Best way to store food?

Game Talk The Bunker
1

As far I am playing I find is not a big deal to get or find food, that you can consume in the long term, but because in some point all that raided food you find are going to spoil it, I looking method to conserve part of those or all, in a way it don´t spoil.

Smoked for meats.
Prickled for fruits and vegetables.
Refrigeration for lactose based food.

So obviously in the long term you can get all the methods, what is the best way to eat / drink with the less effort and more practical one. Early / mid game wise.

Till now found the protein shakes (with a fruit), offers the best nourishment and quench.

What is the best practical way to this? In some days for sure all the food in the houses gonna be rot, and the looted food are going to be more scarce, so I need to stick to just game meat them smoke it?

2

Dehydrate/mill everything, then turn into bread/pizza/whatever on demand.

3

Ice labs make great larders. Once the temperature drops below a certain number, food stops rotting. I think it’s 34 and lower, I’ve seen the exact number in the forums but I can’t really recall. Minifridges are good for keeping a small supply in your raidmobile and preserving meat while you hunt before taking it back to your larder. And then theres all the various ways of turning perishable foods into unperishables that you’ve mentioned already. Swamps are a great place to get salt for that purpose, just watch out for the wildlife.

4

Yes I ve reading there is various options, just they are not instant, for example fridges you can loot one from a vehicle somewhere, but my main concern is the power generation for it, and solars are not that instant, yeah in some point I gonna get some, but not early game.

Seems like dehydrating needs a dehydration station and it needs energy? or there is other way? milling I see you can craft a quern so is possible and not expensive to do. I find a smoker right next to a hotdog stall. I just need a charcoal in big sums.

No swamp near so salt is not an option right now. I don´t have even the knowledge to make a shopping card (I searching for the tools and lurking for guides)

There are various ways, is just not accessible for me right now. Except the milling / smoking and seems is the early game methods.

5

It’s easy to make a power generator out of an engine and an alternator.

6

I am more concerned about the fuel. At least dunno maybe I just having bad luck, but gasoline / diesel es pretty scarce, and few games the city that spawn a gasoline station is in the middle of various hordes. Yeah I could sneak in the middle of the night but how much fuel hungry is a generator to fuel light / fridges? I read somewhere about a “generator” than somewhat create a “almost” infinite energy (maybe I just misunderstand).

7

Early/midgame it could be dehydrated meat and fruit. The charcoal smoker is easy to build and the winter is good for hunting ants because the meat doesn’t spoil as quickly.

However spider basements hold a lot of eggs (and meat too). The eggs get powdered and then make tons of scrambled eggs on demand.

8

I am more concerned about the fuel. At least dunno maybe I just having bad luck, but gasoline / diesel es pretty scarce, and few games the city that spawn a gasoline station is in the middle of various hordes. Yeah I could sneak in the middle of the night but how much fuel hungry is a generator to fuel light / fridges? I read somewhere about a “generator” than somewhat create a “almost” infinite energy (maybe I just misunderstand).[/quote]

Don’t put a big engine into the genny, I use like a 0,6L engine in my generator (fuel consumption 1), and it’s super efficient with the fuel usage. Being on like day 49 of spring (60 day seasons) it’s still on it’s first tank and I can just keep the light on all night whilst also using the on-board welder/chemistry/kitchen/etc whenever I need to.

If you can find an engine with very little fuel usage, just dump that into your generator and use that until you can get your mitts on solar panels. It will make survival infinitely easier.

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9

Thanks @lootpack and @deknegt, Basically fuel generators are not that hungry raiding a Gas station would do it for long time.

10

A little leveling up in the Cooking and survival skills will also unlock several very nice recipes for stockpiling food:

  • Protein Powder: This can be mixed with clean water to make the efficient but bad-tasting Protein Drink, or mixed with clean water and dehydrated fruit to make nutritious and delicious Protein Shakes. Very good for emergencies and as lightweight backup food on long scavenging trips. A gallon jug of protein shake will keep a character fed and quenched for days.
  • Sealed jars of soup: These will never spoil, and each has four servings of food that is highly nutritious, quenches thirst, and is very enjoyable. A bit heavy, but low volume, so they’re a good food to keep in your scouting car.
  • Wastebread: not very enjoyable, but lasts a very long time and can be used to make very enjoyable and filling sandwiches.
  • Pemmican and Granola - require some slightly hard-to=get ingredients, but are very filling, lightweight, compact, and never spoil. Save these for exploring labs and other dungeons, or long trips on foot.
  • Hard cheese and sugar: worth every bit of the trouble it takes to make large batches of these. A wooden barrel’s worth can feed a survivor for months.
  • Booze. Seriously- some types of booze can be used to make recipes that make healthy food more enjoyable, others are nearly as good as soup for food storage by themselves, some can make cocktails that massively boost moral and provide a bit of nutrition at the same time… Watch out for alcohol addiction, but in moderation they can be a decent way to supplement your diet and keep your moral high.

The best way to store stuff long-term is dehydration or smoking though- very efficient and can be used with other ingredients to craft many of the recipes that I’ve already mentioned, increasing their nutritional value and making that stockpile last even longer.

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11

Best use for human flesh: dehydrate, then turn into protein powder. Cannibalism penalty, GONE. :slight_smile:

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12

It’s also a late-game workaround for vegetarian characters to be able to indirectly consume meat — human or otherwise.

Once it’s been reduced to protein powder, it’s so far removed from its source that it no longer even counts as meat.

13

Dehydration. Dehydrate meat, vegetables, fruit. Dehydration gets a time “discount” the more you dehydrate, unlike vacuum-packing. And smoking is super slow. So when you dehydrate food, dehydrate a lot. Of course you’ll need a food dehydrator, crafted or found, and batteries for it. Or check out FOODCO Kitchen Buddy, a vehicle part.

You should try to find that swamp and fill a steel jerrycan full of salt water (=100 units). Salt water is very useful in many crafting recipes, including food preservation.

Granola is great but it takes so long to make. Of course you could spend an entire winter making granola, for example. Bonus math problem: How much granola can be made in 14 days (default season length), assuming one sleeps 8 hours a day, and how long would the resulting granola mountain last for a character with normal hunger?

Seriously just get that minifridge in your vehicle if you can. It doesn’t take that much power. Make sure the alternator and the batteries are fully repaired. Get a rubber hose and drain every vehicle, whether it’s diesel or gasoline. Make sure the gas tanks are fully repaired. Get a diesel engine and keep it in your car’s trunk if necessary, and switch to it if you ever run out of gasoline. Remove all batteries from all cars, too, and install them in yours. You can install one of each common battery type in each vehicle slot (car/truck/storage), meaning 3 batteries per slot. Vehicle power is so easy to come by IMO. Seriously, I’m challenging you to run out of vehicle power. :smiley:

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14

This is why it’s best saved as trail rations. Pig out on not-so-portable but fast and filling stuff like deluxe beans and rice when you’re back at camp.

I spend the spring crafting and cooking myself. All the rest of the seasons have good reasons to leave camp: Winter is great for meat-gathering and clearing out towns since things take longer to spoil and you can layer tons of armor without overheating, summer can be spent farming and gathering wild plants and fruit, and autumn has the best of both with plants and fruit to gather and cooler temperatures to make perishables last longer with or without a fridge… but spring can be spent at camp crafting and not getting soaked by constant rain without wasting gathering opportunities.

15

[quote=“BeerBeer, post:13, topic:11131”][spoiler]Dehydration. Dehydrate meat, vegetables, fruit. Dehydration gets a time “discount” the more you dehydrate, unlike vacuum-packing. And smoking is super slow. So when you dehydrate food, dehydrate a lot. Of course you’ll need a food dehydrator, crafted or found, and batteries for it. Or check out FOODCO Kitchen Buddy, a vehicle part.

You should try to find that swamp and fill a steel jerrycan full of salt water (=100 units). Salt water is very useful in many crafting recipes, including food preservation.

Granola is great but it takes so long to make. Of course you could spend an entire winter making granola, for example. Bonus math problem: How much granola can be made in 14 days (default season length), assuming one sleeps 8 hours a day, and how long would the resulting granola mountain last for a character with normal hunger?

Seriously just get that minifridge in your vehicle if you can. It doesn’t take that much power. Make sure the alternator and the batteries are fully repaired. Get a rubber hose and drain every vehicle, whether it’s diesel or gasoline. Make sure the gas tanks are fully repaired. Get a diesel engine and keep it in your car’s trunk if necessary, and switch to it if you ever run out of gasoline. Remove all batteries from all cars, too, and install them in yours. You can install one of each common battery type in each vehicle slot (car/truck/storage), meaning 3 batteries per slot. Vehicle power is so easy to come by IMO. Seriously, I’m challenging you to run out of vehicle power. :D[/spoiler][/quote]

Eh, I prefer have a recharging station / solars but never actually find one till now, maybe I just having pretty unlucky world generations (at least in the first city close to my Evac shelter. But the last one just got too lucky to get an dehydrator just lying in the street but oc, with just few batteries, and they need a constant fill with batteries to be useful.

I just want that power generator to run my cookers and lights working all day and all night.

Is there a way to not staying 1 hour making something? like, hey I can let the salt water evaporate without checking the whole hour seeing how the water is gone.

16

Nope. The only thing that has that is charcoal making; you can construct a charcoal kiln where you can stuff up to 500 volume of wood/bone and you can leave it alone while you do other things.

17

So how about a request for adding those actions? like some stuff can be left alone and others requires your attention all process?

18

I’ve requested that before… it’s just not very high on the priority list.

I think you could actually make some of those things with JSON, actually - like the charcoal kiln, that you use a recipe to fill, the activate, then come back later and empty out (or like tanning items). Haven’t tried it myself, though.

19

I’ve requested that before… it’s just not very high on the priority list.

I think you could actually make some of those things with JSON, actually - like the charcoal kiln, that you use a recipe to fill, the activate, then come back later and empty out (or like tanning items). Haven’t tried it myself, though.[/quote]

It’ll certainly do wonders for lye, as that stuff takes a long time to make.

20

Not as of yet. So far only carefully watched boiling salt water will evaporate. X3
You might suggest the idea on github, though: There are some recipes like tanning hides and pelts and brewing that only need to be started and then left alone for a while, so its possible to make that type of recipe…