Food researchers ran a rather curious culinary experiment aboard the International Space Station—they fermented soybeans into miso to see how the offworld environment affected the flavor. Josh Evans of the Technical University of Denmark in Copenhagen and colleagues mixed cooked soybeans with salt and fermented rice (koji). They kept some of the substance on Earth and the rest went to space for full fermentation.
From Science News:
Fourteen tasters including chefs and researchers thought the space miso had nuttier and more roasted notes compared with the earthbound ones. These flavors are associated with compounds called pyrazines. The space miso contained more pyrazines, likely because the toastier temperature aboard the ISS sped up fermentation. (On average, the environment surrounding the space miso was roughly 36° Celsius — possibly due to heat-generating equipment nearby — compared with 23° C in Cambridge and 20° C in Copenhagen.)
All three misos bore similar microbes, although one bacterial species was found only in the ISS miso. Further, the fungus that fermented kōji showed more genetic mutations in the ISS miso than the Earth batches, possibly because of increased radiation exposure in space.
"Fermentation in space is possible with safe, successful results," they write in the journal iScience. "The space environment also shapes fermentation differently: a "space terroir."
Previously:
• Check out this gallery of meals for Apollo astronauts
• Greens grown in space are now on Space Station astronaut menu
