What's the point of cooking potage?

[Cian]

So potage takes 3 meat and 2 cabbage to make, and gives 30 food.

3 cooked meat gives 18 food. 2 cabbage gives 14 food. So eating the bits individually gives 32 food.

What's the point of paying for the recipe and making bowls only to get even less food after cooking it?

[kimmer]

Not everything is well balanced in the game yet. However, it gets more accurate with every update. The game is still in early access so I can say that they found the feedback helpful. This is why your report is important. Things that are only available in variety at the moment will have more accurate metrics in the future.
In the "List of Suggestions for the Devs" title, you can write the features you want in the game. Maybe you can offer interesting ideas.

[Trim]

Meat has a food value of 2 and is potentially poisonous, so the recipe converts 20 food value into 30 food value, which seems reasonable enough to me, as well as removing the risk of getting poisoned. It is also worth rather more than the sum of its ingredients.

I am sure there is plenty of balancing yet to come, but this isn't one that struck me as needing changing.

[cosmi]

The game is still being adjusted.

That being said, my workers seem to love potage, and it takes very little extra work to make it. So my tavern worker makes it for my workers, as well as other things. It may just be that as they go down the list of prepared food, in the food box, that is the first one they come to. I'm happy with that. It keeps them somewhat out of the higher value food, that I use.

I figure, keeping my workers happy is important and all the little things I do for them, seems to add up. It is also good to have your crop workers, farming all the different types of seeds, for the king's quest etc. My town is very close to self sufficient. I'm still making adjustments.

[Cian]

Originally posted by Trim:

Meat has a food value of 2 and is potentially poisonous, so the recipe converts 20 food value into 30 food value, which seems reasonable enough to me, as well as removing the risk of getting poisoned. It is also worth rather more than the sum of its ingredients.

I am sure there is plenty of balancing yet to come, but this isn't one that struck me as needing changing.

Except it only takes about the same amount of work to cook the 3 meat into meat with a food value of 6. And it doesn't require buying a recipe or making a bowl...

[dlange]

Short answer: There is no point to making potage in version 0.3.1.4.
Long answer:
1. When you cook food, it gets 100% freshness, even if the ingredients were not 100% fresh. So making potage is a way of increasing the storage life of your food.
2. Villagers eat the food with the highest nutrition value. So making potage is a way of eating balanced quantities of meat and cabbage, instead of eating all the cabbage first.

[Sprocket66]

Crafting xp.

[Trim]

Originally posted by Sprocket66:

Crafting xp.

I would love it to be so, but if you want crafting XP then you need to roast the meat rather than make potage. 3 XP for 3 meat rather than 1 XP for 3 meat.

[richardmgoldsmith]

it is more desirable perhaps? we know NPC's like cooked food better.