What's the most efficient food source to keep my hunger and thirst levels in check in Survival?

What is the most efficient food source to keep my hunger and thirst levels in check during Survival mode?

I'm looking for only foods you can grow via crops in a settlement; I want to consume as little radiation as possible and I want to keep my carry weight to a minimum. But if I need to consume radiation to maximize healing output I don't mind as long as it's efficient enough to outweigh the downsides of radiation poisoning.

Solution 1:

To find the answer I did some Science.

Method

I slept for 96 hours then I consumed each of 25 foods and 5 beverages until my character's hunger moved from famished to properly fed, and his thirst moved from dehydrated to properly hydrated.

For each food I then multiplied the food's weight by the number of units required. I also multiplied the food's rads by the number of units required. (Though not essential for this question, I also looked at how many hit points each items heals.) This gives us useful numbers to compare the foods:

Pounds to feed: the total weight required to feed a famished character
Pounds to hydrate: the total weight required to hydrate a dehydrated character
Rads to feed: the total rads required to feed a famished character
Rads to hydrate: the total rads required to hydrate a dehydrated character
HP per Pound: how much healing it provides for the weight (again, not directly needed for your question but useful when choosing between the food options)

The Candidates

There are seven farmable crops: carrot, corn, gourd, melon, mutfruit, razorgrain, and tato. All of these address hunger; only melon also addresses thirst.

Of the many craftable food items, only two meet your criterion of being completely crop-based. Both of these address hunger and thirst:

noodle cup (one razorgrain, one dirty water)
vegetable soup (one carrot, one tato, one dirty water)

For completeness I included:

16 other craftable food items with meat ingredients
dirty and purified water
all three Nuka Cola varieties

Short Answer

Noodle cup.

Longer Answer

Noodle cup is the best crop-based option overall.
If you have noodle cup, there's no reason to carry purified water.
If you don't mind consuming a few rads, supplement with mutfruit.
If you don't mind using meat, supplement with mirelurk cake when you have the ingredients.

The raw data for all food items tested is below.

Reasoning

Thirst: Noodle Cup

You'll get thirsty much more often than you'll get hungry—in part just because that's how the game works, and in part because healing items (stimpack, Rad-X, RadAway) add thirst. So efficient hydration is critical.

Purified water and noodle cup are the two most efficient rad-free thirst items: from dehydrated to properly hydrated in just 3lb. They weigh the same (0.5lb) and heal the same (40 HP).

Because noodle cup also helps hunger, and everything else is equal with purified water, noodle cup wins.

Hunger: Noodle Cup (with side dishes)

Noodle cup is the best item for hunger as well. Not because it's the most weight-efficient—mirelurk cake wins there—but because:

If you're using noodle cup for thirst anyway, it will automatically help your hunger at the same time for no added weight cost.
While it's not the most weight-efficient food item (3 pounds to feed), all of the more weight-efficient food items either add rads (uncooked fruits and vegetables) or require uncommon meat ingredients (iguana, squirrel, stingwing, deathclaw...).

Mutfruit is a good backup item for hunger. It's as lightweight as any other plant crop, and has the lowest radiation: 0.8 pounds and 16 rads to fully feed you.

Parts of the map are rich in mirelurks. If you're willing to look beyond plant crops and have the ingredients (mirelurk meat, mirelurk egg, oil, and razorgrain), mirelurk cake is the most weight/rad efficient food item among the 25 items I tested.

Dirty Water

The drawback of noodle cup is that it's not common to find dirty water in the Commonwealth. But in survival mode it's an easy item to make for yourself.

Empty bottles are one of the most common items in the Commonwealth, especially in bars, restaurants, and breweries. Take an empty bottle to a body of water and you'll see the option to fill the bottle. This will give you one dirty water.

Bonus Facts: Healing

Mirelurk cake is by far the most efficient healing item among the 30 I tested: 1390 HP per pound. It's around 300% more efficient than the next closest items (Nuka Quantum and Iguana on a Stick), and around 700% more efficient than the seemingly-awesome Deathclaw Steak and Mirelurk Queen Steak.

This is another reason to keep it in your inventory as a backup item if you have the ingredients.

Raw Data

Pounds to feed

0.4: mirelurk cake
0.5: iguana on a stick
0.8: carrot, corn, mutfruit, crispy squirrel bits
2: deathclaw steak, mirelurk queen steak, roasted mirelurk steak, stingwing filet, yao guai ribs
3: baked bloatfly, bloodbug steak, grilled radstag, noodle cup, radscorpion steak
4: mole rat chunks, mutant hound chops, mutt chops, ribeye steak, tato
8: vegetable soup, gourd, melon
Infinite: razorgrain (no food value)

Rads to feed

0: (everything not listed below)
16: mutfruit
24: carrot, corn, gourd, melon
40: tato
Infinite: razorgrain (no food value)

Pounds to hydrate

3: water, dirty water, noodle cup
6: nuka cola quantum
7: nuka cola, nuka cola cherry, vegetable soup
8: melon

Rads to hydrate

0: noodle cup, purified water, vegetable soup
24: melon
30: nuka cola quantum
35: nuka cola, nuka cola cherry
42: dirty water

HP per Pound

10: gourd, melon
20: nuka cola, tato
40: dirty water
50: nuka cola cherry
55: vegetable soup
80: baked bloatfly, mutt chops, noodle cup, purified water
100: carrot, corn, mole rat chunks, mutfruit, razorgrain
110: ribeye steak
120: grilled radstag, mutant hound chops
138: roasted mirelurk meat
150: radscorpion steak
164: yao guai ribs
185: deathclaw steak
200: mirelurk queen steak
210: bloodbug steak
260: stingwing filet
340: crispy squirrel bits
400: iguana on a stick, nuka cola quantum
1390: mirelurk cake