Exodus 16:31 states that the taste of manna was:

> "like wafers made with honey."

Numbers 11:8 describes the taste of manna as:

> "as the taste of fresh oil."

Critics cite this as an obvious culinary contradiction. This objection fails to read the surrounding context in Numbers. Numbers 11:8 explicitly describes the intense preparation process: the people 'ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it.' The Exodus account describes the raw, unprocessed state of the manna, while the Numbers account describes its flavor after it had been heavily milled, processed, and cooked. As any chef knows, the cooking and baking process significantly alters the flavor profile of an ingredient.

Numbers 11:8—Did the manna taste like a honey wafer or like fresh oil?

Problem: Here the manna’s “taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil.” But in Exodus 16:31 asserts that the “taste of it was like wafers made with honey.”

Solution: The latter description may have been what the manna tasted like in its natural state; the former, after it was cooked. Notice that in the same verse it speaks of the people who “ground it on millstones” and “cooked it in pans.” But even granting the two passages are speaking about the manna in the same condition, they are not mutually exclusive.