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Project Zomboid cooking: how to cook and every cooking recipe in Project ZomboidBecome a master chef with our Project Zomboid cooking guide

Become a master chef with our Project Zomboid cooking guide

Project Zomboid player stood in a diner with a chefs outfit on, lots of dead zombies are by the door soaked in blood

Want to know how to cook in Project Zomboid?InProject Zomboid, food is actually rather easy to come across at first. Houses are stocked with cans, tins, and boxes of imperishable goods, so there’s seemingly no need to panic. You might even start to relax as you stare proudly at your huge pile of goods. Then, it all comes crashing down. The supplies dwindle down, fresh food starts to rot, your character becomes bored of monotonous tinned tuna, and suddenly you’re facing a stomach bug and feeling sad. Fortunately, that’s nothing a bit of cooking can’t fix.

Below, we’ll cover everything you need to know about cooking in Project Zomboid, including how to cook and a full list of every Project Zomboid cooking recipe.

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How to cook in Project Zomboid

To cook in Project Zomboid, you need to find some food and somewhere to cook it.You can cook food in an oven or on a campfire. Ovens are easier to use, but they require electricity so you’ll probably need to shift over to a campfire if you survive a while.

To turn on an oven, right-click on it and select open settings. You’ll then see a menu pop up, in which you can control the heat and turn it off or on. You can display the heat in either Celsius or Fahrenheit, so use whichever makes the most sense to you. There’s also a timer that you can use, but we recommend watching your food cook until it is ready and then removing it instantly from the oven so that it doesn’t burn.

The campfire cooks food in the same way, but you’ll need to find fuel and a way to ignite it. You can use a bunch of flammable objects as fuel, including wood, twigs, paper, books, magazines, sheets, and even your socks. To light a fire, you’ll need to find a lighter and some matches, which commonly spawn in houses or vehicles. When the campfire is lit, chuck in some food and it’ll cook as long as the fire remains lit.

How to level up cooking in Project Zomboid

Raising your cooking skill level is surprisingly easy in Project Zomboid. All you need to do is cook different foods in an oven or campfire and combine ingredients into various recipes, which we’ll cover below.As you level up, the meals you cook will become more nutritious and filling, without requiring more ingredients.

At level 7, you’ll gain the ability to add rotten ingredients into a soup or stew, so you can use every scrap of food that you’ve found, even if they look a little funny. Ignore the fuzz, it’s nutritious!

Project Zomboid chef stands in a diner kitchen cooking a pork chop

Every Project Zomboid cooking recipe

As Project Zomboid is an in-depth apocalypse sim, cooking recipes tend to require lots of preparation and ingredients. There are a wide range of ingredients that you can find, including meats, vegetables, spices, and other generic ingredients, such as flour. You can use these ingredients to make soups, stews, salads, sandwiches, stir frys, pies, cakes, and rice or pasta dishes. Of course, you could just cook a piece of meat or eat a single slice of bread, but using these ingredients to make proper meals will make your character happier, healthier, and much more full.

Below, we’ll cover the basic steps for making all of these dishes and explain which ingredients you should focus on for each one.

How to make soup and stew in Project Zomboid

Here are the basic steps you must follow to make soup or stew in Project Zomboid:

You can use the following ingredients in soup:

You can use the following ingredients in stew:

After making your pot of soup or stew, you can split it into bowls to make it easier to carry.

Project Zomboid player cooking a stir fry in a kitchen while wearing a chef outfit

How to make stir fry in Project Zomboid

To make stir fry, you must place up to 6 ingredients into a frying pan or griddle pan. These items are both functionally the same, so use whichever you can find.

You can use the following ingredients in a stir fry:

To cook a stir fry in Project Zomboid, right-click on the pan in your inventory, select ‘create stir fry’ to add your ingredients, and then pop it into an oven or campfire.

How to cook rice and pasta in Project Zomboid

There are a few steps you must follow to make a rice or pasta dish in Project Zomboid. We’ll cover these steps below and then list the ingredients you can use when making either dish.

Here’s how to cook a rice or pasta dish in Project Zomboid:

You can use the following ingredients in a pasta or rice dish in Project Zomboid:

How to make salads in Project Zomboid

Like soups and stews, salads can have a total of 6 ingredients. The main difference is that you make salad in a bowl, rather than a cooking pot, and you don’t need to cook a salad.

You can use the following ingredients in a salad:

Note that any meats in the cooked meat section must be cooked before you use them in a salad, since you won’t cook the salad itself. You should not put raw ingredients into this recipe, as this will lead to anillness.

When you have your ingredients ready, right-click on the bowl in your inventory and select ‘create salad’.

How to make sandwiches and burgers in Project Zomboid

Sandwiches and burgers share many ingredients, with one big difference. You do not cook sandwiches, so you must cook meats before adding them to the sandwich. Since you cook burgers after preparing them, you can use raw meat to make a burger. Bear that in mind when looking at the list of ingredients below.

You can use the following ingredients in a sandwich:

You can use the following ingredients to cook a burger in Project Zomboid:

After preparing a burger, cook it before eating.

Project Zomboid player in a chef outfit getting eaten by a zombie

How to make pies in Project Zomboid

Pies are a little more complex, as there are a few steps you need to complete before cooking. Fortunately, the steps to make a cake and a pie are similar, so if you know how to do one you’ll be able to understand both.

Here’s how to cook a pie in Project Zomboid:

You will not know how to make pie dough unless you select thechef occupationwhen making yourcharacter build, or you findGood Cooking Magazine volume 1, which teaches you how to make pie dough. We recommend looking for this magazine in a library or post office, where skill books and magazines are most likely to spawn.

When you’ve got a pie preparation, you’ll need to add some ingredients.

You can use the following ingredients to cook a pie in Project Zomboid:

To make the pie easier to eat, we recommend cutting it into slices using a sharp tool. You can use any kind of knife, as well as a machete or meat cleaver.

How to make cake in Project Zomboid

Cakes are similar to pies, as you must make a cake preparation using batter before you can bake a cake.

Below, you can find the steps you must follow to make a cake:

Like pie dough, you must find the Good Cooking Magazine volume 1 or select the chef occupation to learn how to make cake batter.

You can use the following ingredients in a cake:

When you’ve baked your cake, you can slice it up using a sharp tool, just like a pie.

That’s everything you need to know about cooking in Project Zomboid. If you want to prime yourself for life in the apocalypse, take a look at ourProject Zomboid beginner’s guideto find some tips and tricks that everyone needs to know to survive. If you’re looting supermarket and find too much food to carry, take a look at ourProject Zomboid mechanics guideto learn how to repair a car. Just make sure you knowhow to find gas in Project Zomboidso that you don’t get stranded without petrol. If you want a safe cooking space, check out ourProject Zomboid base buildingguide. To build it faster, team up with others inProject Zomboid multiplayer.