Two reasons, actually.
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It’s not their preferred preparation. All the replicated food is based on a pattern from an original recipe. It’s not adding flair or anything, it’s literally a copy of a dish made who knows how long ago. And that’s where the next reason comes from:
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Imagine eating some spicy pepper dish from, like, the 1940’s vs the same dish made today with spicer peppers. It wouldn’t be as spicy eating something that wasn’t, at the time, really selectively bred to be more spicy. If the recipe for the replicator is, like, hundreds of years old it would probably not be as potent as the same dish made with real ingredients.
I can imagine that the characters that have expressed disdain for replicated food probably get hit by both of these. It’s not the way they would preferred it to be made, and it’s also like eating vegetable jello salad in 2024.
I saw a theory on reddit years ago that the reason there are no overweight people in Star Trek’s utopia is that the computers keep track of your calorie intake. You order as much food as you like but if you’re over your calorie limit its going to taste like ass because its lowered the carbs or nutritional content of the food in favour of your health
It’s not even a theory, really. Troi had to argue with the computer to get a chocolate sundae in one early episode.
My headcanon is that it’s entirely perception. Kind of like how plating the same food in a pretty way can affect how you rate it’s taste. The replicated food can be identical down to the molecule, but the knowledge that Sisko’s Dad handmade your dinner makes you think it’s tastier.
I am from Louisiana, where there is exactly one proper way to make gumbo: the way your mom made it. Everything else is clearly garbage, and everyone else is catastrophically wrong.
That is why some people hate replicated food.
At least part of it might also just be Federation snobbery.
None of the crew on the Enterprise complained of replicated food, and for the most part, the attempts at actual cooking tended to be dismal (Rikers scrambled eggs were inedible to human palates). The only complaint we had was Troi wanting a “real chocolate sundae”, which the computer seemed happy to provide, if it didn’t exceed her nutritional intake guidelines.
The Federation prides real things and real experiences over something they consider fake, and they might consider replicated food to be in that category, even if it is otherwise fine and near-indistinguishable.
We do also know that the computer will remove poisonous substances (like removing the seeds and stems from replicated apple slices) and make as best a balanced nutritional profile in what it creates, which might alter the taste a bit, similar to how some healthy-variant recipes aren’t as nice as their counterparts, since they lack the salt and fat for flavour.
One more reason: The dish tastes exactly the same every time. No variation at all.
But when you cook real food, there is always a little variation because the ingredients are usually always slightly different (vegetables more or less watery, meat more or less lean, a little bit more or a little bit less salt or flavouring). It’s one of the main skills of a really good cook: To perceive the subtle differences during the preparation and to bring out the best possible taste incorporating the differences.
I mean, that is conjecture right? With how much the real military puts into food science, I could imagine that there’s a Federation food science division that could easily make a dish from scratch a number of times and store each attempt’s pattern as a random variation that gets distributed out to the fleet.
When I was in, they put zero thought into it other than “needs more calories” and “make soldiers poop less.”
Considering a post-scarcity universe where the machines they’re working with can take even those considerations away from us (IIRC the replicators automatically do adjust nutrients/calories per-person per-meal). I think after a while, someone would’ve just… Gotten bored and futzed with it. I’d also assume consumers on earth to contribute to the databases. Heck, there could be a whole food influencer culture thing going on. “Oh man, you haven’t lived until you’ve tried ‘eggs, scrambled, variant 37578a’!”
There’s no technological reason why there couldn’t be hundreds of versions of each exact dish. In fact they could’ve even had a simple variation program so that every time it’s made it comes out a bit different
I think we have something contemporary to compare this sci-fi scenario with: recorded vs. live music (especially now that we can keep making exact digital duplicates as nauseam.)
When you play a CD, it sounds the same each time (ignoring things like the equipment you’re playing through, the room, the ambient noise, etc.). Usually, the studio recording is the best, most pristine recording of a song you can get.
But when you see the original artist performing the song live, it’s different! A good performer will make you feel like you’re experiencing something special. And the little variations, and even, imperfections, make the song even more compelling!
It’s the CD recording of the song bad? No. It’s perfectly serviceable. It might even contain things that can’t be performed live. But it’s the same each time. And for some people, that makes it less desirable, and live performances, with all their deviations and mistakes become more desirable.
And going back to replicated food, apart from Eddington and grandpa Sisko, I don’t remember anyone else saying replicated food was bad. Just less desirable. And even Eddington grudgingly admitted that the TV dîner he was eating in the shuttle with Sisko wasn’t that bad.
Don’t they ever update the patterns though? Every time a new species joins the federation all their food products need to be added to the database, so there must be some kind of update system. Surely they don’t have to wait for each ship to come back into space dock and have a retrofit.
Yes. One of the complaints Paris had about the Voyager replicators is that his preferences weren’t synced to the ship yet, so he had to manually pick what variety of tomato soup he wanted (the horror).
There are probably a near infinite number of downloadable recipes, and you can program in new or altered ones.
"Share and enjoy!’
Digging the sepia tone.
heh, I searched for Migleemo regurgitated soup, and that was the first image that came up, and I kind of liked it
This doesn’t make sense. The most famous replicator food is ordered with a modifier.
“Tea, Earl grey, HOT”
Why not “noodles, pad Thai, extra spicy”
Raktajino, extra strong, extra sweet
Jamaican blend, double strong, double sweet
They do order modded food in DS9 as well. Bashir orders Soup, but with basil.
I think I recall it in lower decks too.
I do enjoy the implication that lower decks had where all food products have to have their temperature specified.
“Birthday cake with lit candles, various temperatures”
I always thought that for efficiency data storage, the pattern would be encoded and blocks of similar taste and texture would simplified to be exactly the same. This might lead to an uncanny valley for the food, where everything seems not quite right. Some people wouldn’t notice, some people would notice, but not care, and some people would reject it.
I find it hard to believe the recipes wouldn’t be updated based on the number of times someone’s mentioned programming a replicator with additional recipes.
Easier to believe is that it does a not so great job copying more complex foods. Replicated pasta is starch gluten and water. Replicated foie gras probably left out hundreds of trace flavor compounds.
Replicated pasta is starch gluten and water.
They can add recipies to the database and they can set up their own database of replicated food to call from.
Corollary to 1), it’s not just an original recipe, it’s an approved recipe. With hundreds of people on board a starship, they’d each prefer that the dish were prepared in a slightly different way. Maybe a little more butter, or salt, or whatever that secret ingredient they tasted that one time on Risa.
Unless every person uploads a precise molecular composition of the end dish, it will not be quite to their taste. And if somebody wants a seriously unhealthy version of that dish, will it pass muster to be aboard the ship in the first place? Starfleet has standards, after all.
So it’s the average, least-offensive-to-the-most-people version, and it’s that same exact dish every single time.
<will it pass muster to be aboard the ship in the first place? Starfleet has standards, after all.>
I was under the impression that crewman are free to add new things. Like Data, who composed food for Spot and I believe there were several instances of tinkering with the replicators on VOY and DS9. Although DS9 maybe is the odd one out, since it’s , ex-kardassian and co-owned by Bajor, and a certain ferengi runs a bar there. ^^
Which is why I would assume the replicators and, by extention, the main computer can allow for “Corned beef hash O’Brien the way me Ma used to make it Tango 3.”
yep. and the idea the computer wouldnt have everyones personal tweaks built right in on demand based on who asked is silly.
They can probably upload all their own recipes from a Padd anywhere they go
I mean, people love vinyl to this day. I do. There’s something homely about the little cracks and imperfections of each record. I own a Mozart record my mother used to play for me to fall asleep and there are better recordings but none hits the same. I guess it’s similar.
It has the same vibe as folks who prefer vinyl to digital audio, or manual transmission to automatic.
Since I’m both of those folks I’d probably compromise and replicate ingredients and cook them on a holo-kitchen.
Maybe I’d get O’Brien to store some fresh food in a spare pattern buffer.
