Cooking
Contents
"This pizza tastes wonderful! What’s on it?"
"Mongbat."
The art of Cooking is likely the least useful of crafting skills, but does offer a wide range of "decorative" items. The ability to place personalised messages on things such as Cakes adds a special flavor to role-playing situations.
While most food officially grants no benefits other then a small Stamina boost when eaten, Egg Bombs and Enchanted Apples can be of great value in PvP situations. Savage Kin Paint can also be used to prevent morph spells being used on those who apply it (especially helpful when battling Barracoon the Piper).
Chefs will often find that they need an Oven nearby to create their masterpieces, though in some cases a simple Heating Stand will suffice. The serious cook will also install a Flour Mill and Water Trough in his or her home, and perhaps even hire an NPC Barkeep Vendor.
Oddly enough, the Cooking skill only has one actual Recipe scroll - the Gingerbread Cookie Recipe. With the addition of the Stygian Abyss expansion, a new recipe, Bowl of Rotworm Stew, has been added.
Tools
There are a few items available with which to practise your culinary skill. Despite their names and appearances, each is equally suitable for the preparation of any dish.
Training
Buy from an NPC Baker to around 30, then cook whatever you like!
Barbecued items are recommended. These can be made out of a single piece of meat each, so you can collect more while you're gathering Leather or out Fishing.
Targeting a stack of meat will cook the entire lot in one go and give much faster gains then cooking one slab at a time. You'll require less meat overall if you take the slow method, however. Going from 0 to 100.0 skill will take about 20,000 Cooking attempts, but your mileage may vary.
Craftables
History
In the past, Cooking used to require a more in-depth knowledge of food ingredients and recipes. There were no usable tools to display a Cooking menu, a player simply used raw food items on heat sources to cook them or on each other to combine ingredients. Additionally, some foods would cook with any heat source, such as a camp fire or heating stand, while many of the baked goods explicitly required an oven.
Many players who did not own houses would cook their goods in town at an NPC bakery or kitchen and then hawk their food at the local bank. Farm fields and fruit orchards would be combed for their harvest as a free way to gather food items. Although uncertain, it was said that being extremely hungry could actually affect skill performance, such as in combat or while crafting, which in turn contributed to a very modest market for cooked foods.
These days, while there are a few food items that impart stat bonuses such as the Grapes of Wrath or assist in some skills, such as the Egg Bomb, hunger has no effect on skill performance and most food is simply decorative in player homes or used in Roleplaying. Aside from Savage Kin Paint and Parrot Wafers, there is little demand for cooked foods.