[Fixed - persists in 3.61] Decaying food improved the quality

[PALU]

I had some roasted elk meat that tasted awful, probably because it was stale when it was roasted, and my character's cooking skill isn't stellar either. A while later (i.e. one or a few days) it "decayed" into stale bland roasted elk meat.
I made a copy of the character's save immediately after detecting the improvement, if there's anything useful to gain from it.

[Míriel]

  I can add that this happens to skins too. I had a ragged wild boar skin that turned into a harsh one during a protracted tanning process.

[Ara D.]

Ive seen the same thing happen to food in 3.4

[Sami]

Indeed, this is an old issue, it has avoided my attention but fixed now.

The decaying item quality was set to 2nd lowest when it becomes stale. Now this is done correctly only if the item isn't worse quality already.

However the term stale will persist in case of foodstuff. So "awful cut" becomes "stale cut" when it becomes..well..stale, even though it's still awfully cooked.
But now you see its quality having not improved as it tastes terrible like the awful stuff does.

The same fix applies for skins also.

Fixed - persists in 3.61.