Cooking in Breath of the Wild is a fundamental activity to recover hearts. Although there are other methods of regaining HP, such as sleeping and eating raw food, cooking is by far the easiest and fastest method. So, sit back, and continue reading to find out how to cook in Breath of the Wild!
How to Cook in Breath of the Wild
To cook in Breath of the Wild, hold ingredients and then tap the A button next to a cooking pot. This will make Link throw the ingredients into the cooking pot. After a few seconds, the ingredients will combine and form a dish! Cooking pots can be found all around Hyrule, predominantly in the larger settlements and towns. However, it isn’t uncommon to find Bokoblin camps (or other mobs) with cooking pots.
Cooking pots need to be lit first before you can cook on them. You may have noticed the bundle of wood underneath them. To light this – if it isn’t already lit – shoot it with a fire arrow. Additionally, you can light it using a wooden tool that is on fire. When approaching a fire source holding a wooden weapon, holding it near the fire will cause it to go up in flames. This also works for regular arrows, note.
There are also certain items in the game, such as the flame greatsword, that can be used. This sword breathes a ray of fire in the direction that it is struck in. You can use these sorts of items to light bundles of wood alternatively.
Cooking in a cooking pot can accommodate up to five held ingredients. You can, of course use less if you desire. All the ingredients that you are holding will be combined into a single dish.
Cooking on Campfires
Moreover, you can cook food using campfires. Holding an ingredient and dropping it near the flames will cause it to cook after a few seconds. However, this method does not combine ingredients and only cooks individual items. Therefore, this is a much more primitive cooking experience. You can still cook some useful things in a pinch, however, such as seared prime steak.
Additionally, you can also cook single ingredients by dropping them on the floor in and around Death Mountain. Death Mountain is so hot that any flammable item combusts after a few seconds of being exposed to the atmosphere. This includes food items, that after just a few seconds on the ground fully cook. Just like cooking on campfires, however, this does not combine ingredients into dishes.
Best Dishes in Breath of the Wild
You should try to experiment with combining different ingredients to make a variety of dishes. However, combining ingredients that do not suit each other will result in dubious food. Dubious food is the name given to a dish that is too gross to be called anything else. This dish only provides a single heart, so it isn’t a good use of ingredients.
However, combining certain ingredients can provide you with dishes that provide lots of hearts. Some ingredients can even be combined to provide extra bonuses, such as heat resistance and attack power. I won’t get into those in this article, as it is a long topic on its own. The table below shows some useful food recipes that provide good amounts of hearts:
| Dish Name | Recipe | Hearts Restored |
|---|---|---|
| Copious Meat Skewers | Four different raw types of meat | 13 to 24* |
| Copious Mushroom Skewers | Four different mushrooms | 4 to 19 |
| Meat and Mushroom Skewer | Any meat and any mushroom | 3 to 16 |
| Gourmet Poultry Pilaf | Raw Whole Bird + Bird Egg + Goat Butter + Hylian Rice | 10 to 16 |
| Meaty Rice Balls | Any raw meat + Hylian Rice | 4 to 26 |
| Crab Omelet with Rice | Any crab + Bird Egg + Rock Salt + Hylian Rice | 6 to 14 |
There are literally countless amounts of recipes you can make using the range of ingredient combinations. Ultimately, you should just have fun and try ingredients that you think work well. After a while, you will become accustomed to what needs to be cooked together to make better recipes.
Stat Bonuses
As briefly mentioned, certain ingredients provide bonuses. When combining ingredients with multiple stat benefits, the result will not contain any bonus. Bonuses only occur in the final cooked dish if there is one featured in the recipe. For instance, a recipe containing heat-resistant ingredients and stamina-restoring ingredients will result in food that provides neither.
The stat bonuses that can be obtained via cooking certain ingredients are:
- Hearty: bonus temporary hearts and recovery of all hearts.
- Energizing: restores stamina.
- Enduring: provides bonus stamina.
- Fireproof: provides fire resistance.
- Chilly: provides heat resistance.
- Spicy: provides cold resistance.
- Electro: provides electricity resistance.
- Hasty: provides speed bonuses.
- Hasty: provides sneak bonuses.
- Mighty: provides attack power bonuses.
- Tough: provides increased defenses.
Besides hearty and energizing, the other stat bonuses can be imbued in a dish on three different levels. Obviously, the higher the level, the more potent the stat bonus.
Additionally, stat bonuses offered by food include periods that the effect will remain active. After this period, Link will lose the bonus. Certain dishes provide longer active stat bonuses than others.
That brings us to the end of the how to cook in Breath of the Wild guide! If you have enjoyed reading this article, consider checking out my others here!
