Food is an essential part of any Valheim playthrough, and the Cauldron is your key to unlocking better and better dishes. However, to get access to all these foods, you’ll first need to upgrade your Cauldron.
The Cauldron, like the Workbench and Forge, needs to be improved with various upgrade structures to unlock higher-tier recipes. But how do you build these structures in the first place, and what type of foods do they unlock? The Cauldron is perhaps the hardest crafting station to upgrade, so if you’re having trouble, here’s how to make all the upgrade structures and what they unlock.
Upgrading The Cauldron
The Cauldron, like other main crafting stations, can be upgraded with four different structures: the Spice Rack, Butcher’s Table, Pots and Pans, and Mortar and Pestle. However, unlike other crafting stations, there’s no system for upgrading existing recipes. Instead, each and every upgrade unlocks new recipes that, more often than not, utilize the resources of the biome required to build them.
To create all these upgrade structures, you’ll need:
- 2 Ancient Bark
- 8 Black Marble
- 5 Black Metal
- 2 Carrot
- 8 Core Wood
- 5 Copper
- 3 Dandelion
- 20 Fine Wood
- 5 Iron
- 5 Mushroom
- 2 Silver
- 3 Thistle
- 3 Turnip
Keep in mind that you’ll have to place all these ingredients near the Cauldron itself, which can get a little cramped. The Cauldron must be placed over a Campfire or Hearth to function, so you’ll have to find a way to place your upgrade structures around it. They can’t be placed too close to each other, so make sure you save plenty of space.
On top of that, while Cauldron upgrades can still go through walls and floors, it’s harder to put them in a basement since Hearths and Campfires must be in contact with the ground or stone building pieces.
Having a max-level Cauldron is essential to surviving Valheim as the quality of your food determines your health, stamina, and Eitr bars. However, since Cauldron upgrades require such diverse materials, and only two of the four structures can be teleported, it might be difficult to get a fully upgraded Cauldron in all your bases.
Instead of trying to set up Cauldrons on-site, consider having one kitchen that you can teleport back to at will. Every raw food item can be teleported, so unlike the Forge and Workbench, you can always bring the necessary materials to a central location.
The Spice Rack
The Spice Rack is infamous for being easy to miss. It requires so many different plants (some of which require you to find and farm seeds) that many players can simply never unlock the recipe for this structure. To build it, you’ll need:
- 2 Carrot
- 3 Dandelion
- 5 Mushroom
- 3 Thistle
- 3 Turnip
Carrots require you to find wild Carrot Seeds in the Black Forest and farm them to maturity. Wild Turnip Seeds are a rare spawn in the Swamps, and you’ll have to grow them as well to get Turnips. While neither of those items is required to move past their respective biomes, you’ll likely have run across them in your playthrough naturally.
If you never unlocked this recipe, it’s likely because you didn’t pick up Dandelions or Thistles. They can be found dotting the Meadows and Black Forest respectively, and while they have no immediate uses, both of them can be used in various food recipes you’ll unlock by creating the Spice Rack.
Speaking of, the Spice Rack unlocks five essential Swamp-based foods that you’ll likely use to fight Bonemass and brave the Mountains. The highlight of the unlocked foods is definitely Sausages, which is a high-health food made from Entrails (which Draugr drop) and raw Boar Meat. The recipe for Sausages makes four at a time with relatively few ingredients, and you can carry up to 20 in a single stack.
Some other foods you’ll gain access to that are worth mentioning include Serpent Stew, which is one of the best foods in the game but requires you to hunt Serpents, and Turnip Stew, a high-stamina food that can be made entirely from farm-able ingredients.
The Butcher’s Table
The Butcher’s Table is the second upgrade you’ll gain access to for the Cauldron, and thankfully, it is much easier to craft than the Spice Rack. To make it, you’ll need:
- 2 Ancient Bark
- 4 Core Wood
- 4 Fine Wood
- 2 Silver
The three different wood types you’ll need are easy enough to find in their respective biomes. Ancient Bark comes from Ancient Trees that dominate the Swamps while Core Wood comes from tall Pine trees in the Black Forest and Fine Wood from Birch trees in the Meadows. Silver, however, is the main upgrade material of the Mountains, and you’ll need to have beaten Bonemass before you can hope to get your hands on some.
This upgrade unlocks three interesting recipes from the Mountains: Eyescream, Wolf Jerky, and Wolf Skewers. These three foods make a perfectly balanced combo, with Eyescream being a high-stamina food, Wolf Skewers giving primarily health, and Wolf Jerky giving equal amounts of both.
However, these recipes aren’t the easiest foods to craft since they all require drops from enemies that don’t spawn frequently enough. Wolf Jerky and Skewers predictably require Wolf Meat while Eyescream calls for both Greydwarf Eyes (which are admittedly easy to get) and Freeze Glands gained from killing Drakes.
Pots and Pans
Pots and Pans are the Plains-level upgrade for the Cauldron, and they call for a bevy of metals. To build them, you’ll need:
- 5 Black Metal
- 5 Copper
- 10 Fine Wood
- 5 Iron
If you’ve made it to the Plains, you’re likely acquainted with where you can find Iron, Copper, and Fine Wood, but if you’re still scratching your head about how to get Black Metal bars, the answer is right in front of you. Fulings, goblins found scattered throughout the Plains, drop Black Metal Scraps when they die, and as long as you’ve beaten Moder, you can craft a structure that will let you smelt these scraps into bars.
Building Pots and Pans lets you make use of another unique item of the Plains, Barley. Barley is perhaps the most versatile ingredient in the game, being used in multiple, high-tier recipes, but you’ll first have to refine it into Barley Flour at a Windmill.
Once you do that, you can make the four Plains-related foods: Unbaked Lox Pie, Bread Dough, Fish Wraps, and Blood Pudding. Each of these foods is incredibly useful and can be used throughout the rest of the game, but you may have to go through some additional steps to make them edible.
The first two food items must be baked in a Stone Oven as well after you make them. The Stone Oven works similarly to a Cooking Station — leave the food in and let it cook — but it can be a bit harder to craft.
The Mortar and Pestle
The final Cauldron upgrade is the Mortar and Pestle. You’ll have to have access to the Mistlands biome in order to craft this upgrade, but if you manage to make it, you’ll be able to unlock a new mechanic: Eitr. To craft this upgrade structure, you’ll need:
- 8 Black Marble
- 4 Core Wood
- 6 Fine Wood
Black Marble can be found in the Mistlands simply by mining Giant Remains or tearing down the various structures you find. While this resource is relatively easy to find, you’ll first need access to the late-game biome where it can be found by beating the boss of the Plains, Yagluth.
This Cauldron upgrade does far more than unlock new cooking recipes; it allows you access to new foods you’ll need to build up your Eitr, the third resource bar which is used to cast spells. Your character simply won’t have access to Eitr before you eat a food that gives it, and if you plan to use this resource, you’ll need to eat foods rich in Eitr to be able to chain spells together in combat.
The Mortar and Pestle also gives you access to some of the best foods in the game like Honey Glazed Chicken, Mushroom Omelettes, Fisn n’ Bread, and more. These foods give you around 85 health or stamina and can be made from relatively easy-to-farm ingredients, making them some of the strongest and most convenient foods in the game.