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Unlike previousLegend of Zeldagames, Link doesn’t recover health from picking up hearts. Instead,Breath of the Wildadds cooking. Throughout your playthrough, you’ll be farming materials from monsters, wildlife, and more. Consuming food will restore Link’s health, but cooking it will have better recovery effects and, depending on the ingredients, can grant a buff such as durability or increased attack power.
There are over 100 recipes inBreath of the Wild. Unfortunately, there isn’t a cookbook to keep track of every recipe. You can check the ingredients by selecting a meal and then selecting “Recipe,” but it’s easy to forget what’s in each dish.
Updated on July 11, 2025 by Renri Seong: Cooking is an extremely important gameplay mechanic inBreath of the WildandTears of the Kingdom.Tears of the Kingdomwould go on to expand the cookbook with new ingredients and recipes, but there are some ingredients that areBotW-exclusive. You can cook meals to restore health, of course, but if you put in the right ingredients, you’ll receive buffs such as attack power enhancement. There’s a variety of ingredients to cook and a hearty list of recipes inBotW. However, it’s best to learn how to use these ingredients so you don’t waste them. The following guide has been updated to include cooking tips for the beginning and late-game ofBreath of the Wild.
How to Cook in BotW
Cooking inBreath of the Wildis easy. You’ll need a campfirewitha cooking pot. Go into the menu withX-button, use theright control stickto scroll toMaterialsin the inventory. Then, select a food ingredient (ex: Apple) withA-button, then selectHold.
Link can hold up tofive ingredientsat once. Most recipes only need 1-3 ingredients, but heartier meals will usually need 4-5 ingredients. Anything that is in Link’sMaterialstab can be cooked. However, just because something can be cooked, doesn’t mean it should. Mixing ingredients with incompatible materials (such as gems) may not give the best results. Some food will grant an “effect” to the meal. Be warned: Making a dish that usestwo items that have effectswill cause them tocancel one another out. So, if you want to make something that will restore Stamina (ex: Stamella Shroom) as well as HP, you should avoid adding food that will give anything else other than Stamina (ex: Warm Safflina).
Soup & Stew Recipes
Soups and Stews use vegetables/herbs, mushrooms, and sometimes flowers as their main ingredients, as well as Fresh Milk. InBreath of the Wild, there are a variety of vegetables/herbs, and most of them will give Link a buff when cooked. Flowers can be used in cooking, but they’re generally preferred forupgrading to higher-level armor.
Cream of Vegetable Soup
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Meat Recipes
Meat and poultry can be gained from hunting wildlife such as foxes, bears, cranes, and wolves. There aresix types of meat and poultry totalinBotW. Certain recipes call for specific meats (ex: Gourmet Spiced Meat Skewer). In case a recipe calls forany type of meat, then you can choose whatever you want.
Meat and Mushroom Skewer
Meat and Rice Bowl
Prime Meat and Rice Bowl
Gourmet Meat and Rice Bowl
Meat and Seafood Fry
Spicy Meat and Seafood Fry
Prime Meat and Seafood Fry
Gourmet Meat and Seafood Fry
Seafood Recipes
Just like meat, there are different types of seafood inBreath of the Wild. There are three categories:Fish, snails, and crabs. Unlike meat/poultry, most crabs and snails offer additional effects such as defense and attack power:
Fish and Mushroom Skewer
Rice & Egg Recipes
As their names indicate, rice and egg recipes use rice or egg as their main ingredients. For recipes that call for one egg, you may increase the amount of hearts restored by adding in 5 eggs instead of 1 egg. If you’re looking tobake bread or rice balls, then youneedto haveone more ingredientwith the Hylian Rice. Cooking Hylian Rice by itself will result in Dubious Food, which only restores a quarter heart.
Fried Egg and Rice
Dessert Recipes
Dessert Recipes usually require Tabantha Wheat and Cane Sugar, but some use fruits as well. Being one of the more common ingredients inBotW, they’re the least troublesome to find. Recipes may include one or more of the following ingredients:
Miscellaneous Recipes (Monster, Fruit, Herbs, etc)
Combining five of the same ingredients will usually result in skewers or fried greens depending on the ingredients used. These can restore as many or little hearts depending on how much was used for cooking. They’re not as complicated as the previous recipes, but they’re good to throw together if you’relacking specific ingredients(ex: Fresh Milk or Cane Sugar). The Monster Recipes call forMonster Extract, which is an exclusive ingredient that can be bought fromKilton. Monster Extract will cost9 mon, which you can get (again: from Kilton) by trading in Monster Parts.
Fruit and Mushroom Mix
Cooking Tips for Beginning & Late Game
Recommended Ingredients
You’ll start offBotWon the Great Plateau. The first ingredient you’ll likely topick up is the Apple, which you can either drop onto an open fire to get a Baked Apple, or you can throw it into a cooking pot to get Simmered Fruit.
There’s a pot outside the Old Man’s cabin (second picture in above images).
Once you acquire some weapons or the Sheikah Slate bombs, you may start hunting the wild boars and fish. In fact, you’ll need meat, fish, and a spicy pepper to make theSpicy Meat and Seafood Fry. This dish can be given to the Old Manin exchange for the Warm Doublet, which will come in handy as you complete the Trial Shrines on the Great Plateau.
Since Link is likely to only have a few hearts at the start of your playthrough, you really only need meals that restore few hearts, so you don’t have to dive into the complex recipes. Even a meal that restores 5-HP should be plenty if you’re still on the Great Plateau. Cooking up x1 Raw Meat to get theMeat Skeweror x1 Hylian Bass to makeFish Skewerswill be enough until you get the Paraglider.
If you’re in the midgame to lategame, you’ll want to start cookingstronger meals. You should also consider combining ingredients that will increase your attack power, defense, speed, etc. At this point inBotW, you should have much stronger weapons and armor, so you shouldn’t be losing as much health as you were on the Great Plateau. However, you’ll be facing stronger enemies, so having meals that can fully restore your health is highly recommended. For the best recipes, cook up ingredients that are"Hearty", such as theBig Hearty RadishorHearty Snail.
You’ll also need to cook up specific meals for certain side quests, such as the Seafood Paella for the “What’s for Dinner"quest in Lurelin Village.
Trial of the Sword Recipes
If you have the expansion pack forBreath of the Wild, you may take on the Trial of the Sword in the Korok Woods by inspecting the Master Sword pedestal. Doing so will teleport you to a new area where you’ll be removed of all your gear, including your food. There are three stages of the Trial of the Sword where you’ll have to face enemies of varying difficulty.
It’s also highly,highlyrecommended you cook an attack (or defense) enhancing meal with aDragon Clawto get a 30min buff before taking on the Trial of the Sword.
Every few floors, there’s a Rest Area with a cooking pot and treasure chests containing armor for the upcoming floors. In the final trials (with 23 floors), you’ll find Hearty Truffles in the later rest areas. When cooking in the Trial of the Sword, you shouldavoid throwing all your food into one recipe, especially with the Hearty Truffles. When cooking Hearty Truffles, simply cookone at a time. This will give you meals that will completely restore your health andgive you bonus hearts.
If you need more health-replenishing meals during the Trial of the Sword, then you shouldcut down the trees and cook the wood. You’ll get Dubious Food, which will only restore a quarter of a heart. However, if you collect enough wood to cook, you should be able to make enough Dubious Food to restore a handful of hearts.
