When people get a bland and flavourless meal, the common exclamation is "This tastes like Cardboard." The diner is unhappy and the cook saddened and/or angry.

The most straightforward way to address this unhappy situation is to improve the flavour of cardboard. At worst, it creates ambivalence in the cook's mind as to whether or not they've been insulted.

In my experience, anything sauteed in butter with a little brown sugar and a touch of cinnamon is quite palatable. Feel free to come up with your own culinary improvements - I wouldn't want you to feel boxed in.
-- AusCan531, Mar 24 2020

Paper Jam Paper_20Jam
Prior Art [8th of 7, Mar 24 2020]

Your suggestion is a recipe involving cardboard. I think this is a misguided approach. The cardboard itself should be manufactured in a way that improves its intrinsic flavour.

Perhaps by using shreeded dried toasted banana flakes instead of wood pulp as the raw material? Or something like that.
-- pocmloc, Mar 24 2020


<link>
-- 8th of 7, Mar 24 2020


Question: does British cardboard taste better or worse than French cardboard? And does American cardboard have more calories and preservatives?
-- RayfordSteele, Mar 24 2020


I feel bad for cardboard. I never thought of how cardboard must feel. I'm an Empath and I absorb other things negative feelings. I'm sad now. (Virus, what virus.)

And here's an upgrade for you, [AusCan531)...

Cats love all things square and cardboard. Why not draw them in even quicker with the scent of their favorite fishy embedded in the cardboard boxes that Amazon delivers daily.

The bigger the box, the more cats you can fit in. I'd pay extra shipping for the fun my cat would benefit from. Wouldn't have to be stinky, just a subtle smell only the cat would be able to sense.
-- blissmiss, Mar 24 2020


// The bigger the box, the more cats you can fit in. //

You can get more cats in the same box if you use a mechanical or hydraulic press.

Hmmm.

Is there a possibility of combining the Schrödinger's Cat experiment with the twin slit experiment, putting two cats in a sealed box ? Hmmmm .... <sniggering/>

Thanks, [bliss]. A fruitful avenue of research has just opened up ...
-- 8th of 7, Mar 24 2020


//Wouldn't have to be stinky, just a subtle smell// could be the marketing and advertising slogan for Fishboard Packaging (TM).
-- pocmloc, Mar 24 2020


// cook-in-the-cup noodles, where the cardboard cup would actually have to be made slightly LESS palatable than it already is, in order to match up to its contents. //

Your observational skills are disconcertingly incisive; you're looking forward to either great wealth, power and fame, pubic odium and condemnation followed by ostracism*, or a visit from a hit-man**.

*The minimum penalty for seeing a truth that no-one else does.

**The minimum penalty for seeing a truth that one wealthy, powerful and famous person has seen and doesn't want anyone else to know about because they're busy exploiting it. Meet Mr. Fett; he's going to be your executioner for today...
-- 8th of 7, Mar 24 2020


That is the way ^
-- 21 Quest, Mar 24 2020


// anything sauteed in butter with a little brown sugar and a touch of cinnamon is quite palatable //

<Prods Taco Bell burrito around frying pan with spatula/>

We've been at this for hours, and it doesn't sem to be working... are we doing something wrong ?
-- 8th of 7, Mar 25 2020


//pubic odium//

Ewww.

In fact, Catullan ewww - "Odi et amo [etc.]". Just don't involve Garfield.
-- pertinax, Mar 25 2020


// Just don't involve Garfield //

He might have been quite a successful president, if he hadn't been assassinated.
-- 8th of 7, Mar 25 2020



random, halfbakery