Cooking
Cooking is a game mechanic in Sea of Thieves that can enhance, or ruin, the value and health benefits of foods.
Cooking stages
Meat and fish go through several stages of doneness, while other foods will usually only progress from raw directly to burnt. Merfruit becomes Enchanted Merfruit when perfectly cooked.
- Raw
- The food is in its original state.
- Under-cooked
- The food becomes pink in color, with white smoke while cooking.
- Eating will induce vomiting.
- Cooked
- Characterized by a golden, toasted color (and white eyes on fish), with grey smoke while cooking.
- Eating cooked meats will heal and store additional health in a reserve that can be used to regenerate health outside of combat.
- Burnt
- Characterized by blackened food texture, with dark smoke while cooking.
- Eating will grant a small amount of healing.
- Burnt bait cannot be used to catch fish.
- Burnt meat will not contribute towards commendation progress within the The Hunter's Call.
Cooking times
| Cooking times (in seconds) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Food | Under-cooked | Cooked | Burnt |
| Bait | - | - | 10s |
| Fruit | - | - | 10s |
| Merfruit | - | 20s | 60s |
| Fish | 30s | 40s | 80s |
| Trophy Fish | 80s | 90s | 180s |
| Animal meat | 50s | 60s | 120s |
| Monster meat (Kraken & Megalodon) |
100s | 120s | 240s |
Health benefits
In addition to health restored, perfectly cooked meat will grant an additional amount of health in a reverse pool that will be used to automatically regenerate the player's health beginning ten seconds after the last time the player has taken any damage.
Note: Eating under-cooked and raw meat will make the player's pirate character sick, causing blurry vision and vomiting.
| Type | Name | Bites | Health restored | Regen added (Max capacity = 200) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooked Animal meat |
Chicken | 2 | +50 | +50 |
| Pork | ||||
| Snake | ||||
| Shark | ||||
| Cooked Fish |
Regular | 2 | +35 | +35 |
| Trophy Fish | 2 | +75 | +75 | |
| Cooked Monster meat |
Megalodon | 2 | +100 | +100 |
| Kraken | ||||
Where to Cook
The most common methods of cooking are stoves and campfires. Other methods that can cause a fire, like an explosion, will kill animals and leave their meat on the ground at a random cooked quality.
Stoves
Stoves are ready to use at any time and can be found at locations such as ships, Sea Forts and The Captain's Head at Port Merrick. Food Barrels are often found nearby for easy access to storage and supplies. When food is left to burn for upwards of five minutes, the stove will catch fire, which can spread on ships. If the fire is doused but the burnt food is left on the stove, the fire will begin to spread again shortly after.
| Stove locations | ||
|---|---|---|
| Location | Details | Stove count |
| Sloop | Bottom deck | 2 |
| Brigantine | Bottom deck | 2 |
| Galleon | Middle deck | 2 |
| The Captain's Head | Upper level | 3 |
| Sea Forts | Kitchen | 4 |
Campfires
Campfires are found on most islands and Outposts, for easy access to cooking while out adventuring. Unlike stoves, campfires must be built and lit before they can be used. To build a campfire, add Wooden Planks as tinder, and then add a flame from a lantern, source of fire or with a hot from a weapon. Wood will slowly burn and deplete requiring it to be replaced after a while. Campfires are doused by water, and therefore will not function in storms.
Be aware that a lit campfire will emit a pillar of black smoke reaching high in the air, which can be seen from afar.
Players walking over a lit campfire will catch fire.
Tips
- Although food will appear to slowly transition from one stage of cooking to the next, the food is instantly at the next stage once the animation for the change of texture begins. Being able to identify this change can allow for more efficient cooking.
- When cooking listen for the audio cue of a sputtering sound, this will also tell you when the food is properly cooked.