Cooking

The Cooking skill is used to prepare raw food materials for a number of reasons, including restoring Hitpoints and the temporary boosting of skill levels. There are many different types of food in RuneScape, each healing a different amount of Hitpoints. However, as with all skills, players must reach certain levels to cook certain foods. Cooking is also a very popular skill to raise, as many players like to sell food they have cooked to other players. This can give great profit, as many players are willing to purchase food already cooked. Cooking also has a larger variety of training options than any other skill. This is another reason Cooking is a very popular skill amongst players. As of 17th of January 2010 there are 100,158 players with 99 cooking. This makes it the second most popular 99 skill, after Strength.

How to cook
Cooking is known as one of the fastest skills in RuneScape, as players can cook in different ways. Players can cook their food on a fire, an iron spit, a sulphur vent, a fireplace or on a range. Ranges are labelled on the map as a cooking pan icon. It is important to note that only meat, fish, stew, and tea can be cooked on a fire.

To cook, players have to use their food with a range or a fire. If they have more than one food item of the same kind in their inventory, a menu will ask them how many items they want to cook. Players aiming to achieve level 99 Cooking by buying uncooked foods should be aware that it will cost from 3.5 to 10 million coins.(Note: As long as you don't give up on cooking, 99 cooking will come in no time)

Items needed
There are many items that players need in order to cook food, such as water or flour. Listed below are the items needed to cook certain kinds of food.
 * Fish- (raw lobster, raw trout, etc.)
 * Flour - (Held in a pot)
 * Water - (Held in a bucket, bowl, vial or jug)
 * Milk - (Held in a bucket)
 * Meat - (Raw meat, Raw rat meat, Raw bear meat, Raw yak meat, Raw chicken)
 * Vegetables - (Potatoes, Cabbages, Grain)
 * Fruits - (Cooking apple, Grapes, Banana, Redberries, Tomatoes)
 * Cheese
 * Bowl
 * Bucket
 * Cake tin
 * Jug
 * Pie dish
 * Pot
 * Knife

Meat
Players can obtain meat from killing chickens, cows, bears, yaks, and giant rats. When a player cooks raw chicken, the name becomes cooked chicken. However, when a player cooks raw beef, raw bear meat, or raw rat meat, the name becomes cooked meat for all three kinds. If meat is used on the fire after it is already cooked, it will become burnt and a message will say, "You deliberately burn the nicely cooked meat." This yields no Cooking experience. Raw and cooked meat may also be purchased at the Grand Exchange in Varrock.

Fish
Fish are the most common food to cook in RuneScape due to its availability. They heal a great amount of Hitpoints and are the recommended food to eat during combat. Fish can be easily obtained from fishing, or bought in large amounts from other players. Many players who are power-levelling use high-level fish to gain maximum experience per hour.


 * Numbers in parentheses indicate the level at which cooking no longer burns while wearing cooking gauntlets and which method of cooking you use (e.g., using the Lumbridge range while cooking lobsters will not burn at level 64. All other methods and ranges will not burn lobsters at level 68). This only affects lobster, swordfish, shark, cavefish, and rocktail.
 * Note that lobsters won't stop burning on the Lumbridge range at level 73 Cooking.
 * In a sample of 3,065 monkfish cooked at level 89 Cooking while using cooking gauntlets, a total of 20 were burnt.

Snails
Members can also cook snail meat, obtained by killing snails in the Mort Myre swamp and Haunted Forest, south-east of the Slayer master Mazchna (both areas are in Morytania). The Priest in Peril quest has to be finished to access both areas. There are more snails in the eastern part of the swamp than in the Haunted Forest. Once a player has found a snail, they can then kill it, pick up the raw snail meat, and then cook it.

Bread
To make bread, players need to first make flour, which is then used with a jug of water or a bucket of water to make the dough. The dough can only be cooked on a range, not on a fire. When the dough is baked, it becomes bread.

Pies
Pies require two bites to be fully consumed, thus giving players a bit more health than other foods. For example, when a player eats a redberry pie, they will only eat one half of it. The other half will stay in the dish which can be consumed later. To make pie, players need to mix a Pot of flour and water together and then make some pastry dough. Players then need to use the dough with a pie dish. Then, the player can put in extra ingredients to make them heal more, such as meat to make a meat pie. When they are finished putting in the ingredients, the pie can then be baked.

Stew
To make stew, players need a bowl and some cooked meat or cooked chicken. Next, the bowl has to be filled with water. Potatoes are needed next. They can be found around the farms near Draynor Village and Lumbridge or members can grow potatoes themselves. Members can also buy potatoes from Hudo's Grand Tree Groceries in the Grand Tree or from Frenita's Cookery Shop in Yanille. Players then have to add the cooked meat and potatoes to the bowl of water and then cook the bowl to make stew.

Pizza
Many players like to use pizzas to heal themselves as they heal large amounts of Hitpoints. Pizzas are a very famous choice to slayers because of the amount of hitpoint they heal but mostly because of the time they need to consume, which is less than normal food. Like pies, pizzas are consumed in two bites, so that players can eat one half and save the other half for when it's needed. To make a pizza, mix flour with water and make a pizza base. Add a tomato and a slice of cheese on the base. Both a tomato and a slice of cheese can be taken from Aggie the Witch's house in Draynor Village, north of the bank; and also in the Bandit Camp (Wilderness). They can also be bought from the food store in Port Sarim and the Culinaromancer's Chest. When the tomato and cheese are added to the pizza base, the pizza must be baked. It is possible to add various toppings to the pizza after baking it, which is also a popular money-making method for players, although it may offer relatively slow experience. Pizzas are very useful for skills such as agilty because of the great loss of hitpoints, therefore it heals a lot in 2 bites.

Cake
Cakes require three bites to be fully consumed, so if a player clicks on a cake, they will still have two other pieces left. To make a cake, players need flour, an egg, milk, and a cake tin. Eggs are found near the chicken coops around Lumbridge, while milk can be obtained by milking dairy cows with a bucket. Dairy cows are found near the combat level 2 cows around Lumbridge, and also on a farm south of Falador, which also houses a churn. When all of these items are placed in the cake tin, the cake can be cooked on a range. Please note that unlike pies the cake becomes separated from the cake tin when cooked, therefore players will usually have 14 uncooked cakes in their inventory when cooking, and after cooking the rest of the inventory will be filled by empty cake tins.

Potato Toppings
Potato Toppings are members only.

Baked Potato
Baking potatoes are members only.

Dairy
Dairy products can only be made on Members' worlds with a Dairy churn. A Dairy churn is found on the farm south of Falador, the cooking guild just south of the grand exchange and at several other locations.

Wine
Wine is made from a jug of water and a bunch of grapes. Grapes can be found in the Cooking guild, In the Phoenix Gang's hideout, as a common drop from Guards, or stolen from Fortunato's Fine Wine in Draynor Village (level 22 Thieving required, members only); members who have completed a portion of Recipe for Disaster can obtain grapes from the Culinaromancer's chest. A jug can be found on the top floor of the cooking guild.

Use the grapes with the jug of water to make unfermented wine. About ten seconds later, the wine will ferment and either be drinkable, or go bad. Wine gives 200 experience for a good jug, and none for a bad jug. If you make the maximum amount of jugs in one trip (14) successfully,you will get 2800 experience.

Hot drinks
The only hot drink is nettle tea, which is members only. To make nettle tea, players need first a bowl of water. Next, nettles are needed. Nettles are located near the prison along the road between the Wizard's Tower and Draynor Village, south-east of the slayer master in Canifis, or next to the yew trees in Edgeville. It is important to note that nettles will hurt players when they pick them up, so they have to wear gloves. The nettles have to be used with the bowl of water to make nettle-water. The nettle-water next has to be boiled on a range to turn it into nettle tea. The tea can then be placed into an empty cup. Empty cups can be bought or stolen from the tea stall in Varrock or by speaking to Brother Galahad, located east of the coal trucks. Also, if a player wants to add milk to their tea, they can obtain some milk in a bucket and use it with the tea. Adding milk is optional.

Brewing
Brewing is much more complicated and time consuming than other foods, but the results are quite useful, for most of them boost assorted stats.

Ales
To brew ales, you have to be in the brewery in either Keldagrim or Port Phasmatys. Steps for brewing Ales:
 * 1) 2 buckets of water added to fermenting vat.
 * 2) 2 lots of barley malt added to fermenting vat. (made by cooking barley on a cooking range)
 * 3) 1 bag of The stuff added to fermenting vat. (optional, 50% increase in chance of mature ale)
 * 4) Add the ingredients that vary for the specific beer/ale you are making.
 * 5) 1 pot of ale yeast added to fermenting vat. (bought from NPC near vat, players will need an Amulet of Ghostspeak and 5 Ecto-tokens AND an Empty pot for the one located in Port Phasmatys, 25 coins for Keldagrim, empty pot spawn near vat)
 * 6) Next, wait for the brew to ferment. If the brew is not ready, the examine text will say, " ale is fermenting in this vat." If you attempt to turn the valve prematurely, you will receive the prompt, "Are you sure you want to drain the vat?" Note that fermenting often takes a good 24–72 hours! Depending on your cooking level, it may take as low as 12 hours on the Keldagrim fermenting vat. Port Phasmatys' vat will always take a longer time to ferment.
 * 7) Once it's done brewing (examine will say "This vat is filled with ale."), turn the valve between the vat and the attached barrel to move brewed ale to the barrel (make sure the barrel is empty first!)
 * 8) Use 8 beer glasses on the barrel or 2 Calquat kegs

Note: Recently, ales may not be fermented even after 4–5 days, which maybe caused by a bug.



Note: The contents of the vat will change colour as the fermenting progresses.

Cider
To make cider, 16 cooking apples, a pot of ale yeast, and 4 empty buckets are required.

Head to the brewery and put four of the apples in the nearby cider barrel. The players' character will do a nice dance and squish the apples to a pulp, making a bucket of apple mush. Use empty buckets on the apple barrel to get 4 buckets of mashed apples. Once all 4 buckets are filled, add them to the fermenting vat, then the ale yeast into the fermenting vat and wait.

Note: Remember, you do NOT need to put in water or barley to make cider.

Mature brews
With normal brewing, a player can randomly make matured ale, shown by a (m) next to the drink. Matured ale is slightly stronger than normal ale.

"The stuff" is available from Honest Jimmy for 5 Pieces of Eight at the Trouble Brewing minigame. It gives a 50% chance of brewing a mature ale of the type the player is brewing.

Add "The stuff" after the barley and before other ingredients and yeast. If the player try to add it after the other ingredient or after the yeast, it's too late, and will be told he or she can't add that to this vat.

Failure
Occasionally ale will become bad, wasting all that time. Drain the vat and try again.

Types of Ales and Ciders

 * All ales except Moonlight Mead decrease attack, and all ales except Asgarnian Ale and Dragon Bitter decrease strength.
 * Most stat changes are relative to your level in that stat.

Gnome Cooking
Gnome cooking plays a big part in the Gnome Restaurant minigame. Further information can be found in said article.

Training
See the following articles
 * Free-to-play Cooking Training
 * Pay-to-play Cooking Training

Burning food
Burning can occur when cooking, especially when cooking something you have the exact level requirements for. As you increase your cooking level beyond the required level for that particular food, you will burn less and less until, with some foods, especially lower to mid level foods you stop burning entirely at a specific level. Other than increasing your cooking level, there are other methods of decreasing the chance of burning while cooking.


 * Fires have the greatest chance of burning food, can be made almost everywhere.


 * Standard ranges will burn less often than fires, but cannot be made anywhere like a fire can be.


 * The "Cooking range" on the ground floor of Lumbridge castle will burn food less often than any other place to cook, although the Cook's Assistant quest is required, and there are other spots closer to a bank.


 * Wearing Cooking gauntlets from the family Family Crest quest will lower the chance of burning lobsters, monkfish, swordfish, and sharks anywhere.

The information on the Cooking gauntlets is based on statistical data and has not officially been proven by Jagex

Power-Cooking
This is where players don't speak to anyone and have no distractions. This reduces the time to cook things thus gaining cooking level up faster. However, players will have no breaks so it is somewhat hard to keep cooking after a long time. Instead of dropping burnt food, which takes many clicks, simply bank them. Dropping individual items takes a long time, so it isn't good to do, even if they are not power-cooking. After having cooked everything, just take the burnt items of food out of the bank (noted) and drop them. Most power-cookers go to the area underneath the bar in Burthorpe, called the Rogue's Den. This is because the perpetual fire is only 1 to 6 squares away from the bank, as the banker is able to move around the Rogue's Den but he tends to stay in one place unless talked to. The bank isn't a normal bank, its a man named Emerald Benedict. This is the shortest distance to a fire anywhere. The shortest distance to a range is in the cooks guild although the downside of this is that the player must have completed Varrock Achievement diary completely. Players normally buy raw fish in large quantities and cook them, then resell to the Grand Exchange.

Temporary boosts

 * Chef's delight, a type of player-made beer, temporarily increases Cooking level by 1-5 when drank (5% of base cooking level).
 * Orange Spicy stew raises Cooking level by up to 6 temporarily, but can also have the opposite effect and lower it by 6.

Cooking Cape of Accomplishment
You can buy this skillcape from the Head Chef at the Cooking Guild in Varrock.


 * You need to get a Chef's hat or Varrock armour 3 to enter.
 * Please note that all skillcapes (even those for non-member skills) are only available to members to purchase for a price of 99,000 coins.

Training Tips

 * A good way to train cooking for lower levels is to go to the Barbarian village fishing spot. Then on a quiet world collect the fish that fisherman drop and cook that fish on the fireplace in the helmet vendor's house in barbarian village. This is also helpful to do on world 1(F2p) or 2(p2p), and just ask for raws. If you are doing this enough, the raw givers start to recognise you, and give to you more often.
 * Another way to train cooking at a higher level is to go to Musa Point in Karamja (where F2P players fish for Swordfish and Lobsters) and pick up dropped tuna and lobsters. To do this, get out a tinderbox and hatchet (and 30 coins for travel) from the Draynor Village bank, walk over to Port Sarim, and take the ship to Musa Point (30 coins). Pick up raw fish, chop wood on the island, and make a fire down by the docks.
 * To recap the above tip, training cooking with fish is good. Uncooked fish are easy to obtain, and with cooking gauntlets you'll have a lower chance of burning Lobster, Monkfish, Swordfish, Shark and Rocktail.
 * The cook's range in Lumbridge Castle has less chance of burning food, and is available to all players who have completed the Cook's Assistant quest.
 * If you have uncooked food in the bank, go to places where fires are commonly lit, such as the G.E., Draynor bank or Edgeville bank. By doing this you save two inventory spaces by not needing to light a fire.
 * Al Kharid, Catherby, Zanaris and Neitiznot all have a range quite close to the bank.
 * If you have completed all tasks in the Varrock Diary, you can wear your Varrock Armour 3 and use the bank and stove inside the cooking guild. These are only 3 steps from each other.
 * After you buy, fish or make your food it is advised that the best cooking spot for Members is underneath the pub south-east of the Burthorpe games room, where there is a fire only a few feet away from the banker (Emerald Benedict). This is the closest a fire is to a bank.
 * Cooking Gauntlets: This helpful item is a reward from the Family Crest Quest, and will increase your chance of successfully cooking various types of fish.
 * For wealthier players it is a good option to buy raw fish in large quantities. Players with a cooking level of 39-50 should buy herring, players with 50-52 trout (Trout is also a way that people who do not have much money go from 50-99 losing only 3-5 Gp loss per fish.), 52-58 pike, (although raw pike is hard to obtain and cooked pike is hard to sell) 58-63 salmon, 63-68 tuna, 68-81 lobsters, and 81+ swordfish. It is recommended for players to cook at Lumbridge's range this is because there is a bank very close to the range and foods have a lower chance of burning although it is better to start with one type of fish once it no longer burns, this way you get to save money, for example if you buy 1k raw lobsters at a cooking level of 40, lobsters will burn very often reducing the cost/effective rate, because if a lobster gets cooked you get exp and a minimal GP loss, but if burned, you really lose cash.
 * Note: After all it is all about commitment and cook on!

Trivia

 * Currently, 117 players have 200,000,000 experience in Cooking, the most for any skill.
 * Currently, 179 players have 100,000,000 experience or higher in Cooking, the most for any skill.
 * There was a bug after the first update of 2 September 2009 where people could cook at a rate 0.5 times faster. This bug was fixed in a later update that day.
 * There was a bug sometime in 2006 that when players tried to cook Lobsters inside the Fletching shop in Catherby, they would never burn it. This was exploited by players training Cooking on the range nearby. Since there was a bank right next door, players flocked here to train cooking. This was fixed a few days later. No action was taken against the players who exploited this glitch.

See for the Cooking hiscores page on the RuneScape website.