Cooking
Cooking food, milling flour, making dough and cakes. Cooked food fills your stomach; Cooking is a cheap and safe skill, and merchants sell most of the ingredients for pennies.
Getting started
- Tool: a skillet (3 gp) or a rolling pin (2 gp), sold by the Cook → NPC Guide; a flour sifter opens the same menu. Double-click the tool and choose the group and the dish in the menu.
- Fire: for a dish marked fire, a campfire, hearth or oven must be at most 2 tiles away. For a campfire, double-click the kindling in your backpack.
- Oven: a dish marked oven only cooks within 2 tiles of an oven (bakeries have them; you can put one in your house too).
- Mill: flour is only milled from wheat next to a flour mill. Britain has no flour mill; Yew (550–554, 820) and Papua (5755, 3190) do. Sacks of flour are also sold ready-made.
- Water: where a recipe says water, you need a container full of water in your backpack. A pitcher of water costs 11 gp (Innkeeper, Barkeeper, Tavern Keeper, Waiter); when it is empty, double-click it and target a water trough (Britain, Trinsic, Skara Brae, Serpent's Hold) or a container full of water to refill it.
- Raw food does not cook by double-clicking it or dragging it onto a fire; it always cooks from the menu.
How the skill rises
A recipe's success chance rises from 0% to 100% as your skill goes from the recipe's lower limit to its upper limit; your skill rises while it is below the recipe's upper limit. The most efficient way is to make a recipe whose success chance is past half but that has not become easy yet. A failed attempt can use up part of the ingredients.
| Skill | What to make | Ingredients (each) | Where it cooks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–100 | Fish steak | 1 raw fish steaks (~3 gp) | fire |
The table shows the cheapest recipe in that skill range whose ingredients are sold by merchants (the one with over 40% success chance if there is one). The ingredient price is for one attempt; water counts as bought in a pitcher, and is free if you fill it at a trough. All basic dishes are in the 0–100 range: whichever you cook, the skill rises up to 100, so pick the cheap one. Above 100 you need a power scroll.
All recipes
In the same order as the groups in the menu. Low–high: the skill range in which the recipe's success chance goes from 0% to 100%.
Ingredients
| Dish | Low–high | Ingredients | Where it cooks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sack of flour | 0–100 | 2 wheat | mill |
| Dough | 0–100 | 1 flour, 1 water | anywhere |
| Sweet dough | 0–100 | 1 dough, 1 honey | anywhere |
| Cake mix | 0–100 | 1 flour, 1 sweet dough | anywhere |
| Cookie mix | 0–100 | 1 honey, 1 sweet dough | anywhere |
| Cocoa butter | 0–100 | 1 cocoa pulp | oven |
| Cocoa liquor | 0–100 | 1 cocoa pulp, 1 pewter bowl | oven |
Preparations
| Dish | Low–high | Ingredients | Where it cooks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unbaked quiche | 0–100 | 1 dough, 1 eggs | anywhere |
| Unbaked meat pie | 0–100 | 1 dough, 1 raw meat | anywhere |
| Uncooked sausage pizza | 0–100 | 1 dough, 1 sausage | anywhere |
| Uncooked cheese pizza | 0–100 | 1 dough, 1 cheese | anywhere |
| Unbaked fruit pie | 0–100 | 1 dough, 1 pears | anywhere |
| Unbaked peach cobbler | 0–100 | 1 dough, 1 peaches | anywhere |
| Unbaked apple pie | 0–100 | 1 dough, 1 apples | anywhere |
| Unbaked pumpkin pie | 0–100 | 1 dough, 1 pumpkin | anywhere |
| Basket of Green Tea | 80–130 | 1 green tea, 1 water | oven |
| Wasabi clumps | 70–120 | 1 water, 3 bowl of peas | anywhere |
| Sushi rolls | 90–120 | 1 water, 10 raw fish steaks | anywhere |
| Sushi platter | 90–120 | 1 water, 10 raw fish steaks | anywhere |
| Savage kin paint | 55–105 | 1 flour, 1 tribal berries | anywhere |
| Egg bomb | 90–120 | 1 eggs, 3 flour | anywhere |
Baking
| Dish | Low–high | Ingredients | Where it cooks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bread loaf | 0–100 | 1 dough | oven |
| Pan of cookies | 0–100 | 1 cookie mix | oven |
| Cake | 0–100 | 1 cake mix | oven |
| Muffins | 0–100 | 1 sweet dough | oven |
| Baked quiche | 0–100 | 1 uncooked quiches | oven |
| Baked meat pie | 0–100 | 1 uncooked meat pies | oven |
| Sausage pizza | 0–100 | 1 uncooked sausage pizzas | oven |
| Cheese pizza | 0–100 | 1 uncooked cheese pizzas | oven |
| Baked fruit pie | 0–100 | 1 uncooked fruit pies | oven |
| Baked peach cobbler | 0–100 | 1 uncooked peach cobblers | oven |
| Baked apple pie | 0–100 | 1 uncooked apple pies | oven |
| Baked pumpkin pie | 0–100 | 1 unbaked pumpkin pies | oven |
| Miso soup | 60–110 | 1 raw fish steaks, 1 water | oven |
| White miso soup | 60–110 | 1 raw fish steaks, 1 water | oven |
| Red miso soup | 60–110 | 1 raw fish steaks, 1 water | oven |
| Awase miso soup | 60–110 | 1 raw fish steaks, 1 water | oven |
Barbecue
| Dish | Low–high | Ingredients | Where it cooks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooked bird | 0–100 | 1 raw birds | fire |
| Chicken leg | 0–100 | 1 raw chicken legs | fire |
| Fish steak | 0–100 | 1 raw fish steaks | fire |
| Fried eggs | 0–100 | 1 eggs | fire |
| Leg of lamb | 0–100 | 1 raw legs of lamb | fire |
| Cut of ribs | 0–100 | 1 raw meat | fire |
Chocolatiering
| Dish | Low–high | Ingredients | Where it cooks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dark chocolate | 15–100 | 1 sack of sugar, 1 cocoa butter, 1 cocoa liquor | anywhere |
| Milk chocolate | 32.5–107.5 | 1 sack of sugar, 1 cocoa butter, 1 cocoa liquor, 1 water | anywhere |
| White chocolate | 52.5–127.5 | 1 sack of sugar, 1 cocoa butter, 1 vanilla, 1 water | anywhere |
Where the ingredients come from
The price is the lowest among the merchants selling that item. Which town a merchant is in → NPC Guide. You can search in the game too: Traveler's Journal → NPC Guide.
| Ingredient | Merchant | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Apples | Farmer, Gypsy Maiden, Innkeeper, Provisioner | 3 gp |
| Bowl of peas | Barkeeper, Cook, Innkeeper, Tavern Keeper, Waiter | 3 gp |
| Cheese | Barkeeper, Cook, Innkeeper, Tavern Keeper, Waiter | 21 gp |
| Eggs | Farmer | 3 gp |
| Flour | Baker, Cook | 3 gp |
| Honey | Baker, Beekeeper, Cook | 3 gp |
| Peaches | Farmer, Innkeeper | 3 gp |
| Pears | Farmer, Gypsy Maiden, Innkeeper, Provisioner | 3 gp |
| Pewter bowl | Barkeeper, Cook, Innkeeper, Tavern Keeper, Waiter | 2 gp |
| Pumpkin | Farmer | 11 gp |
| Raw Birds | Butcher | 9 gp |
| Raw Chicken Legs | Butcher | 6 gp |
| Raw Fish Steaks | Fisherman | 3 gp |
| Raw Legs of Lamb | Butcher | 9 gp |
| Raw Meat | Butcher | 16 gp |
| Sausage | Butcher | 18 gp |
Not sold by merchants: Cocoa pulp, Green Tea, Sack of sugar, Tribal Berries, Vanilla, Wheat. The recipes that need these ingredients (chocolate, green tea, tribal paint, flour from wheat) can only be made if you find the ingredient some other way; they are not in the skill ladder. Raw meat and birds are bought from the butcher or come from cutting an animal's corpse with a knife.
Who buys cooked food
Cooking is for skill and a full stomach, not for money: merchants buy cooked food for less than its ingredients. No merchant buys fish steaks, fried eggs, meat pies, sausage pizzas, fruit pies or pumpkin pies; eat them or give them to other players.
| Dish | Who buys it, for how much |
|---|---|
| Cut of ribs | Tavern Keeper, Innkeeper, Barkeeper: 6 gp |
| Cooked bird | Cook: 8 gp |
| Leg of lamb | Cook: 4 gp |
| Chicken leg | Cook: 3 gp |
| Bread loaf | Baker, Tavern Keeper, Innkeeper, Barkeeper: 3 gp · Cook: 2 gp |
| Cake | Cook, Baker: 5 gp |
| Baked apple pie | Baker: 5 gp · Cook: 3 gp |
| Baked peach cobbler | Baker: 5 gp |
| Baked quiche | Baker: 6 gp |
| Cheese pizza | Baker: 4 gp |
| Dough | Baker: 4 gp |
| Muffins | Baker: 2 gp · Cook: 1 gp |
| Pan of cookies | Baker: 1 gp |
The Fisherman buys raw fish and raw fish steaks for 1 gp.
Cooking fish
- Cut the fish: double-click a knife and target the fish in your backpack. Each fish gives 4 Raw Fish Steaks.
- Go next to a fire (at most 2 tiles): a campfire, hearth or oven.
- Double-click the skillet → Barbecue → fish steak.
Catching fish → Gathering Skills. All crafting skills → Crafting Skills