Permafrost Food and Cooking: What Actually Heals
Updated 2026-10-14 · Last checked 2026-10-14 · Early Access
Permafrost has cooking: the official 11 October patch mentions cooking progress bars, and the structure file describes a stove for meals. Cook at a fueled campfire or stove rather than treating every food as ready to eat. Food nutrition, health change and cooking multiplier are separate values.
This guide separates file data from reported cooking controls. The community archive contains 86 consumable configurations, including repeated dish names with different stats. Missing cooking rows in Recipes.csv do not mean that cooking is absent. We have not tested all ingredient combinations or the multiplier formula.
How to cook a first meal
The screenshot-based cooking guide linked below shows the following keyboard workflow. It is not a test performed by this site; follow the interaction labels in your installed build if controls differ.
- The structure extract lists Campfire at 2 stone and Stove at 30 scrap; blueprint availability is a separate question.
- Raw meat has a parasite-risk effect in the file. Its final probability has not been tested.
- A playtest thread reports cooking prompts disappearing. That report is not proof of a current universal bug; update the game and report persistent failures with logs.
- Open a campfire cooking panel with F.
- Add wood to the fuel slot and use X to light the fire.
- Put raw meat in PRIMARY and use R to cook.
- Collect the cooked Dish before leaving. The community food file gives the basic Dish 90 nutrition, versus 30 for raw Meat.
Hunger is not health
Base parameters from Food and Consumables.csv, archive dated 9 October, checked 14 October 2026. The 1.0 to 1.4 figures on many foods are cooking multipliers, not health restoration. Actual effects can depend on game logic and modifiers.
| Item | Nutrition | Health / other stat change |
|---|---|---|
| Can of ham, pasta, or soup | 90 | Health 0 |
| Granola bar | 40 | Stamina +40; energy +40; health 0 |
| Basic Dish | 90 | Health 0 |
| Cooked beans, tomatoes, or fruit | 120 | Health 0 |
| Beef jerky | 80 | Health 0 |
| Mushrooms | 30 | Health 0 |
| Frozen pizza or vegetables | 20 | Health 0 |
| Honey | 60 | Health +10 |
| Herbs | 5 | Health +25 |
| Bandage / Makeshift bandage | 0 | Health +60 / +35; listed wound effects |
Drink and healing recipes in the file reference
These exact rows are distinct from the dynamic cooking panel. A blank station field is not confirmation that a recipe is available anywhere. Check the game for unlocks.
| Result | Materials | Station in extract |
|---|---|---|
| Improvised tea | 5 herbs | Not specified |
| Improvised coffee | 5 coffee beans | Not specified |
| Makeshift bandage | 2 cloth | Not specified |
| Bandage | 2 cloth + 1 surgical spirit | Workbench |
| Makeshift splint | 2 wood + 1 rope | Not specified |
| Panacea | 2 chemicals + 1 herb | Not specified |
Where food comes from
The starter guide describes looting, hunting and trading for food. Raw meat, roots and frozen fruit have parasite-risk entries in the consumable file. Painkillers and panacea list positive health but negative nutrition and energy; surgical spirit has a negative health parameter. Do not assume every medical-looking item is a simple heal.
The full ingredients for every Healthy, Warming or Ultra Dish variant are not verified here. Farming rows exist in the archive, while the starter guide says farming was unavailable in its Early Access build. Neither a file row nor that older guide settles current farming availability.
Questions
How do I cook in Permafrost?
The reported keyboard workflow is F at a campfire, add wood, X to light, raw meat in PRIMARY, then R to cook. Follow the current on-screen controls. Cooking exists even though its combinations are not all in Recipes.csv.
Does canned food heal health?
The cited ham, pasta and soup rows have 90 nutrition but zero direct health change. Cooking multiplier is a different column.
Where are all the food recipes?
This page verifies simple tea, coffee and healing recipes, plus a reported meat-to-Dish workflow. A complete tested cooking-combination list is still unavailable.
Related pages
Sources
- ITRIABOV — game-file reference tables on Steam Community — Downloaded and checked 2026-10-14. Archive files dated 2026-10-09; game build not identified. Includes hidden, NPC and quest variants, not just player-accessible content.
- Developer — Quest Fixes & Steam Invites, 11 October 2026 — Checked 2026-10-14. Join from the main menu; quest-key replacements and cooking-progress localization. Some previously stuck saves still need a fix.
- Cooking-panel screenshots and workflow — Screenshots credited to gameplay by MissPinkPlays. Controls reported by the guide, not independently tested here; checked 2026-10-14.
- Steam playtest report — cooking prompt — 5–6 October player reports, acknowledged by a developer. Not a current-build guarantee.
- Steam starter guide — Food sources in Early Access. Checked 2026-10-14.