So I had an amazing idea for DayZ

[tandwan 250]

Salted Beef. Since from what I understand, beef will spoil? I'm not sure if this is a thing or not but it makes since considering vegetables spoil. What if we were able to salt beef in order to preserve it longer after it's been cooked so we can keep it maybe twice or three times as long?

[Chaingunfighter 917]

Food preservation is not a bad idea - salting would be an effective method if you're storing it at camps, and perhaps they could make things like jars and whatnot available so you could keep perishable food inside.

[eno 1049]

And then you eat it and immediately are dying of thirst?

[Whyherro123 2283]

And then you eat it and immediately are dying of thirst?

No, you wash the salt off.

 

I'd rather smoke meat and vegetables, myself. Easier and less material-heavy. Hell, it even does itself!

 

https://youtu.be/8AVBWGLt8_4

[tandwan 250]

And then you eat it and immediately are dying of thirst?

 

Actually, yes. Much like eating a bag of rice in game, eating salt meat would dehydrate you greatly. I mean you can eat it, but you need to understand the negative effects of eating it as well.

 

No, you wash the salt off.

 

I'd rather smoke meat and vegetables, myself. Easier and less material-heavy. Hell, it even does itself!

 

https://youtu.be/8AVBWGLt8_4

 

Granted, I would eat smoked or dehydrated food before I eat salted meat, however you have to consider the aspect of my character right now. I'm surviving on my own in the woods until this all dies down. My character on experimental sincerely thinks that the army, the government or someone is going to show up sooner or later so survive on what you can while you can. So with that said, setting up a system to smoke meat would require materials I don't have on hand and generally will take a while to do. Salting meat is fairly simple and does not require a lot of prep work to get it working.

[DemonGroover 8836]

I love salt beef.

 

We need pickles and mustard as well.

[tandwan 250]

Amazing idea #2 : (Realism) Wet wood, tinder, cloth, anything should not be able to be used as material for starting fires unless it is properly dried out. This makes things like dry bags and tents that much more important to have available or nearby. Furthermore, damaged dry bags and or tents should let the rain in and therefore cause materials in the tents to get wet. I am not sure if there is a system in game for being wet for too long to cause stuff to degrade, and if there is I have not seen it, however I would love to see this added to the game to add to the survival aspect.

[Whyherro123 2283]

Actually, yes. Much like eating a bag of rice in game, eating salt meat would dehydrate you greatly. I mean you can eat it, but you need to understand the negative effects of eating it as well.

 

 

Granted, I would eat smoked or dehydrated food before I eat salted meat, however you have to consider the aspect of my character right now. I'm surviving on my own in the woods until this all dies down. My character on experimental sincerely thinks that the army, the government or someone is going to show up sooner or later so survive on what you can while you can. So with that said, setting up a system to smoke meat would require materials I don't have on hand and generally will take a while to do. Salting meat is fairly simple and does not require a lot of prep work to get it working.

 

You... just need sticks. Sticks and a fire. If you are "surviving in the woods", you already have those. And building a tripod literally takes seconds. Plus, smoking can be done "in the background", as in, once you start, it doesn't take any effort to do. Salting, on the other hand, takes effort and a valuable trade good. You can have meat smoking while you sleep, while you cook, while you repair gear, while you do whatever. Compared to salting meat, where that is it: you are rubbing salt into meat for the next hour or so. 

 

Yeah, smoking takes a couple of days, but guess what: salting isn't instantaneous, either.

 

Chances are, if you are "surviving in the woods", you won't have the amount of salt necessary to preserve meat via salting. If you do, your priorities are skewed.

[Death By Crowbar 1213]

Salted man steaks... mmm... that there is good eats. Preserve my human kills so I can enjoy them later, or force feed them to my victims!

[Chaingunfighter 917]

Actually, yes. Much like eating a bag of rice in game, eating salt meat would dehydrate you greatly. I mean you can eat it, but you need to understand the negative effects of eating it as well.

 

 

Granted, I would eat smoked or dehydrated food before I eat salted meat, however you have to consider the aspect of my character right now. I'm surviving on my own in the woods until this all dies down. My character on experimental sincerely thinks that the army, the government or someone is going to show up sooner or later so survive on what you can while you can. So with that said, setting up a system to smoke meat would require materials I don't have on hand and generally will take a while to do. Salting meat is fairly simple and does not require a lot of prep work to get it working.

Both options are viable if they plan to add food preservation beyond just cooking it. Lighting a fire always has the risk of drawing attention of nearby players (and zombies) so smoking your meat would be more viable for people who have bases and camps that they can protect already set up. Salting can be done "on the go" but comes at the drawback of needing to be soaked in fresh water before it can be edible again. Salt would need to be harvested as well, be it just from looting it in various locations or boiling it from the sea, you're still going to need a source of it, whereas lighting a campfire can be done pretty much everywhere considering the trees and indoor fireplaces. At the same time, a cut of smoked meat will probably not last as long as the same cut of meat salted, simply because the salt remains and continuously draws out water whereas smoking may have to be done several times to extend the life of the meat.

 

 

God, I love food. It's probably the only DayZ topic I'm even close to as obsessed about as the guns, but people rarely talk about it here (whereas guns get plenty of discussion.)

[Mullraugh 1151]

Barrels upon barrels of salted beef.

[nl 986]

To effectively smoke meat I think you also need some form of tent or covering so the smoke actually saturates the meat? See pic below.

What would also be an idea is to just dry food above a fire or in the sun, like beef jerky. You can also do this with fish.

 

 

Drying meat and fish:

 

[roguetrooper 201]

No, you wash the salt off.

 

 

So you can spend your water on drinking it afterwards or washing the meat in advance.

[blackberrygoo 1416]

Good idea ! But preservation of meat (especially with smoking and salting) has been talked about by the old lead dean hall, it said it would definitely make it in eventually so I'm hoping they are still planning that, and since we are getting more into the cooking aspect of the game we should definitely see it soon IMO !

[Whyherro123 2283]

Both options are viable if they plan to add food preservation beyond just cooking it. Lighting a fire always has the risk of drawing attention of nearby players (and zombies) so smoking your meat would be more viable for people who have bases and camps that they can protect already set up. Salting can be done "on the go" but comes at the drawback of needing to be soaked in fresh water before it can be edible again. Salt would need to be harvested as well, be it just from looting it in various locations or boiling it from the sea, you're still going to need a source of it, whereas lighting a campfire can be done pretty much everywhere considering the trees and indoor fireplaces. At the same time, a cut of smoked meat will probably not last as long as the same cut of meat salted, simply because the salt remains and continuously draws out water whereas smoking may have to be done several times to extend the life of the meat.

 

 

God, I love food. It's probably the only DayZ topic I'm even close to as obsessed about as the guns, but people rarely talk about it here (whereas guns get plenty of discussion.)

 

Nope, you smoke meat once, for 24-49 hours (it depends on how thick you cut the meat, and what kinds of wood you use), and it effectively lasts indefinitely. The smoking creates a coating on the outside of the meat, protecting it from external bacteria, and it also removes all moisture from inside the meat, protecting it from internal bacteria.

[Whyherro123 2283]

To effectively smoke meat I think you also need some form of tent or covering so the smoke actually saturates the meat? See pic below.

What would also be an idea is to just dry food above a fire or in the sun, like beef jerky. You can also do this with fish.

 

 

Drying meat and fish:

 

You don't  need it , although it definitely makes things faster. You can also use anything that will hold in smoke, not necessarily a tarp or fabric. I've used deerskins (part of the tanning process is "smoking the hide", so I hit two birds with one stone), and even thick evergreen branches.

[Dancing.Russian.Man 1631]

I wonder how quickly salt would run out in an apocalypse, considering how useful it is.

 

Also, moved.

[Whyherro123 2283]

I wonder how quickly salt would run out in an apocalypse, considering how useful it is.

 

Also, moved.

Well, you can make it from seawater, by boiling down seawater until just the salt remains. However, I wouldn't do it where there were heavy amounts of pollutants released into the oceans (AKA Chernarus)

 

You can also mine it.

 

Remember: there was a reason salt was an expensive trade-good for most of human history, and most food-preservation involved smoking and drying. Getting salt in a reasonable amount usually involved quite a bit of work and time. 

 

Same thing with sugar. 

[nl 986]

Well, you can make it from seawater, by boiling down seawater until just the salt remains. However, I wouldn't do it where there were heavy amounts of pollutants released into the oceans (AKA Chernarus)

 

You can also mine it.

 

Remember: there was a reason salt was an expensive trade-good for most of human history, and most food-preservation involved smoking and drying. Getting salt in a reasonable amount usually involved quite a bit of work and time. 

 

Same thing with sugar. 

In fact in earlier days salt was used as currency.

[BeefBacon 1185]

I'd like to see advanced foods. So you could live off canned food, vegetables, deer steaks, etc, but mixing certain foods together and cooking them should produce meals that can maybe even restore some blood. Maybe mixing beef or venison with potatoes, water and, I don't know, courgette could create a stew, amongst a few other recipes. It'd encourage players to use a wider variety of food rather than just eating whatever gets them energised.

 

As a side note, it'd be cool if diets were a thing as well, so eating a variety of foods would provide some kind of buff which just eating canned bacon wouldn't provide.

[Parazight 1594]

I'd like to be able to eat anything raw, regardless of what it is, and then just chase it with some antibiotics/charcoal tabs.  

[Whyherro123 2283]

I'd like to be able to eat anything raw, regardless of what it is, and then just chase it with some antibiotics/charcoal tabs.  

 

That isn't how it works. The devs need to fix that, and make medication actually work how it, you know, works in real life.

 

Charcoal tabs make you vomit. That is it. They make you vomit up whatever toxins are in your system, and neutralize whatever remain, due to the carbon bonding with everything (carbon is a little hussy like that).

 

Antibiotics treat bacterial infections. They won't do much to food poisoning from eating raw meat.