While this might sound like restaurant fare or hardy home cooking, there is one big difference: this food is not served on plates and not even in recognizable form.
The Biryulyovo-based experimental factory has been cooking food for cosmonauts for 40 years now. Almost all food cosmonauts consume while on a space mission is in vacuum packing, not in tubes contrary to the widespread stereotype. All soups and cereals are sublimated, or de-watered. This is a rather expensive process, but it helps reduce meal weight.
Products are put in a flash evaporator system and are frozen to minus 38 degrees Celsius. In 26-28 hours, the food is dehydrated.
First courses are a must for most cosmonauts. They have to pour water in vacuum packs through a funnel that resembles a swallowtail. Ten or fifteen minutes later, cosmonauts can drink the soup through a hole in the pack. Mashed potatoes, cottage cheese, oatmeal and other side dishes are prepared the same way.
Mustard, sauces, and honey are packed in tubes.
"Extraterrestrial" bread is baked at a special factory in small loaves so that cosmonauts do not get crumbs all over the space station. One loaf of bread consists of 12 small pieces.
The expiration date of all "space dishes" ranges from 12 to 47 months.
Cosmonauts are not allowed to drink alcohol, and they cannot have ice cream, as the space station is not outfitted with a freezer or refrigerator.
American astronauts like Russian soups and oatmeal, while Russians have always preferred Russian food. ISS cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov has even sent a thank-you note to the chefs for their culinaryskills.
