In the world of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, players have the option of doing just about anything they want. From going on adventures to enchanting weapons and even catching fish or cutting wood at a mill, all the daily activities of a regular Skyrim citizen are available for the player to partake in for a bit of money.

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However, one activity often gets overlooked for not being very profitable: cooking. While it's true that in terms of health and status-boosting effects, the art of alchemy and enchanting are much better, for a survivor playing on the hardest difficulty, food can make all the difference. Here are some tips on what to cook and what to pass on.

Updated July 9, 2022, by Jerrad Wyche: The next mainline Elder Scrolls game is likely still years away at this point, but fans of the series are biding their time with both Elder Scrolls: Online and The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim: Collector's Edition. The latter packs together both the base experience and the game's DLC expansions, giving players access to all of the content released for Skyrim, including various cooking recipes that were once only available as DLC.

14 Horker & Ash Yam Stew

Skyrim Elder Scrolls Best Cooked Food Horker Ash Yam Stew
  • Ingredients: Ash Yam, Garlic, Horker Meat
  • Effects: Restores Health by 16 points, and Stamina by 12 points

By purchasing the Dragonborn expansion for Skyrim, players not only get access to a myriad of new content, but the ability to cook Horker and Ash Yam stew is an added benefit. It may not look like the most appetizing meal, but it boosts the player's health and also gives a shot to their stamina.

Any Skyrim player knows the stress of spam eating during a fight in an attempt to fight off certain death, and so this stew is worth the small investment that it takes to cook it. Its easy-to-find ingredients make it one of the best cooked foods in Skyrim.

13 Juniper Berry Crostata

Skyrim Elder Scrolls Best Cooked Food Juniper Costata
  • Ingredients: Butter, Juniper Berries, Sack Of Flour
  • Effects: Restores Health 2 points per second for 60 seconds

Many of the other cooked dishes in Skyrim are foods that most people have heard of. That's probably not the case here though. The Juniper Berry Crostata sounds a bit fancy, but it is simply an Italian tart that is baked and molded to look like an open-faced pie.

Both of the game's crostata dishes are unlocked with the Hearthfire DLC expansion and require the same ingredients of butter and a sack of flour. The defining difference between the two is the effect that the type of berry used has on the player. The Juniper Berry variant restores the player's health slowly over time, allowing them to focus on the enemies in front of them as their vitality is refueled.

12 Snowberry Crostata

Skyrim Elder Scrolls Best Cooked Food Snowberry Costata
  • Ingredients: Butter, Snowberries, Sack Of Flour
  • Effects: Fire Resistance increased by 4% for 60 seconds

The Snowberry Crostata, like the Juniper Berry version, is only available to owners of Skyrim's Hearthfire expansion. Players who have a sack of flour and butter laying around will simply need to get their hands on some Snowberries to cook this fanciful tart dish.

It's best saved for when an enemy that deals in the element of fire is being approached in combat as the fire resistance can alter the advantages on the battlefield. There's nothing quite like stuffing one's face into an open-faced pie with little to no regrets.

11 Braided Bread

Skyrim Elder Scrolls Best Cooked Food Braided Bread
  • Ingredients: Salt Pile, Sack Of Flour
  • Effects: Carrying capacity increases for 30 seconds by 5

Becoming over-encumbered In Skyrim is a common occurrence for most players, as not everyone plans ahead for their adventures. Having something like Braided Bread that increases one's carrying capacity can provide enough time for the player to fast travel to a location where they can store all of their goods.

With the only ingredients needed being a pile of salt and some flour, the hardest part about cooking Braided Bread is having access to the Hearthfire DLC expansion needed to access the ability to cook it. Those with the Anniversary Edition of the game need not worry about this though, as the DLC is included.

10 Vegetable Soup

Skyrim Vegetables
  • Ingredients: Tomato, Leek, Cabbage, Potato
  • Effects: Restores 1 Health and 1 Stamina for 720 seconds

Vegetable soup is a pretty cheap and easy recipe to make since vegetables are simple enough to find in most locations when looting sacks and barrels. Extra servings of the soup can be sold for a price of 5 gold.

All things considered, it's a pretty nice recipe for a bit of regeneration. For Stamina-reliant character builds this is a really solid choice of cooked food to make since players can continuously perform heavy attacks.

9 Apple Cabbage Stew

Skyrim Apple Cabbage Stew
  • Ingredients: Salt Pile, Red Apple, Cabbage
  • Effects: Instantly restores 15 Stamina and 10 Health

The combination of apple and cabbage might be a bit strange for some players. However, the effects of this recipe make it a food well worth cooking in Skyrim, even over some more "normal" foods.

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Its effects are instant, restoring a bit of Stamina and Health to the player. They're a nice food to carry when Health Potions are a rarity. Plus, its ingredients are some of the easiest to find and most common in the game, so it's like having a cheap Health Potion at hand almost all the time.

8 Venison Stew

Skyrim Deer In The Wild
  • Ingredients: Venison, Potato, Leek, Salt Pile
  • Effects: Instantly restores 15 Stamina. Restores 1 Stamina and 1 Health for 720 seconds

Players who are particularly talented in archery will be greatly rewarded if they take the time to turn their deer into venison stew. Leftover stew sells for 8 golds as well, which is a nice extra if the player is saving up for something expensive.

The venison is probably the hardest to acquire, but it's a great way to practice archery. The effects that the dish offers definitely make cooking it worthwhile though, particularly for those with a big battle looming on the horizon.

7 Apple Dumpling

Skyrim Hearthfires Apple Dumpling
  • Ingredients: Green Apple, Red Apple, Sack of Flour
  • Effects: Instantly restores 5 Health. Damage with bows is boosted by 5% for 60 seconds.

Another great addition by the Hearthfire DLC is the apple dumpling. These tasty treats only give players a bit of health when consumed, but they're the perfect food for any aspiring archers and bow users.

And given how obsessed most fans are with the stealth archer build, there's no excuse for players to try this recipe out. Apple dumplings will sell for 3 gold but are usually worth keeping for the tiny bow damage boost that they provide.

6 Horker Stew

Skyrim Horker By The Water
  • Ingredients: Tomato, Garlic, Horker Meat, Lavender
  • Effects: Instantly restores 15 Stamina and Health. Restores 1 Health for 720 seconds

Horkers are great not only for alchemy but also for food. They can be found around the northern coastal areas, and are surprisingly aggressive when approached. For some exotic horker stew, players will just a few additional cheap ingredients.

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The stew gives a great boost, though it does require players to actually find horkers first, which might make cooking it a bit more difficult. Overall, it's a very powerful recipe particularly for character relying on their Stamina pool. Players can also sell it for 8 gold.

5 Garlic Bread

Skyrim Garlic Bread
  • Ingredients: Bread, Garlic, Butter
  • Effects: Instantly restores 1 Health and all diseases are cured

Garlic bread might sound like a simple snack without much to it, but it's actually one of the best foods in Skyrim due to its unique ability to cure all diseases. Diseases can be extremely annoying to deal with in the game since they give debuffs to players that can make combat and gaining experience tedious.

Moreover, Potions of Cure Disease are extremely rare in loot and very expensive to buy, so being able to make this treat that's included in the Hearthfire DLC is a huge advantage for the Dragonborn. They sell for only 2 gold.

4 Elsweyr Fondue

Skyrim Cheese Wheels Filling Up A Room
  • Ingredients: Ale, Moon Sugar, Eidar Cheese Wheel
  • Effects: Instantly increases Magicka by 100 points for 12 minutes. Magicka is restored 25% quicker for 12 minutes.

Who doesn't love cheese? Even in the world of Skyrim, it makes for one of the greatest delicacies across all of Tamriel: the famous Elsweyr Fondue. It definitely isn't the easiest or most convenient food to make, but it does have some special benefits for mage characters especially.

Although it's an exotic item, it only sells for about 5 gold. It's a very powerful meal for mages, and extremely cheap compared to Magicka potions.

3 Lavender Dumpling

Skyrim Lavender Growing In The Wild
  • Ingredients: Snowberries, Sack of Flour, Lavender, Moon Sugar
  • Effects: Instantly restores 5 Health points. For 60 seconds, Magicka is buffed by 10 points and the player gains 10% magic resistance.

These unique dumplings were introduced to the game through the Hearthfire DLC. They're a bit different from some of the more traditional foods in Skyrim, but still have surprisingly good utility in a pinch, especially when players need a bit of magic resistance and extra Magicka.

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Due to the special buff of these dumplings, it's mostly mages or spellswords that will see the most use out of them. They can also be sold for 3 gold.

2 Beef Stew

Skyrim Beef On A Plate
  • Ingredients: Carrot, Garlic, Salt Pile, Raw Beef
  • Effects: Stamina is fortified by 25 for 720 seconds. Restores 2 Stamina for 720 seconds.

For the ultimate food boost, there's no doubt that beef is the answer to all questions. It is of course acquired when killing a cow and is the key ingredient to one of the heartiest stews in all of Skyrim: the beef stew. When sold, it can go for about 8 gold.

This stew is an even more powerful Stamina boosting recipe than some of the other stews, but it's also much harder to get raw beef.

1 Homecooked Meal

Skyrim Character Cooking By Fire
  • Ingredients: Unknown, cooked by spouses
  • Effects: 25% boost to Magicka, Health, and Stamina regeneration for 600 seconds

Technically, this meal can't be cooked by the Dragonborn, which makes it a somewhat special case on this list. That being said, it could be argued it can still be "crafted" by interacting with a spouse in Skyrim.

Spouses can be asked to cook a meal for the Dragonborn, resulting in the Homecooked Meal. This superfood gives players an immense stat boost for 600 seconds, so it's worth actually getting married in Skyrim and grabbing a bunch of these from a spouse.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim was released on November 11, 2011, and is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.

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