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User:Tungsten/Cooking

From A Tale in the Desert
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Log

Entry #1 - 23 December, 2009
I have started my cooking research yesterday. I did not find a clear theory on the properties of ingredients or how they affect the finished meal, all I have found was a table on the Recipes page. I have added a recipe or two, but I had a feeling that it was going nowhere.
I have seen Dachannien's Cooking Database of course, but it did not make too much sense to me at first sight. A serious amount of work, time and energy must have been put into it, and I really respect that, however, I was expecting some clear rules, a coherent system, or at least discussions on theories how things could work in Cooking. I have found none. This coordinate system I was seeing everywhere just confused me, and I have never seen a clear explanation on where those coordinates come from. Looking at Mortality's Cooking 1 Recipes, especially at the Number Variations, I was getting really confused, and started to think that the whole concept we have on cooking so far needs an extensive review.
So I decided to disregard everything I have seen so far, and start Cooking research from scratch.
As a first step, I started accumulating some raw data in the table below. What I have seen so far makes me believe that thinking in Base/Additive pairings in mostly incorrect. Yes, there are bases and additives, and their definitions also seems to be correct insofar that an ingredient with the highest amount is a base, the rest are additives. It also seems to be true that at cooking level 1 you can only use 1 base in a dish. However, it seems that stat bonuses have nothing to do with bases/additives, they only depend on the ratio of ingredients used. Then again, I may be completely wrong, especially since my Cooking skill is only 1 at the moment, so just about anything may turn out at higher levels.
For now, I am testing the qualities of the ingredients I have in abundance. Later on, I will add more and more ingredients as they become available in greater quantities, but for now I have to use what I have. I did not use herbs or mushrooms of any kind until now, and I expect some surprises once I start using them.
Anyway, looking at the data collected so far, I have come to believe that every ingredient has some sort of effect on stats, which is multiplied by the ratio of that given ingredient to all other ingredients in the pot. So, for example, Cabbage often gives 1 bonus point in Dexterity and Condition, unless it is offset by the other ingredient(s). It is probably more complex than that, but I lack the data to think any further yet. Duration also seems to be affected by pairings, or 'compatibility' of ingredients. It most probably depends on how well the ingredients 'match', but the function must be more complex, since duration also depends on ratio. There seems to be an optimal ratio for pairs of ingredients. This could have something to do with those mysterious coordinates I have seen on other Cooking related pages, but could not really make heads or tails of.
Entry #2 - 24 December, 2009
I am adding a new ingredient to the list: Perch Fish. It may have different properties due to being Fish, though I do not expect a real surprise here, unlike with Herbs. Anyway, my supplies are very limited, so I will only try the 1:6 ratio. It probably does not make any sense to test the 6:1 ratio like I did before, as the theory on good/bad pairings is most probably correct. Still, since I had the igredients I used so far in abundance, it did not really hurt to try different ratios even if the pairing seemed to be a bad one. One never knows.
Entry #3 - 24 December, 2009
I am planning an experiment to test my theory on ratio and potency. I have already seen recipes that give higher stat bonuses, specifically Onions seem to be very potent. The potency, that is, the stat bonuses cannot depend on the amount of the ingredients used, since cooking a meal with more ingredients increases only the number of available servings but not the potency. So potency can only depend on the ratio of the ingredient to all other ingredients, it would not make sense any other way.
So far, in all the meals I had prepared, the ratio of the dominant ingredient never exceeded 6:1, but now I will try increasing the amount of the dominant ingredient against the additive, which will remain 1. I expect to see a slight shift in potency, approaching something that can be thought of as the 'pure form' of the dominant ingredient. Since there is no such thing as a completely neutral ingredient (perhaps water would be one, but unfortunately in cannot be used as an ingredient), there is no way of experiencing an ingredient in its pure form. Still, it could be isolated if the ratio is really big. A ratio of 100:1 would probably be close enough. Just to be absolutely sure, I will also try to increase the amount of the additive, just once, to prove that potency indeed only depends on the ratio.
I am also thinking that perhaps there could be something like a critical ratio for an ingredient, or at least some ingredients, and its properties might change upon exceeding it. If I think along the lines of 'taste' and 'seasonings'... For example, in real life, you can cook any amount of meat or vegetables, and use a little salt for taste. If you used too little salt, you would not even notice it. The dish would taste bland, but would still be palatable. Adding a little more salt would improve the experience, up to an optimal ratio, and adding too much would radically worsen it, up to a critical ratio. Exceeding the latter would result in the food becoming inedible. I have already seen the duration change with the ratio, suggesting there is an optimal ratio for ingredient pairs, so it is entirely possible that there is an optimal or ciritcal ratio for bonuses, too. Perhaps these only apply to spices, seasonings (that is: Herbs), though. I will be sure to test this hypothesis with salt as soon as I am able to make some.


Recipe Data

  • I do not measure time with a stopwatch. Duration is based on the ingame timestamp, so it is in teppyminutes. I eat the food, get the message: "You eat some <food>.", take note of the affected stats, and keep watching the stats. When they return to normal, I quickly check the timestamp on the above message, and record it.
  • Row color:
    • red: the recipe did not result in anything edible
    • white: planned, not tried yet


Ingredients