soulcasting Soulcasting food

[Oversleep]

Why exactly soulcasted food has no flavor? Is it only tasteless or odorless too?

I remember that the jam Jasnah tried to Soulcast tasted terrible - but it HAD taste. It was not tasteless.
What is going on here?

[tobar14 he/him]

Jasnah tried to soulcast the jam into something she has never tasted before, so that's probably why it tasted bad.

 

I think when the armies are soulcasting food they try to make it the most basic stuff, i think the more complicated you try to get, the more risk you have of breaking the gem used.  So I imagine its like tofu, bland.  When they say flavorless I believe they are exaggerating, because it is impossible for something to not have a flavor.

Edited February 15, 2016 by tobar14

[Brightshade the Cunning]

When they say flavorless I believe they are exaggerating, because it is impossible for something to not have a flavor.

 

They are almost certainly exaggerating because we know that they have foods with lots of different spices (hence the extreme difference between the sweetness of women's food and the spiciness of men's food) so anything that is lacking those would already seem bland and tasteless, soulcasting just takes it to another level.

[Pathfinder]

They are almost certainly exaggerating because we know that they have foods with lots of different spices (hence the extreme difference between the sweetness of women's food and the spiciness of men's food) so anything that is lacking those would already seem bland and tasteless, soulcasting just takes it to another level.

The nobility that we see eat, are eating food shipped in. Soulcast food is for the soldiers. I agree that I feel it is more like Tofu, as by itself it can be tasteless but it takes on the flavor of whatever it is with, much like chouta which is soulcast food with gravy and such to make it taste good. 

Edited February 15, 2016 by Pathfinder

[King's Twit he/him]

I think it's just because of how complex the tastes of foods are. Tastes are (usually) a weird combination of every aspect of the smell of the food, plus whatever ratio of tastebuds the food activates.

 

In the same way that some Awakening commands are much more complex and difficult to visualize correctly for the Intent, I think that some substances, like food more complicated than grain, are much more difficult to soulcast because their complexity makes visualizing them correctly much more difficult.

Edited February 15, 2016 by King's Twit

[king of nowhere]

I think you are taking "tasteless" too literally. It is not used in a strictly technical "without any taste", but rather in the vernacular sense of "tastes like dishwater". And yes, the reason is probably that getting all the molecular mix that gives the flavour would be extremely complicated. With all our chemistry, we still haven't managed realistic artificial flavors. I suppose soulcast food is somewhat like that.

[Zea mays]

Why exactly soulcasted food has no flavor? Is it only tasteless or odorless too?

I remember that the jam Jasnah tried to Soulcast tasted terrible - but it HAD taste. It was not tasteless.

What is going on here?

Jasnah soulcasted the jam by herself, the ardents on the plains use ancient soulcasting devices. I imagine a living radiant with the soulcasting ability has more range in what they can produce than those devices. At least once they've trained and practiced a lot.