Instant Clay
You get used to its taste after a while.The biggest problems when dealing with food have always been its storage and transportation. Any sort of food really, albeit to a different extent. That became ever more so an issue for crews of exploration vessels and communities seeking to establish new colonies. Their preferred solution? Cover much of the food in Instant Clay. While that does not sound very appetising, the technique has proven itself remarkably effective. Instant Clay forms a crust around the object, preventing any air or dirt from reaching what is inside. When time comes, you only need to break the shell and clean off all parts that came in contact with it. And even that last part is optional, as hard-pressed crews would often resort to eating all they can - even if that means ingesting a bit of the clay itself.
Manufacturing
So how do you cover something in Instant Clay? Quite easy, actually. You hold it with a special stick and submerge it into one of the pools of clay. In a few seconds the crust forms up, after which the item is pulled out and carefully disconnected from the stick. The hardest part is to avoid damaging it in any way, as Instant Clay crust tends to be quite fragile and thin. That and not falling in by accident - not a good way to go, trust me on that.
Complexity
Unfortunately, the only sources of Instant Clay are located deep in the Kimnan territory and on the very edge of the Forbidden Forest. Sometimes even in the Forest itself, or so I have heard. Their main article of export, really. And given that those sources are quite literally boiling ponds of liquid clay, you cannot just take them and move somewhere else. The products stored with Instant Clay are fairly accessible though, albeit always several times as expensive as fresh ones.
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