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Replicated food: "Mmm mmm", "bleh" or "yuck!"?

Ragitsu

Ragitsu

Commodore
Commodore
Hello, folks!

Has the fidelity of replicated food ever been definitively established? There have been so many opinions on the nature of molecularly-assembled sustenance that I occasionally got the impression that its taste is contingent on what would make for an interesting/funny scene. Typically, there aren't strong feelings one way or the other on the subject, but a few examples came to my mind ->

  • 20th-century Sonny Clemonds (an inveterate drinker) seemed to like his replicated martini just fine.
  • Deanna laments that her replicator can't do chocolate true justice.
  • Scotty found his synthehol scotch whisky offensive.
  • Worf enjoyed his liquid polymer pasta al fiorella.
  • Over on DS9, there was Eddington's Maqui-tainted polemic about replicated fare.
  • Finally, on VOY, Doctor-as-Seven seemed to REALLY enjoy replicated cheesecake...though it was his first real taste of solid food, so he might have been somewhat biased due to inexperience.

So...was this purely a matter of character preference, writer's inconsistency or a bit of both?

Also, if you were to replicate base ingredients (say...eggs, milk, vegetable oil, flour, cocoa, et cetera) and then cook with those (e.g., for a cake recipe), would the manually-produced finished product taste more-or-less identical to a fully-replicated specimen?
 
Deanna and Scotty probably just hate health food, and that's what the replicator does (perfectly!) as per Starfleet regulations.

Picard'd grumpy brother also hated replicators, but then again, he probably also hated bicycles for their newfangled modernity.

I gather a fully replicated specimen would be a replica of a perfect meal, meaning hand-baked would statistically be inferior most of the time. But some might have an issue with getting a perfect meal after perfect meal...

Timo Saloniemi
 
Replicated food is probably very similar to the real deal, but prepares it according to a preprogrammed recipe that's the same every time. A plate of replicated steak and eggs would probably taste enough like the real deal to satisfy an average person, though a gourmet might disagree.
 
Timo said:
Deanna and Scotty probably just hate health food, and that's what the replicator does (perfectly!) as per Starfleet regulations.
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If there is a way to disable Holodeck safeties, there ought to be a way to disable Replicator safeties :).

Oddish said:
Replicated food is probably very similar to the real deal, but prepares it according to a preprogrammed recipe that's the same every time. A plate of replicated steak and eggs would probably taste enough like the real deal to satisfy an average person, though a gourmet might disagree.
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It seems, then, the solution is to have many variations on a theme. Are Replicator recipes memory intensive? Assuming that - for instance - "(plain) scrambled eggs" doesn't take up much space, the database should have, say...fifty varieties of plain scrambled eggs. People who diversify their day-to-day meal plans will complain less over the long term.
 
I believe there is a thread about this exact topic in the Trek Tech forum.

If replicated food is indeed an exact copy of the original, down to the molecular level, then there's no reason it shouldn't taste exactly like the real thing. But apparently there is enough perceptible difference to some people that real foods and beverages still enjoy some popularity, such as traditionally made wines, and New Orleans restaurant cookery.

Synthehol is another matter, as it is formulated so that it isn't supposed to give humanoids the same intoxication as alcohol. And, per Worf in "Up the Long Ladder," the ship's food dispensers can indeed provide "real alcohol," "With all of the deleterious effects intact."

Kor
 
Ragitsu said:
...Also, if you were to replicate base ingredients (say...eggs, milk, vegetable oil, flour, cocoa, et cetera) and then cook with those (e.g., for a cake recipe), would the manually-produced finished product taste more-or-less identical to a fully-replicated specimen?
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Food is so subjective. Some people LOVE Chick-fil-A or Popeye's chicken but I don't care for either of those brands. Some like food from a restaurant while others prefer home cooking. Replicators, like restaurants would provide consistency but getting variations would be the responsibility of those ordering the food. Picard says "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot" which helps vary the taste & temp. Just ordering "Tea" isn't specific enough.
 
Tastes are subjective.

I like fast food scrambled eggs almost every where except Jack In The Box because they use powered egg mix, it tastes terrible.

Apparently they sell tons of that shit though so somebody likes them.

So it's character preferences for me.
 
Ragitsu said:
It seems, then, the solution is to have many variations on a theme. Are Replicator recipes memory intensive? Assuming that - for instance - "(plain) scrambled eggs" doesn't take up much space, the database should have, say...fifty varieties of plain scrambled eggs. People who diversify their day-to-day meal plans will complain less over the long term.
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Or just randomize it. If you order a cheese omelet, then instead of exactly 100g of cheese, 50% Swiss and 50% cheddar, it might have between 90 and 110g of cheese, with varying percentages. That way, each omelet is a little different.
 
Oddish said:
Or just randomize it. If you order a cheese omelet, then instead of exactly 100g of cheese, 50% Swiss and 50% cheddar, it might have between 90 and 110g of cheese, with varying percentages. That way, each omelet is a little different.
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And also, to simulate real life, you sometimes get one from the extreme end of the distribution, far too salt, for example :)
 
In TNG, they gloss over various aspects - season 1 tries to sell the notion of replicated food as being just as good as the real thing. "Lonely Among Us".

The ship's computer gripes at Troi about chocolate in a different episode when she orders it, so it's not syntachoc (where it's got the taste but not the mind-altering effects, like what synthahol is said to be.) By season 5 and "The Game", she acts as if there's no difference.

Eddington's speech was a bit soppy and overloaded with too many adjectives and for not much of a point, unless the Maquis are a gaggle of agrarian farmers eschewing all technology, which they aren't...

ENT almost subtly hints at the source of the matter of what is used in replication technology... DSC is rather less subtle about it... Neither needed to go there but at least ENT tried being classier about it.

As with transporter technology limitations, matter surviving outside the holodeck and how characters interact, and so on, there's no consistent rule. Bit of a shame... (though one can still surmise the replicators, transporters, and holodeck share some of the same components and allow a more complex result that remains tangible...)

And now I'm going to read others' responses. :D
 
Qonundrum said:
Eddington's speech was a bit soppy and overloaded with too many adjectives and for not much of a point, unless the Maquis are a gaggle of agrarian farmers eschewing all technology, which they aren't...
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DS9 is pretty much the Anti-Trek, so...why not take a dig at replicators, too? I always took everything out of Mikey's mouth with a quarry of salt.

Qonundrum said:
As with transporter technology limitations, matter surviving outside the holodeck and how characters interact, and so on, there's no consistent rule. Bit of a shame... (though one can still surmise the replicators, transporters, and holodeck share some of the same components and allow a more complex result that remains tangible...)
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I wonder if sensitivity to the nuances of replicated food is akin to the discriminatory senses certain people have to specific stimuli. For example: some folks can hear audio frequencies that others are completely unable to discern and there are those folks that quickly develop motion sickness when exposed to specific types of video. Speaking for myself, I can't get motion sick no matter how many low FPS videos I watch (whereas another individual may become nauseous when playing a video game running at a low frame-rate).
 
Oddish said:
Or just randomize it. If you order a cheese omelet, then instead of exactly 100g of cheese, 50% Swiss and 50% cheddar, it might have between 90 and 110g of cheese, with varying percentages. That way, each omelet is a little different.
Click to expand...

I gather this is the one thing replicators might not be good at. They can get a pattern 100% right, but they don't have imagination or insight: they don't comprehend the pattern. So tweaking with one part of it might turn food into poison, quite unlike a cook choosing one inherently non-poisonous flavor of beet over another when making the stew.

So there'd have to be a certain number of pre-established whole patterns, rather than any in-machine reshuffling, just to be on the safe side. And it's a real chore for the replicator to make a dish the way a cook would, by combining foodstuffs, rather than by producing a carefully pre-shaped heap of already mixed stuff - so variety would be difficult to achieve by combining whole patterns of beet with whole patterns of meat and spices in differing ratios. We do see replicators adding sauce afterwards, chiefly in LDS, but that's about it.

Possibly there indeed is a limitation on the number of patterns for a cup of Earl Grey, so each cup for Tuesday tastes exactly the same, and the discerning mouth might find fault in that. Although I trust fault-finding is independent of the quality of the food, and merely built into our psyche...

Timo Saloniemi
 
I always figured it was a case of tasting "almost, but not quite like" the real thing. Like how you can taste the difference between a steak and quorn.
 
Kor said:
If replicated food is indeed an exact copy of the original, down to the molecular level, then there's no reason it shouldn't taste exactly like the real thing. But apparently there is enough perceptible difference to some people that real foods and beverages still enjoy some popularity, such as traditionally made wines, and New Orleans restaurant cookery.
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Is it because they know whether the food is replicated or the real thing?
If we had a replicator should there be a test where people don't know which one they are tasting, the real thing or replicated stuff.
 
JesterFace said:
Is it because they know whether the food is replicated or the real thing?
If we had a replicator should there be a test where people don't know which one they are tasting, the real thing or replicated stuff.
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With something simple, like cornflakes, I suppose it would be right on target - cornflakes are cornflakes !

But with something more individually nuanced, like my recipe for Bolognese - which takes me at least 8 hours to make - and I think I'd know the difference with a replicator, just as I do when I try someone else's sauce IRL...

I'd love to have a replicator - no more burning the toast or waiting for the water to boil ! - but with some foods I'd still be making it from scratch.
 
There Be Whales Here said:
All without the added back-blast that will have the crew running for the Romulan Border.
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DATA: This is not an efficient method for the preparation of sustenance.
RIKER: No, you're right, Data. The ship's computer would be more efficient, but it wouldn't allow for the subtlety needed for great cooking. It would give you all of the ingredients in pre-determined measurements, but wouldn't allow for flair or individuality. And Data, as we both know, flair is what marks the difference between artistry and mere competence.
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It seems to me that you'd be losing out on the experience of expelling intestinal gas.
 
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