Changes

The most nutritious type of food. When eaten hot it gives more [[nutrition]].

A basic meal consists of [[meat]] / [[fish]] and [[potato]] / [[corn]] / [[onion]] / [[pumpkin]] (commonly referred to as [[vegetables]]) or [[rice]] that you heat up in a [[frying pan]]. Do not use fish and meat at the same time as that will only make a [[stew]].

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]]sHerbs, [[cheese]], and some other [[foraged]] and [[Forestry|harvested]] items can be added for additional difficulty. Typically the more ingredients a meal has the more difficult it will be to cook.[[Berries]] added to the frypan will produce [[stew]] instead of a meal.

Meals have higher base difficulty than other dishes, so at low HFC skill it is recommended to use [[stone oven]]s ovens when cooking them. If difficulty isn't an issue, any fire source can be used. Experienced cooks will sometimes use [[campfire]]s campfires or [[stone forge]]s forges to intentionally increase the difficulty and therefore their skill gain.

* [[Oven]] 0* [[Campfire]] 5* [[Forge]] 10

The base [[QL]] of a meal is your [[hot food cooking]] skill, and at lower skill it will match this most of the time. As [[hot food cooking]] becomes higher, it also becomes harder and harder to maintain maximum quality. When it exceeds 70, the meal [[QL]] will drop and become more dependent on the ql of the items and the difficulty of making it (the easier the meal, the higher [[QL]] meal made).

: [[Campfire]], [[Stone forge]], [[Stone oven]]

: [[Frying pan]]

: Either [[meat]] or [[fish]] (regular or fillet)

: [[Potato]], [[corn]], [[onion]], [[rice]] or [[pumpkin]].: Alternatively: [[bread]].

* [[Hot food cooking]]

* Meat + [[Rice]] = 27 difficulty

* Meals decay very fast in inventories. You're better off storing them in a [[larder]].