a strict A-B=Federation, people got angry at them for not trying something new. When they tried something knew, the fanboys came out of the workdwork and attacked. The episodes I liked the most had to do with the Andorians/Vulcans and the few with Dr Sung.

What I didn't like is that time war stuff mainly because the producers didn't know what to do with the show.

that they were too limited in what they tried to accomplish with the show. When they tried to step out of what people expected, they were lambasted, even though these were the episodes I liked, especially the Andorian/Vulcan episodes.
 
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