With its sprawling open world and extremely accurate historical detail, Red Dead Redemption 2 shows you that a cowboy’s life isn’t all orchestrating train robberies and running from the law. As Arthur Morgan, you have to keep track of your health and stamina by buying, cooking, and sometimes catching your own food.
RELATED: Video Game Protagonists Who Know How To Cook
With the three main attributes — Health, Stamina, and Dead Eye — all being used to determine how much and how fast your health regenerates, you’d definitely want to stock up on only the best food available in the Wild West. After all, there’s nothing that hits the spot like a warm, hearty meal.
8 Cheese Wedge
Everyone loves cheese, and Arthur is no exception. You can buy cheese wedges for $1.90 from your nearest general store. Although pricy, cheese wedges are one of the most affordable provisions you can buy at a general store.
Arthur can also use cheese as bait to catch fish, which will help you with other recipes in the future, potentially saving you some of your hard-earned cash. Cheese wedges moderately increase Health and Dead Eye cores.
7 Canned Corned Beef
Canned corned beef can be found in general stores for $1.75, a far cry from the prices of their modern-day counterparts. This food is good for on-the-go healing and when you find yourself caught abruptly in the middle of a crossfire from a random event, so you might want to stock up on canned corned beef when you next bring Arthur into town.
This item gives you a slight increase in Dead Eye, and moderately increases your Health core.
6 Potent Bitters
One of the best Stamina boosters in-game, potent bitters can be made with one Hummingbird Sage and one Burdock Root. This concoction fully restores your Stamina core and fortifies it moderately.
RELATED: The Best Items And Upgrades In Red Dead Redemption 2
Hummingbird Sage can be found beneath trees in Lemoyne and the banks of the Kamassa River in New Hanover. Burdock Root can be found along the banks of the Dakota River near the town of Valentine. However, you can also buy Potent Bitters from any available doctor.
5 Potent Snake Oil
Potent Snake Oil fully restores and slightly fortifies your Dead Eye core, making it perfect for eagle-eyed sharpshooters. This tonic can be made with one Indian Tobacco, which can be found south of the train tracks in Rhodes, Lemoyne. On its own, Indian Tobacco can slightly increase your Dead Eye Core.
If you can’t find the plant, another way to obtain Potent Snake Oil is to buy the item directly from the nearest doctor, or scavenge for them through looting.
4 Thyme Big Game
For this hearty meal, you’ll need one Big Game Meat and one Creeping Thyme, as well as a campfire to cook it at. Creeping Thyme can be found just outside of Valentine, to the southwest. Big Game Meat can be obtained by hunting larger animals such as alligators, bears, panthers, and wolves.
RELATED: Red Dead Redemption 2: How To Level Up Your Health
The easiest of these beasts to find are the bears, which are found in forests throughout the game. Thyme Big Game fully restores all your cores and yields a Golden Dead Eye core for your trouble.
3 Minty Exotic Bird
Minty Exotic Bird can be crafted using one Exotic Bird Meat and one Wild Mint. Exotic Bird Meat can usually be found by hunting American White Pelicans, usually found at Quaker’s Cove in the Great plains, Van Horn Trading Post in Roanoke, and Siltwater Strand in Scarlett Meadows. Wild Mint can usually be found west of Valentin and northwest of Strawberry.
If you manage to wrangle these items, Minty Exotic Bird will fully restore your Health core, and greatly restore your Dead Eye and Stamina cores.
2 Oregano Flaky Fish
To make this seafood dish, you require one Flaky Fish Meat and one Oregano. Several types of fish can be used to create Flaky Fish Meat, but the easiest to catch would be the Redfin Pickerel, which can be found in any river throughout the world and are caught using bread. Oregano can be found in patches to the west of Valentine.
Flaky Fish Meat provides you with a greatly restored Stamina Core, and moderately restores your Health and Stamina Cores.
1 Camp Stew
With a gang as big as the Van der Linde gang, it’s not surprising that there is always a stew on the fire, courtesy of Pearson, the camp cook. You can donate meat to the stew in order to enhance its healing properties, but it is recommended you supply Pearson with Big Game Meat for a bigger buff.
Doing so in tandem with ensuring that the camp provisions are fully-stocked will result in a stew that provides you with fully Golden Cores for Health, Stamina, and Dead Eye.
NEXT: Red Dead Redemption 2: Tips For Playing The Best Arthur Morgan
