SlackerinDeNile wrote:
Unless we've retconned Enterprise as non-canon (I wouldn't blame you at all) they had 'protein sequencers' in the 22nd century which seemed to function like a more primitive, slower and less efficient version of a culinary replicator. Obviously it couldn't replicate plates or utensils but it could create quite a few different food items, particularly those involving artificial meat. I forget exactly what the characters thought of this device in comparison to natural food.
Id half forgotten about that; recalled they had resequencers, but for some reason my brain interpreted that as making simple things like drinks, pastes/pâtés, ration bars, and the like, but thinking about it I can only ever recall them eating what looked like regular food. Which is all the more glaring considering the ‘food cubes’ we saw all the time in TOS are more the sort of thing I’d have expected out of a resequencer than cuts of actual meat, actual veg and so forth.
Also, I don’t have anything firm to base this on but my gut tells me that the resequencer is related to/ties into the thing that turns shit into boots that was brought up in one episode, and my instinct is also that it’s some sort of mechanical system rather than related to transporters as with replicators.
Dînadan wrote:Id half forgotten about that; recalled they had resequencers, but for some reason my brain interpreted that as making simple things like drinks, pastes/pâtés, ration bars, and the like, but thinking about it I can only ever recall them eating what looked like regular food. Which is all the more glaring considering the ‘food cubes’ we saw all the time in TOS are more the sort of thing I’d have expected out of a resequencer than cuts of actual meat, actual veg and so forth.
Also, I don’t have anything firm to base this on but my gut tells me that the resequencer is related to/ties into the thing that turns shit into boots that was brought up in one episode, and my instinct is also that it’s some sort of mechanical system rather than related to transporters as with replicators.
This is all speculation, but it's possible they kept a large supply of frozen/dry food, supplemented by protein sequencers wherever possible (and for emergencies when they're out of real food). So the protein sequencers get used for something like ground beef, or a "cheese" sauce, but things with recognizable textures like bacon are pulled from the ship's stores.
Being kind of obsessed with food provenance and the cultivation of ingredients I do have to lean heavily to Sisko's and his Dad's opinion about replicated food. I expect that replicated food has been synthesized from a great meal from some famous restaurant or another. But even the greatest restaurants will admit that their meals will change with the seasons and the supply they get. Every single year the weather, the soil and even the good and bad pests (par example Noble Rot) influence the taste of every single ingredient in every single dish. It isn't just the variety it is a rotating diet throughout the year where you taste the earth you walk on and the work that has been put into your food. While standardization has become the mainstay of most supermarkets I regularly go out of my way to find the misshapen (cheap) local produce that gives me a unique flavor in every dish.
Basically I see no difference between a replicator and real cooked food and between the current supermarket recipe mixes/semi-prepared food and real cooked food.
I do think this only holds up for people who really love to cook food and are as obsessed with it as Sisko, his dad or I are. The every day person would not be able to have the time and patience to cook this but will still be able to get a sense of it from visiting a real life restaurant.
It'd make the most sense for each crewman to have meal preferences in their personnel records, and take it with them to whatever post they're stationed on. You could actually prepare something yourself while on leave, 'record' the finished result, and then have the computer replicate it for you on demand. Even if storage space is limited (which I have a hard time believing considering what goes on in the holodecks), each crewman can still have a half-dozen or so personal meals on file to supplement the standard ones the ships are programmed with. I also imagine crewmen would trade with each other whenever they get bored.
I suspect replicators are unable to quite make a perfect copy of food. After all, whether plant or animal cells, there are many things which govern their growth, and this influences how the food tastes. Plus, there is no way to replicate the flavoring that fear gives the meat.
"Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough."
-TR
I would expect by the TNG era that there is hidden depth in the data available for replicators. Many would just get a default or with basic modifiers (like no onion) but others may set up their replicator to offer variety on the theme, possibly randomized within lists or collections of replicator codes.
Wasn't there like hundreds of feline food supplements?
Robovski wrote:I would expect by the TNG era that there is hidden depth in the data available for replicators. Many would just get a default or with basic modifiers (like no onion) but others may set up their replicator to offer variety on the theme, possibly randomized within lists or collections of replicator codes.
As Durandal said, if they can replicate people right down to the microbes in their guts, they can replicate a pepperoni pizza. The problem comes from replicating a pepperoni pizza with no oregano, or extra cheese, or with bacon, etc. There's an infinite level of variations for every dish, so it's likely that ships have default items to suit a broad variety of tastes, while not being able to provide anything but basic substitutions.
Having a replicator pattern for a basic cheese pizza and then replicating cooked versions of the various toppings to put on it doesn't seem like it should be an insurmountable problem.
