Some examples of the food flown on Gemini missions included grape and orange drinks, cinnamon toasted bread cubes, fruit cocktail, chocolate cubes, turkey bites, applesauce, cream of chicken soup, shrimp cocktail, beef stew, chicken and rice, and turkey and gravy.
Dehydration occurs naturally in warm climates, and in cold climates, it is called freeze drying.
Freeze-drying techniques in the space program consist of slicing, dicing, or liquefying prepared food to reduce preparation time. After the food has been cooked or processed, it is quick-frozen, then placed on drying trays and put into a vacuum chamber where the air pressure is reduced. Heat is then applied through heating plates. Under these conditions of reduced pressure and increased temperature, the ice crystals in the frozen food boil off, and the water vapor that is left is condensed back to ice on cold plates in the vacuum chamber. Because water is the only thing removed in this process, the freeze-dried food has all the essential oils and flavors.