Apparently, not only do you need hearts to stay alive in Minecraft but also the right food and how to cook them or may also die of starvation. Not only does food replenish your strength, it also affects the player’s ability to regenerate health points and ability to sprint.

Not only should you pick the food that provides the most food points but another thing to consider are the invisible “saturation” points. This invisible bar will be depleted first, so might as well choose the best food that replenishes both hunger and saturation.

So what exactly are the best food in Minecraft and how do you cook them? Read on and find out.
 

10. Cooked Chicken

Cooked chicken are one of the easier food to get early in the game.

Chickens can be found anywhere, most commonly in the jungle. They also lay eggs which can be brought to an enclosure, making them very easy to breed and a great source of food in the game. As they only need seeds to breed, they make for a very cheap chicken farm. You can also use cooked chicken to breed and heal your pet wolf!

Food Buffs:

• Food points: 6
• Saturation restored: 7.2
• Effective quality: 13.2

How to Get Cooked Chicken:

• After finding a chicken in the wild, you may bring their eggs for breeding purposes and kill them for the raw chicken meat.
• To cook the raw chicken, just place them in the furnace, smoker or campfire and cook using any fuel available.
• Cooked chicken can also be obtained when a chicken is killed by fire.
• Or by trading with an apprentice-level butcher villager. They might sell 8 cooked chicken for an emerald.
   

9. Cooked Salmon

Your go-to dinner if you live near oceans or rivers.

While it is rarer to find than the usual cod, it restores more hunger levels and way higher saturation points. They might be easier to find in rivers as you wouldn’t need a boat and a great source of food if you find yourself building your base near bodies of water.

Food Buffs:

• Food points: 6 
• Saturation restored: 9.6
• Effective quality: 15.6

How to Get Cooked Salmon:

• Salmons spawn in groups of 3-5 at 12-32 blocks away from the player underwater and commonly found in cold or frozen water or in rivers or frozen rivers.
• You may use a fishing rod to fish it. Get the raw salmon, then proceed to cook it using any fuel in a furnace, smoker or campfire.
• Cooked salmon can also be obtained by trading with an apprentice-level Fisherman villager. They may trade 6 cooked salmon for 6 raw salmon and an emerald.
• They can also be found in 75% of buried treasure chests in stacks of 2-4. It’ll probably be way easier to cook them though.
   

8. Bread

Don’t be fooled, this highly overlooked item may just be the most efficient food source of all!

You might be wondering why bread made it higher in this list when it has visibly lower food and saturation points. That’s because it’s easily acquired and highly convenient. As you only need three pieces of wheat to make it, you can craft yourself some nice stackable hay bales, great for your long-distance adventures especially when you’re away from other food sources.

Food Buffs:

• Food points: 5
• Saturation restored: 6
• Effective quality: 11

How to Get Bread:

• The easiest way to get a supply of bread is to add wheat as a staple crop in your farm. Once you find some wheat seeds (mostly found in villages), plant them and harvest the fully grown crop.
  TIP: In farming, it is best to put torches around your plants or they will stop growing at night.
• Once harvested, craft three pieces of wheat to make bread. Simple. You may also craft 9 pieces of wheat to make hay bale, a compact food source for bread.
• You can also get bread from trading with villager farmers.
   

7. Cooked Mutton

Another easy-find and easy to cook meal early on in the game.

Sheep are also one of the more common mobs, found on grass blocks in most Overworld biomes. Not only are they a decent food source restoring a great amount of food and saturation points but shearing them can also give a good supply of wool. And if you’re bored with the plain white wool, try to dye it using different colours!

Food Buffs:

• Food points: 6
• Saturation restored: 9.6
• Effective quality: 15.6

How to Get Cooked Mutton:

• Once you find sheep you may add them to your farm. They’re fairly easy to keep needing only wheat to breed and grow.
• When you get a good number of sheep in your farm, you can now kill them for their raw mutton leaving some for breeding purposes.
• Cook the raw mutton in a furnace, smoker or campfire using any fuel to get cooked mutton. Sheep that dies in a fire will also produce cooked mutton instead.
   

6. Golden Carrot

The only food item that regenerates the player’s health without depending on the hunger status.

Granting that Golden Carrots restore only a small amount of food points, they compensate for their huge points of saturation, the highest of all food items so best to eat them when the hunger bar is at higher levels. A little bit expensive to consider them for a consistent supply of food but definitely cheaper than golden apples. They can also be used to make potions of night vision.

Food Buffs:

• Food points: 6
• Saturation restored: 14.4
• Effective quality: 20.4

How to Get Golden Carrot:

• To craft a Golden Carrot, using a crafting table, you will need a normal carrot and 8 gold nuggets (can be obtained from only a single piece of gold ingot).
• They can also be traded from master-level farmer villager selling 3 golden carrots for 3 emeralds.
• Golden carrots can also be used to tame, breed, grow and heal your pet horse, donkey or mule as well as breed, lead and grow rabbits.
   

5. Cooked Porkchop

Belongs to the Top-Tier Foods and one of the most nourishing food items!

One of the best food source giving some of the highest food and saturation points in the game excluding the special foods. It is also not that difficult to find pigs as they are common in most of the Overworld biomes. And while breeding pigs make for a great consistent food supply, you can also ride them for fun if you’re tired of horses.

Food Buffs:

• Food points: 8
• Saturation restored: 12.8
• Effective quality: 20.8

How to Get Cooked Porkchop:

• We all know that cooked porkchop come from raw porkchop dropped by pigs which are cooked in a furnace, smoker or campfire using any fuel available.
• But did you also know that a cooler way to get them is by killing a pig with a flaming sword or arrow? Using the Fire Aspect/Flame enchantment on your weapon, it also allows for faster collection.
• Breeding pigs is also a great way to maintain your meat supply, requiring carrots, potato or beetroot. Although it may be harder to do when you’re away from villages with a carrot or potato farm.
   

4. Steak

Using only wheat, cows can be lured for breeding and an easy supply of steak.

While just as nourishing as cooked porkchop, providing the exact same points for food and saturation, Steak ranks higher in this list because if you do decide to farm cows rather than pigs, there are way more uses for them such as milk (by using an iron bucket) and leather to make armour. You’ll only need wheat to lure and breed them too. Very efficient indeed!

Food Buffs:

• Food points: 8
• Saturation restored: 12.8
• Effective quality: 20.8

How to Get Steak:

• If you don’t know how to cook meat by now, then why are you still here? Again, to cook steak, you only need raw beef from cows (or mooshrooms) and any fuel to cook it in a furnace, smoker and campfire.
• Another way to get steak is trading with butcher villagers.
• And the best or fastest way to get them is by killing cows and mooshrooms with fire or your trustee flaming sword.
   

3. Rabbit Stew

How can you even think of hurting this tiny fluff ball though?

Although killing probably one of the cutest animals in the game (that you can also have for pets) might hurt your soul a little, rabbit stew makes for the most nourishing food item of all, with the highest “effective quality” points. However, cooking this will take the most resources, it’s a better option when you’re at mid to higher levels in the game and you’ve got a couple of farms at your disposal.

Food Buffs:

• Food points: 10
• Saturation restored: 12
• Effective quality: 22

How to Get Rabbit Stew:

• To cook/craft rabbit stew, you will need a slightly larger set of ingredients including cooked rabbit, carrot, baked potato, any mushroom and a bowl (you may also use this bowl for mushroom or beetroot stew later) and craft it using a crafting table.
• You may also get rabbit stew from novice-level butcher villagers who will always sell rabbit stew for one emerald.
   

2. Golden Apple

A handy food item to have when venturing to more dangerous lands!

Restoring only 2 hunger levels and a decent amount of saturation, you may not be able to rely on golden apples to fill up your hunger but instead, you can use them for adventuring purposes as they grant you status effects like Regeneration II for 5 seconds and Absorption for 2 minutes.

Food Buffs:

• Food points: 4
• Saturation restored: 9.6
• Effective quality: 13.6

How to Get Golden Apple:

• Craft a golden apple from an apple and 8 gold ingots. It’s a great item to craft when you have a couple of extra gold lying around.
• Golden apples can also be found rarely in chests in dungeons, mineshafts, igloos, stronghold, underwater ruins, desert pyramid, or woodland mansions.
   

1. Enchanted Golden Apple

A rarer variant of the Golden Apple and better in every way!

As of the 1.9 update, they’ve decided that Enchanted Golden Apples were way too good to be true and easily craftable using only 8 blocks of gold, and a single bite would grant these amazing buffs making you feel invincible in the game. So they removed them making it uncraftable and harder to find. But once you do, they’d be very helpful to eat before facing the most dangerous monsters and obstacles in the game.

Food Buffs:

• Food points: 4
• Saturation restored: 9.6
• Effective quality: 13.6

How to Get Enchanted Golden Apple:

• The only way to find an Enchanted Golden Apple, should you wish to try your luck, is by searching chests found in mineshafts, woodland mansions, desert pyramids or dungeons.
• A single enchanted golden apple provides Absorption IV for 2 minutes, Regeneration II for 20 seconds long enough to heal 8 hearts/16 points of damage, Fire Resistance I for 5 minutes and Resistance I for 5 minutes.

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