So, you’re new to Minecraft and aren’t sure how everything works? Look no further because today, I’m going to teach you about food and hunger; there are many aspects to food and hunger. I will warn you, this can seem rather daunting.
Now since there different modes in Minecraft, this will all be about Survival mode. Don’t get me wrong, creative mode is a great place to start if you’re feeling overwhelmed, just note that if you’re on console you will not be able to earn trophies. Through creative mode, you will be able to figure out your style of building, and apply that survival mode.
First off, you’ll notice the food bar on your character, that’s how you can keep track of if your character is hungry, or if they’re full. If you let your food bar diminish completely, it will then affect your health, eventually killing your character. Make sure to stay on top of your hunger, and to take plenty of food with you when mining and exploring. You wouldn’t want to get caught in a mine without food, would you?
There is also food saturation, that’s how long the food you eat will stick with you. Just to note, saturation is not out in the open to see. Only your hunger is.
Once broken down, it doesn’t seem nearly as bad, right?
Recipes
Let’s start with some basics, you can grow tons of your own food but, you’ll have to till the land you would like to set up and make sure that you have plenty of space. Some take up more spots than others, and if you have water near them, they’ll even grow faster.
Apples are a deliciously easy treat to find; you can find them when you’re chopping down oak (or dark oak) trees, you get them from the leaves, you can also find them in villages (if there’s chests), chests, and you can even trade for them in villages.
Baked potatoes are quite easy to obtain; you’ll need to build a furnace (they are made by combining eight cobblestone in the crafting menu) and then you’ll need a way to keep the furnace burning (coal, wood, wooden sticks, or even wooden tools/weapons you no longer have use for), once you do that you’ll just throw them in there and cook them. Super simple.
Just know that sometimes you will get poisonous potatoes from harvesting them, you can eat them but, there is a chance that you will become poisoned.
Bread is pretty simple, and a staple for starting out. It’s quick to make. All you need to do is find some wheat seeds, plant them in your garden, and wait. If you are out exploring, sometimes you can find them in dungeons. You will be able to find them around villagers; I know it’s mean but, I take all of their crops when starting out. It helps to get a jump on growing and you won’t have to worry (as much) about food.
Beetroot seeds will not be available if you’re on a console. If you’re playing on PC, you will find them from either dungeons, villages, chests in abandoned mineshafts, you have a slim chance of finding them in villages as well.
You can use these seeds to grow beetroot, then use them to make beetroot soup.
You’ll need a bowl and beetroots, all you do in combine them together (at a crafting station) and you’ll have your soup.
Cake is not nearly as simple as some of the recipes; it requires eggs (you can get these from chickens), sugar (from sugarcane), milk (from cows and mooshrooms), and wheat (remember those wheat seeds you planted?).
Carrots can be stolen from villagers’ farms, then planted in your own garden. You can also find them in chests, there’s not much you do with them, cooking-wise. You just eat them as they are, or catch some pigs with them.
Chorus Fruit can be harvested by breaking a chorus plant but, be warned you might get teleported by eating this fruit.
Cooked meats: they’re rather straightforward, you kill the specific animal (beef, chicken, fish, mutton, rabbit and salmon) and cook what you get in your furnace. These can sustain you for quite some time, and tend to be a go-to for myself (especially in the beginning). You can find all these meats around the maps (some might even congregate around or on top of your house).
Cookies are easier to make than cake is, you’ll need cocoa beans and wheat. Just combine those together, and you have yourself a cookie. You can also trade with the villagers for cookies.
You can find cocoa beans in (primarily) the jungle biome, they’re normally on the side of jungle wood trees.
Golden Apple, the holy grail of food. To obtain a golden apple, you’ll need to have mined gold. Once you have your gold, you need to melt your gold ingots down into golden blocks in your furnace. Then you combine the two, and there you have it! A golden apple. The golden apple is beneficial because it heals you over time and you gain absorption for a few minutes.
You can also enchant golden apples but, that’s a whole other article!
Golden Carrots can be made (basically the same way), and they use less gold than golden apples require. You’ll need gold nuggets to make these. You can break down a golden ingot, kill zombie pigmen, or you might even find them in chests.
Melons can be grown in your garden, and eaten. They take up more than one square in your garden, so make sure you plant them apart from each other.
Mushrooms are fickle; as they can only be planted in a specific type of squares (dirt, coarse dirt, grass, podzol or mycelium) but, they can be found easily in the mushroom biomes, as well as the swamp biomes.
There are two types of mushrooms: red and brown. You combine these two types together with a bowl, and you have your soup.
*Note: bowls can be made from combining together planks of wood, finding them in villages, or even finding them when you’re fishing.
Pumpkin Pie can be crafted from sugar, an egg, and sugar. You can either plant pumpkin seeds in your garden to get pumpkins, find them in chests, or trade for them with villagers.
Rabbit Stew can be crafted with a bowl, carrot, baked potato, mushroom, and cooked rabbit. It requires lots of ingredients but, is well worth it.
Nourishment Value/Saturation Value
Each food has their own value; it all boils down to how much meter it fills (hunger) and how long it will last (saturation).
Here is a basic breakdown of their values:
Food
Nourishment Value
Saturation Value
Apple
4
0.6
Baked Potato
5
1.2
Beetroot
1
1.2
Beetroot Soup
6
1.2
Bread
5
1.2
Cake (whole)
14
0.2
Carrot
3
1.2
Chorus Fruit
4
0.6
Cooked Chicken
6
1.2
Cooked Fish
5
1.2
Cooked Mutton
6
1.6
Cooked Rabbit
5
1.2
Cooked Salmon
6
1.6
Cookie
2
0.6
Golden Apple
4
2.4
Melon
2
0.6
Mushroom Stew
6
1.2
Potato
1
0.6
Pumpkin Pie
8
0.6
Rabbit Stew
10
1.2
Should You Eat the Flesh of the Undead?
Zombies are all around in the night, and if you manage to kill them they will drop flesh. If you eat the flesh, it can make you sick and you can even die from eating it. Though, there are many times I’ve eaten zombie flesh in desperation and then went back to my home, and eat something that I had stored in a chest. So, if you’re desperate, go ahead and eat the flesh. If not, then store it for a rainy day.
Farming Basics
If you’re wanting to start your own animal farm, it can be done. You’ll need to build some sort of holder for your animals so they don’t get away. Then you’ll take the respective food (pigs go after carrots, chickens wheat seeds, cows wheat, etc) and find the animal. Once you get their attention, you can make them “love” you, by feed them. While you have their respective food item out, they will be at your attention and you can bring them back to their new home. You will need two of each animal to breed them, and have babies. You feed them both, and then they “love” each other, thusly you have a baby animal.
*Note: animals will die after time, so make sure to either use them for what you wanted, or make more before their time runs out.
Have Fun
Well, there you have it! You’re now on your way to becoming a successful Minecraft-er. Just remember this information, and you’ll be golden! Minecraft can seem overwhelming but, if you take the time to learn the game, it’s well worth it!
