Most cooked dishes do more than restore hunger: they apply a buff that lasts 10 minutes, or 30 for the two Gloopie EXP dishes. The top attack dish grants +25% and the best work speed food +50%. Sorted by effect below; all values are percentages.
Attack
| Dish | Effect | Recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Mammorest Curry | Attack +25 | Mammorest Meat ×1, Onion ×2, Carrot ×2, Potato ×2, Red Berries ×2 |
| Eikthyrdeer Loco Moco | Attack +20 | Eikthyrdeer Venison ×1, Red Berries ×2, Egg ×2 |
| Broncherry Fried Noodles | Attack +20 | Broncherry Meat ×1, Onion ×1, Carrot ×1, Flour ×1 |
| Mozzarina Cheeseburger | Attack +20, Hunger Resist +50 | Mozzarina Meat ×2, Flour ×1, Tomato ×2, Milk ×2 |
| Omelet | Attack +10 | Tomato ×1, Egg ×2 |
Omelet needs only tomatoes and eggs, so one tomato plot and a ranch produce it indefinitely — the everyday buff. Mammorest Curry takes five ingredients including giant meat, so save it for Alphas and tower runs.
Defense
| Dish | Effect | Recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Galeclaw Nikujaga | Defense +25 | Galeclaw Poultry ×1, Onion ×2, Carrot ×2, Potato ×2 |
| Eikthyrdeer Stew | Defense +20 | Eikthyrdeer Venison ×2, Mushroom ×1, Milk ×2 |
| Carbonara | Defense +20 | Flour ×1, Egg ×2, Milk ×2 |
| Rushoar Hot Dog | Defense +20 | Rushoar Pork ×1, Flour ×1, Lettuce ×2 |
| Marinated Mushrooms | Defense +10 | Mushroom ×1, Red Berries ×2 |
Attack and defense buffs stack, so the reliable loadout is one of each rather than two of the same kind.
Work speed
These buffs apply to the player, not to Pals. Hauling, logging and crafting all speed up, so the gain is largest while the base is still under construction.
| Dish | Effect | Recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Mozzarina Hamburger | Work Speed +50, SAN Resist +25 | Mozzarina Meat ×1, Flour ×1, Lettuce ×2 |
| Dumud Chowder | Work Speed +50, Hunger Resist +25 | Raw Dumud ×1, Lettuce ×2, Tomato ×2 |
| Minestrone | Work Speed +40 | Tomato ×3, Carrot ×2, Onion ×2, Potato ×1 |
| Salad | Work Speed +30 | Lettuce ×2, Tomato ×2 |
| Pizza | Work Speed +30, Hunger Resist +25 | Flour ×1, Red Berries ×2, Tomato ×2, Milk ×2 |
Salad is the value pick: two vegetables, no meat, nothing your ranch has to produce.
EXP
EXP buffs are easy to overlook and carry the highest value. The two Gloopie dishes last 30 minutes instead of the usual 10; the two jellies keep the standard 10.
| Dish | Effect | Recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Seafood Salad | EXP +20, 30 minutes | Gloopie Tentacle ×3, Lettuce ×4 |
| Fried Gloopie Balls | EXP +10, 30 minutes | Gloopie Tentacle ×2, Flour ×3 |
| Jelliette's Jiggly Jelly | EXP +10, Attack +10, 10 minutes | Jelliette Bell Flesh ×2, Aquatic Pal Fluids ×2 |
| Jellroy's Jolly Jelly | EXP +10, Defense +10, 10 minutes | Jellroy Bell Flesh ×2, Red Berries ×2 |
Eat a Seafood Salad before a tower, a Predator hunt or a dungeon clear and the 30 minutes covers the whole run.
A few special effects
| Dish | Effect | Recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Salt-Grilled Skutlass | Immunity to knockback and flinch | Skutlass Sashimi ×1 |
| Seafood Pasta | Immunity to explosion damage | Gloopie Tentacle ×3, Flour ×3, Tomato ×2 |
| Nutrient Tonic | No hunger at all | World Tree Holy Water ×25, Caramel Cotton Candy ×18, Onion ×20, Cavern Mushroom ×10 |
Salt-Grilled Skutlass costs one piece of sashimi and is the most useful of the three in a tower fight, where being staggered out of an animation costs more than the damage itself.
The juices
| Drink | Effect |
|---|---|
| Suspicious Juice | Work Speed +200, SAN Resist −25000 |
| Strange Juice | Work Speed +400, SAN Resist −50000 |
| Mysterious Mushroom Juice | Work Speed +600, SAN Resist −100000 |
Each one lasts 10 seconds, and the SAN penalty is large enough that sanity drains immediately. Feeding them to Pals carries the same cost. They are suitable only as a one-off tool, never as routine food.
Notes
A few entries in the food-effect table have no recipe anywhere: Hot Dog, Hamburger, Cheeseburger, BLT, Stir-Fried Veggies, Bolognese Sauce, Mushroom Stew. The items exist in the data, but nothing in the game cooks them, so any recipe listed for them elsewhere is not real.
Most of the dishes above need an Electric Kitchen or better. If you have the ingredients and still cannot cook something, it is usually the technology, not the pantry — check the unlock on the technology tree.
Every dish and ingredient is in the item database, with recipes, drop sources and uses on each page.