Soulcast Blandness

[Trusk'our he/him]

When food is Soulcast, it turns out bland. I used to think that this was due to some kind of unique spiritual component, but apparently the cause is more mechanical in nature. 

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/456-general-reddit-2021/#e14974

Oyeresu

The first thing in Stormlight that really blew me away was the blandness of the soul cast food. 

Was the blandness due to the relationship in our world between the food source and its microbiome? If you stripped all bacteria from chicken and beef you'd have a hard time telling them apart from taste alone, so it would make sense that a soulcaster turning stone to meat would just be making cells of the grain or meat and skipping the bacteria that give it flavor.

If that's why, Would a really microbiologist/food scientist soulcaster be able to mix in the bacteria to make tastier simulcast food?

Brandon Sanderson

This is indeed part of the reason! There are others, though. Soulcast flesh, for example, doesn't actually have much fat--it's pure muscle, as fat/oil is a different essence. Another factor, I figured, would be water content. I decided that simulcast grain would taste stale for this reason. 

These are both things you can compensate for as a skilled soulcaster, but the devices (rather than the radiants) aren't equipped to do this. 

This means that a skilled Radiant could potentially make a flavorful meal, which is something I previously thought fundamentally unachievable without changing some core mechanic of Soulcasting. 

Are there other ways to get flavors from Soulcast food?

What if you made alcohol by fermenting Soulcast grain? 

My understanding of alcohol is limited, but as I understand it with most brews yeast feeds on the sugars of grain (or grapes for wine), which then produce ethanol and carbon dioxide.

This might sidestep the issue of lacking a proper microbial influence, as the yeast is introduced separately. 

[king of nowhere]

3 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

When food is Soulcast, it turns out bland. I used to think that this was due to some kind of unique spiritual component, but apparently the cause is more mechanical in nature. 

This means that a skilled Radiant could potentially make a flavorful meal, which is something I previously thought fundamentally unachievable without changing some core mechanic of Soulcasting. 

Are there other ways to get flavors from Soulcast food?

What if you made alcohol by fermenting Soulcast grain? 

My understanding of alcohol is limited, but as I understand it with most brews yeast feeds on the sugars of grain (or grapes for wine), which then produce ethanol and carbon dioxide.

This might sidestep the issue of lacking a proper microbial influence, as the yeast is introduced separately. 

alcohol fermented from soulcast grain would still be alcohol. but if you try to brew a beverage, there's dozens of molecules from the grain - or whatever you're fermenting - that contribute to the taste. so beer brewed from soulcast grain would taste different, though if you were just trying to get alcohol, the alcohol is the same molecule.

[Trusk'our he/him]

52 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

alcohol fermented from soulcast grain would still be alcohol. but if you try to brew a beverage, there's dozens of molecules from the grain - or whatever you're fermenting - that contribute to the taste. so beer brewed from soulcast grain would taste different, though if you were just trying to get alcohol, the alcohol is the same molecule.

True, that would still be an issue.

Perhaps using Soulcast feed to grow animal products could technically bypass Soulcast blandness, though it's rather inefficent. 

[Treamayne]

5 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Are there other ways to get flavors from Soulcast food?

Much of food's flavor also comes from minerals. . . like salt (also a different essence). Let's take, for example, Corn:

Spoiler

From the other Wiki:

Typical Corn mineral content:

Quote

Minerals	Quantity %DV†
Iron	3% 0.52 mg
Magnesium	9% 37 mg
Manganese	7% 0.163 mg
Phosphorus	7% 89 mg
Potassium	9% 270 mg
Zinc	4%

Plants, grown in soil, absorb minerals from the soil and incorporate that into their structure - soulcast "grain" (or meat, or whatever) will not have these complexities unless the Radiant understands the science, and incorporates all those aspects - hence (at least part) Jasnah's uber-failure at strawberry jam. 

Hope that helps

[Quantus he/him]

The primary diet they get from Soulcasters is the pseudo-grain using emeralds and the Pulp essence.  That makes sense from a utilitarian nutrition standpoint, you can get complex vitamins and minerals from pure plant products, on top of protein and carbohydrates. It's bland description does sound a lot like the "complete" nutrition-in-a-shake product Soylent that was a fad for a while, and the equivalent that earth science can pull off.  

To get a decent steak you'd need the Sinew, Tallow, and Blood essences, maybe Talus as well if you cant get enough Salt from the Blood essence (but blood should be able to make seawater for that).  That's a lot more Castings and uses of Gems, but that's probably also what was feeding the Highprinces.  The average person probably just doesnt warrant that sort of effort, in the minds of most Alethi leadership.  

EDIT: I said a decent steak, but unless they had a fabrial that could do all three of those essences at the same time, it's likely the best they could actually do is a decent sausage or ground beef with the lean meat and fat soulcast separately and then mechanically recombined in the kitchen.   

But all of this is a limitation of Fabrial Soulcasting, not Radiant.  I just cant wait to meet the inevitable Lightweaver who's chosen Art is Culinary. 

 

Edited September 6, 2024 by Quantus

[+Lewis Nethur He/Him]

The trick to all superb cooking is combining love, attention, and as high quality ingredients as possible. Soulcasting food is...uniquely soulless in this regard as it leans hard on leveraging the absolute most low-quality ingredients possible because, first and foremost, soulcasting food is a tool for feeding armies on the move and the inner city poor. That said, some of the tastiest soul food and culinary innovations came to us in real life from such humble origins, so it is absolutely possible in-world. It's just gonna be way more complicated than normal.

When Commanding a rock, I would imagine that it is relatively easy to convince it that it is made of meat now, and excruciatingly difficult to convince it that it is the tastiest and most perfectly metabolicly ideal haunch of meat that has ever been carved and aged to perfection. Buuuuuut...if you talked to it in the cognitive realm long enough, and you were nice enough to it, and you have patience that could put a rock to shame and frustate the saints themselves, then you might just be able to whip up a veritable feast out of nearly nothingness itself.

[king of nowhere]

alternatively, you could hire tress. she may be able to get something good out of soulcast ingredients.

 

somebody needs to ask sanderson who's the better cook between Tress and Rock

[reisleK she/her]

1 minute ago, king of nowhere said:

alternatively, you could hire tress. she may be able to get something good out of soulcast ingredients.

 

somebody needs to ask sanderson who's the better cook between Tress and Rock

OOOO I wonder what Tress would do with soulcast food