Chapter 1
Cooking in Build 42
Raw food keeps you alive. Cooked food keeps you happy, healthy and full for longer. In Build 42, cooking is also how you make food last.
The Cooking skill does 4 things as it rises. Your meals give more nutrition. Recipes use less of each ingredient. You get better at spotting poison. And at level 7 you can safely use small amounts of rotten food in recipes.
Evolved recipes
Soups, stews, salads, sandwiches. You pick a base, then add what you have. This is the heart of cooking.
Heat sources
Ovens and microwaves while the power lasts. Campfires, barbecues and wood stoves after.
Preservation
Fridges, freezers, jars and drying racks. The difference between a feast and a bin of rot.
The kitchen loop
- GatherLoot, farm, fish, hunt, forage.
- SortOldest food first. Freeze the rest.
- PreparePick a base. Add ingredients.
- CookPut it on heat. Take it off before it burns.
- EatHunger down, mood up.
- PreserveJar or dry the surplus.
Why it matters
The power will go out. The shops will empty. A cook with a pot and a campfire keeps eating when everyone else is chewing dry cereal.
Chapter 2
Build your cook
Cooking levels quickly and safely. The real head start is knowing recipes on day 1.
Chef (job)
+4 Cooking and +2 Butchering, with fast Cooking XP. Knows the cooking recipes. The strongest food job.
Burger Flipper (job)
+2 Cooking. Cheaper than Chef. Also knows the recipes.
Keen Cook (trait)
Knows the cooking recipes without a food job. Cheap. It used to be called Cook.
Fast Learner (trait)
130% XP in every skill, including Cooking.
Watch out: point costs change
The game makers still tune traits and jobs. Always read the numbers on your own character screen.
Books and magazines
Cooking is a normal skill, so its 5 books give the full boost: 3, 5, 8, 12 and 16 times XP. The level 9-10 book is called Ruban Vert Gourmet.
Some recipes, like bread and certain dishes, come from recipe magazines instead of skill. If you did not start as a Chef, Burger Flipper or Keen Cook, look for cooking magazines in bookstores and kitchens.
Secret: TV teaches cooking too
Life and Living cooking shows give Cooking XP for your first 3 levels. Watch them while the power is on.
Chapter 3
Heat sources
Food does not cook itself. Every dish needs heat. Which heat you use changes as the game goes on.
| Heat source | Needs | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Oven and stove | Electricity | Found in every kitchen. Dead when the power dies, unless you run a generator. |
| Microwave | Electricity | Fast. Same problem when the power dies. |
| Campfire | Sticks or logs, and a way to light it | Works forever. Build it outside. Fire spreads. |
| Charcoal barbecue | Charcoal or logs | A safer outdoor fire. |
| Propane barbecue | A propane tank | Great until the propane runs out. |
| Antique or wood stove | Logs | The winter kitchen. Heats the room too. |
Watch out: the fuel must match
Propane goes in propane barbecues. Logs go in campfires, charcoal barbecues and wood stoves. Electric ovens need power. Players mix these up constantly.
Watch out: fire burns houses
A campfire indoors, or too close to a wall, can burn your whole base down. Build it on open ground.
Secret: a generator keeps your oven alive
With a generator and the right knowledge, your kitchen keeps running after the shutoff. That is covered in the Electrical guide.
Chapter 4
Pots, pans and knives
A few tools unlock every recipe.
Cooking pot
Soups and stews. Holds water too. The most useful item in the kitchen.
Frying pan
Stir fries and fried meat. Also a decent weapon.
Bowl
Salads, and single portions of soup.
Knife
Slicing bread and vegetables. Filleting fish. Any sharp knife works.
Can opener
Without it, cans need a knife or a saw, and that is slow and risky.
Jars and lids
For canning. Lids run out, jars do not.
Secret: the roasting pan and baking tray
Some dishes, like roasts and pies, need their own dish. If a recipe is missing, check whether you have the right container.
Chapter 5
Evolved recipes, step by step
An evolved recipe starts with a base and grows as you add things. It is how you use whatever you have.
Choose a base
A base is the container or the main ingredient. A cooking pot for soup. Bread slices for a sandwich. A bowl for salad. Put it in your inventory, or an open container nearby.
Prepare it
Right-click the base. Choose the option, like Prepare Soup or Make Sandwich. The dish is created with nothing in it yet.
Add ingredients one at a time
Right-click the dish. Add an ingredient. Repeat. Each recipe has a maximum number of ingredients. Foods show a hunger number in brackets. Spices show as spices.
Cook it, then take it off
Put the dish on a heat source and turn it on. Wait for it to say cooked. Then take it off. Leave it too long and it burns. A burnt dish loses all its benefits and can make you sick.
Secret: cooked food is better in 3 ways
It reduces unhappiness, gives more nutrition, and uses less food per meal. A pot of stew is more than the sum of its cans.
Watch out: some things do not need cooking
Salads and sandwiches are ready when made. Only dishes with raw meat, eggs or certain vegetables need heat. If a dish is not "cookable", eat it as it is.
Chapter 6
Fresh, stale, rotten
Every perishable food is on a clock. Learn the 3 stages and you stop wasting half your loot.
Fresh
Full benefits. Eat it, cook it, or preserve it.
Stale
Still edible. Weaker benefits. Cook it today.
Rotten
Dangerous. Eating it has a high chance of sickness. Compost it.
What slows the clock
| Storage | Effect |
|---|---|
| Fridge, with power | Rots about 5 times slower |
| Freezer, with power | Rots about 25 times slower |
| Fully frozen (the name says "frozen") | Does not rot at all |
| Cooked | Cooking usually extends the clock compared to the raw ingredient |
| Canned in a jar | Lasts a very long time |
Watch out: high Cooking does not un-rot food
A common myth says Cooking 7 "refreshes" rotten meat. It does not. Level 7 lets you use small amounts of rotten food inside a big recipe. Rotten stays rotten.
Secret: eat oldest first
Sort your fridge like a real pantry. Cook the stale stuff tonight. Freeze the fresh stuff. That one habit doubles how far your food goes.
Chapter 7
Spices and happiness
Zombies are not the only thing that kills survivors. Boredom and sadness do too. Good food fights both.
Every cooked evolved recipe lowers unhappiness. Add spices and it also lowers boredom, and the unhappiness drop gets bigger. A spiced stew is medicine for your mood.
Spices
Salt, pepper, herbs, hot sauce and more. They are not used up quickly. Add them to every pot.
Wild herbs
Foraged herbs count as spices. See the Foraging guide.
Sugar and sweets
Cakes and pies are big mood boosts when you can make them.
Secret: variety matters
Eating the same thing every day wears on your survivor. Rotate your dishes. A bored cook is an unhappy cook.
Chapter 8
Safe water
Water from a river, a rain barrel or a toilet is tainted. Drink it raw and you get sick.
Boil it
Fill a cooking pot, kettle or saucepan with the tainted water. Put it on a heat source. Wait until it is clean. Now pour it into bottles.
Secret: bleach cleans water too
A tiny bit of bleach purifies a container of water. Read the amount carefully. Too much and it is poison.
Watch out: soup made with tainted water is tainted soup
Purify first. Then cook.
Chapter 9
Keeping food: fridge, freezer, jars
The power dies early. Sandbox: Electricity Shutoff Your food plan must survive that day.
Before the shutoff: freeze everything
Fill freezers with meat and vegetables. Fully frozen food does not rot. Sandbox: Refrigeration Effectiveness When the power dies, a full freezer thaws slowly, buying you days.
After the shutoff: jars
Canning puts vegetables and some fruit into jars that last a very long time. You need a jar, a lid, water, sugar or vinegar depending on the recipe, and a heat source.
Dry herbs and plants
Build 42 added plant drying racks, built from sticks and rags. They dry herbs and crops. They do not dry meat.
Watch out: drying racks are not jerky racks
Early Build 42 guides said drying racks make jerky. On the current version, plant racks dry plants only.
Secret: a generator saves the fridge
Find a generator, learn how to use it, and your fridge and freezer come back to life. Fuel becomes your new problem.
Chapter 10
Poison and bad food
In multiplayer, food can be poisoned. In any game, rotten and burnt food will hurt you.
Poisoned dishes
Any evolved recipe with 3 or more ingredients can have bleach or another poison mixed in. A higher Cooking skill makes you better at spotting it. Detected poison shows a skull icon on the food.
Watch out: strangers' stew
On a server, do not eat a 3-ingredient dish you did not make unless you trust the cook. Check for the skull.
Bad food that is not poison
- Raw meat and eggs can make you sick. Cook them.
- Rotten food has a high chance of sickness.
- Burnt food loses its benefits and adds sickness risk.
- Poisonous berries and mushrooms from foraging. See that guide.
Secret: 2 things that soften food sickness
The Iron Gut trait and eating lemongrass both reduce the effect of eating bad food. They are backups, not a plan.
Chapter 11
Feeding a base
One survivor can eat from cans. A base needs a system.
- Pot meals feed many. One stew has several servings. Cook big, eat over days.
- Farm what you eat most. Cabbages and potatoes make bulk stew. See the Agriculture guide.
- Fish and trap for protein. Both are quiet and renewable.
- Keep the pantry near the fire. Store the pot, the spices and the water together.
- Plan for winter. Forage and farm in autumn. Jar the surplus. Set up a wood stove.
Secret: cook in batches
Cooking XP comes from every ingredient and every cook. A big pot with 6 ingredients is 6 chances at XP and 1 chance at a burn. Batch cooking is both faster and safer.
Chapter 12
Training plan: 0 to 10
You get XP for adding ingredients, cooking on heat, and crafting cooking recipes. Cook what you would eat anyway.
Levels 0 to 3: TV and stew
Read Cooking I. Watch the cooking shows on Life and Living. Make a soup or stew every day from whatever is going stale. Each ingredient and each cook is XP.
Levels 3 to 7: cook everything you find
Read Cooking II and III. Never eat raw. Fry every fish, roast every rabbit, stew every vegetable. Level 7 unlocks safe use of small rotten amounts.
Levels 7 to 10: bulk and preserve
Read IV and V. Can vegetables in jars. Cook giant pots. Every recipe now counts for a lot.
Secret: the corn trick
Players report a fast grind: read the book, then cook piles of corn on a campfire near a cornfield. You get XP for the cook whether or not you eat it. It is a player trick, not an official rule, but many swear by it.
Level by level: Cooking
The best single thing to do at each level. Read the matching book first when one exists.
| Level | Do this for most of your XP | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 1 | Watch the cooking show. Make a stew from stale food | TV to 3, every ingredient is XP |
| 1 to 2 | Read Cooking I. One big pot a day | 6 ingredients is 6 XP rolls |
| 2 to 3 | Cook every raw meat and fish | Never eat raw, never waste XP |
| 3 to 4 | Read Cooking II. Bake bread if you know it | Recipe crafts count too |
| 4 to 5 | Cook on a campfire once the power dies | Heat source does not matter, cooking does |
| 5 to 6 | Read Cooking III. Batch pots with spices | More ingredients per pot |
| 6 to 7 | Can vegetables in jars | Canning is a cooking recipe |
| 7 to 8 | Read Cooking IV. Level 7 lets rotten scraps into big pots | Nothing goes to waste now |
| 8 to 9 | Cook for the whole base, every day | Volume |
| 9 to 10 | Read Cooking V. Keep the pot going | Same loop, more months |
Kitchen setup checklist
Tools
Heat
Storage
Your ticks are saved in this browser, on this device only.
Chapter 13
Tips, tricks and fixes
20 tips from the kitchen
Getting started
- Take Chef or Keen Cook so you know the recipes.
- Watch cooking TV until level 3.
- Read the book for your level before a cooking session.
- Grab a cooking pot, a frying pan, a knife and a can opener on day 1.
- Keep spices. Add them to everything.
Daily cooking
- Eat oldest food first. Freeze the freshest.
- Cook stale food today, not tomorrow.
- Never leave a dish on heat and walk away.
- Cook raw meat and eggs always.
- Big pots feed you for days.
- Salads and sandwiches need no heat.
- Purify water before it goes in the pot.
Planning ahead
- Freeze everything before the power dies.
- Hoard jar lids. Jars last, lids do not.
- Build a campfire or barbecue before you need it.
- Keep it away from walls.
- Find a wood stove for winter.
- Rotate dishes so nobody gets bored.
- On servers, check for the skull icon.
- Level 7 is the rotten-food level. Not before.
Fix-it table
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| I cannot make bread or a certain dish. | You do not know the recipe. | Read a cooking magazine, or take a food job or Keen Cook. |
| My oven does nothing. | The power is out. | Campfire, barbecue or generator. |
| The campfire will not light. | No fuel or no lighter. | Add sticks or logs. Use a lighter, matches, or a notched plank. |
| My stew burned. | Left on heat too long. | Take it off the moment it says cooked. |
| I got sick after eating. | Raw, rotten or burnt food. | Cook it fresh. Compost the rotten. |
| Everything rots in 2 days. | No cold storage. | Freeze, jar, or cook and eat. |
| I cannot add more ingredients. | The recipe is full. | Start a second pot. |
| The dish has a skull on it. | Someone poisoned it. | Do not eat it. |
| My water tastes bad. | It is tainted. | Boil it first. |
| The propane barbecue is dead. | The tank is empty. | Find another tank, or use a charcoal one. |
Chapter 14
Cook's test
7 questions. Get them all right and you run the kitchen.
Chapter 15
Words and sources
Cook's word list
- Evolved recipe
- A dish that starts as a base and grows as you add ingredients.
- Base
- The container or main item a dish starts from, like a pot or bread.
- Heat source
- Anything that cooks food: oven, campfire, barbecue, stove.
- Stale
- Food that is aging but still safe.
- Rotten
- Food that will make you sick.
- Tainted water
- Water that needs boiling before drinking.
- Canning
- Sealing food in jars so it lasts.
- Unhappiness and boredom
- Two moods that good food improves.
- Skull icon
- The mark on a dish you detected as poisoned.
How sure are we?
Every fact here was checked in September 2026 for game version 42.20.4. Order of trust: the official wiki, then well-sourced fan guides, then player reports.
- Fridge and freezer numbers. "About 5 times" and "about 25 times" come from a fan guide citing the official wiki.
- Level 7 rotten use. Confirmed on the official wiki. One fan source says level 6. The wiki wins.
- The corn trick. A player method, not an official rule.
- Canning recipe details. Ingredients vary by dish. Trust your crafting menu.
- Job and trait values. May change.
Sources
- PZwiki (the official wiki): Cooking, Cooking V skill book
- PZfans cooking guide for 42.20.4 (heat sources, fuel rules, recipe steps)
- Build42guide.wiki cooking page (spoilage stages, poison, pot meals), citing PZwiki Cooking and Food pages
- XGamingServer cooking guide (refrigeration multipliers, drying racks)
- Vortex Gaming cooking guide (the corn trick)
- PZfans Build 42 Madness (drying racks do not dry meat)