If you have 1 or more points of stamina you can do a bash (I think it works the same for power attack) . So with the soup you kinda have unlimited bashes, or at least 1 bash/second. Add to this the beef stew(which Fortifies Stamina by 25 pts.) and Venison stew, you get a very good stamina regeneration(3 pts. per second).
I didn't pay attention to the cooking while playing on Adept, but damn is it useful on Master!

that's useful to know...thank you

I guess you could play a character who does no magic and no alchemy at all, and then cooking would be usefull. Just a "eating-sleeping-lover's comfort-fighting" kind of guy . Actually I might try a Nord character like that eventually, join the Stormcloacks, etc.

Cooking only fails if you dont role play, and also its not a fail because its an open area to be ripped apart and used for mods for hardcoe modes and things.

To the RP croud, it's a nice addition. To the collector, it's something else to collect. To the min/maxers out there is a waste.

Or it didn't work out, and they decided it didn't fit the game, like horse-combat -which was in and functional, then cut.

I love the soups in Skyrim. I'd have prefered a cap on the amount of food you could eat in a short while (Like Oblivion's 4-potion limit), with each food providing a number of in-game hour benefits to stamina, health, magicka, and regeneration.


Not quite a waste to the Min-Maxers. Vegetable Soup is a Game-breaker - 10 Real-life minutes of unlimited power attack and shield bash.

OK I understand where u are coming from, but wait. Here is how vegtable soup works: When u are out of stamina your stamina bar flashes and u cannot perform bashes and power attacks. Every bash and power attack costs 1 point of stamina (minimum) i.e. you MUST have at least one point of stamina in your bar if u wish to power attack/shield bash. Drinking one vegtable soup will ensure that there is ALWAYS at least one point in your stamina bar for roughly 15 minutes. So, for 15 minutes, you become a BEAST with regards to power attacking and shield bashes without having to worry about stamina recovery rates. It may look as if the stamina bar is empty but infact there is just one point of stamina in there for the entire 15 minutes. Great against numerous enemies at once etc. However, some of the weaker recipes do seem like very weak healing/stamina potions and I ignore most of them. Hope that helped!

glad it's added and has its uses but cooking could have obviously been better developed and implemented. no hardcoe-type mode is a huge disappointment for me. i thought it was a no-brainer.

Food mods that gave buffs came out long time ago. I assume you on console? svcks to be you, lol

it made hunting slightly more useful in the beginning, at later levels teh +15 health stews i made didn't do crap to help me

I wished they added a few perks for cooking, it seems a bit useless as it is atm. Lots of stuff to cook but no real use to it all. Im on xbox so no modder will save my game.

Cooking is good as it is. Easy. Mostly pointless. Adds to immersion but isn't a whole second alchemy system. Dump it altogether or leave it be for the next one. Skyrim doesn't need to get more MMO grindy.

I used to think cooking was just for immersion but it actually saved my character's life last night. I was all out of potions and eating a few cooked items gave me just enough health and stamina to give the final few blows to a dragon priest.

Yes, cooking could have been improved to provide more buffs. I'm just glad they included it in Skyrim.

its an RP boon

I love the idea of needing to eat as well as sleep or you take some form of stat hit over time or whatnot...def open to how the system would work and as long as it isn't made too much like a chore would have been a great addition to the game.

Shouldn't really cure health at all and just a bit of stamina, and even then make raw food inconsumable and add a hardcoe mode where you need to eat.

Currently, it's a waste of salt piles

The meal your spouse makes for you is actually pretty good to have on hand. The rest were useful at low levels because there is food in every cave/dungeon/house you go into, but not necessarily health pots. I don't think I've eaten anything other than the meal my wife makes since level 30 or so...

There's only one good thing about cooking: Elsweyr Fondue.
Everything else is useless imo.

I like the cooking and the recipies. Would have been nice to get slightly ill from eating raw meat though. I guess thats where my mighty roleplaying imagination comes into play

I recently survived an ambush by consuming 87 carrots in the middle of a fight. To put it mildly, this ridiculous. But food as an instant-healing agent is a fantasy video game conceit that dates back to Gauntlet ("Red warrior needs food-- badly!")

Agreed, but stamina potions should be removed from the game too.

Hunger stage 1: All skills are at 90%, regeneration is at 75%
Hunger stage 2: All skills are at 75%, regeneration is at 40%
Hunger stage 3: Skills are at 50%, regeneration is at 0.
Hunger stage 4: Skills are at 25%, regeneration is at 0, spending stamina or magicka also spends 10% of the cost in health. Damage dealt is three quarters, you take one quarter extra damage when dealt damage.
Hunger stage 5: Skills are at 0%, regeneration is at 0, attacking or casting spells will cause your character to stagger, spending stamina or magicka costs 25% of that cost in health, damage dealt is half, damage taken is multiplied by two

i actually gagged in real life the first time i had to eat a giant's toe. someone at bethesda had a sick sense of humer.

Don't take away my skooma. I do very bad things when people try and take away my skooma!

Thanks for explaining this. Obviously a lot of people don't get it. They're so used to insta-heals that they can't play any other way, I guess.

And if Beth had made cooking as "useful" as some people want it to be, there would be threads on how unrealistic and OP it is. Same **** different day around here.