How to Cook Food | Zelda: Breath of the Wild (BotW)

Cooking in the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild can be done by freezing, dropping food near a campfire, or using a cooking pot. Read on to learn how to cook food, how to intensify and extend the duration of buffs, as well as the benefits of cooking food!

How to Cook Food

★ How to Cook Food ★
Cook food in a cooking pot. Cook food during a Blood Moon. Cook food by a campfire. Cook food by freezing.

Cook Food in A Cooking Pot

Cooking recipes using a cooking pot is the best way to cook food because of the buffs and health recovery it provides. The buff your dish is going to get depends on the ingredients you're going to use.

Cooking pots are commonly found in stables and villages, but they can't be used when it's raining.

Use Ingredients That Provide Buffs

Hyrule is home to different creatures and plants that can provide buffs when cooked. Try cooking these special ingredients with other basic ingredients to get useful buffs!

Intensify Buffs

You can also increase the potency of the buffs in your dish by combining two different ingredients that provide the same buff.

However, you shouldn't combine two different ingredients that provide two different buffs because they will just cancel each other out. Leaving you with a dish with no buffs.

Extend Buffs

You can extend the duration of your buffs by cooking them with other special ingredients as well!

We recommend cooking your dishes with a Shard of Farosh's Horn to increase the duration of your buff to 30 minutes.

You can farm Shards of Farosh's Horns at Riola Spring in the Faron Region.

Where to Farm Shard of Farosh's Horns: Locations and Prices

Cook Food During a Blood Moon

This method is just like cooking in a pot, except you do it during the night of the Blood Moon.

Cooking food in a pot from 11:30 PM to 12:00 AM during a Blood Moon can give your dish a random buff. The buff you'll get can either be an extra heart recovered, added potency to whatever buff already present in the dish, or an extended buff duration!

Don't limit yourself by cooking only during the night of the Blood Moon though. If you happen upon a cooking pot during that time, you can cook something up. Otherwise, you can cook dishes anytime of the day using special ingredients to give yourself a buff.

Cook Food Near Fire

You can also cook food by placing it near fire. It won't provide the same effects as using a cooking pot, but it is still better than eating ingredients raw.

Cook Food by Freezing

Finally, you can also cook meat and fish by freezing them!

You can do this by going to an icy region like the Hebra and Gerudo Highlands region, and dropping your food on the ground and waiting for it to freeze.

Alternatively, you can use an ice weapon on your desired ingredient to freeze it.

Benefits of Cooking Food

Health Recovery

One benefit of cooking food is health recovery. In a game where you have to deal with enemies every now and then, it's important to always have something in your inventory that can heal you.

Each ingredient that you forage can technically be eaten raw but we recommend cooking them instead, so it restores more hearts.

Gain Special Buffs

Cooking food can also provide you with special buffs!

Hyrule is home to plenty of herbs and all kinds of food that you can use in your dish. Some of them, as their name suggests, can give you special buffs when cooked with other basic ingredients.

Try combining different ingredients together in a pot and see what dish you can come up with!

List of All Food and Elixir Recipes

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Related Guides

Beginner's Guide and Early Game Tips