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[MDFification]

So I've seen quite a few threads proposing ways to make feeding a large fort more challenging. Most of these consist of making farming harder, more complicated or just increasing the rate dwarves eat. However, I think there's a way to increase the challenge of sustaining a fort without making the learning curve harder for new players; food preservation!

The idea behind this is that in DF, once food has been gathered (and sometimes cooked) it functionally never rots in the stockpile. This isn't to say it never rots, just that it rots so slowly that while you're playing the game it never actually is noticeable. Also, prepared meals stay fresh forever, mysteriously.
I propose raising the rate the food rots in a stockpile. Food, including prepared meals, should only last around 1.5 seasons (to allow for mods where there's a winter season without crops) before it starts to rot and is reclassified refuse. It should also rot faster on warmer maps. To get around this, players can craft a preservative; salt (Inspired by this thread). Salt can be ground at a mill or quern from rock salt, imported in bags from caravans, or gathered from the sea using a tool in a new gathering zone. Jobs are automatically queued up in the kitchen to salt edible, non-prepared meal items. Salted foods will rot slower, and meals that contain them will also rot proportionately slower (plus have higher value - however, this actually makes sense; a caravan would pay more for food that would stay edible on their journey). Food bought from caravans should be pre-salted.
Secondly, vermin should become more of an actual threat to your fortress. It's calculated that today, about 1/10th of human produce is consumed by mice or other animals before it reaches our plates. This was probably worse in ancient times, before pesticides and systematic rat poisoning. Essentially, the game should keep track of how many edible items there are on the map (it already does this so that you can have stocks). As your stocks get fuller, the rate vermin naturally migrate onto the map should increase proportionately to model them breeding more rapidly thanks to greater available food. This causes players to have to redesign their forts; food and seed stockpiles now need to be surrounded by animal traps if you want to remain efficient, and a sizable cat population is much more important than it currently is.

Now, this makes things considerably harder, but only adds challenge as your fort grows larger; early-game forts should be fine by virtue of not attracting large swarms of vermin. It also adds a new, optional industry (salt), adds incentive to trade, and allows for players to combat the added difficulty through design strategies. Based on this, I think it's a reasonable addition to the game; it adds difficulty and complexity, but makes the learning curve less comparatively steep (the game gets harder as you go on as opposed to easier) and is something players will quickly learn to adapt to.

[utunnels]

A dorf eat roughly twice per season. So maybe food(especially prepared food) should not rot away too quickly otherwise all of them need to eat salted food. (If I have to eat that every day I'll go crazy).

[Batgirl1]

A dorf eat roughly twice per season. So maybe food(especially prepared food) should not rot away too quickly otherwise all of them need to eat salted food. (If I have to eat that every day I'll go crazy).

Still, food currently doesn't rot at all for all intents and purposes.  Maybe two seasons to a year would be a good life-span for unsalted, with salted lasting virtually forever?  (And perhaps there could be a toggle under the orders-workshops menu for automatic salting)

ETA: There should probably also be an advantage in prepared meals over raw things like plump helmets, since in real life cooked food does tend to last longer.  This would help the difficulty curve since forts without a salt industry could still limp along by cooking everything.  Ooh, and maybe the brewery could turn wine into vinegar for pickling!

[MDFification]

A dorf eat roughly twice per season. So maybe food(especially prepared food) should not rot away too quickly otherwise all of them need to eat salted food. (If I have to eat that every day I'll go crazy).

Still, food currently doesn't rot at all for all intents and purposes.  Maybe two seasons to a year would be a good life-span for unsalted, with salted lasting virtually forever?  (And perhaps there could be a toggle under the orders-workshops menu for automatic salting)

ETA: There should probably also be an advantage in prepared meals over raw things like plump helmets, since in real life cooked food does tend to last longer.  This would help the difficulty curve since forts without a salt industry could still limp along by cooking everything.  Ooh, and maybe the brewery could turn wine into vinegar for pickling!

Pickling... now there's a good idea. Consumes booze, forcing you to expand your reserves, in return for food preservation.
The reason I'm arguing for such a low lifespan for food (2 seasons max) is because it makes it a lot more necessary to do something (cooking, preserving, or just eating) to unpreserved food if you want to sustain a fort of 100+ dwarves without giant, endless farms (which, IMO, would be a fine way to play itself).

Also, if you live in America, congradulations; you already eat food that's virtually all salted! North American tastes are actually quite different from the rest of the world, because we're used to the taste of heavily salted, preserved foods rather than fresh produce. So seeing as you haven't gone crazy yet I doubt that can be considered a negative thought.
Still, dwarves prioritizing eating fresh foods over preserves would make sense.

[Witty]

Fully support. And as an added suggestion, make all meat require some preparation before consumption. Eating raw meat should be an option only in a starvation scenario (or some cultural ceremony).

I'd also advocate that if such a system were implemented, it should ideally be raw-moddable upon release, rather than "later". Balancing is going to be a problem, and personal tastes for this kind of system should be accommodated for. Especially since it'll change a major aspect of fort managment.

[Gargomaxthalus]

Well since we now have access to rock salt (as well as saltpeter !!BOOM!!) this sort of system seems to be planned and will likely be a part of getting the taverns fully implemented. Such a system is also necessary for the trade revamp since moving unpreserved food long distances is unrealistic.

[Batgirl1]

Huh.  Didn't the game always have rock salt in it?

Anyway, I think raw meat should be treated the same as drinking murky water: a Dwarf's last resort, and considered unpleasant.  Sushi, on the other hand...

Smoking is another preservation technique to consider: use 1 fuel, only works on meat--perhaps the butcher workshop, unless Toady wants to implement a separate smokehouse building? 

[Badger Storm]

Neat idea.  I can see where it would interfere with my safe rooms though - a burrow with food and drink reserves and a lever to raise the drawbridge.  If a werecreature attacks right around the time the food goes bad, ooh boy, we're screwed.

Good point on the saltpeter - we've alrea got bacon, now we've got nitrates to go with it!

[Niddhoger]

Salt cannot be the only preservation method- not only would it severely punish forts that don't have rock salt/ocean access, but several more alternatives exist for the time period.

Pickling has already been mentioned.  To clarify, any booze is just one step from becoming vinegar, so all forts should have access to pickling.  The real issue is that pickling food alone isn't enough, the container also must be sealed.  Typically, wax (bees) was used to seal the jars shut.  I believe fat can also be used to seal the jars shut.

Smoking meat.  Beef jerking/smoking meats is another "old as dirt" preservation method.  You'd sacrifice a log for a stack of meat.  Mmmmm smoked elk bird spleen!

Honey.  Sugar/honey actually works as an anti-microbial agent.  Traditionally, fruits were persevered in jars of honey.  I doubt dwarven syrup would work, however.  Honey is an anti-fungal AND microbial built in.  Sugar works via dehydration (sugar molecules absorb moisture from the bacteria, killing them). 

With honey/wax both being used in food preservation, the bee-industry would actually become an awesome and integral part of your fortress! Instead of just "oh hey, I got 100 idling dorfs.  At least one can keep bees, I guess?"

Also, lets not forget flour.  This already exists in game, but only as a means to increase food VALUE.  However, flour typically has an indefinite shelf life if kept free of vermin.  Early forts can rely on bags of flour until they can trade for salt/get their pickling industry going. 

For the bravest (most desperate) of dwarven souls, there is always lye.  Basically, lutefisk.  *shudders*

What about ice-rooms? "root cellars" traditionally just required on storing vegetables in a cool, dry place.  With ice walls, you'd have a veritable low-tech freezer/firdge.  Think about it, eskimo's really don't have to worry about food spoilage when everything is ice, snow, ice, and more snow.  At the very least, spoilage should be slowed in winter months.  When the rivers freeze over, food isn't going to spoil very fast (if at all).  Scientists have actually dug up mammoth carcasses frozen solid for 10,000+ years AND ATE THAT SHIT.  Mammoth stew was heavily freezer-burned, but otherwise edible.  Let that sink in before you dismiss disabling food spoilage in a glacier embark.

The only foods that should spoil very quickly are meats though.  Most vegetables and some fruits (apples/oranges) really don't start to rot for a month or so.  Berries on the other had rot within days/weeks.  Meat... if left out at room temperature would rot within a couple days.  Intestines? Practically overnight.  The intestines contain massive amounts of bacteria to begin with.  Second the animal dies those bacteria tend to go wild. 

[vjmdhzgr]

What about ice-rooms? "root cellars" traditionally just required on storing vegetables in a cool, dry place.  With ice walls, you'd have a veritable low-tech freezer/firdge.  Think about it, eskimo's really don't have to worry about food spoilage when everything is ice, snow, ice, and more snow.  At the very least, spoilage should be slowed in winter months.  When the rivers freeze over, food isn't going to spoil very fast (if at all).  Scientists have actually dug up mammoth carcasses frozen solid for 10,000+ years AND ATE THAT SHIT.  Mammoth stew was heavily freezer-burned, but otherwise edible.  Let that sink in before you dismiss disabling food spoilage in a glacier embark.

I had intended to mention that temperature should be a factor. In which case most dwarven fortresses won't need to worry very much because underground temperature is a constant 10,015 urist, or 47 degrees fahrenheit which is colder than most places will be all year round. Considering that it might be fine to make food spoilage something like two seasons at warmer temperatures, but then the cold of the underground would preserve it long enough for it to not be too difficult a game mechanic.

[utunnels]

How do you dry grains? Do we have to design large enough stockpiles?

[LordBaal]

How do you dry grains? Do we have to design large enough stockpiles?

I think traditional methods involve a large floor that gets a lot of sun and you racket them like a zen garden so they all get plenty of air and sun. At least I know that's how they still dry up coffee here.

[Batgirl1]

How do you dry grains? Do we have to design large enough stockpiles?

Kitchen Workshop.  "Dry Fruit/Grain/Etc".  Problem solved.   (Maybe require an above-ground kitchen, though?)

I remember seeing an article about 1,000+ year old butter preserved in peat in some swamp in Ireland, although since DF doesn't have butter anyway, it may be a moot point.

[Waparius]

Re: temperature underground, isn't it the case that the deeper you dig, the warmer it gets? You certainly shouldn't expect to be able to leave food out near the magma sea, but I'd say it probably applies to all of the cavern layers. (Unless you use nether-caps).

for drying food, as zone-workshops get more important I'd love to see one used for this sort of thing. Use it for food preparation but also buckets of salt water

[Vrky]

I'm 100% for this! I love building up huge food stockpiles, in case of eventual siege. I always role-play a bit and build deep granaries that store only bags of flour, and eventually stockpiles of honey. I always found it silly that prepared food, and especially meat, stays fresh forever.

Salting is nice, perhaps drying of salt water could leave piles of salt on the ground? As in real life, we could then design areas that can be flooded with salt water, left to dry, and harvest the salt.

Main options for food preservation (that I can think of) should be smoking, salting, storing flour and prickling vegetables. Maybe something with sugar too. Some 'raw' foods should rot slow or not rot at all (honey), and some should rot quickly.

Maybe prepared food should lose quality with time, eventually becoming xPrepared Foodx and then becoming spoiled?

EDIT: And also refrigeration should have some effect as well. However, ice walls underground should thaw eventually, and ice should need to be replaced.