If there are no vegetables available, they can be substituted by [[bread]]. Adding [[salt]] halves the meal's decay rate.
Examine the frying pan before cooking to determine the difficulty and whether or not it will become a meal. [[Herb]]s, [[cheese]], [[berries]] and some other [[foraged]] and [[Forestry|Herbsharvested]] items can be added for additional difficulty. The more ingredients a meal has, the more difficult it will be to cook.
Meals made with [[onion|onions]] are less difficult to make than meals made with [[potato]] or [[corn]]. [[Pumpkin]] and [[bread]] are cooking ingredients with an even higher difficulty.