Pemmican

Pemmican is a low-tech long-lasting food, ideal for caravan trips. It is produced from 0.25 nutrition each of meat and vegetables (0.5 total), producing 16 pemmican with 0.05 nutrition each, for 0.8 nutrition total. No Cooking skill is required.

Acquisition

Pemmican requires the pemmican research; Lost Tribe colonies start with it, but Industrial colony starts need to research it before it can be produced.

It can be cooked from a mixture of 0.25 nutrition from meat and 0.25 nutrition from vegetables on a campfire, fueled stove or electric stove. There is no Cooking skill requirement, although it does increase that skill.

It can also be purchased from traders, or occasionally recovered from tribal raiders.

Cooking pemmican requires 700 ticks (11.67 secs) of work for 16 units, or 2,800 ticks (46.67 secs) for 64.

Analysis

Producing pemmican takes 0.5 units of nutrition in ingredients and yields 0.8 units of nutrition as a result - a 60% net nutrition gain. Up to 20 can be consumed in one sitting.

Pemmican is very useful for long-term food storage before you get freezers, as it lasts 70 days unrefrigerated before rotting, has no minimum Cooking requirement, and Tribal colonies (who need it the most) start with the technology already researched.

Pemmican vs. a Fine Meal

The exact same ingredients (both .25 meat + .25 vegetables)
Pemmican takes 50% more work to produce (12 vs. 8)
A fine meal provides ~11% more nutrition (0.9 vs. 0.8)
A fine meal provides a +5 mood boost
A fine meal spoils much faster (4 days vs. 70 days)
A fine meal can store more nutrition in a full stack (9 vs 3.75)
A fine meal has a lower nutrition density (2.045 vs 2.778), meaning pemmican gives you more nutrition for the same weight (for caravans)
Pemmican gives exactly the amount of nutrition needed, while (any) meals have a potential for "waste" (see next)

Benefits of discrete nutrition

While pemmican technically has a lower net nutrition gain than fine / simple meals, it is slightly more efficient while eating. Colonists try to eat just before actually getting hungry, so they will typically eat at about 0.7-0.8 hunger. A set meal restores a fixed 0.9 nutrition in one single piece, so they of average they may waste about 15% of it. Because pemmican comes in smaller pieces, colonists will take only as much as they need, and on average only waste about 2.5% while eating. These differences are small and nearly cancel each other out, but may be important/interesting to some players. It can also be relevant when feeding animals - small animals can waste a large amount of the nutrition of a meal, making pemmican (or kibble, which works the same) an ideal option for feeding them high nutritional efficiency food.

This technique can also prove beneficial when a colonist is affected by an ailment or disease which causes frequent vomiting, such as food poisoning or gut worms. Vomiting interrupts the process of eating a full meal, but a colonist can quickly down a few bites of pemmican between "attacks", and so more easily avoid malnutrition .

Food

Meals: Chocolate • Fine meal (Carnivore, Vegetarian) • Kibble • Lavish meal (Carnivore, Vegetarian) • Nutrient paste meal • Packaged survival meal • Pemmican • Simple meal • Baby food
Raw food - Animal: Meat (Human, Insect) • Insect jelly • Milk • Hemogen pack
Raw food - Eggs: Cassowary egg (fert.) • Chicken egg (fert., unfert.) • Cobra egg (fert.) • Duck egg (fert., unfert.) • Emu egg (fert.) • Goose egg (fert., unfert.) • Iguana egg (fert.) • Ostrich egg (fert.) • Tortoise egg (fert.) • Turkey egg (fert.)
Raw food - Vegetarian: Agave fruit • Berries • Corn • Hay • Potatoes • Raw fungus • Rice • Toxipotatoes

Pemmican

Acquisition

Analysis

Benefits of discrete nutrition

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