For most survival games, food is little more than a minor inconvenience.
7 Days to Die places a heavy emphasis on hunger/thirst management, it’ll be a constant battle to prevent your character from dying.
Many players prefer to eat as they loot, taking the occasional death to restore their resource bars.
It’s far more efficient to invest some time into farming and cooking. Some of the available food items can replenish tons of hunger & thirst.
With a basic farm and some questing, you’ll churn out high-tier food by the dozens.
Save your tins, ingredients, seeds, and vegetables. They’re far more useful for cooking than eating.
10. Snowberries
Food: 1
Health: 0
Water: 0
Max Stamina Bonus: 1
Perk Tier: N/A
Ingredients:
- N/A
Found in abundance, particularly in the snow biome, snowberries are an easy source of nutrition during the early stages of the game.
Restoring just 1 food doesn’t seem like much, but a perk in Living Off the Land can provide you with hundreds of snowberries quite easily.
Simply keep a stack of them in your hotbar and snack on them as you’re exploring or questing.
9. Pumpkin Pie
Food: 50
Health: 25
Water: 0
Max Stamina Bonus: 20
Perk Tier: Grandma
Ingredients:
- 2 x Pumpkin
- 1 x Egg
- 1 x Cornmeal
- 1 x Animal Fat
- 1 x Boiled Water
Your main use for pumpkins, this is a simple food item to craft, yet can be very fulfilling as pumpkins are easy to find and farm.
Eggs will likely be your most difficult food resource to find, which is why you should always loot bird nests whenever you find them.
8. Hobo Stew
Food: 64
Health: 32
Water: 20
Max Stamina Bonus: 30
Perk Tier: Short Order Cook
Ingredients:
- 10 x Rotten Flesh
- 2 x Potato
- 2 x Ear of Corn
- 1 x Animal Fat
- 1 x Boiled Water
One of the best food items in terms of food, health, stamina, and water.
Hobo Stew requires a lot of resources to craft, though.
Rotten Flesh is used for farm plots and is quite hard to obtain.
The rest are quite easy. Definitely, a late-game food item, don’t expect to be cooking it for a while.
7. Bacon and Eggs
Food: 36
Health: 18
Water: 0
Max Stamina Bonus: 10
Perk Tier: Bachelor
Ingredients:
- 5 x Raw Meat
- 2 x Eggs
The staple of any early game play-through, bacon and eggs will keep your survivor satisfied for weeks.
Raw meat is easily acquired by hunting animals. Rabbits, bears and deer are found everywhere.
As you start to unlock more recipes and get a farm going, your eggs are better used elsewhere.
6. Old Sham Sandwich
Food: 15
Health: -5
Water: 0
Max Stamina Bonus: 28
Perk Tier: N/A
Ingredients:
- N/A
Many players overlook the sham sandwich, with just 15 food restored and the fact it usually causes dysentery.
Always keep any you find, as they’re great to devour if you need a quick top-up but don’t want to consume your best foods.
Keep a Goldenrod Tea handy for the chance you get dysentery!
5. Chili Dog
Food: 53
Health: 30
Water: 0
Max Stamina Bonus: 30
Perk Tier: Short Order Cook
Ingredients:
- 1 x Can of Chili
- 5 x Raw Meat
- 1 x Corn Bread
If you’re like me, you ate your chili cans for the first 6 weeks of gameplay, until you learned this recipe.
Make sure to keep them, as chili dogs are simple to cook, and restore tons of food/health/stamina.
In general, it’s best to keep most cans of food!
4. Shepards Pie
Food: 104
Health: 52
Water: 0
Max Stamina Bonus: 40
Perk Tier: Army Cook
Ingredients:
- 1 x Lamb Rations
- 1 x Can of Peas
- 1 x Ear of Corn
- 2 x Animal Fat
- 1 x Potato
As tasty in 7 Days to Die as it is in real life, shepards pie is a great food item to get your hands on.
Fairly hefty ingredients mean you won’t be able to craft dozens of this pie, keep your eye on vending machines & trader stock to make as many as possible.
Unlocking the recipe can be a pain, as you won’t find it naturally until you reach level 70 or so.
3. Spaghetti
Food: 122
Health: 61
Water: 0
Max Stamina Bonus: 40
Perk Tier: Army Cook
Ingredients:
- 1 x Large Beef Ration
- 1 x Can of Pasta
- 1 x Mushrooms
- 2 x Animal Fat
- 1 x Boiled Water
A plate of spaghetti will restore more food & stamina than any other food item in 7 Days to Die!
Packed full of pasta & meat, cooking a few servings will keep you full for a week.
Like previous entries, some of the ingredients can be hard to acquire, especially the recipe.
2. Meat Stew
Food: 50
Health: 25
Water: 20
Max Stamina Bonus: 20
Perk Tier: Grandma
Ingredients:
- 5 x Raw Meat
- 2 x Potato
- 2 x Ear of Corn
- 1 x Animal Fat
- 1 x Boiled Water
Restoring a great balance of resources, meat stew is a staple of any survivor’s diet.
All ingredients are possible to get stacks of, allowing you to craft barrel fulls of meat stew.
Come the mid to late game, it’ll be your main source of nutrition.
Only one food item should get your attention more.
1. Sham Chowder
Food: 53
Health: 80
Water: 0
Max Stamina Bonus: 30
Perk Tier: Short Order Cook
Ingredients:
- 1 x Can of Sham
- 2 x Potato
- 2 x Ear of Corn
- 1 x Boiled Water
Sham chowder is first for the balance between restoration and easiness to acquire.
Other foods can be easier to get or restore more nutrition, but no other food provides such accessibility alongside the sham chowder’s restoration values.
Cans of Sham are often found in almost every container, and can also be crafted.
The recipe is fairly easy to get, too. Definitely invest some time into farming potatoes & corn to have the resources to craft tons of sham chowder when the time comes.
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