In Valheim, your main aim besides killing Odin’s enemies is to survive, tame, and flourish in its environment. You need to hunt, cook, eat, kill, sail, rest and sleep, all like a true lone Viking warrior. And if you are new to the game, you might have collected many raw meat chunks from Deer, Boar, and Necks, but you have to convert them into cooked meat to consume them. So in this Food guide, let’s look at how to cook meat in Valheim.
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What’s the Best Food in Valheim (Food Guide)
Even though Valheim is a survival game at its core, it doesn’t have a thirst or hunger regulation system. The food has different stats like healing factor, stamina, and they give buffs to you for a specific duration. Eating food in Valheim increases your max health bar, and you will start to heal for a fixed duration. The duration is different for different food items. But the best food in Valheim is “Serpent Stew”, made using Cooked Serpent Meat, Mushroom and Honey. It gives you 80 max health and 80 max stamina for 2400 seconds.
Also Read | All Valheim Food and Recipe
To get Serpent Meat you need to hunt Serpents in the Ocean biome. Cooked Serpent Meat will increase your maximum health by 70 units and maximum stamina by 40 units, the buff lasts 2000 seconds. We recommend you build a Karve or a Longship before setting into the seas. Of course, to cook Serpent meat you need a Cooking Station.
How To Cook Meat in Valheim?
To cook meat and turn it into food in Valheim you need to build a Cooking Station or a Cauldron on top of a campfire or hearth. The Cauldron can be used to cook Carrot Soup, Queens Jam, Sausages, Serpent Stew and Turnip Stew. The Cooking Station can be used to cook all the meat types. There are also a few recipes available to cook different meats.
| RAW | COOKED MEAT | DURATION |
| Neck tail | Roasted Neck Tail | 20 sec |
| Raw fish | Cooked fish | 30 sec |
| Raw lox meat | Cooked lox meat | 60 sec |
| Raw meat | Cooked meat | 25 sec |
How to Build a Cooking Station to Cook Meat
Now as you have the recipes, here’s how to build a Cooking Station for cooking meat in Valheim:
- Equip your Hammer.
- Build a Campfire in Misc Tab.
- Place the Campfire on the open ground, if inside keep it properly ventilated.
- Use Hammer again to place the Cooking station (crafting tab) over the firepit.
- To build a Cooking Station you will need 2 pieces of wood.
- Place it over a campfire (firepit) or hearth.
- Move the mouse cursor over the station to reveal its options.
- Press E to cook any meat available in your inventory.
- Select the “1-8” option if you want to cook a specific food item.
- Once you place the meat on the station, you will hear a sizzling sound.
- Wait for the meat to cook. Usually takes under a minute.
- Then once the meat is cooked it will again make a sizzling sound.
- Remove the meat from the station.
- If you leave the meat on the cooking station for a long, it will be burnt and finally, turn into coal.
Valheim Food Buff and Duration Guide
As we have seen above, different food gives different stats like healing factor and stamina buffs for a fixed duration. If you don’t have a boat to go into the Ocean and farm Serpents for Cooked Serpent Meat, then the next best food you can prepare is Sausages in the Cauldron by using 2 Entrails, 1 Raw meat and 4 Thistles. It will increase your maximum health by 60 units and maximum stamina by 40 units, the buff lasts 1600 seconds. So, here’s a table about the stats of major food items in Valheim:
| FOOD ITEM | HEALTH | HEALING | STAMINA | DURATION (SEC) |
| Blueberry | 15 | 1 | 20 | 600 |
| Carrot | 15 | 1 | 15 | 600 |
| Carrot Soup | 20 | 2 | 60 | 1500 |
| Cooked fish | 45 | 2 | 25 | 1200 |
| Cooked meat | 40 | 2 | 30 | 1200 |
| Cooked Serpent Meat | 70 | 3 | 40 | 2000 |
| Grilled Neck Tail | 35 | 2 | 20 | 1000 |
| Honey | 20 | 5 | 20 | 300 |
| Mushroom | 15 | 1 | 20 | 600 |
| Queens Jam | 30 | 2 | 40 | 1200 |
| Raspberry | 10 | 1 | 20 | 600 |
| Sausages | 60 | 3 | 40 | 1600 |
| Turnip Stew | 50 | 2 | 50 | 1600 |
| Yellow Mushroom | 20 | 1 | 20 | 600 |
That’s our Valheim food guide & how to cook meat in Valheim. While you’re here, check out more tips & tricks that will help you level up your gameplay in our Valheim guides. For more details do not forget to visit our Valheim Wiki Guide for cheats, boss fights, rare resource locations, etc.