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Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a game where players can battle monsters, unearth buried treasure, explore ancient ruins and misty forests, and even, surprisingly, become master chefs. With ingredients found in the environment around them, players can craft a wide variety of dishes to restore their hearts, temporarily boost their stats, or offer protection against the elements to keep Link from freezing to death on top of Mount Hylia. Players can keep it simple with dishes like steamed mushrooms or omelets when they’ve only got a few mushrooms and bird eggs on hand, or they can branch out into a luxurious meal of crab stir-fry and wild berry crepes.

Not only are recipes a fun, flexible, and visually exciting element of gameplay, they are also a crucial mechanic for players whether they’re just starting out or on their way to defeat Calamity Ganon. Need to sneak past some monsters? Whip up a stealthy mushroom skewer with the nearest cooking pot and a few silent shrooms and you’re practically invisible - so long as you don’t whistle for your horse. Additionally, these are recipes that for the most part are ones we already know in reality, but with a little Hyrule twist, meaning you can bring a taste of home with you on your grand journey through the world of Breath of the Wild. 

Now, of course, ‘best’ can be subjective. Maybe you just sneak your way around and don’t fight anything, or maybe you do fight everything and as such need some defense boosting dishes in your arsenal. Maybe you’re like me where you forget you have things in your inventory that can boost your stats until you’re suddenly getting beaten into the ground by a Lynel and just need something to restore as many hearts as possible. No matter your fighting/adventuring style, there are recipes that can maximize gameplay and enjoyment for everyone, so why don’t we take a look at some of the top examples?

 

12. Spicy Sautéed Peppers

A pleasant blend of sweet and spicy that keeps you warm no matter where you go

Especially when you’re starting out, accessibility and convenience are the key ingredients when it comes to cooking. You want recipes that you can create with ingredients foraged during your travels, because some ingredients like milk or rice need to be purchased, and as a broke, amateur adventurer, money collecting can initially be challenging for many players. Vegetables and fruit will be your go to recipes ingredients when you first start your journey as Link. 

This recipe is one that allows players to dip their toes in the water of the cooking mechanic in Breath of the Wild. In order to get Link’s infamous paraglider, players must traverse the snowy region of the Great Plateau around Mount Hylia in order to find three shrines. Likely armed with only a stick or club and rudimentary clothing, players quickly realize that it’s far too cold to brave the snow as is. Instead, they must forage for spicy peppers growing nearby and cook a dish that will keep them warm.

As we see throughout Breath of the Wild’s story, cooking is a fairly intuitive process. Cooking with hot ingredients will keep you warm in cold areas, whereas cooking with cold ingredients will keep you cool in hot areas. Even just letting a drumstick freeze in the snow can offer players a minute’s worth of protection against hot environments without any cooking required. The spicy peppers are just one primary example of how to use the environment to your advantage, and a great way to ease players into this useful mechanic. 

Why It’s a Great Recipe:

• Simple and easy - just takes a few spicy peppers and you’re good to go
• One of the first recipes new players create
• Restores hearts upon consumption and grants temporary cold resistance for extended wintery exploration
• The more peppers you use, the longer the cold resistance effects last

 Spicy Sautéed Peppers Stats:

• Sell price: 10 rupees
• Category: Spicy
• Level: 1
• Duration: 2:30 minutes
• Health Points: 1 Heart
• Ingredients: Spicy Peppers

 

11. Baked Apple

Nothing like a little arson to cook your food!

Whether you’re struggling to last a fight with a strong enemy or just need to replenish a heart or two, apples are always good in a pinch. Apple trees dot the Hyrulian landscape, offering Link a surplus of snacks to keep him going when adventurers are still new to the game. While an apple on it’s own restores health, it restores a bit more if baked - an act which is easy to achieve: just hit it with a torch, set it by a fire, as long as you expose it to an open flame long enough, it will become a freshly baked apple ripe for the eating.

Although most apple trees typically provide about three apples, some are larger and so provide a boatload of  apples for adventurers to snag. You can either try your hand at climbing and jumping, or you can use a weapon like a club to hit the tree and knock the apples down. If you choose a weapon like a sword and cut down the tree entirely, you can even gather bundles of wood and the apples all in one go.    

Why It’s a Great Recipe:

• A staple of the BOTW lifestyle
• No cooking required! Just place the apple by a heat source and watch it bake
• Easy means of heart recovery - restores three-quarters of a heart rather than a regular apple’s half 

Baked Apple Stats:

• Sell Price: 3 rupees
• Health Points: Restores ¾ of a heart
• Ingredients: Apple

 

10. Warm Milk

For those days when you just want to sit by the fire and chase away the winter chill 

While milk is for the most part a purchasable item rather than free, it is highly beneficial both when cooked on its own and when used in other recipes. Whereas apples restore half a heart unbaked, cooked milk restores 1 and a half hearts. It’s simple and easy as well as aesthetically appealing - a perfect addition for players who find joy in the exploration aspect of the game over the fighting.

Fresh Milk can be acquired at various town stores or from traveling merchants like Agus and Yammo for 12 rupees apiece, however it can also be acquired for free if players complete The Sheep Rustlers side quest in Hateno Village.

Why It’s a Great Recipe:

• Nothing fancy, but it’s a great addition to the recipe book for those chilly days in the Tabatha Tundra when you want a cozy sip of warm milk or want to expand your meal inventory
• Restores 1.5 hearts

Warm Milk Stats:

• Sell price: 10 rupees
• Health Points: 1 heart
• Ingredients: Milk

 

9. Steamed Mushrooms

Even when on your way to defeat Ganon, you can still eat healthy  

As demonstrated with apples, mushrooms are one of the most widely available ingredients found in Hyrule. Link can locate all different kinds of mushrooms throughout his adventures in a wide variety of places, whether that’s along the side of the road, on sheer cliff faces, or deep in the woods. Steamed Mushrooms is a convenient dish because it allows players to make a meal with ingredients that can be found everywhere and easily replenished. It also acts as an introductory dish to other dishes in which players stack various mushrooms and herbs for new and better buff effects.  

Mushrooms play a role in some meal-oriented or otherwise-oriented side quests in Breath of the Wild, like one quest called Rushroom Rush where a man is seeking out 55 Rushrooms to add to his collection. They can be sold in towns or to traveling merchants for quick cash, however it’s undeniable that their greatest boon comes in the form of buffs they can offer the player. Although when experimenting with your cooking, be careful not to stack mushrooms with different buffs in one recipe, or you’ll end up canceling out one or more of the buffs you’re aiming for. 

Why It’s a Great Recipe:

• Easy and versatile
• Combine any mushroom with any herb, vegetable, or flower
• Using different mushrooms or herbs also impacts the stat buffs this dish will provide Link when he eats it
• Each type of mushroom can boost a stat: 
  • Chillshroom = heat resistance
  • Silent Shroom = stealth boost
  • Zapshroom = electricity resistance
  • Stamellashroom = stamina boost
  • Endurashroom = endurance boost
  • Sunshroom = cold resistance 
  • Rushroom = speed boost
  • Razoshroom = attack power boost
  • Ironshroom = defense boost
  • Hylian Shroom = heart boost
  • Hearty Truffle = extra heart boost 

Steamed Mushroom Stats:

• Sell Price: 10 rupees
• Health Points: 3 Hearts
• Ingredients: Any herb, flower, or vegetable and any mushroom 

 

8. Simmered Fruit

Simple and sweet, just like the hundreds of apples Link somehow manages to fit in his pack 

Another good recipe for beginner players, Simmered Fruit is simple and easy, especially for those adventurers who commit to picking apples or other fruits at every chance like I do. Since many more complicated recipes involving fruit are very specific with their ingredients, it can be easy for new adventurers to accidentally waste fruits in the pursuit of new recipes, so when starting out, it’s often a good idea to use fruits you have a lot of or can readily find, like apples. 

Some fruits are common throughout Hyrule, like Apples or Wildberries, but some can only be found in specific regions, like Gerudo Desert’s Hydromelons or Voltfruit. Whether you want to create a simple fruit dish or combine different ingredients to increase your buffs - so long as you don’t try to stack ingredients with different buffs - you’ll find a wide variety of outcomes at your disposal. 

Why It’s a Great Recipe:

• All you need is some fruit - a quick and easy recipe considering Hyrule’s surplus of apple trees
• Using different fruit like Wild berries or Hydromelons can also increase your cold or heat resistance, respectively
• Stacking multiple fruits or using additions like a Hearty truffle or a Hearty durian increases effects and heart restoration as well

Simmered Fruit Stats:

• Sell Price: 20 rupees
• Health Points: 1 heart
• Ingredients: Any fruit

 

7. Hearty Fish and Mushroom Skewer

Here’s a recipe that allows players to live out their wilderness survival fantasies

Once you reach the coastline or just take a dip in the nearby river, players can also start to utilize fish in their dishes, many of which, like the Hasty Salmon or Mighty Porgy, have power boosts to increase Link’s stamina, speed, attack power, defense, and more. Similar to mushrooms, these fish are invaluable to a player who wants to improve their play through with every option at their disposal. 

Bad at catching fish? Simply throw a bomb in the water and watch all the nearby fish float up to the surface, ready to be picked up by Link. I recommend this tactic for still bodies of water, however, or else you’ll lose all your precious catches down the river.

Why It’s a Great Recipe:

• Provides full recovery as well as 2 additional temporary hearts
• Reliable dish to have in your inventory
• Easy to cook since all you need is fish, mushrooms, and an ingredient like the Big Hearty Truffle to boost players’ the heart restoration stat

Hearty Fish and Mushroom Skewer Stats:

• Sell Price: 40 rupees
• Health Points: Full recovery + 2 temporary hearts
• Ingredients: Any mushroom and fish including a Hearty Salmon, Hearty Bass, Hearty Truffle, Big Hearty Truffle, or Hearty Durian

 

6. Electro Fruit and Mushroom Mix

For when you need to conquer the Faron Jungle Tower and it’s surrounded by Electric Wizzrobes

Elixirs are helpful but can be costly. Instead, it’s usually easier to cook dishes that will offer Link resistance against various elements such as the heat, cold, and electricity. As someone who didn’t find the rubber armor for a long time, dishes like these were incredibly helpful for my play-through. 

Be careful though: just because Link is shock resistant or not in range of electric attacks doesn’t mean he’s safe in a stormy environment. Swords, bows, and even shields made of metal can attract lighting, so if you want to save your elixirs and meals, be sure to switch your weapons to items a little less shocking when it’s raining.  

Why It’s a Great Recipe:

• Easy recipe consisting of fruits and vegetables
• Invaluable for players with little idea how to protect against electricity
• Stacking the amount of Voltfruit or Zapshrooms can increase the heart restoration as well as time duration of the dish’s offered shock resistance - offering you a whopping ten minutes or more

Electro Fruit and Mushroom Mix Stats: 

• Sell Price: 40 rupees
• Health Points: 4 hearts
• Level: 1 shock resistance 
• Ingredients: Made of any fruit and mushroom including Voltfruit or Zapshrooms

 

5. Energizing Honey Candy 

The stings are worth the reward

Although Courser Bee Honey can be hard to find sometimes, this is good in a pinch for temporarily boosting stamina. Honey is most often used in dessert dishes, but it’s nice to see that it can be cooked on its own and even offer a unique benefit for players. 

Courser Bees tend to be aggressive and will chase you if given the chance, so the best way to acquire the golden honeycomb would be to shoot the hive down from a distance and wait until the bees have dispersed. The honey on its own can also be eaten to restore 2 hearts, and sells for 10 rupees if you need a little more money and have no use for honey at the moment.  

Why It’s a Great Recipe:

• Small and simple, restores not only health but also stamina
• Helpful when climbing large cliffs or taming particularly wild horses
• An aesthetic snack good for traveling on the road

Energizing Honey Candy Stats:

• Sell Price: 20 rupees
• Category: Energizing 
• Health Points: 2 hearts + part of stamina wheel
• Ingredients: Courser Bee Honey 

 

4. Fruitcake

Why fight Calamity Ganon when Link can just open up a patisserie?

A royal family secret recipe and Princess Zelda’s favorite, this recipe is an unexpected but delightful one due to both its aesthetic appearance and connections to the game’s lore. I went through a good portion of the game unaware that Link could make recipes that deviated from practical and obvious meat or mushroom dishes to more intricate ones utilizing shop goods like sugarcane. Recipes like these demonstrate the amount of forethought and player consideration that went into making the game. 

Where many players gravitate towards dishes rife with stat buffs in order to improve their fighting or exploring abilities, these dishes exist primarily for the immersiveness of the world of Breath of the Wild. They are bright and colorful, fun to make and fun to eat, and many sell at good prices due to their more coveted ingredients.  

Why It’s a Great Recipe:

• You can make dessert - what else do I need to say?
• Additionally, the fruitcake restores 5 hearts, which is always a win
• This recipe is also found in a side quest where the reward for its completion is a silver rupee, and serves as an ongoing source of income so long as players have more fruitcake to offer the quest’s designated npc 

Fruitcake Stats: 

• Sell Price: 30 rupees
• Health Points: 5 hearts
• Ingredients: Apple or Wildberry, Sugarcane, Tabantha Wheat, and any other type of fruit

 

3. Meat Curry

Everyone has that recipe where even if it only gave them half a heart it would still be their favorite 

What I love about cooking in Breath of the Wild is the sheer variety of recipes. Once you bring ingredients such as rice, meat, milk, spices, and wheat into the mix, your options expand immensely. Not only can you make desserts, but you can make all sorts of fun dishes like rice bowls or poultry pilafs. Most importantly though, now I can cook one of my favorite in-real-life dishes: curry.

Curry is something that new players tend to discover upon arriving in Goron City on Death Mountain  since it’s a recipe that requires Goron Spice. Not only is it delicious, but it also grants players a new level of immersiveness in the world as we are shown place by place how different dishes and ingredients vary based on where you are. It is a very real and authentic element of the human experience and something that can only be achieved by a game that possesses a cooking mechanic like Breath of the Wild does. 

Why It’s a Great Recipe:

• Simple but effective recipe
• Adds a taste of Goron culture to your Breath of the Wild play-through 
• Without any additional stat-boosting ingredients, this recipe restores four hearts
• Visually appealing  

Meat Curry Stats:

• Sell Price: 40 rupees
• Health Points: 4 hearts
• Ingredients: Raw Meat, Rice, and Goron Spice

 

2. Creamy Meat Soup

Delicious and nutritious~

This is an excellent dish for adventurers that are starting to get the hang of things. Maybe you’re braver than me and challenging Lynels or facing off against Guardians and need a few extra hearts to save your skin. Maybe you’re starting to experiment more with the wonders of cooking and discovered a new, interesting, and very helpful recipe.

Once players start to clear more shrines and increase their permanent heart count at a faster pace, it becomes crucial to have dishes that heal more than a couple hearts. This recipe is simple, requiring only Milk as the most difficult to acquire ingredient, and the payoff is clearly worth it. 

Why It’s a Great Recipe:

• A versatile recipe that restores 7 hearts on it’s own
• It’s a new taste of Hyrulian culture
• Using different cuts of meat or herbs or vegetables can also increase its effectiveness in restoring Link’s health

Creamy Meat Soup Stats:

• Sell Price: 60 rupees
• Health Points: 7 hearts
• Ingredients: Any meat, Rock Salt, Fresh Milk, and any vegetable, herb, or flower

 

1. Hearty Salt-Grilled Gourmet Meat 

A recipe that could bring Gordon Ramsey to tears

The first time I cooked recipes that offered me additional hearts or granted Link a full recovery of his health bar, I was ecstatic. As players advance in the game, they face bigger threats and in turn need more and more hearts to safely battle through the narrative to face Calamity Ganon. Having recipes on hand that immediately ensure a full recovery of all hearts is invaluable, especially when engaging enemies like the Golden Lynel, the Molduga, or even Thunderblight Ganon within Divine Beast Vah Naboris in the Gerudo Desert. 

Hearty dishes in my opinion are some of the most beneficial, as they’re the ones that allow Link to continue the fight no matter how much he might get beaten up. Dishes with various stat buffs are incredibly useful, but there’s no denying the sheer value of having meals in your inventory that restores all your health as soon as you eat them. 

Why It’s a Great recipe:

• Dishes like these are excellent because they don’t require more than three ingredients, but with the right ones you can boost your stats and restore health immensely 
• Anything “hearty” is a major win in my book since it usually prompts a large or full recovery of Link’s hearts
• Due to the main ingredient of gourmet meat (which can be substituted for other cuts of meat), this dish also sells well, which means you can benefit no matter what with this sort of meal in your inventory 

Hearty Salt-Grilled Gourmet Meat Stats:

• Sell Price: 140 rupees
• Health Points: Full heart restoration + 4 temporary hearts
• Ingredients: Any meat (although specifically Gourmet Meat in this case), Rock Salt, and then players choice from one of these: Hearty Durian, Hearty Truffle, Big Hearty Truffle, Hearty Radish, Big Hearty Radish, Hearty Bass, Hearty Salmon, or Hearty Blueshell Snail

 

Breath of the Wild is an incredible game, in part because of its astounding immersiveness. Game mechanics, side quests, even the food - all of it exists to create a living, breathing world where players have an unparalleled sense of autonomy and exploration. So long as they have the stamina and patience for it, players can go literally anywhere in this world. Even failure is still a success, because the so-called ‘Dubious Food’ you create when ingredient stats simply don’t mix still restores health. Be it through cooking with fairies or monster parts, or just good old classics like fish and apples, players are able to expand their horizons and experience video games as something new, innovative, and exciting.

 

                Works Cited:

Maroulier , A. (n.d.). Breath of the wild. Recipes. http://botw-recipes.com/ 

 

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