Cooking

The Cooking skill is used to prepare food for eating, restoring Hitpoints for injured players.

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.

How to cook
Players can cook in different ways. They can cook their food on a fire, a spit or they can cook their food on a range. Ranges are labelled on the map as a cooking pan icon. It is important to note that only meat, fish, vegetables, 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.

At a low Cooking level, players will burn much of their food. As they raise their Cooking level, they will burn less often and eventually never burn food again.

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.


 * Flour - (Held in a pot)
 * Water - (Held in a bucket, bowl or jug)
 * Meat - (Raw meat,Raw Rat Meat,Raw bear meat)
 * Vegetables - (Potatoes,Cabbages,Grain)
 * Fruits - (Cooking apple,Grapes,Banana)
 * Bowl
 * Bucket
 * Cake tin
 * Jug
 * Pie dish
 * Pot
 * Knife

Meat
Players can obtain meat from killing chickens, cows, bears, 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 you use the meat on the fire after it's already cooked it'll say, "You deliberately burnt the fine meat."

Fish
Fish are the most common food to cook in RuneScape, due to the avaliability. They heal a great amount of Hitpoints and are the recommended food to eat when in combat. Fish can be easily obtained by Fishing or bought in large amounts from other players.

Snails
Members can also cook snail meat, obtained by killing snails in the Mort Myre swamp and Haunted Forest, southeast 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. When they've made flour, they must then use it with a jug of water or a bucket of water. When they use water with flour, they will make the dough. The dough can only be cooked on a range, not on a fire. When the dough is done being baked, it will become bread.

Pie
Pies require two bites to be fully eaten, 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 eaten later. To make pie, players need to mix 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. Like pies, pizzas are eaten 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. They can also be bought from the food store in Port Sarim. 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.

Cake
Non-fish cakes require three bites to be fully eaten, 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 level 2 cows around Lumbridge, and also on a farm south of Fallador, which also houses a churn. When all of these items are placed in the cake tin, the cake can be cooked on a range.

Wine
Wine is made from a jug of water and a bunch of grapes. Grapes can be found in the cooking guild, or stolen from the Wine Stall in Draynor Village (Level 22 Thieving required, Members Only). Use the grapes with the jug of water to make unfermented wine. About 10 seconds later, the wine will ferment and either be drinkable, or go bad.

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, southeast 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. You need 2 bundles of barley malt (made by cooking barley on a cooking range), a pot of ale yeast (bought from NPC near vat, you'll need an Amulet of Ghostspeak for the one located in Port Phasmatys), 2 buckets of water and an ingredient that varies depending on what you want to make. Head to the brewery in either Keldagrim or Port Phasmatys, and pour your 2 buckets in the tub. Add the barley malt, then your ingredients and finally the ale yeast. Next, wait for a while, as much as an entire day in some cases. Return and use a beer glass on the tap.

Making Cider is completely different however. You need a massive 16 cooking apples, a pot of ale yeast, and 4 empty buckets. Head to the brewery and put four of the apples in the nearby cider barrel. Your character will do a nice dance and squish the apples to a pulp, making a bucket of apple mush. Once you have 4, add them, then the ale yeast into the fermenting vat and wait.

Occasionally, you will make bad ale, wasting all that time. You can also sometimes make matured ale, shown by a (m) next to the drink. Matured ale is slightly stronger than normal ale. Also, if you add "The stuff" bought from Honest Jimmy instead of ale yeast, the chances of getting mature ale is increased.


 * All ales decrease attack, and all ales except Asgarnian Ale decrease strength.

Gnome Cooking
Main article: Gnome Cooking

Gnome Cooking plays a big part in the Gnome restaurant minigame further information can be found there.

Sell and buy, or just trade
Fish play a big role in the cooking market, particularly the high level ones (lobsters, sharks). They make up the bulk of the food market, and with high demands in both raw and cooked forms.

When training on lobsters or sharks, players may wish to use the RuneScape food forum to buy raw fish and sell cooked ones. Alternatively, they may wish to trade cooked fish for raw ones, one for one. This method saves money and time, because no value is lost between the trades, and cooking materials are easily found. This is common on the free worlds.

Cook in the correct environment
Some places are more suited for cooking than others. Here are a few.

Free-to-Play

 * Edgeville Bank is a popular place to train cooking. It is also a popular place to train firemaking, which means that there will be plenty of fires around to cook on. Edgeville also has the closest range from a bank in F2P world. The downside of this site is that there are many random events and fires aren't always present.


 * Lumbridge Bank is by far the most efficient. There are 4 logs respawn points just outside the bank. Carry a tinderbox when cooking to light the logs. The downside of this site is that many people often take the logs before they can be burned.

Members only

 * The Catherby range is just east of the Catherby bank. This place is frequented often, giving lots of chances for interaction. There are a couple of fishing spots nearby, giving players opportunities to fish and cook at the same time. However, it is a short walk from the bank to the range, and in the long term, the loss in time is significant. Also, the range is located inside a house with a door that auto-closes every few minutes, inconveniencing cooks.


 * Lumbridge is a good place to cook if you have started Recipe for Disaster. The Culinaromancer's Chest in the cellar can act as a bank and a food store, which can be used in conjunction with the range in the kitchen, which has a lower burn rate than most ranges. Also, the Lumbridge Home Teleport spell can take players there almost immediately, which is good if you have just gathered special ingredients.


 * The Tree Gnome Stronghold is useful because you can make Gnome Cocktails, Gnome Foods, and various other dishes thanks to Hudo and Heckel Funch who supply you with plenty of cooking ingredients. There is easy access to a bank and a minigame as well.


 * The Rogue's Den fires are located at the start of the Rogue's Den, just below the Burthorpe pub. This place is an excellent and fast way to level cooking. The banker (Emerald Benedict) may just be a step away from the fire, allowing players to cut down on time spent walking. The fire is everlasting, so there is no need to worry about relighting it, saving inventory space. On the downside, rogues den only has a fire as the means to cook, so it is only usable for cooking fish or meat. Lastly, due to the banker being a non-player character, he may wander around from time to time, requiring players to sometimes walk.


 * If you wish to be in a friendly environment with lots of people whilst cooking, try the Catherby range or the Rogue's Den. These are popular Cooking training areas and are often be filled with fellow chefs looking to talk.

Cooking Gauntlets
Players who complete the Family Crest quest can have their gauntlets made into Cooking Gauntlets, which increase the chances of successfully cooking tuna, lobsters, swordfish and sharks by a considerable amount. They also decreases the level required to no longer burn these foods by 5.

Temporary boosts

 * Chef's delight, a type of player-made beer, temporarily increases Cooking level by 1-5 when drunk.


 * Brown Spicy stew raises Cooking level by up to 6 temporarily, but can also have the opposite effect and lower it.

Trivia

 * Before Fishing was added in June 2001, the experience for cooking meat depended on the player's cooking level, namely, 25 + 1.75 * level.
 * Before pies were added in March 2001, the amount of healing provided by bread and meat (the only food available at the time) depended on the player's Cooking level.
 * Tks was the first player to reach level 99 Cooking.
 * Cooking tied with Fletching were the first non-combat skills to get 10,000 users with a level of 99.
 * Cooking is one of the fastest skills a player can reach 99 in, it only taking two weeks from levels 1-99 (assuming you cook all day and have all the raw food prepared), at around six hours a day.

99 Cooking
The Emote: http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9482/cookingcapecombinedlj0.gif
 * Once a player has reached level 99 Cooking he/she can buy a Cooking skillcape for 99,000 coins.
 * The Cooking skillcape allows players to perform an emote which is unique and different from other emotes.
 * You will pull out a large pan and flip a piece of meat high into the air a couple times. After this you will then hold the pan up high as you catch a finished meat pie and hold it proudly above your head.