There are so many things in the critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that can charm your gamer's heart. Breathtaking graphics. Riveting story. Moving music. Cool gameplay. And cooking.
Yes, cooking. Nintendo Switch's latest flagship title boasts a massive open world. Like in real life, in order to survive in the wild, you need to eat. And that's where cooking comes in.
Cooking in the Breath of the Wild is surprisingly fun and easy. Yet the game doesn't have any in-game tutorials to help you. The good thing is we've got you covered. So prep those gears and let's get cooking!
Why Cook?
First, because cooking is fun! Second, In Breath of the Wild, there are no more Hearts scattered around to pick up when you need one. Instead, you need to eat or use items to restore your Hearts. Sure, you can always eat your apple anytime you need Hearts. However, cooking will double the Heart restoration effect of that ingredient.
For example, a raw apple gives you half a Heart. A cooked apple will give you one full Heart. Two cooked apples will fill 2 Hearts.
Side note: Roasted Foods multiplies the Heart by 1.5, so a Roasted Apple will restore .75 or 3/4 Hearts.
How To Cook
Cooking in Breath of the Wild is fairly easy. Just find a cooking pot, drop your ingredients, wait for a moment (watch the cooking animation), and et voila, cooked meal!
Cooking pots can be found in towns, stables, and camps. Just light a fire underneath it to start cooking. (To start a fire, use a torch on an open flame, or hit a flint and wood with your sword.) There is one pot by the Old Man's house on the Great Plateau.
Side note: you can use an open flame to cook food, but only for Roasted Foods.
Open your inventory, select the ingredients you want to cook and select "Hold" (up to five ingredients). Exit the inventory menu, approach the pot, and choose "Cook" to start cooking.
What You Can Cook
Generally, there are three types of foods you can cook:
- Health Dishes - Basic foods that fill your Hearts.
- Elixirs - Potions that give you Status Effects.
- Status Dishes - Fill your Hearts and give you Status Effects
Ingredients
Sadly, there are no supermarkets in Hyrule; all Ingredients are scattered around the world. So you need to forage and hunt to acquire them.
Generally, there are three types of ingredients:
- Food - plants like fruits, mushrooms, etc
- Animals - birds, insects etc
- Monster parts - Bokoblin horns, tails, etc.
Plant and Animal foods can be eaten Raw, whereas monster parts can't be eaten on their own. If you check the ingredient's description, you will immediately learn how many hearts it restores and bonus status effects, if there are any.
To cook, just experiment in combining these ingredients to get a surprise dish.
Side note: Food and monster ingredients don't mix. You don't "fail" in cooking if you combine the wrong ingredients. Instead, you will get a Dubious Food. It will still fill hearts, but you wasted the ingredients.
Status Effects
Speaking of Status Effects, cooked foods have name prefixes that indicate what kind of status effects or buffs it gives. For example, a Spicy Elixir gives you cold resistance.
Here are the 11 main status effects:
- Chilly - Resistance to Heat
- Spicy - Resistance to Cold
- Electro - Resistance to Shock
- Hearty - Restores full health
- Energizing - Restores stamina
- Enduring - Extra stamina
- Fireproof - Flame Guard
- Hasty - Boosts movement speed
- Mighty - Boosts Attack
- Tough - Boosts Defense
- Sneaky - Boosts Stealth
Side note: Only one Bonus Effect per dish at a time. So it means there can't be a Spicy + Chilly Meat. Adding two ingredients with different effects will cancel the effect, making it a Heart dish.
However, the same status effects can stack, so two Spicy Chillies will boost the cold resistance.
When cooking you may hear a sound. When this happens you will receive a random extra bonus.
These are:
- Extra yellow heart
- Three extra hearts
- Buff increase by a further 5 minutes
- Buff increased by +1
- Stamina increases
You can guarantee these bonuses by cooking at a certain time or using particular items. Cooking during a Blood Moon, or using a Star Fragment or Dragon Body Part will give you random bonuses.
Health Dishes Recipes
Health Dishes restore your Hearts when eaten. You can freely combine ingredients to get something, well, healthy. As mentioned, cooking doubles the hearts restored per ingredient.
Cooking individual ingredients will give you staple dishes. These are:
- Simmered Fruit - any fruit
- Sauteed Nuts - any nut
- Fried Wild Greens - any vegetable or plant
- Mushroom Skewer - any mushroom
- Meat Skewer - any meat
- Fish Skewer - any fish
- Seafood Skewer - any crab or snail
- Warm Milk - Fresh Milk
- Omelet - Bird Egg
- Honey Candy - Courser Bee Honey
Elixir Recipes
As mentioned, elixirs are special potions that give you status effects and buffs.
Here are elixir recipes with their effects (and ingredients):
Spicy Elixir: Cold resistance (Sizzlewing Butterfly, Bokoblin Fang)
Spicy Elixir: Cold resistance (Warm Darner, Monster Parts)
Energizing Elixir: Full Stamina (Bokoblin Horn, Restless Cricket)
Hasty Elixir: Increases movement speed (Highland Lizard, Monster Parts)
Hasty Elixir: Increases movement speed for 2m 10s (Hightail Lizard, Bokoblin Horn)
Hasty Elixir: Increases movement speed for 4m 10s (Hot-footed Frog, Monster Parts)
Sneaky Elixir: Increases stealth (Keese Eyeball, Sunset Firefly)
Sneaky Elixir: Increases stealth for 5m 50s (Sneaky River Snail, Sunset Firefly, Octorock Eyeball)
Electro Elixir: Electric resistance for 5m 40s (Thunderwing Butterfly, Yellow Lizalfos tail)
Electro Elixir: Electric resistance for 8m 10s (Thunderwing Butterfly, Electric Darner, Yellow Lizalfos tail)
Chilly Elixir: Heat resistance for 5m 40s (Cold Darner, Red Lizalfos tail)
Mighty Elixir: Attack boost for 2m (Bladed Rhino Beetle, Moblin Horn)
Fairy Tonic: Rewards with five heart icons (Fairy, Bokoblin Horn (x2), Bokoblin Fang (x2)
Best Recipes In The Game
Like in real life, there are foods that are really good. Here are Zelda's best in-game recipes:
(For restoring Hearts)
Fish and Mushroom Skewer - Restores 7 Hearts
Ingredients: Fleet-Lotus Seeds, Zapshroom, Staminoka Bass
Glazed Meat - Restores 10 Hearts
Ingredients: Hearty Truffle, Raw Meat, Courser Bee Honey
(For cold resistance)
Spicy Pepper Seafood - Restores 3 hearts and gives cold resistance for 3m
Ingredients: Hyrule Bass, Spicy Pepper
Spicy Meaty Rice Balls - Restores 6 hearts and gives cold resistance for 6m 40s
Ingredients: Raw Meat, Hylian Rice, Fresh Milk, Goat Butter, Spicy Pepper
(For heat resistance)
Chilly Steamed Fish - Gives heat resistance for 3m 30s
Ingredients: Hylian Shroom, Cool Safflina, Hyrule Bass
(For boosting attack power)
Mighty Crab Risotto - Restores 4 hearts, gives attack boost for 4m 10s
Ingredients: Hylian Rice, Goat Butter, Rock Salt, Razorclaw Crab
Mighty Steamed Fish - Restores 6 hearts and gives attack boost for 2m 50s
Ingredients: Bird Egg, Hyrule Herb, Razorclaw Crab
(For defense boost)
Tough Fish and Mushroom Skewer - Restores 3 hearts, gives defense boost for 1m 20s
Ingredients: Hylian Shroom, Armored Carp.
Tough Milk - Restores 2 hearts, gives defence boost for 3m 30s
Ingredients: Fortified Pumpkin, Milk
(For speed boost)
Hasty Fish and Mushroom Skewer - Restores 3 hearts and gives speed boost for 2m
Ingredients: Fleet-Lotus Seeds, Hylian Shroom, Hyrule Bass.
Hasty Friend Wild Greens - Restores 1 heart, gives speed boost for 2m 10s
Ingredients: Swift Carrot.
(For restoring stamina)
Energizing Fish Skewer - Restores 2 hearts, refills stamina to max
Ingredients: Staminoka Bass
Energizing Meaty Rice Balls - Restores eight hearts and restores all stamina
Ingredients: Raw Meat, Hylian Rice, Courser Bee Honey
(For increasing stealth)
Sneaky Fried Wild Greens - Gives stealth boost for 2m
Ingredients: Blue Nightshade
Sneaky Steamed Fish - Restores 8 hearts and gives stealth boost for 10m
Ingredients: Silent Shroom (x2), Silent Princess, Sneaky River Snail (x2)
