Cooking

The Cooking skill is used to prepare raw food materials for a number of reasons, including the restoring of 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. The current minimum to be ranked on the hiscores in Cooking is 44 and 56,948 experience.

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 labeled on the map as a cooking pan icon. It is important to note that only meat, fish,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.


 * Fish-(raw lobster,raw trout etc.)
 * Flour - (Held in a pot)
 * Water - (Held in a bucket, bowl, vial or jug)
 * Meat - (Raw meat, Raw Rat Meat, Raw bear meat, Raw chicken)
 * Vegetables - (Potatoes,Cabbages,Grain)
 * Fruits - (Cooking apple,Grapes,Banana,Redberries)
 * 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 is already cooked, you will burn it, and it will say, "You deliberately burn the nicely cooked meat."

Fish
Fish are the most common food to cook in RuneScape, due to the availability. 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, 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.

Pie
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 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 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 in the Wilderness. 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
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 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.

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 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, or stolen from the Wine Stall in Draynor Village (Level 22 Thieving required, Members Only). 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 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. Once it's matured, turn the tap to fill the barrel next to the vat (make sure the barrel is empty first!), then use beer glasses on the barrel. You get 8 glasses of beer each time you brew.

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 just before adding ale yeast, the chances of getting mature ale is increased.


 * All ales except Moonlight Mead decrease attack, and all ales except Asgarnian Ale and Dragon Bitter decrease strength.

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

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

Anchovies, however, are the only fish that you can buy raw, sell cooked, and gain profit. This is due to the fact that people buy cooked anchovies to make anchovy pizza, the highest Free-to-Play food. This is also good because it can be cooked at level 5.

Another good way for training cooking for no loss is to buy raw trout. Usually they sell for around 30gp each, and cooked trout sell for around 30gp each too. This is a good way to gain cooking exp without spending lots of money. However, cooked trout takes a very long time to sell because there isn't a very high demand for them.

When training on lobsters or sharks, players may wish to use the RuneScape food forum to buy raw fish and sell cooked ones.

Note that buying most fish raw from the Grand Exchange and selling the cooked product in the Grand Exchange is no longer profitable due to many players buying mass amounts of fish to get to 99 Cooking. For many fish there is a significant price difference between cooked and raw fish. If players wish to be profitable, they should sell on-demand - e.g. near Bounty Hunter - when many players are buying small amounts of food at above Grand Exchange prices. This, however, is a slow way to sell food. A way to train cooking and gain a profit would be to make foods containing many steps (e.g. Pineapple pizzas, Tuna potatoes). These foods give much more experience than fish when made from scratch, many cannot be burnt (e.g. Tuna potato - tuna is no longer burnt at level 60 Cooking, potatoes are no longer burnt before that. Level 69 Cooking is required to put the ingredients together, and as it requires no more interaction with a range or fire, cannot be burnt), and can be sold for modest profit in the Grand Exchange. The downside to this method is that takes much longer to prepare the ingredients for combining.

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. There is a range right by the bank in Doris's house. It is also a popular place to train firemaking, which means that there will be plenty of fires around to cook on if the player wishes for faster runs. (Note: the house that contains the range has a door and a gate that automatically close every 5 minutes or so.)


 * Lumbridge bank is a good way for new cookers to start the skill. There are 4 log respawn points just outside the bank. Carry a tinderbox when cooking to light the logs. The downside of this site is that you'll lose one inventory slot while training. Another option at Lumbridge would be to use the cooking range at the bottom floor of the building.


 * Al Kharid bank is a popular f2p spot to train cooking. A range is right by the bank, providing fast runs to and from the bank.


 * Draynor Village This spot is good for cooking fish because of the fishing spot near the bank and many fires. In Ned´s house is also a fireplace where you can cook on .However there aren't any ranges in Draynor Village.


 * Grand Exchange As long as there are players making fires in a world (there usually are) this makes a very fast and convenient place to cook. The good thing about this spot is you can buy the raw materials (or sell the cooked materials if needed) while you're there. You can also bank from a distance while you're next to a fire. Players are recommended to search worlds for fires and try worlds with a high player population.


 * Barbarian Village fishing spots - many players would rather give away or drop salmons and trouts, while doing power fly-fishing. Its a good idea to bring an axe and a tinderbox, or instead cook fish in Barbarian Village, near Peksa's Helmet Shop. This method is 100% free.


 * Karamja fishing spots - These are good places to train both cooking and fishing. Some things you might need though are an axe, fishing equipment (harpoon or lobster cage), and a tinderbox. The reason for an axe and tinderbox is to set a fire to cook the fish. Catch your fish (fill your inventory to save time), light the fire, and cook the fish. When you're done cooking you can go to the general store, sell all your fish and start over. Alternatively, you can use your fish to fight nearby monsters, such as on Crandor, and in the Karamja and TzHaar dungeons.

Members only

 * The Catherby range is just east of the Catherby bank, very close to each other. This place is frequented often, giving lots of chances for interaction. Also, there are fishing spots in Catherby, so you can fish for lobsters or sharks, or you can buy them from the people fishing.


 * Lumbridge is a good place to cook if you have started the quest Recipe for Disaster. The Culinaromancer's Chest in the cellar is 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 all other ranges in all of Runescape, however one must have completed the Cook's Assistant quest to use the range but of course, you would have finished Cooks Assistant if you were to start Recipe For Disaster.


 * 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 as well.


 * The Rogue's Den is by far the most popular training spot, as a fire is usually directly in front of Emerald Benedict, the banker, saving valuable time. It is located under the Burthorpe Pub. 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. A tip for using Emerald Benedict, if he isn't next to the fire, wait until he walks up by it (2 squares away is best so that players can remain between him & the fire) and then talk to him. He should stay put until no player speaks with him or banks through him for at least 5 minutes. You can also choose to use another server where he's in a better position.


 * The most efficient cooking spot is in the Cooking Guild, where a bank & a range (a range is better than a fire) are right by each other. However, a player MUST be wearing Varrock Armour 3 to use this.


 * There is also a cooking spot in the Fishing Guild, however it is somewhat of a long walk away and is not the best training spot.


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


 * There are many other ranges in RuneScape, however those listed above are generally regarded as being the best.

Cooking Gauntlets
Players who complete the Family Crest quest can have their gauntlets made into Cooking Gauntlets, which increase the chances of successfully cooking fish by a considerable amount. Jagex states in the game's manual two things regarding these gauntlets when it comes to their usefulness in the Cooking skill:


 * "These Cooking gauntlets give you an increased chance of successfully cooking certain types of fish".

&


 * " While wearing these gauntlets you will burn fewer lobsters, swordfish and sharks".

In the past, there has been a great deal of argument and turmoil on the official Runescape forums regarding these gauntlets due to the wording of these two statements in the manual. Some players argue incessantly (because of the second statement by Jagex) that the only foods the gauntlets help any player to cook are lobsters, swordfish and sharks. However, players have conducted extensive, intensive and ACCURATE testing to prove without any doubt that the gauntlets do help to cook Monkfish as well (with players reporting anywhere from 2-6% improvement with most reporting an average of a 5% improvement). In fact, a few players have also reported on the top Runescape fansite that the gauntlets also help with other fish such as Tuna and Salmon as well. Going even further, some players report that they also may help when cooking high level pies though there is no data as of yet to back up the claim for pies. Based on the massive amount of test data and the fact that anyone can easily prove that the gauntlets do help cook Monkfish... we know for a fact that the first statement is true while the second one is misleading. Regarding the second statement, while you can say that they do increase your odds of successfully cooking those fish, they are NOT the ONLY fish that the gauntlets help. Jagex never said that they were! Jagex also never even said that they were only food for that matter!! Hopefully, in the future Jagex will listen to the appeals of many players to clarify exactly what foods the gauntlets do or do NOT help any player cook.

In the meantime, it is proven without doubt that when any player wears the Cooking Gauntlets, they WILL be more successful in cooking the four mentioned fish above (lobsters, swordfish, monkfish & sharks).

Power Cooking
This is where you don't speak to anyone and have no distractions. This reduces the time to cook things thus gaining your cooking level up faster. However, you have no breaks so it is somewhat hard to keep cooking after a long time. Instead of dropping your 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 you're not powercooking. After you have cooked everything, just take the burnt items of food out of your bank (noted) and drop them.

Temporary boosts
20% of your base cooking level.
 * Chef's delight, a type of player-made beer, temporarily increases Cooking level by 1-5 when drunk.


 * Orange 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 and was the first Fishing master as well.
 * 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 level 99 in, 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.
 * There are 20 players with 200,000,000 cooking experience, making cooking the skill with the most players with max experience.

99 Cooking
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 from the Head Chef in the Cooks' Guild.