Cooking

Raw edibles

At the start of the game, without any infrastructure, the player only has access to foraged or hunted food that can be eaten raw in order to maintain the player's satiety . However, the player should not rely on these for overly long, as once harvested, naturally occurring foodstuffs are either gone for good, or require a long time to regrow.

It's noteworthy there's over 350,000 different meals that can be cooked in Vintage Story.

The following table lists all the food items that can be eaten raw:

Item	Satiety	Category	Notes
Honey 1 (per 0.1 liter)	30	Fruit	Liquid. Never spoils.
Cherry, lychee	40	Fruit
Cranberry	60	Fruit
Saguaro fruit	60	Fruit	Restores 1 hp upon consumption.
Apple, blueberry, red currant, white currant, black currant, mango, orange, peach, pear, pomegranate, or pineapple slice	80	Fruit
Breadfruit	200	Fruit
Mushroom	80	Vegetable	Some mushroom types may be poisonous and deal damage upon consumption.
Bell pepper2, carrot, olive, onion, parsnip, or turnip	100	Vegetable
Cassava (processed)	100	Vegetable	Inedible without prior processing.
Cabbage	300	Vegetable
Pumpkin slice	140	Vegetable
Pumpkin (whole)	480	Vegetable	Since version 1.19, it is no longer possible to eat a whole pumpkin.
Flax grain	30	Grain
Amaranth , rice, rye, spelt, or sunflower grain	60	Grain
Walnut seed	40	Protein	Never spoils.
Termite	60	Protein
Peanut	160	Protein
Lump of fat 3	200	Protein
Rendered fat	200	Protein	Never spoils.
Vintage Beef	280	Protein	Rare ruin loot. Restores 2 hp upon consumption. Never spoils.
Milk (per 0.1 liter)	15	Dairy	Liquid.
Fish	220	Protein

¹ Consuming honey used to restore health in older versions. It no longer does as of version 1.16.
² Bell peppers are unobtainable in survival gameplay as of version 1.16.
³ Lumps of fat are a valuable crafting material that should be eaten only in emergencies. Spoils as of version 1.22.

Mushrooms

Mushrooms are special in that they may be beneficial or harmful to the player when ingested, and some of the harmful ones are very easily mistaken for safe ones.

Following is a list of specifically poisonous mushrooms for easy checking:

Name	Image	Damage
Bitter bolete		-3 hp
Death cap		-50 hp (!)
Devil's Bolete		-10 hp
Devils tooth		-2 hp
Earth ball		-8 hp
Elfin saddle		-7 hp
Fly agaric		-6.5 hp
Funeral bell		-40 hp (!)
Gold-drop milkcap		-2.5 hp
Jack'o'lantern mushroom		-6 hp
Pink bonnet		-10 hp

Raw red meat in a fire pit

Nutrition and Satiation

Raw red meat in a fire pit

The first opportunity for making better food comes with the firepit . A small number of foraged or hunted ingredients can be placed directly into it for processing. Additionally, it can be used for baking dough into bread in a pinch, but the result will be of lesser quality than when using an oven .

Current nutrition and satiety levels can be examined in the character dialog, mapped to 'C' by default.

Food Category	Item	Satiety	Notes
Vegetable	Cooked cattail or papyrus root	100
Grain	Charred amaranth, cassava, rye, spelt, or sunflower bread	210	Requires prior processing.
	Charred flax bread	100	Requires prior processing.
	Charred rice bread	220	Requires prior processing.
Protein	Cooked bushmeat	120
	Cooked fish	200
	Cooked poultry	200
	Cooked redmeat	280

Bread Dough

To create bread dough, prepare flour using a quern to grind grain.

1. Open the quern GUI (RMB) and add grain into the input slot (left) of the quern.
2. Hold RMB on the base of the quern to grind the grain into flour, which will appear in the output slot (right) of the quern.
3. In the crafting grid, combine a bucket of water and flour to create dough. (one bucket of water creates 10 dough)

See also: Brewing

Advanced cooking techniques can greatly increase the food value of ingredients, and can potentially achieve several thousands of satiety points in a single food item. Additionally, it allows the player to make meals out of multiple ingredients, which can potentially supply multiple nutrition groups at the same time. Whenever possible, it is recommended that the player uses advanced cooking techniques.

Cooking meals

See also: Meal

[[File:PotInFirepit.png|300px|thumb|right|Cooking a stew in a fire pit.]] [[File:cooking-pot-with-meals.png|300px|thumb|right|A cooking pot containing a finished batch of meals ready to be eaten or stored.]]

Baking

Place the dough into the input slot of the firepit and fuel the fire. (Each loaf of bread requires about one piece of firewood.) Both dough and bread loaves stack to 32.

Advanced Cooking

Cooking a stew in a fire pit

Each ingredient should be placed in separate slots, and equal amounts of all ingredients must be added.

To prepare more wholesome meals, craft a claypot using the clay forming mechanic. Place the burned claypot into the fire pit input slot (left) to cook any of the 5 available meal types. The meal type players create is determined by which two "required" ingredients are placed into the claypot.

• To cook multiple servings of a meal: increase the number of ingredient items added to all slots equally. The cooking pot allows players to cook up to 6 servings of any meal at a time. When creating multiple servings all the items in the input slots must be increased by the same amount, or the food will not cook!

• To cook meals requiring liquids: liquids like water or honey can be added in 1L increments with a bucket, or 0.1L increments with a bowl - however, the 0.1L increments are only required for jam made from honey. While holding the container with the mouse, to add one portion, to remove it again.

• To fill a bowl: A bowl holds a single meal portion and may be filled from a cooking pot or crock. To fill an empty bowl, the player must have it in the main hand and a food container from the ground, storage, firepit or inventory. Bowls of food may be carried in player inventories, stored in stationary containers, and placed on shelves. Bowls cannot be filled from crocks on shelves.

• To eat a meal: Food can be consumed from a filled bowl. With the filled bowl in an active hotbar slot, eat holding with the bowl in the main hand. Players will eat until full, which may leave partial portions of food in the bowl.

• To store meals: Four portions of any cooked meal can be stored in an empty crock. Right click the cooking pot with an empty crock to transfer meals to it. Crocks may be sealed for long term storage using fat or beeswax in the crafting grid. Crocks may also be carried in player inventories, stored in stationary containers, and placed on shelves .

• To create one serving of any meal: place one of each required item into two separate claypot slots (this defines the meal type). For example, a porridge requires "two grain", so a player must add two individual pieces of grain in any two input slots in the claypot. Placing two grain in one input slot of the claypot will not create a porridge. Adding "optional" ingredients in the other two input slots of the claypot will increase the nutrition value and satiation of the meal depending on which items are added. When a valid meal recipe (combining correct ingredients) is placed into the input slots, a message will appear in the claypot dialog box informing players about what type of meal will be created after cooking.

[[File:Jam.png|300px|thumb|right|Each ingredient should be placed in separate slots, and equal amounts of all ingredients must be added.]] [[File:Mushroom soup.PNG|300px|thumb|right|Mushrooms can be used as a vegetable for making soups and stews.]]

Advanced recipes	Required ingredients	Optional fruit	Optional vegetable	Optional grain	Optional protein	Optional dairy
Meat stew	2 poultry or red meat or raw fish (cured or fresh)	0 – 1 fruit, 0L – 0.2L honey2	0 – 2 vegetable		0 – 2 protein
Vegetable stew	2 vegetables or legumes1		0 – 2 vegetable		0 – 2 legumes1
Porridge	2 grain	0 – 2 fruit, 0L – 0.2L honey2	0 – 2 vegetable	0 – 2 grain
Soup	1 vegetable (fresh) + 1L water2		0 – 2 vegetable		0 – 1 poultry or red meat or raw fish (cured or fresh), or egg
Scrambled eggs	2 egg		0 – 2 vegetable		0 – 2 egg	0 – 2 cheese
Jam	2 fruit + 2x 0.2L honey2

¹ Legumes include soybeans and peanuts.
² Liquids can be added to the pot with a bucket (1L portions), jug (0.3L portions), or bowl (0.1L portions). Pick up the liquid container with your cursor and drag it over an empty spot in the cooking pot. Use to add one portion, to remove one portion.

• To store meals: Four portions of any cooked meal can be stored in an empty crock. Place the pot onto the ground or table and right click the pot with an empty crock to transfer meals to the storage crock. Storage crocks may be sealed for long term storage using fat or wax in the crafting grid, Crocks may also be carried in player inventories, stored in stationary containers, and placed on shelves.

The food values of most ingredients are increased by at least 50% when they are cooked, with grain outright quadrupling in value, as shown in the table below. The ingredients added to create the meal determine how much satiety of each class of nutrition the player receives, and how much nutrition delay the meal provides.

Pickled variants of listed ingredients can be used, but provide only their tooltip-listed food value, without gaining any bonus from meals.

Ingredients not listed in this table cannot be used in cooking pot meals.

Food Category	Ingredient	Satiety in a meal
Fruit	Cherry or lychee	60
	Breadfruit	250
	Cranberries or saguaro fruit1	90
	Honey (0.2L)	80
	Tree fruits2, berries4, or pineapple slice	120
Vegetable	Cabbage	450
	Cassava	120
	Field vegetable3 or olive	150
	Mushroom1	120
	Pumpkin slice	180
Grain	Flax grain	120
	Other grains5	240
	Rice grain	280
Protein	Egg	200
	Fish, cured or fresh	375
	Peanut	160
	Poultry, cured or fresh	375
	Redmeat, cured or fresh	420
	Soybean	240
Dairy	Blue cheese (slice)	300
	Cheddar (slice)	360

¹ Ingredients that restore player health when eaten raw, such as saguaro fruit, lose this benefit when cooked. However, cooking a poisonous mushroom does not remove its harmful effects — the meal will still damage the player!
² Tree fruits include apples, mangoes, oranges, peaches, pears, and pomegranates.
³ Field vegetables include carrots, parsnips, onions, turnips, and bell peppers.
⁴ Berries include redcurrants, blackcurrants, whitecurrants, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, beautyberries, cloudberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

⁵ Other grains include rye, spelt, amaranth, sunflower, and cassava grain.

Satiation

Player satiety is how "hungry" or "well-fed" a player is, and has a maximum value of 1500. The satiation received from eating simple foods is shown in the table below. The satiation received from eating meals is "equal to the sum of its parts". The ingredients added to create the meal determine how much satiation and which class of nutrition a player receives. In addition, for every 100 satiation filled by consuming a meal, an additional 30 seconds passes before the player's satiety bar starts dropping again.

See also: Bread and Pie

Baking is an advanced cooking method that revolves around dough , the creation of which requires some setup. A quern must be available, which requires metal tools to craft. Additionally, a clay oven should be set up for baking, as not all recipes can be baked in the firepit, and the results there are always subpar. Plus, a wooden bucket , a jug or a bowl is needed to be filled with water. Finally, a farm is required to consistently supply useful amounts of grain , as wild crops are nonrenewable, mature extremely slowly, and reset their growth after reaching maturity.

• Saguaro and Honey provide health points to the player when consumed.

Basic Cooking

Simple cooking includes placing raw meat, bread dough, or cattail roots in the firepit. Roasting makes these 3 types of raw food edible. All other ingredients require a clay pot to be cooked.

1. Open the quern GUI and add grain into the input slot on the left of the quern.
2. Hold interact on the top of the quern to grind the grain into flour, which will appear in the output slot on the right of the quern.
   During later stages of the game, a windmill may be used to drive the quern.
3. In the crafting grid, combine a bucket of water and flour to create dough. Each flour item will consume one unit of water from the bucket (1L).

Two foods can be baked at the moment: bread and pie . Pies are capable of mixing multiple nutrition types and providing nutrition delay , just like claypot meals. Bread is not, but it provides 25% more upfront satiety per unit of grain than pies and porridge do.

• Add water or honey with a filled bucket. Use LMB to add one portion, RMB to remove one portion.

Check the food preservation page to learn how to best store all those delicious meals!

Advanced Cooking Food Values

Meals have a 50% extra satiety bonus from the ingredients' total satiety.

Protein	Satiation in Meal	Vegetable	Satiation in Meal	Grain	Satiation in Meal	Fruit	Satiation in Meal
Soy Bean	240	Roots: Carrot, Parsnip, Onion, Turnip	150	Flax	120	Currants, Blueberry	120
Egg	200	Cabbage	450	Rice	240	Cranberry	90
Poultry	375	Pumpkin	180	Rye	240	Saguarro	90
Red Meat	420	Mushrooms (Bolete, Field)	120	Spelt	240	Honey	80

Claypot Cooking (no real changes since version 1.12)