Cooking recipes: safe soups, buff meals, and what never to cook

Field Complaint

I keep making Bad Soup or getting sick. How do I actually cook something useful?

Validated Response

Cooking has 5 types: Frying Pan, Boiling Water, Chef's Counter prep, Soup (Level 3+), and Oven baking (Level 10+). You need a Portable Stove (2x Coil, 4x Plastic Scrap, 4x Metal Pipe, 1x Keyboard) and a Cooking Pot. Safe early soups: Bland Pea Soup (Canned Peas + Salt + Water) gives Sprint/Sneak XP buff. Simple Tomato Soup (Super Tomato + Salt + Water) gives Souper Satisfied (slows hunger/thirst drain). Antefish Soup from Plaza fountain fishing is a reliable midgame healing loop. Combat buffs: Pest Goulash (Raw Pest + Raw Pest Rump + Salt), Military Stew from MREs. Radiation support: Radiation Soup before Lab Sector. Never cook: Poop Soup (Sickness), Toxic Soup (Sickness from rotten food/plastic/body parts), Killer Soup (Death from glass/tech scrap). Higher Cooking skill produces Carefully Cooked variants with better restoration. Alien meat is radioactive — store in Hazard Crate only. Portal Worlds reset periodically, making ingredients like Super Tomato renewable.

Summary

Cooking has 5 types and strict recipe rules. Safe early soups use known ingredients. Random combinations can cause Sickness or Death. Higher Cooking skill produces better Carefully Cooked variants.

Prerequisites

• Reach Cooking Skill Level 3 (Soupsmith) for soup recipes.
• Craft a Portable Stove (2x Coil, 4x Plastic Scrap, 4x Metal Pipe, 1x Keyboard) and obtain a Cooking Pot.
• Craft a Soup Bowl (1x Metal Scrap, 1x Stapler, 1x Glass Scrap, 1x Test Tube) at the Crafting Bench.

Recommended Loadout

• Portable Stove and Cooking Pot
• Soup Bowl for finished recipes
• Known safe ingredients: Canned Peas, Salt, Water, Super Tomato, Antefish

Step-by-Step Route

1. Start with Bland Pea Soup (Canned Peas + Salt + Water) for Sprint and Sneak XP buffs.
2. Transition to Simple Tomato Soup (Super Tomato + Salt + Water) for the Souper Satisfied buff.
3. Use Antefish Soup from Plaza fountain fishing as a safe midgame healing loop.
4. Prepare Military Stew from MREs before combat routes and Radiation Soup before Lab Sector.
5. Never experiment with random ingredients — Bad Soup weakens restoration, Toxic Soup causes Sickness, Killer Soup causes Death.

Common Mistakes

• Throwing random junk into a pot and expecting any positive result.
• Storing alien meat in a regular fridge instead of a Hazard Crate — radiation spreads to adjacent food.
• Eating experimental Portal Stew outside base where bad rolls cannot be recovered.