The Cook's Hand

S2 · Sharkfin Soup gets a real shark fin

Sharkfin Soup is the only meal that gives Strength +10, and nobody can make it. Its recipe asks for two Shark Fins, and the Shark Fin in the data wears the name and the picture of a Corpion Tail, comes from nowhere in the world, and is a different item from the Corpion Tails players carry. So the recipe card shows an ingredient cooks think they have, and the table refuses it. The next best Strength dishes give +9. The fin gets a name and a picture of its own, every shark gives one up when it is butchered, and the recipe scroll joins the wild cookbook beside Seared Shark Steak, so the soup can be bought as well as discovered. The fishing page suggested that the soup take shark fillet instead (fishing S22). This card replaces that suggestion, because the recipe keeps the ingredient it already names and only the fin's source is new.

Seen in: New World, where recipes for legendary fish became some of the strongest food in the game and a reason to fish; Dave the Diver, where the catch goes straight to the sushi bar. Asked by Lord Tachys al`Fahn.

S3 · Sausage and Eggs stops eating your Bacon

The sausage chain that arrived on 3 October ends in a breakfast plate that cannot be eaten. Sausage and Eggs was given Bacon's effect by mistake, so double-clicking the plate is refused unless you carry Bacon. When you do, the game eats a Bacon, gives you Bacon's carry-capacity bonus and leaves the plate in your pack. The plate gets a breakfast effect of its own and uses itself up like every other dish. A check in the build then walks every food and potion in the game and fails if any of them uses up something other than itself, so this mix-up cannot ship again. The check found one potion with the same slip; it is fixed on the alchemy side in the same change.

Seen in: the bait check of fishing S2, which fails the build when a bait carries the wrong effect.

S4 · Every bite lands, every slot is fair

Since August a full plate makes room by dropping the meal closest to running out. A report says a Baked Pacu can still vanish at a full plate without its effect ever landing, and that gets found and fixed: eating at a full plate must always apply the new dish and use up exactly one serving. A few foods also charge far more than they give. The original Ankh Cupcake takes three slots while the yearly Ankh Cupcakes, which do as much or more, take one. A Raisin Pile takes three slots for a two-minute nibble; nothing in the world gives one yet (S9), so until then the fix helps the piles players already hold. A Chunk of Cooked Meat takes three slots for twenty minutes of a little health regeneration. At a full plate, any of the three can push out three one-slot meals. All three drop to one slot. And Dupre's Duck Stew stops giving its Focus an hour before the rest of the stew ends; the Focus lasts the stew's full two hours.

Seen in: Valheim, where every food shows the slot it takes and its timer.

S5 · Say what a critical cook really does

A cook at Cooking 125 sees "43% critical success chance" at the station, and when it lands, the result line says "You crafted an exceptional item". The dish is identical to the plain one; the only reward is five times the experience, and from Cooking 149 half of all cooks end that way. Until Hearty dishes exist (S22), the game says what happens. The station line becomes a bonus experience chance, and the result line says the cook earned bonus experience. The Cooking skill text stops promising exceptional dishes. The Alchemy skill text stops claiming that brewing uses Alchemy: brewing is part of Cooking, its recipes carry the Cooking flag, and casks are filled at a cooking station. And the station stops quoting a critical chance for a cask fill, which never rolls one. DalTXColtsFan asked in 2021, "Are there any benefits to the Cooking skill other than making food buffs?", and Sorgin Txakal answered in the same thread that "the only benefit in raising cooking skill is increasing the chance for an exceptional crafting". The game should say plainly what that chance pays.

 TODAY                                WITH THIS CARD
 Pumpkin Soup                         Pumpkin Soup
 100% success chance                  100% success chance
 43% critical success chance          43% bonus experience chance

 You crafted an exceptional item      Critical success: Pumpkin Soup,
 (Pumpkin Soup). +750 producer        with bonus experience. +750
 experience.                          producer experience.

 Wine Cask (Perennial Red Wine)       Wine Cask (Perennial Red Wine)
 100% success chance                  100% success chance
 43% critical success chance          (no chance line: a cask fill
                                      never rolls one)

Seen in: Lord of the Rings Online, where a critical success makes a Superior dish; Ultima Online's 2016 cooking orders, which asked only for plain food, so skill went unrewarded. Asked by Sorgin Txakal, DalTXColtsFan.

S6 · Recipe scrolls where cooks can buy them

The Expert cookbook is sold in one city. Every pet food, Dragon Stew, the phoenix and unicorn dishes and the lava-fish recipes can be bought only in Aerie, though pets have lived on pet food since August and Dragon Kibbles is the most used food in the game, with 1,290 uses in September. Six cooking shops were stocked and never placed, two of them Expert shops meant for Brittany Fields and Resolute. The Expert cookbook leaves Aerie by one of two routes: those two shops open, or the cookbook joins the cooking shop that already stands in Brittany, Xenos, Port Harmony, the player villages and the metropolises, which needs no change to any scene. Two Obsidian Boar recipes, the ribs and Boar Surprise, have no scroll while every sibling has one, and they get theirs. Scroll prices run backwards at the top, 800 gold at level 70, 200 to 400 at level 80 and 300 for the level-100 stew, and the ladder gets an audit. And the most you can buy of a meat or a bread from a merchant at once rises above 1,000, as Traveller13 asked.

Seen in: Ultima Online's Mondain's Legacy, whose recipe scrolls came from craftsman quests and later from treasure chests; ESO, whose recipes turn up in cupboards and chests and are sold by chefs and brewers. Asked by Traveller13.

S7 · A capstone worth the climb

Sweet Cunning Cat Stew is the only level-100 recipe, and it is a dead end. The recipe drops from one elf in a hundred in Verta's Pass and cannot be taught. The stew pays 300 experience where its level pays 5,000, needs eight Vanilla Beans that only farmers' stalls sell, and is as strong as Fried Tigerfish, a level-30 dish. It becomes a true capstone: it pays the experience its level promises, can be taught, is sold in the Expert cookbook as well as dropped, and lasts eight hours like Dragon Stew. On this page higher recipes buy time on the plate, and the one recipe at the top should buy as much as any.

Seen in: World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria, where each Way of cooking ended in a capstone recipe; Old School RuneScape's Recipe for Disaster, a ten-part quest built on cooking each council member's favourite dish.

S8 · A first lesson at the stove

Only 5.8 percent of characters have trained Cooking past level 10, and the first step explains part of it. Every character knows Bark Bread from the start, but the loaf needs Flour and Butter, which no merchant sells and which a new cook has no reason to know how to make. The novice cooking shop sells a guide, and it is the Helpful Guide to Agriculture. A Helpful Guide to Cooking takes its place, in every language: the stations and their bonus, the six food slots, discovery at the table, the chain from grain to flour to dough, brewing, and pet food. Louis, the cook at the Hearth of New Britannia in Kingsport, sells the guide along with the Flour and Butter a first loaf needs. That is a narrow case: a starter's stock for the one recipe every character already knows. The world map marks the public kitchens, 121 cooking stations in 70 scenes. New loading tips cover cooking. And the tutorial's food lesson, unreachable for years, comes back once the quest owner signs off. Single-player mode has no player vendors, so there Louis's stock is the easiest way to start. JDavidC wrote in 2022 that new cooks find it hard to start, Apollo31 in 2020 that the base components are tedious, and Vladamir Begemot and Spoon counted about 35 steps to a gingerbread house in 2018.

 Every cooking station can make a meal.
 Lay your ingredients on the table and
 it names the closest recipe you know.
 You start out knowing Bark Bread. Louis,
 the cook at the Hearth of New Britannia
 in Kingsport, sells the Flour and Butter
 it needs. Later you can make your own:
 five sacks of wheat grain make flour,
 and a bottle of milk makes butter.

 You can eat dishes that fill up to six
 food slots. A snack uses one slot and
 the biggest meals three. When your slots
 are full, the dish with the least time
 left makes room.

Seen in: Old School RuneScape, where each food has a level at which you stop burning it; Guild Wars 2's discovery, where a first try at a new recipe never fails. The warning is Ultima Online's 1997 bread chain, which players mocked as a chore. Asked by JDavidC, Vladamir Begemot and Spoon, Apollo31, majoria70, joshybones.

S9 · Your own bread counts, and the pantry's missing shelf

Four sandwiches ask for "any bread" and accept only the seven loaves sold at bakery stalls, so a loaf you bake yourself does not count. Player loaves join the slot, with Bark Bread, Banana Bread, Garlic Cheese Bread and Cracklin Cornbread as the first candidates. The pantry also has a missing shelf. Gingerbread contains no ginger, while Ginger Root sits in the data with no source and no use. A Raisin Pile, a Jug of Apple Juice and a Jug of Grape Juice have no source and no use either; a Jug of Whiskey comes from one daily quest and goes into nothing, and a Bottle of Wine goes into nothing. Each gets what it lacks. Ginger Root goes into Gingerbread, raisins come from grapes, and juices come from fruit and an empty ceramic jug and feed the press of S36. The Bottle of Wine counts as wine in the recipes that ask for wine. The alchemy page already plans uses for Ginger Root, the Raisin Pile, grape juice and the whiskey jug (alchemy S23, S25 and S27), and this card gives those recipes ingredients players can find. Vanilla Bean, which five recipes need, is sold at a few farmers' stalls and nowhere else; it can be grown or gathered too, as Jefe asked in 2021. Sorgin Txakal, Anpu and Cora Cuz'avich named the ingredients the kitchen barely used in 2020; most of those have recipes now, and these are the ones left.

Seen in: Ultima Online's chain from wheat to flour to dough to bread. Asked by Jefe, Sorgin Txakal, Anpu, Cora Cuz'avich.

S10 · Twins and misfits: the recipe ladder audit

kaeshiva wrote in 2019 that "only five or six foods are commonly made", and in September even the most widely cooked dish had only a handful of cooks. Part of the reason is in the recipe book itself: some dishes copy each other, and some sit at the wrong level for what they do. Nine of the strongest meals, from Seared Marlin Steak to Scorched Mosasaurus, are Cooking 1 recipes, and the rare fish is the only gate; Seared Shark Steak gives Strength +9 at Cooking 1, the same as Troll Spare Ribs at Cooking 70. This card is an audit. Every twin and misfit is listed with a fix, and each twin gets a job of its own, drawn from the families no food covers today, such as the workshop meals of S34. For the nine big-fish meals the default is to keep them at Cooking 1, because the catch is already the gate and moving them up would take them from the anglers who cook them today. The owner may overrule that in S50.

Seen in: Stardew Valley, where about 15 of 80 dishes matter, the same pattern as here; New World, which pruned its split foods; Albion Online, where each kind of dish has its own line of mastery. Asked by kaeshiva, Time Lord, Alleine Dragonfyre, Sawtooth, Kain Darkmoor.

S11 · Small print: names, labels and pet-food rules

A tidy-up of small things players trip over. Carmelized Onion Quiche becomes Caramelized, and Pet Food, Rabbit Pate' becomes Rabbit Pâté. The PvP trophy slot in recipes names the hand, the jawbone and the skull and leaves out the flesh it also takes; it names all four. Two of the six pet foods, Bear Bites and Dragon Kibbles, cannot be fed on the overworld while the other four can; all six follow one rule and can be fed there, and brews keep their own rule. Pet food says "Double-click to feed your pet" where today it says "Double-click to consume". Venison Jerky's threat bonus sits far above the range every other source of threat uses; it moves into that range, which lowers it, and tamers who rely on it should know that before it ships. The Clone Jar of Yeast Culture recipe counts how many batches you can make by the yeast you hold, though each batch gives yeast back; it counts by the flour and jars on hand instead, as Vaentorian asked. Two coffee drinks exist as finished effects with no cup to drink them from; they get a cup and a recipe, or they are retired.

Seen in: World of Warcraft, where feeding a pet was an action of its own, Feed Pet. Asked by Vaentorian (the yeast count).

S12 · Six slots you can count

The plate holds six food slots, and nothing in the game says six. The item tooltip says how many slots a dish uses and never "of 6". A full plate makes room with no message at all, though 34 percent of sittings fill all six slots and a single three-slot dish can end two or three meals at once. Alchemy S11 already proposes the guard: a preview of what eating will end, and a question before you eat a dish that is already running and start its clock over. This card gives that guard the food rules it needs, the order in which meals make room and the way one big dish can end several small ones, and adds what the guard leaves out. Every food tooltip counts its share of six. A chat line names the meals that ended to make room. Brews, and the drink from a still out in the world, can be waved off like any meal; today they cannot, though they sit in the same six slots. Buff tooltips say that meals keep counting down while you are logged out, and logging in tells you what ended while you were away. An optional reminder says when a meal has five minutes left, as Time Lord asked, beside the spoken warning Options already offers for expiring buffs. And add-ons can read the plate: what each effect takes and how many slots are free.

 Fried Tigerfish
 Consumable - Non-Combat
 Food slots: uses 3 of 6. Your plate is full.
 Eating this now ends Baked Salmon (18 min left)            preview: alchemy S11
 and Dupre's Duck Stew (1 h 5 min left).

 Chat: Baked Salmon and Dupre's Duck Stew ended to make room for
 Fried Tigerfish.
 Asking first (alchemy S11): You are already eating Pumpkin Soup
 (1 h 12 min left). Eat another and start its timer over?     [Eat]  [Keep]
 Buff tooltip: Keeps counting down while you are logged out.
 On login: While you were away, Dragon Stew ended. Pumpkin Soup has
 22 minutes left.
 Reminder, if you turn it on: Your Pumpkin Soup ends in 5 minutes.

Seen in: Valheim, where each food's slot and timer stay on screen; Lord of the Rings Online, with a slot for each kind of food; Guild Wars 2, whose Malnourished reminder appears when a meal runs out. Asked by vulcanjedi, Barugon, Ysold, Time Lord.

S13 · Every meal looks like itself

Of the 225 food and drink effects, 223 share one meat icon, and by default every meal with more than 15 minutes left folds into the hourglass, so the buff bar shows no food at all. Meals get one Food group of their own on the bar, kept out of the hourglass, showing how full the plate is and each dish in its own picture: the generated food icons the bags already use, each with its time left. This is the page's one plate display. It takes the place of the food row in alchemy S10's strip, and since brews share the six food slots, they sit in the same group and need no row of their own. Eating changes too. Every dish today shows the same stew bowl and the red flash of a health potion, and as far as the data shows, eating makes no sound. A dish will show a bowl, a plate, a cup or a loaf, with steam or crumbs in place of the potion flash, and eating and drinking get the sounds the game already has on file. vulcanjedi asked in 2021 to see the food slots on the buff icon.

 TODAY, BY DEFAULT
   [hourglass]      every meal with more than 15 minutes left
                    folds in here

 PROPOSED
   [Food 6/6 v]  [salmon]  [duck stew]  [soup]       [hourglass]
                  18m       1h 5m       1h 12m
   Eating: steam rises from the bowl, bread crunches,
   a cup is raised.

Seen in: Valheim, where each meal shows as its own picture with its timer; Monster Hunter's canteen, where the meal is a scene of its own; Final Fantasy XV, whose camp meals are cooked and eaten on screen. Asked by vulcanjedi.

S14 · Sit down and eat a set

Every dish takes three seconds of standing still to eat, so a plate of one-slot dishes means six clicks and 18 seconds. Eaters take 1.85 dishes at a sitting and eat a median of two different dishes in 30 days, so many eaters come back to the same meal each time. Save your usual meal as a set of up to six dishes, and one click eats them in order. The set skips any dish already on your plate with more than half its time left, and it stops if you move. A Top up button eats a fresh serving of each dish on your plate with less than ten minutes left, if you carry one, which answers Time Lord's ask for a way to keep a meal going without watching the clock. Small bites eat faster: a one-slot dish takes a second and a half, half the time of a stew, as Black Tortoise asked in 2017. And seated at a table, you eat with the seated eating animation.

 Hunting Supper   Dragon Stew, Dupre's Duck Stew,     [Eat]
                  Baked Salmon
 Long Day         Pumpkin Soup, Fried Tigerfish       [Eat]
 [Save what I am eating now]                       [Top up]
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 Dragon Stew skipped: 7 h 40 min left.
 Eating Dupre's Duck Stew, 1 of 2. Stand still.
 Top up: Baked Salmon had 6 minutes left. You ate another.

Seen in: Monster Hunter's canteen, where one meal is chosen and eaten in a single sitting; Final Fantasy XIV, where eating the same dish again tops its timer up; Valheim, where a food can be eaten again only once half its time has run. Asked by Black Tortoise, Time Lord.

S15 · A Food tab and no accidental nibbles

Food sits in the Consumable tab with potions, scrolls, bait and fireworks; the bag gains a Food filter of its own. Twenty-one raw ingredients, from apples to peppers, appear in both the Crafting and the Consumable tabs, and a double-click eats one as a two-minute nibble; at a full plate, that nibble ends the meal with the least time left. With the plate full, a raw ingredient asks before it ends a meal, and a row in Options turns double-click eating of raw ingredients off altogether. Jakkal asked in 2021 for raw crops to stop being eaten by accident, and crops have sorted into the Crafting tab since September; this takes care of the rest.

Seen in: Elder Scrolls Online, whose consumables tab splits food and drink from potions. Asked by Jakkal.

S16 · A cookbook that helps you choose and discover

Of the 157 cooking recipes, 140 can be discovered at the stove, but discovery is guesswork: the closest-recipe hint names only dishes you already know, and the recipe book shows nothing you have not learned. Crafting S14 adds a quiet count of the unknown recipes your ingredients appear in. This card builds on it in three ways. Your recipes can be filtered by what the dish does, such as Strength, Focus regeneration, Fire attunement or pet food, as Malek Zandor asked in 2021. Each family of dishes shows how many you have found, Soups and stews 14 of 19. And when the table is one ingredient short of a dish you have not discovered, the count line names the kind of ingredient missing, a vegetable or a fish or a spice, and nothing finer; the recipe itself is never named, and rare dishes stay out of the hint as crafting S14 rules. The book also shows the experience each recipe pays and counts the materials you carry in containers. Bob_Star asked for discovery in 2013, Elrond and Time Lord asked for more to find at the stove, and Sorgin Txakal for new recipes released quietly for cooks to work out.

 Show meals that raise [Strength v]
   Sharkfin Soup         Strength +10    3 slots, 4 h    Cooking 1
   Troll Spare Ribs      Strength +9     3 slots, 8 h    Cooking 70
   Seared Shark Steak    Strength +9     3 slots, 4 h    Cooking 1
 Sharkfin Soup: 1,000 experience the first time, settling to 50.
 You carry 0 of 2 Shark Fin.

 Found so far: Soups and stews 14 of 19, Seafood 22 of 35, Pies 6 of 10
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 At the table: Close to a dish you have not discovered. Try a vegetable.

Seen in: Guild Wars 2's discovery panel, which counts the unknown recipes your ingredients could make; Tears of the Kingdom's recipe book, which remembers every dish you have cooked; Don't Starve's crock pot, which always gives a fallback dish; Venba, whose smudged cookbook lines are worked out by cooking. Asked by Malek Zandor, Bob_Star, Elrond, Time Lord, Sorgin Txakal.

S17 · The cellar ledger

A 25 Year Whiskey needs 350 days of placed time. Pick the cask up and its clock stops, and only the cask's own tooltip says so. The cellar ledger lists every cask in your pack and in the place you stand: what it holds, who brewed it, when it will be ready, and which casks are paused. Placing casks gets easier too: a cask snaps into a row beside the casks already placed, the way planting beds line up. Placing a row of casks straight from a chest comes later. Alleine Dragonfyre wrote in 2020 of a cellar "gathering dust", and Cora Cuz'avich found the 25-year whiskey "underwhelming for how long it takes". What the wait pays is S36 and the owner's question in S55; this card makes the wait visible.

 Cask                 Where          Brewed by      Ready
 25 Year Whiskey      placed here    <your name>    in 212 days
 Perennial Red Wine   in your pack   <your name>    paused: place it to keep aging
 Brittany Ale         placed here    <a friend>     in 1 day 4 hours

Seen in: Wurm Online, where wine improves with age; Ultima Online's 2016 Fermentation Barrel, where you name your vintage. Asked by Alleine Dragonfyre, Cora Cuz'avich.

S18 · Drink without the spin

Every drink of 25 Year Whiskey adds ten points of intoxication, and the camera's wobble grows with it and has no ceiling. Elrond wrote in 2021, "i get dizzy watching my screen swirl", and nimueCW asked the same year for a way to turn the effect off. Options gains a Drunk camera effect row with Full, Gentle and Off, and the wobble gets a ceiling, so even Full stops growing past a point. What the drink does on the plate stays the same; only the camera changes.

Seen in: World of Warcraft's Motion Sickness setting, which can reduce camera motion; the accessibility practice, now common in games, of letting players turn screen motion down or off. Asked by nimueCW, Elrond.

S19 · The Cook's Book

Everything a cook and an eater track goes into one window. The Cook's Book has five tabs. Plate shows the six slots in the order they end, with your saved sets. Recipes is the cookbook of S16, Cellar is the ledger of S17, Journal holds the dishes you have cooked and tasted (S35), and Orders lists today's kitchen orders and tastings (S31, S44), with Lord Atos's calls and the realm's feasts when they run (S43, S45). Each tab lights up as its card ships, Plate and Recipes first. The counts of what you have cooked come with crafting S19's record. The window opens from its own key, from the station window, or from a food or cask tooltip, and it has an Ask the Oracle button. The full window, with every card landed, is in section 4.

 [Plate]   Recipes 131/157   Cellar 3   Journal   Orders
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 Food slots: 6 of 6. Listed in the order they end.
   Baked Salmon             1 slot         18 min left
   Dupre's Duck Stew        2 slots     1 h 5 min left
   Pumpkin Soup             3 slots    1 h 12 min left
 Meals keep counting down while you are logged out.

 Meal sets
   Hunting Supper   Dragon Stew, Dupre's Duck Stew, Baked Salmon  [Eat]
   [Save what I am eating now]                                 [Top up]
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 [Ask the Oracle]                        Opens with the Cook's Book key

Seen in: Valheim's row of meals beside the health bar; Guild Wars 2's discovery panel; the Angler's Log of fishing S16.

S20 · A Cooking tree with branches

Elnoth asked in 2019, "Cooking is still just 1 skill. Where is the rest of the tree?", and others have asked the same most years since. This card grows the one skill into nine, in the shape the other production trees already use, so it reads at a glance: Swift Cooking for speed; Chef's Touch for Hearty dishes, with four kitchens and Cooking Mastery beneath it; and Cellar Craft for the casks and the preserving rail. Two more hold their places out of sight. Second Helping waits for the owner's ruling on what cooking pays (S54), and Feast Host waits for feasts (S30): a skill goes live only when what it boosts exists. No recipe moves behind a new skill, so nobody loses a dish, and every character already at Cooking 40 can start on day one, training from the Producer experience they have banked, which lets veterans climb faster. Cooking's own decay floor rises to 40 for everyone, as it does in the other trees. Set the skills you want to grow to Learning and each dish's experience is shared among them; a kitchen trains only from its own dishes, and Cellar Craft only from brewing and the rail.

Three shapes were weighed before this one was chosen:

The production shape won, with the kitchens added as its lines and a cellar beside it. Players already know how to read it, it locks nothing away, the cook's hand shows in the dish without splitting stacks, adding food slots or changing how strong food is, brewing gets a skill of its own, and mastering the whole tree costs exactly what mastering Blacksmithing costs. Every skill, with the text it would carry in the skills window:

The numbers at a glance, by skill level:

Chef's Touch and the dish's kitchen add together, up to 40 percent, and Cooking Mastery's second roll comes on top. Chef's Touch 100 with Grill and Spit 80 gives 18 percent on a grilled dish; Cooking Mastery 60 lifts that to 20.2; every skill at 100 gives 24; and the most anyone can reach, every skill at 200, is 52. Every rate and cap is a live tunable the owner can change without a new build.

Seen in: World of Warcraft's six Ways of cooking in Mists of Pandaria, each with its own skill bar; Albion's few general nodes plus one per dish family; ESO's crafter-side Chef and Brewer passives; the Star Wars Galaxies chef; the Blacksmithing tree in Shroud of the Avatar itself. The warning: World of Warcraft's Dragonflight gave its crafts specialization trees and left cooking out. Asked by niteowl57, Elnoth, Takotora, Stealch, Leucian, majoria70, trovador, By Tor and merlinfire.

                                 [ Cooking ]
                                      |
              +-----------------------+-----------------------+
              |                       |                       |
      [ Swift Cooking ]       [ Chef's Touch ]        [ Cellar Craft ]
                                      |
          +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
          |             |             |             |             |
    [Grill and ]  [ Pot and  ]  [  Cooking ]  [ Oven and ]  [   Pet    ]
    [   Spit   ]  [  Kettle  ]  [  Mastery ]  [  Board   ]  [ Kitchen  ]

 Opens at Cooking 40:       Swift Cooking, Chef's Touch, Cellar Craft
 Opens at Chef's Touch 50:  the four kitchens
 Opens at Chef's Touch 100: Cooking Mastery

 Chef's Touch, level 100. Hearty chance 10%. Your kitchens add their own
 share on their dishes.
 Set the skills you want to grow to Learning. Each dish's experience is
 shared among them.

                                    [ Cooking ]
                                         |
        +--------------------------------+------------+-------------------+
        |                                             |                   |
[ Swift Cooking ]                             [ Chef's Touch ]    [ Cellar Craft ]
        :                                             |
        :                 +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
        :                 |             |             |             |             |
  (  Second  )      [Grill and ]  [ Pot and  ]  [  Cooking ]  [ Oven and ]  [   Pet    ]
  ( Helping  )      [   Spit   ]  [  Kettle  ]  [  Mastery ]  [  Board   ]  [ Kitchen  ]
                                                      :
                                                      :
                                                      :
                                                (  Feast   )
                                                (   Host   )

 Dotted tiles stay hidden until they go live: Second Helping opens at
 Swift Cooking 40, Feast Host at Cooking Mastery 50.

S21 · Swift Cooking

The first branch works faster at the stove. Swift Cooking opens at Cooking 40 and shortens the cooking bar as it rises, by 10 percent at level 100 and 20 percent at 200. The cooking bar already reads the speed stat it raises, and the skill's slot already sits unused in the game data. With every speed bonus combined, the bar never loses more than half its time, a limit that ships with this card. By Tor asked in 2026 for "Cooking Speed, Cooking Batch Number", Stealch in 2021 for batch and speed perks, and Leucian put a time skill on his 2021 cooking wish list; Sandra Sosaria found in 2025 that a batch of 50 took more than three minutes. A single batch already runs up to 100 crafts, so speed is the half of By Tor's ask still open.

Seen in: the Swift Refine Materials and Swift Gathering skills of Shroud of the Avatar's own refining and gathering trees; Black Desert's utensils, which cut a ten-second cook toward one second; Valheim's Cooking skill, which shortens the time at the station. Asked by By Tor, Stealch, Leucian and Sandra Sosaria.

S22 · Chef's Touch: Hearty dishes

Today a critical cook pays five times the experience for a dish identical to the plain one. With Chef's Touch, some dishes come out Hearty: the same meal at the same strength, made for the same adventurer level and using the same food slots, lasting half again as long, in a stack of its own that trades like any other dish. A Hearty Dragon Stew lasts 12 hours where the plain one lasts eight, and Hearty Dragon Kibbles keeps working on a pet for three hours where the plain one gives two. The chance comes from the tree alone: Chef's Touch plus the dish's kitchen (S23), with Cooking Mastery's second roll on top (S24), from 10 percent at Chef's Touch 100 to 52 percent with every skill at 200. A Hearty dish takes its plain twin's place on your plate, so the two never stack. Today's critical stays as bonus experience (S5), and gear and stations that raise Cooking keep their value for success and bonus experience.

Hearty takes a roll of its own after a successful craft. From about level 150, half of all crafts already come out critical, so reusing that roll would hand everyone at Cooking 100 or more Hearty dishes by the stack on the first day, with nothing left to train. This is the meal half of alchemy S9's exceptional items, built on a different roll for that reason. The first batch covers about 21 dishes: the meals the most cooks make, such as Baked Salmon, Fish Stew, Grilled Wyvern Chops and Dragon Stew, plus the six pet foods. More follow as players ask. Sharkfin Soup, which nobody can cook until S2, waits for a later batch. Sorgin Txakal asked in 2021, "Are exceptional versions of recipes still in consideration?", and By Tor asked in 2019 for masterworked meals with fixed extra buffs, so they would still stack.

Seen in: Final Fantasy XI, where high-quality food lasts up to twice as long; LOTRO, where a critical makes a Superior dish; Black Desert, where a meal can come out as a special version, more often the further the cook stands above the recipe; Core Keeper's golden ingredients; Breath of the Wild's critical cooks. The warning: Final Fantasy XIV's high-quality food became the raid standard, which is why Hearty adds time and never strength. Asked by Sir Aular Glorthalion, By Tor, majoria70, Hazard, Sorgin Txakal, merlinfire, Punkbeach, Takotora, Elrond, Tazar and Leucian.

 Hearty Dragon Stew
 Consumable - Non-Combat
 (the same effects as Dragon Stew)
 Hearty: lasts half again as long as the
 plain dish.
 Lasts 12 hours.
 Food slots: uses 3 of 6
 Made for Adventurer Level 100

 Dragon Stew
 100% success chance
 16% Hearty chance
   Chef's Touch 10%, Pot and Kettle 6%
 43% bonus experience chance

 Your Dragon Stew came out Hearty.

S23 · Four kitchens

Under Chef's Touch sit four kitchens: Grill and Spit, Pot and Kettle, Oven and Board, and Pet Kitchen. Each opens at Chef's Touch 50, adds up to 20 percent to the Hearty chance of its own dishes at level 200, and trains only when you cook those dishes, the way the masterwork lines under Blacksmithing train from the item you work on. Every meal and pet food belongs to exactly one kitchen, and the lines are uneven: Grill and Spit holds about 55 recipes, Oven and Board about 35, Pot and Kettle about 23 and Pet Kitchen 6. You can learn all four. Shroud of the Avatar is classless, so nothing asks you to choose one, and no recipe sits behind any of them. Bowen Bloodgood asked in 2018 for cooking split into disciplines, Tazar and Bedawyn in 2019 for branches such as baking, brewing and preserving, Arach in 2021 for dishes cooked from raw to burnt, and that_shawn_guy and Coswald_Dirthmire for better pet food, which Pet Kitchen's Hearty pet food answers in part. One question for voters: should fish leave Grill and Spit for a fifth kitchen of its own?

Seen in: World of Warcraft's six Ways of cooking; Albion's nodes for each dish family; the masterwork lines of Shroud of the Avatar's Blacksmithing tree, each trained by the work it shapes. Asked by Bowen Bloodgood, Tazar, Bedawyn, Arach, that_shawn_guy and Coswald_Dirthmire.

S24 · Cooking Mastery

The capstone opens at Chef's Touch 100. When a dish comes out plain, a master sometimes gets a second roll at Hearty: a quarter of the time at level 100 and half the time at 200. With Chef's Touch and the dish's kitchen at 100, Mastery 100 lifts the Hearty chance from 20 to 24 percent; with every skill at 200, from 40 to 52. Like the masteries of Blacksmithing, Carpentry, Tailoring and Alchemy, it is an ordinary skill and takes no specialization slot, so a cook gives nothing up to reach it. Rada Torment, Girlsname and Strider99 asked for a cooking specialization, and Leucian put a mastery on his 2021 cooking wish list; Cooking Mastery is the closest a classless tree comes. The master recipes sit in S28, gated on Cooking itself, so Mastery locks nothing away.

Seen in: the crafting masteries of Shroud of the Avatar's other production trees; the capstones of World of Warcraft's Ways; Tales of Arise, where the character who cooks changes the dish. Asked by Leucian, Rada Torment, Girlsname and Strider99.

S25 · Cellar Craft: Reserve casks

Brewing is part of Cooking: casks are filled at the cooking station and age only while placed, three days for beer, seven for wine, and 28, 98 or 350 days for the 2, 7 and 25 Year Whiskeys. Cellar Craft opens at Cooking 40 and gives each cask a cook lays down a chance to finish as Reserve, a quarter of the time at level 100 and half the time at 200. The whole cask turns Reserve at once: the same forty bottles after the same wait, each doing what a plain bottle does and lasting half again as long. Aging never gets shorter and no bottles are added. A Reserve bottle takes its plain twin's place on your plate, and casks laid down before Cellar Craft existed finish as they would today. The station's cask line, which quotes a critical chance no cask ever rolls, loses that line in S5 and shows the Reserve chance once Cellar Craft is trained. The preserving rail of S26 rides on the same skill, so one skill covers the cellar. Bedawyn asked in 2019 for a brewing branch, pouchedrat in 2014 for brewing inside cooking from farmed goods, ThurisazSheol in 2016 for brewing as a craft of its own, and Murphy in 2018 for brewing that is more than another cooking recipe.

Seen in: Ultima Online's distillery (2011), which put the brewer's label and maker's mark on every bottle, and its Fermentation Barrel (2016), where you name your vintage; Wurm Online, where wine improves as it ages. Asked by Bedawyn, pouchedrat, ThurisazSheol and Murphy.

 25 Year Whiskey
 Brewed by <your name>
 Matures: 212 days (<date>)
 Reserve chance: 15%   (new line)

 When it finishes:
 Your 25 Year Whiskey finished as Reserve.
 40 bottles.

 On the bottle:
 Reserve 25 Year Whiskey
 Reserve: lasts half again as long as a
 plain bottle.

S26 · The preserving rail: smokehouse, rack and crock

Brewing showed that a placed vessel can hold a recipe for days and hand it back finished. The same rail takes four new vessels, a smoking rack, a drying rack, a curing rack and a pickling crock, each placed on a lot like a cask and working only while placed. The times run on the clock casks already use, where a New Britannia day lasts one real hour:

Nothing on the rail spoils, so preserves earn their place by the jobs they do. Pickles, garum and dried herbs become the garnishes of S27, smoked and cured goods are ingredients for the new recipes of S28, and the trail jerky that alchemy S26 designed for travelers is cured here. Required levels run from 60 to 110, and Cellar Craft's Reserve chance (S25) covers the rail, so one skill serves the whole cellar. Bedawyn asked in 2019 for a preservation branch, and Sorgin Txakal in 2020 for preservation techniques and in 2021 for a Coelacanth garum that ferments for a game month.

Seen in: Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, where dried food keeps and smoked food lasts only days; Wurm Online's aging; Stardew Valley's preserves jars and kegs. Asked by Bedawyn and Sorgin Txakal.

S27 · Finishing touches: garnishes, prime cuts and prize produce

A sure route to a Hearty dish, paid for with an ingredient. From Cooking 90, a finishing recipe takes one plain dish and one garnish and makes one Hearty dish with no roll at all. A garnish is a small recipe of its own (herbs and spices, a pickle or a spoon of garum from the crock in S26), and it gives work to ingredients with little to do today, such as Ginger Root and raisins once S9 gives them a source, and farm and forage goods. Spices work as garnishes, which is why the tree has no Seasoning skill. Three prizes from other trades do the same: a prime cut that field dressing sometimes turns up, prize produce from a Great harvest, and a trophy-weight catch, each cooked into its own dish. Sorgin Txakal asked in 2020 for a garnish slot, and Tazar in 2019 for spices as the way to improve a dish. Hazard and Elrond asked for fillets that scale with the fish's weight; fishing S22 gives the biggest fish the biggest yields, and here the trophy itself makes its dish Hearty. Each finishing recipe adds one ingredient to one dish, so the recipe book grows by a known list.

Seen in: Monster Hunter's Gourmet Voucher, which counts every ingredient as fresh; Don't Starve's chef Warly and his spices; Stardew Valley's seasoning that turns a dish gold quality; Core Keeper's golden ingredients; Palia's star-quality ingredients. Asked by Sorgin Txakal, Tazar, Leucian, Roderic, Kain Darkmoor, Elrond, Stundorn, Spoon and Hazard.

S28 · Something to cook from 90 to 200

Cooking runs to 200, and the recipes stop at 80, with one at 100. merlinfire wrote in 2026 that "Cooking has no extension" where the other crafts have one. New recipes fill the top of the ladder in batches, and every one does a job no food does today; a new dish that only repeats an old one does not ship. Recipes at difficulty 9 to 15 pay 4,000 to 10,000 base experience, which keeps cooks past 120 at the stove, and at their own level they succeed 70 percent of the time at difficulty 11 (level 110), rising to every time at difficulty 15 (level 150).

Signature dishes and master recipes are gated on Cooking itself, as every recipe is today, so no kitchen or Mastery skill locks anything away; a master recipe can be discovered only by a cook at Cooking 150 or more. Some master recipes take a Hearty dish as an ingredient, which answers Gadfrey Zukes's 2021 ask for exceptional crafts that open exclusive recipes. Players' own recipe ideas join the batches, with credit: that_shawn_guy's Haggis, Hemnu Lightbringer's Frog Caviar on Toast Points, Deus Blackheart's Obsidian Fish and Chips, quantumangus's BLT now that bacon exists (Mutton, Lettuce & Tomato already does), and Sorgin Txakal's garum on the rail of S26. Food that speeds skill learning is the owner's question in S50.

Seen in: Old School RuneScape's level ladders; the capstone recipes of World of Warcraft's Ways; Stardew Valley's steady supply of new recipes; New World's legendary fish recipes. Asked by merlinfire, Takotora, Gadfrey Zukes, that_shawn_guy, Hemnu Lightbringer, Deus Blackheart, quantumangus and Sorgin Txakal.

S29 · Set the table

Set a stack of Dragon Stew on your table and each bowl becomes a serving your guests can take, one at a time, if you allow it. Taking a serving eats it there and then, so the food stays at the table for everyone. The owner chooses who may take: everyone, friends, the guild or only themselves, with housing S25's use permission underneath. A stack of food never carries its cook's name, so the table names whoever set it out: "Set out by <host>". A whole roast suits it as well: Lockey2 asked in 2018 for a carcass roasted on the station and carved into servings, six from a pig and eight from a cow. An owner can also make it a contest table, which counts the servings each guest clears. That is the scoreboard Sorgin Txakal's 2021 Great Gormandizing Gustation lacked, when the winner of an eating contest was never settled because the stews eaten could not be counted reliably.

Of the 178 foods in the game, 100 have no model to set on a table, among them every fish plate, both skewers, every bread and all but one pie. They get plates, platters and bowls, and the six named bowls that accept nothing today are decorating D18's to open. Cora Cuz'avich and Isabel Ayin asked in 2026 for "cooked meals (aside from stews) on the kitchen table".

Seen in: Valheim's Serving Tray, which sets any dish out like a building piece; Final Fantasy XIV's tabletop meals; Guild Wars 2's feasts, which anyone nearby can use. Asked by Highdragon Moor, Alleine Dragonfyre, Kara Brae, Belladonna Rose, Trezir Pyle, Cirsee, Jakkal, Cora Cuz'avich, Isabel Ayin, Takotora, Lockey2 and Sorgin Txakal.

 Set out by <host>
 11 servings left       [Take a serving]

 Owner setting:
 Guests may take:  Everyone | Friends |
                   Guild | Only me
 Contest table:    On

 Chat: You took a serving of Dragon Stew.

 Servings cleared since the start

   1  <guest>     14
   2  <guest>     11
   3  You          9
   4  <guest>      6

 The host resets the count.
 Prizes, if any, are the host's.

S30 · The feast table

A feast is a recipe made from several finished dishes and a drink, a centerpiece for cooks around Cooking 150 (S28). Laid out on a table, it serves a set number of guests, ten to start, and each serving fills one of the guest's six food slots, like any one-slot dish. Its effect is broad, a little toward many things, so no group feels it must eat one before every fight. The host chooses who may take, as on any table (S29). Feast Host, the skill held back until feasts exist, lets a host's feasts serve more guests and stay on the table longer; it never makes the effect last longer or hit harder. This builds alchemy S14's Feast Table, and where a feast serving sits on the plate is S51's question; this page assumes one ordinary slot. Trapper asked for feasts in 2013, Lockey2 for servings carved for a party in 2018, Elrond in 2020 for big catches served to a party or a raid, Leucian in 2021 for a banquet tied to the party, and AzazelReborn the same year.

Seen in: Lord of the Rings Online, whose feast table stands for two minutes and gives a half-hour buff; World of Warcraft's Fish Feast (2008); Guild Wars 2's feasts; Valheim's feasts of ten servings; Mabinogi's catering, whose timers follow the cook's rank. The warning: EverQuest's Misty Thicket Picnic became near-mandatory raid food, and content came to assume everyone had eaten it. Asked by Trapper, Lockey2, Elrond, Leucian and AzazelReborn.

S31 · Kitchen orders on the crafting board

No order or quest in the game asks for a cooked dish. Crafting S22's order board for the crafting halls gains a kitchen page: rotating orders for finished dishes, some timed and some not, paid from that board's budget in rare ingredients such as Vanilla Bean and Cinnamon Bark, recipe scrolls, kitchen clothes (S38), casks and decoration. Some orders take only Hearty dishes, so a skilled cook earns what a plain dish cannot; Ultima Online's 2016 cooking orders asked only for plain food, and skill went unrewarded. Apprentice orders ask for dishes a new cook can make. A stack of food carries no cook's name, so kitchen orders take any dish of the right kind, cooked or bought. Crafting S22's board pays for items that carry the crafter's mark, so this is a departure from that card for the owner to approve. Lebu asked in 2026 for Ultima-style work orders that include cooking, Duke Gréagóir put it as "copy UO BODs!", and Takotora asked for daily bulk orders.

Seen in: Ultima Online's 2016 cooking orders, which paid titles, an apron and a barrel for plain food; Final Fantasy XIV's Custom Deliveries; ESO's writs and master writs; Black Desert's imperial delivery boxes; World of Warcraft's Ironpaw tokens. Asked by Lebu, Takotora, Duke Gréagóir, Curt, Arya Stoneheart, Seggallion and Isabel Ayin.

 12 Baked Salmon for the town watch                  ends in 2 days
    Reward: 3 Vanilla Bean and a recipe scroll
 4 Hearty Fish Stew for the garrison                 no time limit
    Reward: an apron for the kitchen
 10 Bark Bread for the novices' table   apprentice   ends in 1 day
    Reward: 10 Flour and 10 Butter

 Any dish of the right kind counts, cooked by you or bought.

S32 · Taste of the realm: regional cookbooks, stories and rumors

The recipe book reads like a map: Norgardian Lefse, Ardoris Coleslaw, the Son of Owan Regicide Stovies, Dupre's Duck Stew, Iolo's Cat Gut Goulash, Gorn's Venison Roast. Yet six cooking shops were stocked and never placed, in Brittany Estates, Brittany Fields, Port Graff, Spite, Resolute and Valhold, two of them with the Expert stock that sells today only in Aerie. S6 gets that stock out of Aerie; this card opens the shops themselves, each with a short cookbook of its region's own dishes, and makes a few recipes finds in the world. Every named dish gets a line of its story on its tooltip, and the lines gather in a book for the shelf.

Local cooks and innkeepers also trade rumors that point at dishes you have not discovered: a cook in Resolute might say that a stew wants something from the sea. Each rumor points at one recipe you can discover, the rumors rotate, and the closest-recipe hint at the table (S16) counts recipes you have heard of. Curt asked in 2018 for a local specialty in every town, and Arya Stoneheart for cooking work in the outskirts; CatweazleX has published at least eleven cookbooks in the game since 2017, which shows the appetite.

Seen in: ESO's recipes, found as loot and sold by chefs and brewers; World of Warcraft's Tillers, each with a favorite dish; Old School RuneScape's Hosidius kitchen; Final Fantasy XV's diners; Stardew Valley's recipes by mail; Wurm Online's hints. Asked by Curt, Arya Stoneheart, Elrond, Bob_Star and Time Lord.

S33 · From the water and the field to the table

Fishing S22 gives fish byproducts: fish oil, fish bone, the rare perfect roe and the scraps that make fish meal. The kitchen takes them, with roe for the finest fish dishes, oil for the frying pan and scraps for stock. New staples can be grown or gathered: rice, sugar cane, sesame and herbal tea, plus the vanilla, ginger and pecans that players cannot grow today. The kitchen can give back to the anglers too. Dough Bait is one of the five baits that cannot start a cast today (fishing S2), and fishing S38 asks the owner whether those five are finished or set aside. If they are finished, Dough Bait becomes a recipe at the stove, while Cut Bait stays with the butcher's table. Chicken coops and feeder troughs are decorations today and produce nothing, so compound feed for them comes when coops gain produce. Mugly Wumple asked for rice in 2018, Sorgin Txakal for sugar cane, Botocks and Time Lord for pecans players can grow, Lilofee for a steady supply of pecans, Jefe for vanilla as a crop, mike11 for sesame and Black Tortoise for herbal tea; Ingvar Harrigrata asked for compound feed made at the cooking station, Selene, Chiasma and Omnedon for livestock, Stealch for bait made at the stove, and Lord Tachys al`Fahn for food from sharks.

Seen in: Dave the Diver, which runs from the catch to the counter; Guild Wars 2's home-garden herbs for feasts; New World's legendary fish recipes, which sent anglers back to the water; World of Warcraft's Sunsong Ranch. Asked by Mugly Wumple, Sorgin Txakal, Botocks, Lilofee, Time Lord, Jefe, mike11, Black Tortoise, Ingvar Harrigrata, Selene, Chiasma, Omnedon, Stealch and Lord Tachys al`Fahn.

S34 · Meals for the workshop

Food already helps some trades. Baked Pacu helps anglers with range, bait recovery and fishing levels; Obsidian Bacon raises the field dresser's yield and Squirrel Stew the forester's; Harvest Wheat Beer helps the forager, Bacon raises carry capacity, the Decorated Cake Slice speeds the cook, and the aged whiskeys add gathering and refining speed and mining yield. No food helps a smith, a carpenter or a tailor. Workshop meals at level 100, such as a smith's breakfast or a weaver's porridge, take your food slots for a working session and give one trade a better chance of an exceptional item or a faster hand, through stats each trade already reads. A second family resists one school of magic at a time. Alchemy's tonics keep general crafting success and speed (alchemy S17, S23), and travel and gathering food stays on that page (S25, S26). Turk Key started the 2019 thread on short, useful food, ErikRulez asked for crafting speed food, Nick for producer food in 2020, and Sorgin Txakal for a food that adds exceptional chance.

Seen in: the Star Wars Galaxies chef, whose foods helped other professions craft, survey and harvest; Final Fantasy XIV's crafter and gatherer food; Stardew Valley's skill foods. Asked by Turk Key, ErikRulez, Nick and Sorgin Txakal.

S35 · The tasting journal and kitchen titles

The Cook's Book (S19) gains a journal of every dish you have cooked and, in a second step, every dish you have tasted. Deeds count breadth, and deed titles reward a cook's habits: Brewmaster for casks brought to maturity, Host of the Hearth for servings guests took from your table (S29), Topper Chef for a season of tastings (S44). The journal shows how many times you have cooked each recipe, counted for your account once crafting S19's record arrives. New dishes can arrive quietly, as Sorgin Txakal suggested in 2021: no list in the patch notes, found at the stove, with the scroll reaching the shops later. The first cook in New Britannia to make each one gets a line on World Events and their name in the dish's lore, and everyone after can still discover it. Elrond asked in 2020 for a realm-wide announcement and a title for the first discoverers, ConjurerDragon and Browncoat Jayson for titles and deeds for eating and drinking, which arrive with the tasted half, and Bob_Star in 2013 for discovery itself.

Seen in: Project Gorgon's Gourmand skill, which rewards eating many different foods; Wurm Online, where a first discoverer's name goes on a recipe; Ultima Online's cooking order titles, Baker, Gourmet and Culinarian; Stardew Valley's collections. The warning: World of Warcraft's Nomi, whose hidden research burned ingredients, so here discovery costs only a normal attempt. Asked by ConjurerDragon, Browncoat Jayson, Elrond, Sorgin Txakal and Bob_Star.

 Plate   Recipes   Cellar   [Journal]   Orders

 Dishes cooked: 64 of 119           Dishes tasted: 41
 Cooked on this account, Pumpkin Soup: 312 times
 Next deed: Cook 75 different dishes.

 Titles: Master Chef
 Next: Brewmaster, bring 25 casks to maturity.

 First cooked in New Britannia
 Garum-Glazed Coelacanth, by <character>

S36 · The cellar: a press, a still and aging that pays off

The Simple Wine Press, a carpenter's piece, is a decoration today, and the game holds jugs of apple and grape juice that nothing makes and nothing uses. The press becomes a working corner of the kitchen: fruit into juice, juice into cider, and must for the wine casks. A still and a mash tun join it as station variants for spirits and beer, so each kind of drink has a vessel of its own. Murphy wrote in 2018 that brewing done as one more cooking recipe let him down, and enderandrew asked in 2016 for an expert brewing station. New brews follow: cider and perry, mead, brandy, and rice wine and rum once S33's rice and sugar cane grow. A soothing cup clears the head faster after a night of whiskey, for anyone who would rather skip the spinning camera.

The aged whiskeys take 28, 98 and 350 days of placed time for a small gathering, refining or mining edge, and Cora Cuz'avich found the 25 Year Whiskey "underwhelming for how long it takes". Their effects grow to match the wait, and the wait stays as it is; how long a whiskey should take is the owner's question in S55. Oakenhammer wrote in 2021, "It might be interesting if brewed drinks got stronger with age." With the quest owner's sign-off, quest-givers who ask for ale or wine could take a player's brew.

Seen in: Ultima Online's distillery; Wurm Online's wine, which improves with age; Stardew Valley's kegs and preserves jars. Asked by Selene, AoiBlue, Sorgin Txakal, Isabel Ayin, redfish, ConjurerDragon, ThurisazSheol, moxiepilot, Elnoth, Oakenhammer, Cora Cuz'avich, Bowen Bloodgood, 2112Starman, enderandrew, Murphy and Vladamir Begemot.

S37 · The tamer's larder: a ladder of pet food

Pets stopped healing on their own in August 2026 and now live on cooked food. Pet food made up 25.7 percent of all food and drink uses in September, and Dragon Kibbles was the most used item of all, 1,290 uses. Yet the six pet foods are Cooking 30 to 70 recipes sold in one city, Aerie. The larder becomes a ladder, from everyday chow for new tamers through the rawhide chews made from hides that Coswald_Dirthmire asked for in 2021, up to the finest meals, with the recipes sold by animal trainers and stablemasters in every region. Each creature family gets a favorite, shown on the pet, that lasts longer when fed; a favorite changes only how long the food lasts, never a pet's loyalty or mood. Pets refuse food made from their own kind, as that_shawn_guy asked in 2020. One question for voters, raised by Sorgin Txakal in 2020: should pet food work on summoned creatures as well as tamed ones?

Seen in: Ultima Online's 2002 pet feeding, which led to bonding; Spiritfarer, where each passenger has favorite foods and refuses a dish they dislike. Asked by that_shawn_guy, Sorgin Txakal, Coswald_Dirthmire, Time Lord and Tirrag.

S38 · The master's kitchen: a hearth and the whites

Crafting stations add 5 to a cook's effective skill for each tier, up to 10, yet no cooking station reaches the second tier, though an unused tier-2 cooking station model sits in the game files. A Master's Hearth, built from a smith's iron range, a carpenter's oak frame and a cook's seasoned griddle, becomes the first. Its 10 points raise success and the bonus experience chance, which matter most to cooks still climbing; the Hearty chance comes from the tree alone (S22). A recipe today cannot ask for a particular station, so with a recipe field the crafting groundwork adds, feast centerpieces (S30) and the top signature dishes (S28) would cook only at a Master's Hearth, which gives a master cook a reason to build one.

The whites: the Chef's Toque already exists, a hat no player can earn yet. With an apron and chef's whites beside it, the three pieces can be earned through kitchen orders (S31), the journal (S35) or the Topper Chef tasting (S44), or made by a tailor. They are cosmetic first; whether they add a little success at the stove is the owner's question. Morkin wrote in 2026 that the "most wanted is a chef outfit", PeteWi The Disoriented asked for a toque in 2015, Sorgin Txakal in 2020 for chef clothes tailors could make, Mingo in 2021, and majoria70 in 2023 for chef gear as a reward for new players.

Seen in: Ultima Online's distillery, which took four trades to build; Valheim's cauldron upgrades, each a piece set beside the cauldron that opens new recipes; Old School RuneScape's ranges, which burn less than fires, and its cooking gauntlets; Black Desert's tiered utensils; Ultima Online's Master Chef's Apron, an order reward. Asked by PeteWi The Disoriented, Sorgin Txakal, Mingo, majoria70 and Morkin.

S39 · Nothing wasted: burnt food and compost

Today a failed cook uses up its fuel and leaves the ingredients on the table, with nothing to show for the attempt. With this card a failed cook also leaves something burnt: a charred roast, a burnt stew, a blackened loaf. Every recipe succeeds every time by about level 116 (the level-100 stew by 128), so burnt food is mostly a new cook's lot, as it was in Ultima Online in 1997. Burnt food, dishes nobody wants, and the moldy bread and rotten meat from the Tanglemire bone hunt go into a compost recipe with mud, as Ceal Astra suggested, and come out as Basic Fertilizer, an item planting already accepts and nothing in the game makes today. Fishing S22's fish meal is the second source, and whether fertilizer raises a harvest is economy S13's work. Sorgin Txakal and Prada asked in 2020 for a way to compost or salvage unused food, and Arach in 2021 for burnt food.

Seen in: Ultima Online's burnt food; Valheim's meat, which turns to coal if left on the fire; Sea of Thieves' burnt stage; Guild Wars 2's composting of surplus food. Asked by Sorgin Txakal, Prada, Ceal Astra and Arach.

S40 · A fire by the road

All cooking happens at stations in towns and homes. A field kit lays a cooking fire outside towns that burns for ten minutes, and anyone nearby can cook at it, so a hunting party can cook the day's game where it fell. Lockey2 asked in 2015 for a fire players could place, Sold and gone that year for fires in the PvP lands, bugmaster77 in 2023 for a fire with a flat stone for butchering, and Akandriel in 2026 for a fire to recover Vigor. The fire cooks and does nothing else; whether a hot meal or a fire has any part in Vigor is the owner's question in S52.

Seen in: Ultima Online's campfires, a heat source for cooking anywhere; RuneScape's portable ranges; Final Fantasy XV's camp meals; Valheim's fires; ESO's cooking fires in the wild. Asked by Lockey2, Sold and gone, bugmaster77 and Akandriel.

S41 · The sampler platter

A platter recipe takes two or three finished everyday dishes and makes one bigger meal that carries all their effects. It sits in the same food slots its parts would use, so a platter of Baked Salmon and Bass with Peppers takes two, and each effect keeps its own clock. It stacks like any dish, is eaten in one sitting, and gives the everyday recipes most cooks make a buyer. Platters are fixed, named recipes. A group gets a feast (S30); a solo player gets a feast of one. Arkah EMPstrike asked for platters in 2019, Dartan Obscuro that year for meals built from other dishes, and Net and AzazelReborn in 2021, AzazelReborn for a "6-point" combined meal.

Seen in: EverQuest's Misty Thicket Picnic, a meal built from other trades' dishes; Monster Hunter's canteen meals, which gather several effects into one sitting; Stardew Valley, where players say only about 15 of its 80 dishes are worth making. Asked by Arkah EMPstrike, Net, AzazelReborn and Dartan Obscuro.

S42 · Cook by the moon, the season and the festival

Every recipe in the game can already carry a window on the New Britannia clock: a phase of the moon, a season, a month, a weekday or a time of day. All 157 cooking recipes leave it empty. This card gives a few new recipes the right sky. Full-moon dishes come together in a window of about nine minutes in every seventy, the same moon that turns the lunar rifts. Seasonal dishes cook while their season lasts: the New Britannia year passes in two weeks, so each season lasts about three and a half days and returns two weeks later. Festival treats are cooked from ingredients that festival creatures and hide-and-seek finds drop during the event. Today every festival sweet is a drop, and no cook can make one.

What is special is when a dish can be cooked and what it is made from. A moon or season dish carries an ordinary meal effect at the same strength and slots as its neighbors on the recipe ladder, so nobody has to wait for the sky to eat well. Festival treats add a harmless joke from S46 besides their meal. Spring brings a foraging treat whose gathering yield builds on alchemy S25's grub skewers: the beetle food Murphy asked for in 2026, which Janie said "could also be used for all foraging". The next window shows on the recipe, so nobody has to guess. Fishing S27 sets named fish on the same moon and economy S14 puts gathering on the same seasons, so the calendar reads the same everywhere.

 Moonrise Tart         Cooks only under a full moon.
                       Next full moon in about 40 minutes.
 Pumpkin and Apple     Autumn dish. Autumn ends in
 Crumble               1 day 12 hours.

 At the table, a spring dish in autumn:
   Out of season. Spring returns in 5 days.

Seen in: Breath of the Wild, where a dish cooked under the Blood Moon always comes out well; Stardew Valley's seasonal produce; World of Warcraft's Pilgrim's Bounty and its five event recipes; the Ultima moongates, opened by the phases of the moons. Asked by Isbel, Wilfred, Murphy, Sandra Sosaria, Janie, Hemnu Lightbringer, Koimiko and FrostII.

S43 · Lord Atos calls for cooks

A Call to Arms can already ask the realm to craft an item. Every bowl a cook makes adds to the gold line under the compass, and if the realm makes the number, the call pays its blessing, producer experience for example, and mails a keepsake to everyone who added enough. So Lord Atos can ask the cooks of the realm for 3,000 bowls of a dish with no new code, the week this page goes up. A game master and the owner pick the dish: one that newer cooks can make from shop ingredients, so they can add to the count too. When Hearty dishes arrive with S22, a Hearty bowl counts toward the call as its plain twin; that small change ships with S22. When a cooking call succeeds, the feast hall in Castle Atos fills (S45).

 Lord Atos calls upon the cooks of the realm to
 prepare 3,000 bowls of Mutton Stew in the next
 24 hours. If the kingdom can accomplish this
 feat, blessings will be given!

 Craft 3,000 Mutton Stew   [██████████░░░░░░]  1,912
 Time left: 9 hours 12 minutes
 Reward: a producer experience blessing, and a
         keepsake by mail for every cook who adds 10.
 Your part: 36

Seen in: World of Warcraft's Community Feast, where a whole zone fills one pot; Final Fantasy XIV's Ishgardian Restoration, where the realm's crafting rebuilt a city; Fallout 76's Feed the People. Asked by Arya Stoneheart and Seggallion, who wanted quests that need a cook.

S44 · Topper Chef: a tasting day, a rivalry and a monthly cook-off

Shengtong's daily Topper Chef list in Castle Atos asks for the shopping behind famous dishes: beef, stock, potatoes, onions and carrots for Grannus Beef Stew, crocodile meat and peppers for Crocodile Skewers. No step ever asks for the dish itself. His ingredient daily stays. Beside it, a tasting daily asks for the finished dishes: on tasting days Shengtong wants two bowls of Grannus Beef Stew or a plate of Crocodile Skewers, and Stanslava wants baked goods for her counter. It would be the first quest in the game that asks for something cooked.

Players already pick a side every day, Shengtong's grill or Stanslava's bakery, and nobody can see the score. A board in Castle Atos shows the week's standings between the two kitchens, the winning chef crows, and the winner's specialty decoration dish joins both reward tables for the next week. New decoration dishes join the Topper Chef rewards too, as Mapper asked in 2026 while praising the rare food decorations the Atos quests already give. Once a New Britannia month, every 28 real hours, Shengtong and Stanslava judge a cook-off: each entrant hands in one dish, scored on its recipe, whether it came out Hearty and whether it uses the month's secret ingredient. The prizes are plaques and titles, never stakes, and nobody pays to enter. The game scores the cook-off itself, because a player contest with no count to read ends without a winner, as Sorgin Txakal's 2021 Great Gormandizing Gustation did; S29's contest table gives player hosts a scoreboard as well. All of it is quest content and waits for the quest owner's sign-off.

 Shengtong: Anyone can carry a sack of onions. Today I want to
            taste the stew.
 Tasting today: 2 Grannus Beef Stew        Stanslava: 4 Banana Bread

 THE KITCHENS OF CASTLE ATOS · THIS WEEK
   Grill 412      Bakery 389
 Stanslava: The ovens will have their day.

 THE CASTLE ATOS COOK-OFF · THIS MONTH
   Judged on the recipe, a Hearty dish and this month's secret
   ingredient. One dish each, no entry fee. Entries close in 9 hours.
   Prizes: a plaque and a title.

Seen in: Old School RuneScape's Recipe for Disaster and Gnome Restaurant; Final Fantasy XIV's Custom Deliveries and the leaderboards of its Ishgardian Restoration; World of Warcraft's cooking dailies; Battle Chef Brigade, whose judges score each dish and name a mandatory ingredient. Asked by Curt, Arya Stoneheart, Seggallion, Takotora, ConjurerDragon, Mapper and Time Lord.

S45 · Feasts for the realm: the Atos banquet, Stone Soup Day and the Great Pumpkin Weigh-off

Three gatherings share one rail. After a successful Lord Atos call (S43), the long tables of the Castle Atos feast hall, set for show since the castle opened, fill for a few hours with the dish the realm cooked, and everyone who comes to Atos can take one serving. A number under the compass becomes a place to go and a meal shared with strangers.

On Stone Soup Day a great pot hangs in Aerie's square, where Minerva already tells the old tale in her Stone Soup quest. Each visitor drops in one ingredient from the pot's list, and once it is full everyone in town can ladle out a bowl. The Stone Soup quest itself is untouched.

In autumn, the Great Pumpkin Weigh-off judges the biggest prize pumpkin of the harvest season. A good pumpkin harvest sometimes gives a Pumpkin Trophy, more often in autumn, and each one already shows its size. A town fair ranks the entries by that size, the Pumpkin Growing Trophy decorations that already exist go to the top three, and the winning pumpkin is baked into a pie that serves everyone at the fair. Every serving is an ordinary dish that takes its usual place in the six food slots, and the pot stays open to everyone.

 The great pot: 64 of 100 ingredients
 It still wants: Carrot, Onion, Potato, Tomato
 [Drop in a Carrot]          One ingredient from each visitor.

 World Events, when it fills:
   The great pot in Aerie is full. Everyone in town can ladle a bowl.

 The feast hall, Castle Atos, after a successful call:
   The realm cooked 3,000 bowls of Mutton Stew. The tables are laid
   for 3 hours.                       [Take a serving]  One each.

Seen in: World of Warcraft's Community Feast, a pot a whole zone fills; Lord of the Rings Online's feast tables; Fallout 76's Feed the People, where limiting who could eat was resented, so this pot stays open to all; the Stardew Valley Luau soup; Palia's Pot Luck. Asked by Trapper, Lockey2, Leucian and AzazelReborn, who asked for feasts and banquets from 2013 to 2021.

S46 · Food with a sense of humor

A few dishes carry a real meal effect plus a harmless joke, the novelty food players have asked for: Elrond wanted food "turning you into a frog for few mins" in 2018, and Jefe asked for mimic food in 2020. Croaking Frog Legs make you croak now and then for a minute after you eat, with a puff of green. A cream pie is thrown instead of eaten, built on the snowball throwables, and leaves its target covered in cream for a minute. The joke is never active in combat or PvP, and every joke dish keeps a proper meal effect at its neighbors' strength. Festival treats from S42 can carry these jokes.

 Croaking Frog Legs
 Consumable - Non-Combat
 (its meal effect, in green)
 Now and then, a croak and a puff of green.
 Never in a fight.
 Food slots: uses 1 of 6

 Chat, now and then:
   Ribbit. You feel a little green.
 A cream pie, thrown:
   <target> is covered in cream.

Seen in: Ultima Online's event foods, where food that only decorated drew "any bonus at all?", so every dish here keeps a real meal effect; Ultima Online's egg bombs, made by cooks and thrown. Asked by Jefe and Elrond.

S47 · The Cellar Book and coming of age

Whiskey ages in New Britannia years: a 25 Year Whiskey spends 25 of them in its cask, 350 days of placed time. A cask's tooltip already names its brewer and the day it will be ready. With this card a placed cask also shows when it was laid down and its vintage, the New Britannia year it was filled, on the cask and in S17's ledger. A brewer can label a bottle for the rack, a display bottle that carries its vintage year, the town where it aged and its maker's mark, while the bottles you drink still stack. When a 7 Year or 25 Year Whiskey comes of age, the realm hears where, on the World Events channel (achievements S17). Later, a coming-of-age gathering at a placed tap can pour from S29's servings.

 Spirits Cask (25 Year Whiskey)
 Brewed by <your name>
 Laid down <date>. Vintage <year>.     (new)
 Matures: 212 days (<date>)

 Perennial Red Wine, for the rack
 Vintage <year>. Aged in <town>. Made by <cook>.
 A bottle to keep. It is not for drinking.

 World Events:
   A cask of 25 Year Whiskey has come of age
   in <town>.

Seen in: Ultima Online's distillery, whose bottles carry a label and the maker's mark; Ultima Online's Fermentation Barrel, where you name your vintage; Wurm, where wine improves with age. Asked by Fruck, Bowen Bloodgood, moxiepilot, Trezir Pyle, that_shawn_guy, Cora Cuz'avich, Oakenhammer and Elnoth.

S48 · Bread for the hungry

The first place a new cook's loaf is wanted. The town beggars ask for a gold coin, thank you warmly and ask you to come back tomorrow. With this card they will also take a hot meal: hand over any dish instead of the coin, once a day as with the coin, and they thank you just as warmly. The Bark Bread from a first lesson at the stove (S8) counts, and so does a spare bowl from a veteran's batch. Conversation S22 pilots new beggar answers, and this line sits beside them.

 Could you spare a gold coin?

   Yes, have a gold coin.
   Would a hot meal do?            (new)

 Is that stew? Bless you. Come back tomorrow,
 would you?

Seen in: the Ultima series, where giving alms to beggars has long been part of the game.

S49 · For the taverns: a menu board and a night on the calendar

Taverns and food stalls are among the oldest player businesses in Shroud of the Avatar, and players have run weekly tavern nights, tea parties and market days since 2018. A Menu Board decoration chalks up the food and drink in the lot's own vendor, with each dish's effects, slots, time and price, where passers-by can read them. It shows only what the owner lists, at the owner's prices. The world calendar gains a Food and Drink tag, so tavern nights show up for everyone, with the reminders the calendar already sends. The board sits beside party S23's tavern muster, the townsfolk who eat at taverns and the innkeeper who remembers in conversation S18 and S20, housing S30's inn rooms, bard S17's tavern bard, music S20's tavern murmur and dungeons S18's tavern board.

 Dragon Stew          3 slots   8 hours   Health +75, resistances   <price>
 Grannus Beef Stew    2 slots   2 hours   Health, Focus over time   <price>
 Perennial Red Wine   1 slot    1 hour    Intelligence +4           <price>

 From the vendor on this lot, at the owner's prices.

Seen in: Dave the Diver, whose sushi bar menu is written up from the day's catch; this game's own player taverns and their weekly nights. Asked by Alleine Dragonfyre, who asked in 2018 to show cooked food in shops, and Tibs and By Tor, who asked in 2014 for taverns with a social purpose.

S50 · What a meal is worth, and how the cook's hand shows

Three questions decide how much a meal may carry. Should a meal be worth more than a potion? There is no written band yet for how strong a meal may be next to a potion of the same level, and in September food was used 10,780 times and potions 29,777 times, though food reached slightly more characters. Should the Elixir of Potency, a quest reward since 2021, reach food, as Adam Crow asked in 2024? And should cooks make skill-learning food, capped at once a day, as Tirrag asked in 2025? That would build on alchemy S22's hour of faster learning with its 24-hour lock.

Then how the cook's hand shows. bugmaster77 trained to Cooking 120 in 2023 and found no change in what came out of the pot. The options:

• Hearty only (recommended): a better dish at the same strength that lasts half again as long, in its own stack (S22). Skill shows, and every dish still stacks and scales to whoever eats it.
• A recipe's tier raises its strength per slot: it reopens the balance of every food row.
• Quality that varies with each cook: rejected, because dishes would stop stacking.

Two smaller asks ride along: should a Light version, one slot less, or a stronger version join Hearty; and Leucian's 2021 idea of a shorter effect traded for an extra one, the directed-enhancement lane this page leaves to the owner. Bowen Bloodgood asked in 2018 for a cook's skill to show in the food, and Leylu in 2021; Barugon warned that stronger food would only be cut back later. Aetrion wrote in 2021 that combat buffs were the only reason to cook, and Cora Cuz'avich answered that without them there would hardly be a cooking system at all.

Seen in: EverQuest's Misty Thicket Picnic, built from two trades' dishes, which became near-mandatory raid food; Final Fantasy XI, where a high-quality dish lasts twice as long; Ultima Outlands, where crafted food outranks vendor food. Asked by Barugon, Adam Crow, Aetrion, Cora Cuz'avich, Bowen Bloodgood, Leylu, bugmaster77, Tirrag and Leucian.

S51 · The plate's rules: a cup, a feast, the clock and a varied plate

Four rules shape the plate, and every card that touches it waits on the answers.

• A cup of its own. Brews share the six food slots today. Should drinks get a cup beside the plate, like World of Warcraft's tea slot or Guild Wars 2's separate food and utility slots, or keep sharing the six? Recommended: keep sharing. A cup is more buffs by another name, and the plate stays at six.
• Where a feast serving sits. This page assumes each serving from S29, S30 and S45 fills one ordinary slot. Recommended: confirm it.
• The clock while you are away. Meals keep counting down while you are logged out, and S12 will say so. Should they keep running, pause as taming S3 proposes for a stowed pet's food, or pause only at home or in an inn room (housing S30)? Eaters sit down a median of 103 minutes apart, and a third of sittings fill all six slots, so the clock is felt every evening. Recommended: keep it running and say so, and look again when inn rooms exist.
• A varied plate. Should three or more different dishes on the plate earn a small bonus? Eaters eat a median of two different dishes in 30 days, so the nudge would be felt, but the bonus would be an effect outside the six slots. The threshold is three because four different dishes inside six slots force at least two one-slot dishes, and the meals people eat take two or three slots. Recommended: not yet; look again once S50 sets a band.

Seen in: World of Warcraft's tea slot in Midnight; Guild Wars 2's food and utility slots; Valheim's three foods that must differ; Kingdom Come's balanced diet; Don't Starve, whose chef remembers what he ate without ever showing the player. Asked by majoria70, who asked for food-slot upgrades in 2022, and Girlsname, who asked in 2019 for a third food buff for specialists.

S52 · Food, ale and Vigor

Vigor arrived in August 2026 and recovers in towns, from bards and while you are logged out, by design. Players have asked for taverns, an ale or a campfire to help: Sentinel2, who has asked for taverns that matter since 2019, and Barugon, Akandriel and Tirrag in 2026. Should a hot tavern meal or an ale play any part in Vigor recovery? The options:

• Leave Vigor as designed (recommended): taverns stand in towns, where Vigor already recovers, so a tavern night already restores it.
• A hot meal in a tavern adds a little to the town's recovery while it lasts.
• An ale, or a fire by the road (S40), starts a slower recovery outside towns, which the designers left out on purpose.

Seen in: Final Fantasy XV, where a night at a hotel multiplies the experience you banked and a night at camp brings a cooked meal, so where you rest is a choice. Asked by Sentinel2, Barugon, Akandriel and Tirrag.

S53 · The cooks already at the top, and their titles

In the August 2026 snapshot, about one character in forty had Cooking at 80 or more, about one in eighty at 100 or more, and about one in five hundred at 120 or more. When the tree arrives (S20), what do they get? Every character already at Cooking 40 can start the new skills on day one, and no recipe moves behind a new skill. For the new skills:

• Start at zero (recommended): banked Producer experience trains the new skills faster, so veterans catch up quickly.
• A one-time grant scaled to Cooking.
• A faster catch-up rate for a while.

Master Chef today asks for one skill at 100, the cheapest school title in the game. Titles can follow the tree (recommended): Master Chef then asks for all nine skills, as every other school title asks for its whole tree, and costs what the Blacksmithing title costs; Elder Chef and Legendary Chef follow at 150 and 200. Or titles stay on the root alone. Either way, nobody loses a title they hold. Title costs are counted in skill-percent: each skill at the title's level counts 100 percent and a mastery 200 percent, so the tree's nine skills come to 1,000 percent:

Two more changes come with the tree, both in veterans' favor. Cooking's decay floor rises to 40, so Cooking can no longer fall below 40. And gear that raises Cooking keeps its value: it still lifts success and the bonus experience chance, while the Hearty chance comes from the tree. Recommended in full: new skills start at zero, titles follow the tree, and nobody loses a title.

Seen in: every other production school here, whose titles ask for the whole tree.

S54 · What an hour at the stove pays (and Second Helping)

Cooking has the eaters and few cooks. Few players cook meals in any month, and even the most widely cooked dish had only a handful of cooks in September. What an hour at the stove pays decides whether more people choose the trade. Tirrag wrote in 2023 that "selling crafted or cooked goods for profit is hard", and Jace3 asked back in 2016 whether cooking was all about gold. The ways it can pay:

• Orders first (recommended): kitchen orders pay from crafting S22's published budget in rare ingredients, scrolls, kitchen clothes, casks and decoration, and some take Hearty dishes only (S31).
• A player market: menus, tables and feasts give dishes buyers (S29, S30, S49).
• Experience: the new recipes from 90 to 200 pay 4,000 to 10,000 base experience (S28), and the level-100 stew pays what its level promises (S7).
• Second Helping: a chance of an extra serving, for meals only, never brews, casks or staples. It is drawn into the tree as a hidden row and goes live only after this ruling.

Any change to how much a recipe yields waits here. The yield asks are old: niteowl57 wanted ingredient saving in 2018, Woodchuck and Adam Crow bigger batches, GenieUK batch recipes for the staples, Stealch batch and speed perks, and Leucian's 2021 wish list a perk that makes more of each component.

Seen in: World of Warcraft's Dragonflight, where cooking without quality left razor-thin margins; Final Fantasy XI, where vendors later sold top dishes in competition with cooks; Final Fantasy XIV's Island Sanctuary, whose demand curve keeps one recipe from flooding the market; World of Warcraft's The War Within, where more skill yields more servings; The Elder Scrolls Online's Chef passive, one to three more servings a recipe. Asked by Jace3, By Tor, Tirrag, E n v y, niteowl57, Stealch, Woodchuck, GenieUK, Adam Crow and Leucian.

S55 · How long a whiskey should take

Whiskey ages in New Britannia years, and since August a cask ages only while it is placed. Each cask fills 40 bottles, and each drink lasts an hour:

Bowen Bloodgood noted in 2020 that the 25 Year Whiskey takes a real year for a modest payoff, Cora Cuz'avich found it "underwhelming for how long it takes", and Stealch asked in 2021 for casks to age faster in a basement. The options:

• Keep the pace and make the wait pay (recommended): S36 makes the aged whiskeys' drinks worth their days, and S47 gives the cask its story and a day when the realm hears it came of age.
• Shorten the waits.
• Add seasonal vintages: shorter casks that carry the season they were laid down in.

A device that speeds aging is on the rejected list; the pace is this ruling.

Seen in: Ultima Online's Fermentation Barrel, a day from fruit to a wine that carries your vintage's name; Wurm, where wine improves with age. Asked by Stealch, Bowen Bloodgood and Cora Cuz'avich.