Cookcraft! A few cooking and food ideas relating to Cataclysm

Howdy all,

I’m pitching in a few suggestions for consideration into expanding use of cookware and food preservation. I’ll likely add to this as time goes on as I had quite a few ideas, however these were probably the better and more feasible ones of the bunch. If you feel like adding your own ideas or criticisms on my own, feel free.
I’m also well aware that at least ONE of these ideas has already been covered, so just consider my input to be in full support of that idea.

Anyways, See below and thanks for taking the time to read.

Water Bladder
Used by hikers and military alike, a Water Bladder is a flexible plastic pouch linked via a long straw which enables a user to insert the Bladder into their backpack and still be able to drink on the go without physically removing the bladder from their pack.
Runner Packs, Military Rucksacks, MOLLE Backpacks or Survivor Backpacks can be activated and have a Water Bladder inserted inside to reduce bulk volume while carried without increasing encumbrance.
Typically most Bladders contain 1 Litre of water for drinking, though larger versions containing anything up to 2.5 Litres have also been manufactured for hikers undergoing longer treks.

Item Volume: 1 (Volume rises when filled. Can be inserted into an aforementioned Pack to negate volume.)
Weight: 0.22 lbs (Weight rises as filled)

Crafting: (Only using a 1Litre Bladder as an example because I’m a lazy bastard)

Plastic Mold
Hotplate, integrated toolset, nearby fire
sewing kit, bone needle, wooden needle, tailor’s kit,
6 Plastic Chunks
1 Rubber Hose
10 Duct Tapes
1 Plastic Bottle

Water Carrier
A collapsible plastic container used for transporting liquids when the need arises.
When not in use the Carrier is folded into a compact and slim package which takes up little space in a user’s inventory. When Activated the Carrier is unfolded into a large jug to carry approximately 1 Gallon (4 Litres) of liquids and when emptied can be folded back into a neat package until it’s ready to be used again.

Item Volume: 1 (Folded) 15 (Unfolded )
Weight: 0.42lbs

Crafting:

Plastic Mold
Hotplate, integrated toolset, nearby fire
15 Plastic Chunks

(Same recipe as a Gallon Jug, however it requires a HIGHER skill level to fabricate properly.)

Thermos
A Thermos is an insulated flask designed to keep its contents at a desirable temperature, I.E. keeping hot liquids hot and cold liquids cold, ideally extending a meals quality for a few hours longer and allowing it to be preserved for a day or so.
Any liquid or meal which could normally be kept in a Bottle Container can be stored in the flask to extend it’s shelf life for a little while longer. Prepared meals, especially those made in Summer Seasons will last a little while longer before rotting and retain their (Hot) status for longer especially in winter.
Thermos Flasks are available in 1.50L & 2.5L volumes.
A thermos is bulky, takes up a lot of volume and even when empty it is still a much heavier item than a canteen or water-skin.
Spawning: Thermos Flasks of all sizes are usually available in most Sporting Goods Stores, Milsurp Stores and rarely in Grocery Stores and Residential Homes.

Item Volume: 10
Weight: 3.28lbs

Crafting: (Requires a high crafting skill)

1 tool with metal sawing of 1 or more
Pair of welding goggles
Welder, Makeshift Welder, integrated toolset, acetylene torch
1 Little Metal Tank
1 Empty Canister
1 Metal Sheet
3 Plastic Chunks
1 Oxygen Tank OR 1 Ceramic Armour Plate

Tiffin box:
Like the Thermos Flask, Tiffin Boxes are stackable containers made to preserve any type of meal not typically served as a soup or stew. They are a common sight among picnic goers and in campsites and will have pre prepared ingredients or entire meals stored within them and can maintain their temperature for at least a day or so.
A typical Tiffin Box has enough room to stack 8 portions of any one meal and will extend their shelf life by another 24hours as well as extending the duration of a meal remaining (hot) making them useful for preparing cooked meals in hotter weather when no refrigeration is available.
Spawning: Tiffin Boxes of all sizes are usually available in most Sporting Goods Stores, Milsurp Stores and rarely in Grocery Stores and Residential Homes.
Note: While most Tiffin Boxes are not insulated I’ve included a recipe and information purely for an insulated type as it is more useful.

Item Volume: 8
Weight: 1.37lbs

Crafting:

1 tool with metal sawing of 1 or more
1 tool with hammering of 3 or more
pair of Aluminium Tongs
Anvil
electric forge, charcoal forge, acetylene torch
2 Lumps of Steel OR 8 Chunks of Steel OR 24 Scrap Metal OR Pot
1 Ceramic armour Plate
4 Plastic Chunks

Titanium Pot:
A much sought after piece of cookware by many an ultralight backpacker, Titanium cookware is prized for it’s lightweight and durable construction and more for the fact that most have collapsible handles to make them more compact than regular cast iron cooking implements.
Available in most Sporting Goods and Milsurp stores but most are very expensive to purchase.

Item Volume: 4
http://www.ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk/equipment-c3/kitchen-stuff-c8/pots-and-pans-c9/ca-251-titanium-ultralight-pot-0-6l-p965Weight: 0.20ibs (Source 92grams)
Has level 2 Boiling Quality
Has level 1 Chemical Making Quality
Has level 1 Containing Quality
Has level 3 Food Cooking Quality

Crafting:
Not Craftable. (Unless you can acquire and learn to smelt Titanium, somehow then this item can only be found not crafted. Unless of course someone proves me wrong and can provide an easy backyard method of working with titanium…)

CheeseWax:
One of the main methods to preserving cheese and giving it a longer shelf life (10+ years) is to seal the cheese in a coating of wax. The wax prevents bacteria and mould from forming and growing upon the surface of the cheese and extends the quality of the produce for years at a time.
Wax typically used is called Cheese Wax which is commonly made from Beeswax.

I don’t think it is possible to create flexible plastic using just heat+plastic+mold.

I’m pretty sure it is not possible to craft a thermos using tools available to the survivor.

Titanium pot is lighter, not less bulky than a steel one. Volume 8 would be fine. Oh and weight closer to 50% of that of the pot, not a fraction of it.
Lower volume and much lower weight aren’t traits of a titanium pot, but of a small pot. Currently frying pan serves as a small pot.
Not sure about chemical properties of titanium. It might be more useful for some high-level recipes, useless in others.

Currently heat-preserving mechanics aren’t in, but they may be easy to implement.
Having the HOT tag could prevent rot until it wears off. That way thermoses and tiffin boxes could both protect slightly from rot (by ~6 hours or so at most).

It’s not a very good conductor of heat; that’s one reason why you don’t see very many titanium frying pans in real life.

I’m pretty sure we have enough container variety as is. Although being able to tie up a plastic bag and use that for a small makeshift water pouch would definitely help at the start. Needs some string or a pine bough or something else you could bend and tie a plastic bag with. The tradeoff, of course, is that it wastes space of the original bag because you need to bunch it around something. But it’s mobile.

Also, couldn’t you just seal the cheese up the same way you can vacuum seal pretty much everything? No need to dip it in molten wax, just seal the bloody thing.

We have water bladders in as a separate item (hydration packs). We also have Water Carriers in, as foldable water bottles.

Adding items to increase shelflife and keep things warm/cold sounds interesting. Also, I think that the Tiffin box (or atleast its palstic counterpart) is known as Tupperware or lunchboxes here in the US (Tupperware being multiple pieces, and many sizes, while lunchboxes are, well, lunchboxes.). Looking slightly further into it, it looks like Tiffin boxes are among higher grade lunchboxes.

[quote=“Coolthulhu, post:2, topic:10322”]I don’t think it is possible to create flexible plastic using just heat+plastic+mold.

I’m pretty sure it is not possible to craft a thermos using tools available to the survivor.

Titanium pot is lighter, not less bulky than a steel one. Volume 8 would be fine. Oh and weight closer to 50% of that of the pot, not a fraction of it.
Lower volume and much lower weight aren’t traits of a titanium pot, but of a small pot. Currently frying pan serves as a small pot.
Not sure about chemical properties of titanium. It might be more useful for some high-level recipes, useless in others.

Currently heat-preserving mechanics aren’t in, but they may be easy to implement.
Having the HOT tag could prevent rot until it wears off. That way thermoses and tiffin boxes could both protect slightly from rot (by ~6 hours or so at most).[/quote]

True, flexible plastic is an entirely different synthetic process. I suppose you could just eliminate the crafting recipe then and have to source the item via scavenging.

A Thermos for lack of any description is basically an insulated container, i’ve made a couple of home-made ones using a couple of bottles, ducttape and packaging foam and while i’ve not timed it to the extreme it’s kept my soups hot for at least four hours. With metal fabrication you COULD do one by exchanging the insulator with something other than vacuum.
Though if you’d feel more comfortable having a divide in quality between factory grade Thermos flasks and “make-shift” Thermos Flasks, that could be doable as well.

I’m fine either way with the volume of the Titanium Pot remaining higher or lower, though the weight shown above I actually took from a source, so it is a realistic comparison to a stainless steel pot, The Frying pan also has one less Food Cooking Quality level and no Chemical Making Quality which should still be applicable to the pot regardless of the metals it’s constructed of.
As for constructing anything from titanium, its a very brittle metal and the extraction process is very meticulous and costly, at least according to the plants i’ve visited in my time. I don’t know about re-smelting existing titanium into something else, as mentioned above; titanium refracts heat very well, you’d need something akin to an industrial blast furnace to melt it down.

[quote=“AseaHeru, post:5, topic:10322”]We have water bladders in as a separate item (hydration packs). We also have Water Carriers in, as foldable water bottles.

Adding items to increase shelflife and keep things warm/cold sounds interesting. Also, I think that the Tiffin box (or atleast its palstic counterpart) is known as Tupperware or lunchboxes here in the US (Tupperware being multiple pieces, and many sizes, while lunchboxes are, well, lunchboxes.). Looking slightly further into it, it looks like Tiffin boxes are among higher grade lunchboxes.[/quote]

I never knew hydration packs and foldable water bottles were in the game already. Never encountered one yet, I guess i’ll have to keep looking.

The thing about tupperware is that it still requires refrigeration to still be effective, so do the thermos and tiffin/lunchboxes. The only difference is that insulated containers can hold their temperature longer than most others and keep food fresher for longer, if only for a few hours… But really, a few hours can make all the difference in a game where your time is VERY valuable.

Anyways guys, thanks VERY much for your input thus far. You’ve all been really helpful with your criticisms!

You compared one pot made of titanium to other pot made of steel. That ultra-light pot is 0.6L, while the in-game pot is 4L. 4L pot made of titanium will not be just 100 grams, but closer to 50% of the weight of the current in-game pot.

You compared one pot made of titanium to other pot made of steel. That ultra-light pot is 0.6L, while the in-game pot is 4L. 4L pot made of titanium will not be just 100 grams, but closer to 50% of the weight of the current in-game pot.[/quote]

Ah, I never knew the pot was 4Litres, my bad then.