+Four ingredients were added since the demo days.
These ingredients are available in Emerald Isles, the first biome.

• Blueberries [+8/3m]; large crop that renews itself
  
• Chestnut Seeds
  
• +Coffee
  
• Corn [+8/3m]
  
• Flour - grind Wheat
  
• Leaves
  
• Reishi mushroom [+8/3m]
  
• Salt - grind salt crystals (not renewable)
  
• Sugar - grind sugar beets
  
• +Sugar Beet [+8/3m]
  
• Clean Water [+0/5m], Hydrated - craft from dirty water & charcoal (not renewable)
  
• Wheat

These ingredients are available in Fallen Heights, the second biome (requires wool sails)

• Egg - laid by Pheasants
  
• Flax seeds
  
• +Honey [+8/3m] - from beehives (semi-renewable)
  
• Pumpkin [+8/4m]; large crop that renews itself
  
• Tomato [+8/3m]; small crop renews itself, and can fit in small planters

These ingredients are available in Red Cliffs, the third biome (requires linen sails)

• Carrots [+6/4m]
  
• Milk [+6/5m] - from Goats
  
• +Peas [+2/1m]
  
• Potato [+6/5m]
  
• Watermelon [+8/3m]; large crop that renews itself

You can hack Cacti with your sword to get

• +Cactus Chunk [+6/5m], Hydrated (Not an Ingredient, but still Edible) -- careful not to waste a coating, though

• Bone meal - grind bones (not used in any recipe)
  
• Garlic

These categories are all conjecture, based upon my experimentation.

• Dry: Bland, Fruits or Veggies
  
• Wet: Water or Milk
  
• Bland: Leaves, Bone meal, Flour, Wheat, Chestnut Seeds, Flax Seeds,
  
• Fruits: Blueberry, Pumpkin, Watermelon
  
• Veggies: Corn, Carrot, Peas, Potato, Reishi Mushroom, Sugar Beet, Tomato
  
• Spice: Sugar, Salt, Garlic, Honey
  
• Egg gets its own category

Currently*, Salt and Charcoal (to make clean Water) are not resources that you can farm, but must harvest a limited quantity from the islands you visit. Honey is almost in this category, but harvested beehives will replenish after some amount of time.

Additionally, these can be used in other ways that you may find more useful to your play style. You may wish to eschew using these ingredients in cooking.

• Honey is used in making bandages (Tier-2, if I recall)
  
• Salt is used in the Stormchaser and the Kiln
  
• Charcoal is used in many ways: Sketching blueprints (my fave), building most kinds of Lamps/Torches (unless you like your home dark), Lighting fires (build the campfire indoors to only light it once), the Kiln, and more

That being said, I find that Clean Water is so common in chests that I never need to use any charcoal to make some.

*There are plans in the works to make Charcoal renewable via lightning strikes, and the ability to make an Apiary (or something) using a Queen Bee (which is not currently in the game). Also, I wouldn't be surprised if Salt Crystals had some sort of replenishing mechanic later on. Maybe Clean Water will get a replenishing source, too.

After each recipe is a number like [+7/3m] indicating how many temporary maximum hit points you get from eating the food, and how many minutes the effect lasts. I sorted them by +HP (least to greatest benefit), then by duration, then alphabetically.
Notice for "salty sailors" from the old demo days: These bonuses have changed! Also: check out the new recipes!

Lasts only 2 minutes, grants +10 temporary HP.

• Burnt Meal: while cooking, hold 'F' too long [+10/2m]

Lasts 6-8 minutes, grants +10 to +16 temporary HP.

• Bland Soup: 2 bland + 1 wet [+10/6m]; Hydrated
  
• Over-seasoned Soup: 2 spice + 1 wet [+10/6m]; Hydrated
  
• Underwhelming Soup: 2 wet + 1 dry [+10/6m]; Hydrated
  
• Stale Meal: 2 bland + 1 dry [+12/6m]
  
• Broth: 1 Wet + 1 Bland + 1 Spice [+14/8m]; Hydrated
  
• Over-seasoned Meal: 2 spice + 1 dry [+16/6m]

Lasts 8-10 minutes, grants +20 to +28 temporary HP.

• Mixed Veggies: 3 Veggies [+20/10m]
  
• Soup: 1 Wet + 1 Veggie + 1 Veggie or Spice [+20/10m]; Hydrated
  
• Veggie Skewer: 2 Veggies + 1 Spice [+20/10m]
  
• Savory Smoothie: 1 Wet + 1 Fruit + 1 Fruit or Spice [+22/8m]; Hydrated
  
• Healthy Smoothie: 1 Fruit + 1 Veggie + 1 Wet [+22/10m]; Hydrated -- this is possibly the easiest "decent" meal to make when starting off (for the buff)
  
• Fruit Salad: 3 Fruit [+24/8m]
  
• Grilled Fruit+: 2 Fruit + 1 Spice [+24/8m]
  
• Fresh Bowl: 1 Fruit + 1 Veggie + 1 Dry or Spice [+24/10m]
  
• Fried Eggs: 1 Egg + 2 other [+28/10m]

These first two can be drank in addition to your other food; they don't count against your 2-meal limit. The last one is a super special secret!

• Digestive Tea: 2 Leaves + 1 Water (clears digesting meals)
  
• +Cup of Coffee: 2 Coffee + 1 Water (grants "Zippy" buff) -- can be crafted at the workbench as well; description falsely claims that it fills your Momentum bar (it does not)
  
• +Wisteria Tea: 2 Wisteria + 1 Water [+16/6m], Enthusiastic, At Peace * -- this can't be made on a cooking plate

* Note that the buffs last for 4 minutes longer after the Wisteria Tea has finished digesting, allowing for another meal.

Lasts 10-24 minutes, grants +24 to +48 temporary HP (non-gourmet).
Note that these recipes should be discovered (chests may contain recipe scrolls), so I have hidden them with spoiler tags. You can still learn them by putting in the combos (I discovered a few that way; a very rewarding experience). If you get a recipe item that teaches you a recipe that you already know, it will "upgrade" it to a gourmet version, granting better stats.

• Oatmeal: Wheat, Salt, Blueberries [+24/11m]; Energetic
  
• +Marrons Glacés: Chestnuts, Water, Sugar [+28/18m]; Efficient -- this is probably one of the easiest "good" meals to make when starting off
  
• Blueberry Pie: Flour, Sugar, Blueberry [+30/14m]; Efficient -- this is probably one of the easiest "good" meals to make when starting off
  
• Corn on the Cob: Corn x2, Salt [+30/14m], Efficient; description falsely claims "Butter" is an ingredient -- there is no butter
  
• +Flat Bread: Flour, Salt, Flax Seeds [+32/14m]; Energetic; falsely claims Water as an ingredient
  
• Tomato Soup: Water, Salt, Tomato [+32/24m]; Productive, Hydrated -- longest-lasting recipe
  
• Berry Loaf: Flour, Egg, Blueberry [+34/14m]; Efficient, Energetic
  
• Corn Loaf: Flour, Egg, Corn [+34/14m]; Efficient, Energetic
  
• Sweet Roll: Flour, Milk, Sugar [+35/11m]; Efficient
  
• Pumpkin Pie: Flour, Sugar, Pumpkin [+36/14m]; Efficient
  
• Summer Salad*: Corn, Tomato, Garlic* [+38/14m]; Efficient, Productive -- can't actually be made yet, but may be found in chests
  
• Stew: Water, Potato, Carrot [+42/18m]; Energetic, Productive, Hydrated
  
• Carrot Loaf: Flour, Egg, Carrot [+44/14m]; Efficient, Energetic
  
• Pumpkin Loaf: Flour, Egg, Pumpkin [+44/14m]; Efficient, Energetic -- the best mid-game recipe (in Fallen Heights)
  
• Gnocchi: Peas+, Egg, Potato [+44/18m]; Energetic, Productive; recipe now requires peas, but the description still says flour
  
• +Yoghurt: Milk, Honey, Blueberry [+48/10m]; Efficient, Productive

+These recipes were added/changed since the demo days.

Boosts (or buffs) have a fixed duration (8 minutes for most, 5 for Hydrated or Zippy, 10 for At Peace or Enthusiastic), regardless of food. Note that the buff gained from eating food will not last as long as the temporary HP. For instance, a Healthy Smoothie grants +22 HP for 10 minutes, but only keeps you hydrated for the first 5 minutes.

• Digesting: clears eaten meals (you can only digest 2 at a time) over a period of a few seconds; to get this brew Digestive Tea. This also clears any buffs and extra HP the meals were giving you.
  
• Hydrated: +Attack Speed; Hydrated only lasts 5 minutes; get from Clean Water, or any soup or smoothie (but not coffee). This is useful when you get Parched (reduced Attack speed) in the Red Cliffs biome (you can also get Wet, wear Linen clothes, or stay indoors to remove Parched)
  
• Efficient: +Attack damage; Efficient lasts 8 minutes; get from Blueberry Pie, Marrons Glacés, Corn on the Cob, Berry Loaf, Corn Loaf, Pumpkin Pie, Sweet Roll, Summer Salad, Carrot Loaf, Pumpkin Loaf, or Yoghurt Bowl
  
• Energetic**: Shorter combos -- what this means is that the yellow bar for combo timing is longer, the combo finish has a yellow bar, and (at least for the pickax) there is one fewer "wind-up" attack before the combo finish; Energetic lasts 8 minutes; get from Berry Loaf, Carrot Loaf, Pumpkin Loaf, Corn Loaf, Flat Bread, Gnocchi, Stew, or Oatmeal
  
• Productive: +Resources gathered; Productive lasts 8 minutes; get from Stew, Yoghurt, Summer Salad, Gnocchi or Tomato Soup
  
• Zippy: +1 Momentum & double Momentum gain (for glider boosts and combat moves); Zippy lasts 5 minutes (even after using Digestive Tea); to get this brew or craft a Cup of Coffee*
  
• At Peace: "Minor" health regeneration; At Peace lasts for 10 minutes; get from laying down for 10 seconds (anywhere) or from drinking Wisteria Tea
  
• Enthusiastic: +Damage, +Movement, +Attack speed, and +1 Momentum; Enthusiastic lasts 10 minutes; gain from restoring an unhealthy ecosystem or from drinking Wisteria Tea

* Note that coffee is great for Momentum (and therefor combat in general), and does not count against your two-meal limit. It's almost as wonderful as the real thing! Well... *slurp* *Aahhhh!* Not quite. :D
** Energetic got a makeover in patch 0.3.1.13, making it the best combat buff available (but get all three, if you can).

If you can afford it regularly, any Smoothie + any Loaf will get you all three combat buffs at a time. Getting the Eggs from Pheasants (only available in Biome 2) is the expensive part.

• For all the boosts, a number of combos are available, always topped off with a cup of coffee (and maybe water). I recommend Stew + Yoghurt (in the game; not in real life!) or Pumpkin Loaf + Gnocchi, if you can find the Peas.
  
• For maximum +HP, Yoghurt can't be beat (+48 HP!), but it only lasts 10 minutes. Carrot Loaf (+44), Pumpkin Loaf (+44), Gnocchi (+44), and Stew (+42) are also very good.
  However, gourmet recipes of most meals can be better than all of these.
  
• For duration, nothing lasts as long as Tomato Soup (24 minutes)! Tied for second (at 18 minutes) are Stew, Marrons Glacés, Pumpkin Loaf, Gnocchi.

• You don't need to eat while you're at your home base.
  
• Visiting non-corrupted islands may not warrant any food, since there's no combat.
  
• On the other hand, if you see that an island has lots of resources to harvest, you may want to consume foods that grant the Hydrated, Productive and/or Energetic buffs.
  
• When confronting a corrupted island that only has a single "Mykter Tree" (I don't know to call them), you might want to use up your less-valuable food, since the fight will be easier.
  
• Save those gourmet foods for the big, intense battles on multi-tree islands.
  
• Try not to combine two foods that grant the same buffs (like Summer Salad + Yoghurt, or two Loaves). On the other hand, you may decide that redundant buffs is worth it for the superior +HP or duration stats.
  
• If you're not having a soup or smoothie, you can drink a cup of water to get Hydrated, since this doesn't count against your two-meal limit.
  
• Always try to have the Hydrated buff in the third biome, Red Cliffs. Try to have the lowest duration possible, since the Hydration buff only lasts five minutes. For this use, the best food is also the most readily available: Chunk of Cactus.

You will need:

• a Dorkip (the pointy hoe-spear-thing)
  
• a Bucket
  
• probably a Sickle (see "Harvest", below)
  
• the blueprint for a Farming Plot
  
• Compost from the Compost Bin (you can also find it in chests)
  
• seeds, which can be gained from plants on healthy islands (though not always; try, try again until you get seeds). You can occasionally get seeds in chests, too.

Build the farming plots in 2 x 2 bunches (they will "merge" into one big farming plot). The leaf bucket can cover four plots with a single splash, so even-numbered farming plots are ideal.

Use the Doorkip to till the soil. Once you do, the prompt to plant the seeds appears. Note that the seeds must be in your inventory to plant (they can't be in storage, even if that little green toggle is on).

Also, this forum post has a great suggestion:

Originally posted by SikarHiyore:

What works for me is terraced farming: put the re-growing plants in some plot. Build a half-wall adjacent to the plot and snap a new plot to that - so that it's half-height above the first plot. Grow stuff that needs harvesting with the sickle in the higher plot. When using the sickle you will then cut above the re-growing plant and not damage it.
Also looks nice clinging to the side of an island.

You could also try vertical farming (stacking set of farm plots on top of each other).

Most importantly: Don't Forget To Water Your Crops! They won't die if you don't, but it can be frustrating to wait forever for crops to be ready, only to realize the soil is dry and cracked. In Biome 3, Red Cliffs, crops appear to get dry and cracked more rapidly, possibly requiring more water (which is scarce in the desert).

The bucket will use Clean Water, but only if you run out of Dirty Water in your inventory. (This used to be the other way around, but has since been fixed -- thankfully)

If you can't get the Bucket to consume Dirty Water, it may be because your Dirty Water is still in your Misc tab, rather than Resources (it was re-categorized a few patches ago). To fix this, either drop the Dirty Water or try to put it into a container, then pick it back up again

Certain plants don't need to be replanted after harvest; they keep producing off of just one seed! These are Blueberries, Pumpkins, Tomatoes, and Watermelons.

Once ready, you can either pick the crops by hand or use the sickle. The sickle is faster, but picking by hand is safer. Some plants (Wheat and Flax) must be harvested with a sickle. WARNING! Don't plant these next to the crops that regrow, as the sickle will destroy them.

Originally posted by onikyuuri:

Fun fact: early in my biome 2 gameplay, I managed to find a single flax seed which I planted. Not sure if it's a glitch, but the game shows the harvest symbol way before flax blooms. Guess who was stupid enough to "harvest" it, losing everything in the process. It took me a while to find more seeds.

When you unlock the smaller planters, don't try to plant anything but Tomatoes in them! Since the big square planters yield 4 crops per seed, but the little ones only yield 1 crop per seed, it isn't worth it for non-replenishing crops. On that subject, the triangular and rounded planters only yield 3 per seed (but have no loss when planting blueberries, pumpkin, or watermelon, which will also replenish themselves).

To summarize:

• Big, square planters (4/seed) = Carrots, Coffee, Corn, Flax, Peas, Potatoes, Sugar Beets, Wheat, and (eventually) Garlic
  
• Triangle & Rounded planters (3/seed) = Blueberries, Pumpkin, Watermelon
  
• various Small planters (1/seed) = Tomatoes

• Crops that don't need to be re-planted (like Blueberries or Tomatoes) are low-maintenance, high-yield, and you can use the seeds in the Mill to feed your Pheasants.
  
• Coffee is delicious a very beneficial "3rd meal", but some players have a hard time getting Coffee Beans. I can attest to getting a positive net yield of Coffee Beans from multiple cycles of the crop; others say their Coffee farms have a net loss in beans, which would require adventuring to replenish the stock.
  
• Flax is necessary for progression, so you will have to grow a lot of that. The seeds will become plentiful after a few growing cycles, and can be readily used as Grain for Pheasant food or cooking Flat Bread.
  
• Flour (Wheat) and Sugar (Beets) are the most common ingredients in the various recipes, so you probably want to grow some of those.
  
• Watermelon is not used in any specific recipe, currently. Avoid this unless you are making the generic recipes (or use them for decoration).
  
• Unless you just like to make all the foods (like me), decide on which recipes you plan to make regularly. Consider not just the base stats, but whether your character can make them gourmet (increasing the +HP and duration substantially), and whether you can afford the Salt, Charcoal for Clean Water, and Honey. Farm only the ingredients for your go-to meals, and skip the others.

If you build a Campfire "outside" (according to the game's logic) the fire will be extinguished whenever it rains heavily, so it is useful to have a cave or tunnel on your island. You may be able to build a structure that counts as "indoors" for the game's logic.

Currently, cooking plates may disappear when you quit & come back. The plate and any food it had will be lost, but the slot it occupied on the campfire will no longer be available. This will require you to deconstruct the fire -- you get all the resources back, except the charcoal used to light the flame. For this reason, I advise either dismantling all cooking plates before logging off or only building one plate at a time.

Igniting the campfire costs 1 Charcoal each time, but the flame persists so long as it doesn't get wet (I predict that this will change in future updates).

Warning: There is a prompt to "Feed the fire" when it is lit, but this is a waste of Charcoal, a non-renewable resource. The fire will last until the next storm (or forever, if protected from rain).

The process will take 40 seconds, but you can expedite this process by holding 'F' (default binding).
Caution: Watch the flame indicator, and listen to the sizzling, or else the cooking will fail and you will end up with a Burnt Meal!

You can also set your meal up to cook while you do something else, like setting up more meals on other cooking plates. Leaving the food on the stove doesn't burn it, so you can safely leave for as long as you like, returning much later to fresh, steaming vittles, auto-cooked to perfection.

SPOILERS! It's too big for spoiler tags... I couldn't even fit most of the failed meals on.
* May not be available in adventure mode (except in chests).

I appreciate you reading my cooking guide. I started writing it back in July 2024, but Steam wouldn't let me publish a guide for a game I didn't own (since the game was only a demo back then). Now this guide is large, and hopefully even more useful. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Also, check out my other guides:

• Aloft Progression Guide -- what I think of as my primary guide
  
• Aloft Combat Guide
  
• Aloft Crafting Guide