Weapons and armor aren’t the only things that changed when Valheim turned a year old as the food system in Valheim was given a massive overhaul and new food items were introduced to change how the game was approached. It used to be that certain food when consumed together complement each other too well as the stats they give make it too powerful as they just allow you to easily survive the game or have less to worry about when you get certain food items, but with the blocking and parrying mechanic being a mix of health and stamina, you can’t just go in and chomp down all the health-based foods and call it a day, which is why this list will show you the all-round best food items you should get in the game

As a quick side note, like all the Valheim patches before it, you can eat 3 distinct food items at the same time so this is more of an overview of each food source and what they offer, individually. While there are many delicious choices in the game, not all meals are created equal, and what better way to do that than to give you a huge platter of information through this list.

As with the other Valheim guides, this was written on its current patch (version 0.207.20) and is based on my experience in completing the game with a few friends. The list is also based on how attainable the food is and the ease of getting it, so some food items on this list may not be the best stat-wise, but better on their own merits. The list also spread from early to late game, meaning some food items that are not on the list may be omitted or referenced. Videos shown will cover the main ingredient of the designated food source as not all food items crafted are shown step-by-step.

15. Honey

The golden sap that is extracted from your newly-created beehives is the ticket to some good early-game stamina boost. Grabbing this is as easy as finding an abandoned building that has a beehive, shooting down the hive with an arrow, getting the queen bee if you’re lucky to have it dropped, and making said beehive in your base to put the queen in. Simple right? It doesn’t seem like it, but once you do get to do these (as well as making a ton of these), you’ll be harvesting good stamina food that can be taken on its own, or better, turn into better grade food in the long term.

If you want to learn what Honey gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Honey Details:

• Max Health Gained: 7
• Max Stamina Gained: 35
• Healing: 1hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 15 mins.
• Ingredients Needed: N/A

How to Get Honey?

YouTube Channel: Khonziel

 

 

14. Cooked Deer Meat

A quick and easy food source that you get as the main drop, or byproduct depending on if you need Deer Trophy or Deer Hide more. This is a very easy or challenging food item to obtain, depending on if you rely on melee weapons or a bow and arrow. Deer are also notorious for being easily spooked, so even if you sneak behind if an enemy spots you, it could make them get up and run off. A no-brainer for the early game, as it’s plentiful to have around and you’re most common entry point into higher health. This is an immediate thing to stockpile, so grab as much as needed and take a chunk off the cooked meat to gain a chunk back yourself.

If you want to learn what Cooked Deer Meat gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Cooked Deer Meat Details:

• Max Health Gained: 35
• Max Stamina Gained: 7
• Healing: 2hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 20 mins.
• Ingredients Needed: N/A

 

How to Get Cooked Deer Meat?

YouTube Channel: Kysen

 

 

13. Boar Jerky

While not something you’d immediately want to gather, Boar Jerky is one of the few balanced food items in the game and something you’d take if you want to make the most out of your food combos. Just be sure you have excess resources to be able to allot for this food option as its niche placement makes it a commodity rather than a must-have. 

If you want to learn what Boar Jerky gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Boar Jerky Details:

• Max Health Gained: 20
• Max Stamina Gained: 20
• Healing: 1hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 30 mins.
• Ingredients Needed: Boar Meat, Honey

 

How to Get Boar Jerky?

YouTube Channel: Kysen

 

 

12. Carrot Soup

Another food from Valheim that was adjusted was the Carrot Soup. Usually, this is taken in tandem with mid-game food items, but ever since the recipe has changed to stamina-based scaling, it has now become much better as an early game item. Given how attainable it is to make, even before the changes, it’s an absolute must-have food source, and with the changes, the early game has made it the best if you want the absolute max stamina you can do, without needing to upgrade the Cauldron. Alternatively, the Queen’s Jam is a solid choice for Stamina needs, but that can be seed dependent as Blueberries can be a pain to have good yields of, making the replantable nature of Carrots more desirable for a mass inventory. This should be your go-to stamina source as, like Honey, it’s renewable, but unlike Honey, you can easily lose the resources when the area you cultivated it on is unprotected from mobs, so grow with care.

If you want to learn what Carrot Soup gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Carrot Soup Details:

• Max Health Gained: 9
• Max Stamina Gained: 45
• Healing: 2hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 25 mins.
• Ingredients Needed: Mushroom, Carrots

 

How to Get Carrot Soup?

YouTube Channel: xBeau Gaming

 

 

11. Minced Meat Sauce

With the early game nearing the end, this is one of the best food sources to carry through the mid-game up until you get the food that is located there. While that’s not to say it’s not doable, this is basically as bare minimum as you can get with the health for it, or another way to put it, this is the best health-based food for the early game that you should get. The things needed for it are not as bad to get as raw Boar Meat, Neck Tail, and Carrots are your primary ingredients to make them, which at this point is something you’d have lying around your chests, making this meal a ready-to-cook deal.

If you want to learn what Minced Meat Sauce gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Minced Meat Sauce Details:

• Max Health Gained: 45
• Max Stamina Gained: 9
• Healing: 3hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 25 mins.
• Ingredients Needed: Boar Meat, Neck Tail, Carrot

 

How to Get Minced Meat Sauce?

YouTube Channel: Broadbent

 

 

10. Turnip Stew

Much like Carrots Soup before it, Turnips are replantable, and with it, the yields to have this be made as a common option, which can only be upstaged by another mid-game food item that we’ll get to later. It’s also light on the need for other ingredients as you’ll only need 1 Boar Meat for every 3 Turnips, making this very attainable to make and be refreshed consistently. Being a renewable resource, it’s the best alternative Stamina-based food for the mid-game, perfect for the sprints to get Iron from Swamps and a decent amount of exploration, as well as enough stamina to add to activities like fishing, which in turn can make you better food items in the long term.

If you want to learn what Turnip Stew gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Turnip Stew Details:

• Max Health Gained: 11
• Max Stamina Gained: 55
• Healing: 2hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 25 mins.
• Ingredients Needed: Boar Meat, Turnip

 

How to Get Turnip Stew?

YouTube Channel: Khonziel

 

 

9.  Wolf Jerky

This will be a controversial addition to the list, but by default, this is the best-balanced food on the list, therefore, has that argument going for it, but that’s about it. Having access to this opens your mid-game to be a good medium between light skirmish and kiting/running with the amount it gives on both health and stamina, which will be beneficial for those who can manage to be lower than a 2 health, 1 stamina food combo user or vice versa for running away. This is a niche setup that also shows why this is lower on the list, and for those asking what to do with the raw Wolf meat they gathered if they have excess, making it into a Wolf Skewer would do your health some good, assuming the Wolves themselves hasn’t killed you while hunting them.

If you want to learn what Wolf Jerky gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Wolf Jerky Details:

• Max Health Gained: 30
• Max Stamina Gained: 30
• Healing: 1hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 30 mins.
• Ingredients Needed: Wolf Meat, Honey

 

How to Get Honey?

YouTube Channel: Annakristeli

 

 

8. Black Soup

A more tedious food source to have around, Black Soup is one of the better food sources found in the Swamps and is a great complementary food if you’re looking for health in your combos. Being reliant on Bloodbags as a major component, expect to be kiting Leeches around if you don’t have poison resistance mead or the root armor set, as the poison tick will outright kill you when you’re not careful. Overall, it’s still a worthwhile food source for health especially if you are fighting in the crypts where 1 to 2-star enemies can pop out of nowhere and kill you with one swing.

If you want to learn what Black Soup gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Black Soup Details:

• Max Health Gained: 50
• Max Stamina Gained: 10
• Healing: 3hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 20 mins
• Ingredients Needed: Bloodbag, Turnip, Honey

 

How to Get Black Soup?

YouTube Channel: NobleHighlights

 

 

7. Onion Soup

We’ve had many soups in this game, so it’s only natural we add another one to the list, in the form of the Onion Soup. This is one of the best sources of Stamina you’ll need up until you get Barley Flour, which we’ll touch on its use later, but for Onion Soup, it’s the same deal as the Carrot and Turnip Stew before it, being a replantable, renewable source for food, and the only hard part is multiplying the yields, but once you do, the amount of soup you’ll make could feed an entire Viking community. When you do make these, expect to pair this up with health-based food, making for a great combo in the mid-game.

If you want to learn what Onion Soup gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Onion Soup Details:

• Max Health Gained: 12
• Max Stamina Gained: 60
• Healing: 1hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 20 mins.
• Ingredients Needed: N/A

 

How to Get Onion Soup?

YouTube Channel: GosuNoob

 

 

6. Sausages

While this food item was one of the strongest back when Valheim was first released, this has received quite a nerf to the stamina side but quickly found its way back as a very strong health-based food source. While the process of getting it is quite a challenging one in the early game, namely killing Draugr’s, once you do kill a few and start understanding the Swamps, you’ll be having a lot of these in no time. This food source complements other mid-game sources like the Onion Soup and Turnip Stew/Black Soup to give you your desired stat increase.

If you want to learn what Sausages gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Sausages Details:

• Max Health Gained: 55
• Max Stamina Gained: 11
• Healing: 3hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 25 mins
• Ingredients Needed: Entrails, Boar Meat, Thistle

 

How to Get Sausages?

YouTube Channel: Ricardos Gaming

 

5. Fish Wraps

For such a delicious-sounding meal, there aren’t too many pictures that show how delectable it is, apart from the real-life picture the devs posted. It used to be one of the best stamina-based foods in the game, but now it has been given new life as a health-based one. It’s easy to make this once you master the art of fishing, making this one of the best supplementary food items to your combo of food choices, perfect for Plains scouting.

If you want to learn what Fish Wraps gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Fish Wraps Details:

• Max Health Gained: 70
• Max Stamina Gained: 14
• Healing: 4hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 25 mins.
• Ingredients Needed: Cooked Fish, Barley Flour

 

How to Get Honey?

YouTube Channel: One Last Midnight

 

 

4. Serpent Stew

Once upon a time, Serpent Stew was one of the best food items in the game, but with the readjustment to it as a health-based food option, the need to rush it falls lower, making this, still, a luxury food item that should be optional. While you can stock a lot of these, finding, killing, and repeating the hunt for Serpents is a tough ask to do constantly by yourself, and with the spawns being limited, you’ll be spending a lot of time praying that the luck or misfortune of multiple Serpents being present will arrive. It’s still up in the list by raw stats, and if you’re doing the current finale of killing Yagluth, this seafood soup is the ticket to good survivability.

If you want to learn what Serpent Stew gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Serpent Stew Details:

• Max Health Gained: 80
• Max Stamina Gained: 5
• Healing: 4hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 30 mins.
• Ingredients Needed: Cooked Serpent Meat, Mushroom, Honey

 

How to Get Serpent Stew?

YouTube Channel: Chongish

 

3. Bread

While many food items on this list have existed to bring good stamina for your Viking, they have now been replaced by a definitive replacement in the form of Bread. It’s so simple to make, and with careful planning, or overplanning, you’d have more Barley Flour than what to do with it, which makes for a metric ton of yeast-loaded stamina goodness waiting for you in the chest.

If you want to learn what Honey gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Bread Details:

• Max Health Gained: 15
• Max Stamina Gained: 75
• Healing: 1hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 30 mins.
• Ingredients Needed: N/A

 

How to Get Honey

YouTube Channel: The Ginger Empire

 

 

2. Cooked Lox Meat

Now we turn to the opposite of food difficulty ratings, the Cooked Lox Meat. It’s amazing how simple this meal is to get, and frankly, no long explanations are needed. You find a Lox (as shown above), stab (or whatever your choice of slaughter is) it, take the meat, and then grill it. It may be a hard one to take down, but when you find the groove and block off its attacks, the reward is (quite) big. Just imagine the Cooked Meat or Grilled Neck Tail, but better, and boy, is it better.

If you want to learn what Cooked Lox Meat gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Cooked Lox Meat Details:

• Max Health Gained: 50
• Max Stamina Gained: 10
• Healing: 4hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 20 mins.
• Ingredients Needed: N/A

 

How to Get Honey?

YouTube Channel: Exique

 

 

1. Lox Meat Pie

With a rebalancing of the current crop of food items, the Lox Meat Pie still holds a good chunk for being one of the best food items out there in the game. While you gain less than previous patches, in terms of health, you get quite a lot of health still, and being in the same process as getting Lox Meat, you’d already have a part of the prep done, and with getting Barley Flour also covered, really, the only thing you’d need to do is to pick Cloudberries in the Plains, and you’d be set on getting a lot of health done for your late-game expeditions, and possibly beyond.

If you want to learn what Lox Meat Pie gives in stat form and how to make it, check the bullet points below:

Lox Meat Pie Details:

• Max Health Gained: 75
• Max Stamina Gained: 15
• Healing: 4hp / tick
• Duration (minutes): 30 mins.
• Ingredients Needed: Lox Meat, Cloudberry, Barley Flour

 

How to Get Lox Meat Pie?

YouTube Channel: Timo_Redbeard

 

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• Valheim Best Shield (And How to Get Them)
• Valheim Review - Is It Good or Bad?