Getting Started

Getting Started

You don't need to find anything special to get going. Most of the early ingredients come from grass, villages and farmers, and the first stations are made from iron, bricks and planks.

The guide book

You get the Expanded Food Guide the first time you join a world. It explains every system of the mod, shows which integrations are active on the server and uses the real server settings (for example the herb planter timing). If you lose it, craft a new one from a book and wheat seeds.

Turn pages with the Previous and Next buttons, by clicking the left or right half of the book, with the arrow keys or with the mouse wheel.

Your first hour

1. Break grass. Grass and ferns drop bell pepper, rice, onion, tomato, cucumber and corn seeds besides wheat seeds, and now and then herbs, mint or jute fiber. The exact chances are on Ingredient Sources.
2. Visit a village. Food chests in village houses often hold lettuce, seeds, garlic and salt. Farmers sell more seeds right away and spices once they level up.
3. Start a field. The normal crops are planted on farmland like wheat. Rice is different: it grows in shallow water, see Farming.
4. Craft a cutting board and a knife. A Cutting Board and any kitchen knife turn bread into slices, fish into fillets and lettuce into cut lettuce.
5. Build a cooking pot. The Cooking Pot is the heart of the kitchen. Put it on a campfire, fill it with a water bucket and cook your first soup.

How the stations fit together

Raw ingredients usually go through a few steps before they end up in a meal:

• Cut on the Cutting Board, roll dough into pasta with the rolling pin.
• Grind herbs and spices in the Mortar. Ground spices make the better recipe versions.
• Dry herbs, chili, fish and mushrooms on the Drying Rack.
• Fry single items in the Frying Pan.
• Cook soups, rice dishes, pasta and drinks in the Cooking Pot.
• Bake bread, pizza, pies and cakes in the Oven.
• Grill meat, vegetables and skewers on the Grill.
• Blend juices, shakes and dessert bases in the Blender, then chill desserts in the Fridge.
• Ferment pickles, cheese, cider, wine, beer and more in the Fermentation Barrel.

Most station screens have a small cookbook button that lists the recipes of that station. With JEI installed you can also look everything up there.

Things that are easy to miss

• Chili and cinnamon don't grow in the wild. Buy them from an expert (level 4) farmer and put the chili into a Herb Planter to keep it coming.
• Salt comes from Salt Ore underground. Smelt the Raw Salt in a furnace.
• Water isn't always clean. With the thirst system on, river water can make you sick. Boil bottles in the cooking pot or use a rain collector, see Water and Hydration.
• Eating the same thing over and over fills you up less. Mix it up, see Diet.
• Dishes can be put down. Sneak and right-click the top of a block with a dish to place it, see Serving Food.