Food Dehydrator Machine

[Ergenta]

Ability to dehydrate food such as bananas other fruits. Also the ability to make beef jerky

[BentNose]

Considering the year is '94 a machine might be a bit of a stretch, but being able to dry certain foods would make a good addition to the cooking expansion I've heard mentioned. I certainly don't see why a drying rack or a smoking box couldn't be made with the appropriate carpentry or metalworking skills.

[TrailerParkThor]

Like @BentNosesaid, Drying/Smoking foods is the way to go, especially since power will go out quick and you don't want to waste gas on food dehydration. It doesn't take any actual carpentry to make a food drying rack though! All it takes IRL is some sturdy sticks and twine/rope really so that would work in game too. From here I could imagine leaving fresh meat or fish up there for a few days would result in different Jerkies as long as the sun was out. If the meat is already stale, then I imagine it would only dry out safely above a certain temperature and below a certain humidity. If they wanted to take it that extra step, allowing us to craft Salted Fish and Meat to help these cuts stay good longer would be awesome. AFAIK that's all the things around getting Dried Meats. Humanity has been doing it for tens of thousands of years now, it's really a primitive tech level and it makes the meat last 10x longer. I do think it should be locked behind the Foraging skill rather than Carpentry though.

 

Making your own Smoker is a lot more complicated though, and I've never done it IRL but I've used plenty so I understand how they work. I imagine the most PZish way to make a Smoker would be to find a Metal Barrel. From there you would need Metalworking and welding tools, but you could easily just craft that barrel into a Smoker. Maybe they could require 2 grills for the recipe that can be found by dismantling BBQs, Ovens, and Stoves (could be a useful part for redneck car repairs too). Once created and placed, the Smoker would require Charcoal or Logs to be lit, and from there you just put things in and wait. This could be a functional "Dehydrator" of sorts that could dry out anything from Berries to Bananas. I Imagine not everything would have it's shelf life extended by that much. Vegetables, for example, might be better pickled and jarred. I think it would go something like this: Dried Vegetables < Dried Fruits < Dried Poultry < Dried Fish < Dried Meat. Dairy products and bread products can't be dried for obvious reasons.

 

I think this would be a cool progression system and add functionality for the barrels lying around everywhere. Would also make surviving the winter a lot easier in terms of storing up food, but in a super realistic sense that you really need to work your way up to. I think this is also a perfect Build 42 suggestion since I imagine finding a freezer big enough to store 100 pounds of black bear meat will be difficult lol. If we could dry the meat on a bunch of racks and just box up some Bear Jerky to eat during winter, that would be amazing

[Badgzerz]

Cooking/foodprep should be the skill that is required to smoke/dehydrate meat. Carpentry would determine how sturdy and efficient your apparatus' are. I would like to make jerky out of all that spoling meat in my game in the first week passively. Cooking suffers from the inability to just let a meal cook all day while you do other things.