Link may be known as a master swordsman, but in reality, he is a master chef. Able to whip up a storm just about anywhere, Link is only held back by what ingredients he has on hand and your guiding hand. There are well over 100 recipes in Tears Of The Kingdom, but let’s face it, you aren’t going to make all of them unless you are nutty about completion.
This leads us to the obvious question: “What are the best recipes?”. The answer is a bit tricky since a recipe can apply all manner of effects depending on what you put in it. There are a dozen ways to make Simmered Fruit, but not every Simmered Fruit is going to bless you with the same buffs and restorative properties. With that in mind, we’ve gathered our most used recipes to give you a leg up on your adventure. Bon appetit.
Note: This guide will not cover how to cook. We have a guide here if you want the full ins and outs of the system. We even cover the mysterious Blood Moon Cooking.
More Legend Of Zelda Tears Of The Kingdom content:
Cooking Guide | Secret Mount Guide | Surviving Cold Weather | Elixir Guide | Heat Resistance | Flame Guard
Simmered Fruit
Apples
This is an old one, but it’s one of our go-to recipes. Simmered Fruit just does the trick. All you need for this is a single Apple. Each Apple will increase its potency by +1 Heart. Simmered Fruit is the perfect recipe when you first start Tears Of The Kingdom, and it’s scaleable up to 5 Hearts.
Once it starts to take multiple portions to refill your health, it’s probably time to retire this recipe. That doesn’t diminish its efficacy when you are wandering the wilds blind. It helps that Apples are very common in the wild, so you should never be short of a dish.
Energising Honey Candy
Courser Bee Honey
Running out of Stamina can be a pain – heck, it can be lethal. As a result, it’s always handy to have some Stamina regeneration in your pack for those dire situations. Thankfully, you can almost completely restore your Stamina by cooking a single Courser Bee Honey. Add more Honey to get more of a restoration.
Courser Hives are not too hard to find if you stick to the wooded area of Hyrule, so mixing up a few portions is never that hard. Do be aware that this is a quick and easy recipe, but it’s also limited. It will not overfill your Stamina, so don’t waste your honey mixing too potent of a meal.
Simmered Tomatoes
Hylian Tomatoes
We’ve always waxed poetic over the wonders of Simmered Fruit, but what if we told you there was a natural progression in terms of restorative simmering? Hylian Tomatoes are almost as common as Apples once you get a bit further into the game, and they are far more potent in the pot.
We are talking 2x more potent. Throw 5 Tomatoes into a pot and you are healing a whopping 10 hearts. This will carry you as a primary source of healing for a large portion of the game. Sure there are other ways to heal more hearts, but chowing down on some tomatoes never failed to be a staple.
Endura Carrot Stew
Goat Butter, Fresh Milk, Tabantha Wheat, 1-2 Endura Carrots
Cobbling together a stew is bound to make anyone a bit anxious. More than half of this recipe requires non-foragable ingredients, and the rest is a fairly uncommon vegetable. Don’t worry though, it’s not all that bad, and it’s incredibly useful to stock up on.
Butter, Wheat, and Milk can be found in most major towns and villages, making it very easy to bulk buy. Endura Carrots are a bit harder to come by, but can still be bought from Kakariko Village and found in the wild. Once you mix all of this together you get a full Stamina Restore and a bonus wheel of Stamina to work with. An Excellent meal when climbing those larger cliffs or gliding between wider gaps.
Fairy Tonic
Fairy
Fairies are very useful in Tears Of The Kingdom as they revive you if you die. However, this can be equally as useful as an ingredient in your cooking. You will lose their resurrective attributes, but in exchange, you get some incredible healing capabilities.
For a single Fairy, you are looking at 7 Hearts worth of healing. Throw in more Fairies and you are very quickly healing to full for every tonic you chug. Considering most Elixirs don’t heal you, having one lying around that caps out your Hearts without much investment is great. You can find Fairies when exploring Sky Islands.
Bright Elixir
Deep Firefly
Vision is your most important resource when down in the Depths. It is pitch-black down there, and if you don’t have a reliable light source, you are going to find yourself in a lot of trouble. This is where Bright Elixir comes in, and it’s one of our staple recipes. Heck, made it a habit to have this active at all times when spelunking.
All it takes is a single Deep Firefly and any Monster Part. Throw in more Deep Fireflies to increase their duration. This lets you run around the depths with a slight glow, making it much easier to see. You will still need to throw Bright Bulbs and activate Lightroots, but this Elixir lets you see when things get a bit rough.
Veggie Porridge
Tabantha Wheat + Fresh Milk
There is actually a quest that teaches you to make this, and it’s just a solid backbone of a recipe that can be used to make all kinds of handy meals. Like with the aforementioned Stew, the ingredients are deceptively simple to acquire, letting you effortlessly make powerful healing and buffing meals.
We liked to throw everything from Hylian Greens, and Endura Carrots, to Pumpkins into our porridge. Basically, start with your base of Wheat and Milk then go wild. It lets you save your other ingredients like Meat or Fish for other recipes. Sundelions are also a great ingredient as they restore your Gloom Hearts when exploring the Depths.
Spicy Pepper Steak
Spicy Pepper + Any Meat
Why have we singled out a Cold Resistance meal over Heat or Fire? Well, because we found that we spent more time freezing to death than we did any other environmental ailment. Not only is there a cold climate on Great Sky Island, but every mountain in Tears Of The Kingdom will have Link shivering in no time. Not to mention the Rito questline.
This meal is very simple. Add a single Spicy Pepper to any portion of Meat. Boom, done. Add more Peppers to increase its duration and add more (or better quality) Meat to increase its healing capabilities.
Sticky Elixir
Sticky Lizard / Sticky Frog + Monster Part
Tears Of The Kingdom has less of an emphasis on climbing. This is in part due to Link’s expanded mobility options. Not only that, the weather makes climbing very difficult – if not impossible. This is where Sticky Elixir comes in.
Sticky Elixir makes it so you slip far less. The more Lizards and Frogs you throw into the mix, the stronger the Elixir. Even if you are climbing less, the few times you are going to want to climb will inevitably be when the game decides to unleash a downpour. Don’t let the rain get you down. Chug this Elixir and scale those surfaces with ease…well, with more ease. It’s still a pain.
That’s all we have for Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom for now. Be sure to check out our other content for more tips, tricks, guides, and lists.
