back to article Hungry boffins turn 3D printer into snack maker

When it comes to exquisite cuisine, who said you need pots and pans? Maybe soon we'll use computers and printers to fix up meals. A team at New York's Cornell University has been hard at work with 3D food printers, creating strange dishes with ingredients from chocolate and hummus to turkey and celery, CBC News reports. …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. frank ly

    It's Been Done

    "...such as gravy-absorbing meat sponges."

    It's called Quorn. (I know it's not really meat, but when you get to the molecular level........sort of.)

    1. DrXym

      Absorbs oil

      Quorn is quite nice tasting but it has an incredibly annoying habit of soaking up oil. Makes it very hard to fry without pouring far more oil over it than should be necessary.

      1. Bassey

        Re: Quorn is quite nice tasting

        I'm sorry but that is just untrue. Quorn has no taste. It tastes of whatever you add to it. I think David Baddiel described it best through the words of a character in one of his novels ("The Secret Purposes" I think).

        "I've been a meat eater all my life but never, never have I had anything in my mouth that tasted quite so dead as quorn"

        1. DrXym

          It does have a taste

          Tofu has little taste or texture. Quorn as packaged as mince / chunks does have a taste and a texture - a mild savoury taste slightly fungus / mushroomy in character which is not surprising considering what it's made of. I've munched enough while frying it up to know this.

          Typically however it will be an ingredient in something else like a curry where it's taste would often be overshadowed. I think the stuff is great despite the amount of oil it absorbs. I have no issue with eating meat, but I enjoy quorn so much I'll cook something up with it from time to time.

  2. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse
    WTF?

    Gravy absorbing meat sponges!!!

    If that is the future of food then I think I'll stick to my very simple peanut butter on toast thanks.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    "Here comes the train" just got real

    hours of mealtime fun, and not just for the under-fives

  4. Neil Lewis
    Thumb Down

    Quite apart from just looking unappetising...

    ...this is surely the utimate overkill. Have these people never heard of a mould?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Not impressed

    When it can print a fillet steak I'll be interested

  6. Justice
    Happy

    YUM!

    Give a whole new meaning to 'Printer Jam'

  7. Elmer Phud

    Ultimate gift for the stoner

    "I've made pizzas that look like Mars bars"

  8. John Bailey

    Sorry to do this..

    sudo make me a sandwich >> LPT1

    Oh come on.. Someone had to do it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Paris Hilton

      You missed a bit

      I know 'nix commands can be complicated but surely you meant:

      sudo make me a sandwich | tee ~/cup >> /dev/parport0

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Commands

      make: *** No rule to make target `me'. Stop.

  9. Paul_Murphy

    Been done

    http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/sandwich.png

    by the excellent XKCD

    ttfn

  10. stucs201
    Coat

    Tea, Earl Grey, Hot

    What no comparisons with a star-trek food replicator?

    (Mines the one with the tricorder and rapidly expanding population of tribbles in the pocket)

  11. stucs201

    Nothing new about food based 3D printers

    I remember seeing a melted chocolate based one years ago. And it was made of lego.

  12. Lottie
    Go

    Hmm

    So will we now have to dowload truetype fonts for alphabetti sphagetti?

    Anyway, given that porn/ sex is the main field that pushes development of consumer computing, how long 'till we get a "scan your boyfriends todger and print it in chocolate/ beef protien/ brocolli" program?

  13. JDX Gold badge

    I bet Heston would approve

    Also, are we getting closer to Star Trek food in TNG?

  14. Freddie

    Mmmmmm.....

    ...Turkey paste.

  15. Andy Baird

    Knockoff?

    Looks like the work of the well-kbown CandyFab 4000/6000 series 3D sugar printers:

    http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/candyfab

    And see CandyFab wiki here:

    http://wiki.candyfab.org/

  16. Patrick R
    WTF?

    The price of ink.

    With ink being currently more expensive than champaign, it is absurd wasting it on fishsticks. Print caviar at least.

This topic is closed for new posts.