G+ astromic
Sat, 2012-01-28 23:25
Modern day food science has "molecular gastronomy"/"culinary physics"/ "experimental cuisine"; that (for example) uses liquid nitrogen to cook with. With that in mind, I had this idea of a gastronomic cooking device that uses the hostile elements of space to cook. Certainly the "outside" temperature varies and is different depending on region and solar distance. I Imagine a reputed chef of Glitterati that travels around and seek environments to cook with.
And essentially performs a glorified airlocking to cook food.
Perhaps some high dining restaurants occasionally offers this when the environment allows it.
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Plutarch
Sun, 2012-01-29 23:20
#2
Re: G+ astromic
Yes it really opens for lots of enviroment cooked food for "novelty" seeking glitterati. Though some experimental food results would be more glam than ham. Venusian smoked meat might taste less than smoked meat; due the absent scent of wood in the carbon dioxide. In essence: Champaign vs Soda steam carbonated wine.
__________________
"To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult."
Plutarch
Mon, 2012-01-30 13:52
#3
Re: G+ astromic
Hmm, Venusian air might be a bit too sulphurous for a good meat taste. But it might be a great ingredient for making wine - you normally add sulphites to improve color and taste, and this is "natural terroir" for Venus. Still, doing a sous vide by putting your meat in an airtight packet and dangling it at the right height might be a cool thing to do.
Intense UV light might do interesting things to taste. To my knowledge nobody has studied it.
Radioactivity is good for sterilizing food, but might affect the taste of some fats if I remember right. Still, some people might learn to like that. Who can resist grandmother's Chernobyl Chicken, cooked the oldfashioned way on a vintage Gazprom Space reactor. Just remember to eat a lot of bananas furiosas split afterward!
Flash freezing by adding a lump of carbon dioxide or nitrogen ice might work. Just make sure it doesn't have any tholins (taste like tar) or ammonia on it!
Vacuum cooking can be fun. Not just to clarify mixes or make ultra-light meringues (helped by microgravity - you can probably make things that are as light as spun sugar this way), but by lowering the boiling point to a desired level:
"Who left this mess in the airlock?!"
"Sorry, I was just cooking my breakfast eggs. You know they are amazingly good when you boil them at a 0.25 atmospheres..."
"Yeah, but I pick up my cooking equipment after me. Look at the mess on my spacesuit!"
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Mon, 2012-01-30 18:47
#4
Re: G+ astromic
I've always found people eating things that aren't food to be an amusing 'alien culture' gag, and the digestive expansion mods even note that some users develop a taste for arsenic cocktails. Iron Chef 10AF's secret ingredient might be concrete.
Alternatively, with cloning cheap and efficient, or matter compilers assembling an ingredient down to the molecule, exotic meats aren't too hard to come by. Panda burger, anyone? Dinosaur egg omelette? Man-steak? Is it really so immoral if it's never housed an ego?
Just make sure you get a genuine genetic code. You get tailored chicken knock-offs all the time.
Not as refined as the previous posts, I admit. I don't know that much about cooking.
Thu, 2012-02-02 12:48
#5
Re: G+ astromic
With re-sleeving available, the food doesn't need to be healthy or survivable...
__________________
"To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult."
Plutarch
And essentially performs a glorified airlocking to cook food.
Perhaps some high dining restaurants occasionally offers this when the environment allows it.
I've thought a lot about the new cooking methods that might exist in 10 AF. Some new ones came to mine like fusion exposure (exposing your food to your reactor or the unshielded rays of the sun to effectively flash-fry it) or plasma bombardment. In the deepest regions of the system, some might even use extreme cold temperatures for parts of preparation (maybe someone finds something that actually tastes good after it has been freezer burned). I really does leave you wondering about it all.
I wonder what grilled meat would taste like after being exposed to the carbon dioxide-filled atmosphere of Venus....
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." - Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr, 1787
"That sounds like heresy. We're going to wipe you from the history books for that crap!" - Texas Board of Education, Ruling on March 12th, 2010