OSRS 1–99 Cooking Guide: Fish, Wines & Burn Rates

Reviewed 24 October 2026 · Members and F2P training routes

For straightforward Cooking progress, use early fish to reach 35, then choose between bank-made wines and a lower-input fish route. Wines favour faster bank work; fish can supply meals for your account. Members can also consider karambwan after the proper unlock or Bake Pie with Lunar magic.

The important decision is not simply which food unlocks next. Choose a location, account for burns, and compare the cost of successful output. This guide separates minimum Cooking levels from practical training brackets and from levels where a particular setup stops burning.

Choose your Cooking route

1. Choose a location before buying supplies

Lumbridge Castle: Cook’s Assistant unlocks the special kitchen range, which reduces burns for certain foods. The quest also grants 300 Cooking XP. It is a useful early stop, although the bank trip is longer than at dedicated bank-side locations.

Rogues’ Den: the permanent fire and nearby banker beneath Burthorpe’s pub provide a convenient members’ loop. This is a fire, not a range; proximity does not give it a range’s burn behaviour. You can use this banking area without completing the separate Rogues’ Den maze.

Hosidius Kitchen: its ranges require the easy Kourend & Kebos Diary. They improve cooking success, with a stronger benefit after the elite diary. It is a useful option while burns still matter. Old instructions about obtaining Hosidius favour are obsolete. Current kitchen access and effect.

Myths’ Guild: a bank-side stove is convenient after Dragon Slayer II. Do not count it as an available starting location before that quest. Choose a place your account can access now, then reassess as your unlocks and burn rate change.

2. Levels 1–35: an early fish plan

These are successful cooks, not raw purchase quantities. Starting at zero XP and carrying the small surplus between stages gives 22,480 XP, just above level 35’s 22,406 requirement. Burned fish add no Cooking XP. Quest rewards, previous XP or different foods change the target.

If you complete Cook’s Assistant first, start from your resulting XP rather than purchasing for the zero-XP example. Shrimp and ordinary meat are also accessible starting choices; the table is a simple route, not a demand to discard supplies already in your bank.

Your first cooking inventory

1. Withdraw unnoted raw fish your Cooking level allows.

2. Use a raw fish on the chosen range or fire, then select the quantity.

3. Let the batch finish and separate cooked output from burns.

4. Bank the useful food and withdraw the next inventory.

5. Check your level and observed success before buying a much larger stack.

Buying fish does not require the Fishing level or quest needed to catch them. For example, Cooking and Fishing unlocks for salmon differ. On an Ironman, gathering and banking the raw fish is another part of the project, and should be counted when comparing total time.

3. Continue with fish toward 99

These brackets favour a manageable progression rather than switching at every minimum unlock. Lobsters can be cooked before 50, for example, but opening the recipe does not remove burns. At each change, compare the raw price, expected success and value of the meals you actually want.

For supported foods, use Cooking gauntlets and consider Hosidius while burns remain material. At high levels, a closer bank can become more useful than a burn reduction you no longer need. You can keep an earlier fish to 99 if it suits your budget; there is no requirement to finish with the highest-level food.

4. Cooking gauntlets and burn thresholds

After Family Crest, take the quest’s steel gauntlets to Caleb in Catherby for the Cooking enchantment. Wear the Cooking gauntlets while using a supported food. Changing an already enchanted pair can have a cost, so check the dialogue.

Supported foods include lobster, swordfish, monkfish, shark and anglerfish, as well as cooked kyatt. The effect does not apply to every food: tuna and karambwan are important exceptions.

5. Wines from level 35

Combine grapes with jugs of water to make unfermented wine. Each successful fermented jug gives 200 Cooking XP. Below 68, some can become bad wine for no XP; at 68, that failure stops.

1. Stand at a bank and withdraw 14 grapes and 14 jugs of water.

2. Use one ingredient on the other and select the quantity.

3. Deposit the unfermented wine and prepare the next inventory.

4. When you stop creating new unfermented wine for 12 seconds, the pending batch ferments, including items in the bank.

5. Check the resulting XP and failures before scaling your purchase.

Creating another unfermented jug resets the shared fermentation timer. Below 68, pause periodically to gain levels rather than indefinitely delaying the XP; levelling reduces later failures. Do not value the entire unfinished stack as guaranteed good wine.

Quantity example after 68

From exactly 605,032 XP, the threshold for level 68, reaching 99’s 13,034,431 XP needs 62,147 successful wines at 200 XP each. That means 62,147 grapes and 62,147 jugs of water, assuming no other Cooking XP or bonuses. Recalculate from your actual XP before buying.

This is a fuel count, not a fixed price or completion time. Wines require more frequent bank interactions than an inventory of ordinary fish. Try a short session to see whether that pace fits you.

6. Karambwan: unlock the correct recipe

For properly cooked karambwan, complete Tai Bwo Wannai Trio and then speak to Tinsay in the southernmost hut in Tai Bwo Wannai. The route requires 30 Cooking. A successful cooked karambwan gives 190 XP.

Without the proper preparation knowledge, cooking the raw item produces poison karambwan instead. Check the selected product on your first batch before committing a large supply. Poison karambwan is a different training output, not the useful meal you intended to stock.

Ordinary Make-All cooking is a viable route for account food. One-tick cooking is a separate, high-input technique using an accurate action every game tick, rather than waiting for the automatic batch. Cooking gauntlets do not improve karambwan burns. Recipe unlock and preparation rules.

The members’ training reference’s high-level one-tick example assumes about 5,000 karambwan per hour. That is not a prediction for a learner or an ordinary inventory. Practise only if that input level suits you; a comfortable batch method can be the better choice for a long resource target.

7. Bake Pie and self-contained alternatives

Bake Pie with Lunar magic

Bake Pie requires 65 Magic, Lunar Diplomacy and the Lunar spellbook. You must also meet the Cooking level of the pie. Bring uncooked pies and the runes for each cast; a staff can replace appropriate elemental runes, but does not remove all spell costs.

Cast the spell to process pies automatically. Each pie consumes its own rune set and cannot burn through this spell. Count Cooking and Magic XP separately, and allow for buying or preparing the uncooked pies. A low-volume supply can make an attractive calculated rate impractical for a large target. Spell requirements and costs.

The Hosidius Mess for Ironman accounts

The Mess supplies ingredients locally. It offers servery meat pies at 20 Cooking, stew at 25 and pineapple pizza at 65. Read the soldiers’ appreciation bars, prepare an eligible meal using the kitchen’s ingredients and utensils, cook it and serve it at a buffet table.

Serving a food lowers its appreciation and raises the others, so reassess rather than repeat one recipe without looking. This is a different activity from cooking purchased fish at the nearby Hosidius Kitchen ranges. It is useful when ingredient gathering is your bottleneck. Mess gameplay and level requirements.

8. Rates: count successes and the whole session

This table models stated successful output, rather than promising those rates at a minimum level. Burns reduce successes per inventory. The wine scenario needs fast, sustained bank work; travel, delayed restarts and fermentation pauses change elapsed time. No gathering time or Onyx gameplay testing is included.

Most ordinary food cooking uses a four-tick cycle: 28 items take about 67.2 seconds of processing before banking. Fourteen wines take about 16.8 seconds to combine, followed by the shared fermentation behaviour. These batch assumptions are documented in the training reference. They explain why the methods feel different; they do not establish your personal hourly output.

Measure XP before withdrawing the first inventory and after finishing and depositing the last. For wines, wait for fermentation to resolve before the final XP reading. Keep a separate count of burns or bad wine so that a slow session is not mistaken for an unexplained rate change.

9. Buy to a target, with room for burns

Successful items needed = round up (remaining XP ÷ XP per success). Then adjust for expected failures. If your tested setup succeeds 90% of the time, 1,000 successful cooks would require roughly 1,112 raw items on that assumption. Actual outcomes vary, and success improves while you level.

For a price example, suppose 1,000 raw fish cost 200 GP each and 900 successful cooked fish sell for 250 GP net each. Inputs cost 200,000 GP and proceeds are 225,000 GP: a 25,000 GP surplus. With only 750 successes, proceeds would instead be 187,500 GP, leaving a 12,500 GP loss. These are illustrative prices and outcomes, not live quotes.

Record actual purchase prices and net sale proceeds, including any tax or selling costs. A cooked fish selling for more than the raw fish does not by itself prove the method is profitable after burns. If you keep the meals, label the result as food produced for your account rather than coins received.

10. F2P and Fishing-to-Cooking plans

F2P players can use the early fish route, wines from 35, or continue with tuna, lobsters and swordfish. Cooking gauntlets, karambwan, Lunar spells and members’ kitchens do not belong in an F2P setup. Compare current prices and the range you can reach. F2P training reference.

When combining Fishing and Cooking, decide which catches to bank for the next batch. A route that drops all fish produces no later Cooking supplies. Reserve useful meals for your upcoming quest or combat task, and count gathering, banking and cooking as separate time costs.

For Ironmen, locally caught fish, the Mess and gathered wine ingredients offer different supply paths. “Already in my bank” can make a session convenient, but it does not mean obtaining the ingredients originally took no work. Pick the route that resolves your current account bottleneck.

Common questions

Should I move to the highest fish I can cook?

Only after comparing burns, cost and the output you need. A slightly earlier fish can provide a steadier, cheaper session.

Why has my wine XP not appeared yet?

Continuing to make unfermented wine resets its timer. Stop creating new jugs for the fermentation interval, then check the batch result.

Does being able to catch a fish mean I can cook it?

No. Fishing and Cooking have separate requirements, and access to a catch can have additional quest conditions. Check the preparation recipe too.

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