Cooking converts raw ingredients into food and may fail until a no-burn threshold is reached. Failure chance falls as your level rises.
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ARTISAN • F2P + MEMBERS
Cooking
Cook near a bank, reduce burns with the right range and gauntlets, then scale by budget.
QUICK WIN
The Hosidius range and cooking gauntlets can change which food becomes sensible at a given level.
UNDERSTANDING COOKING
Learn the system before you optimise the loop.
Cooking is a artisan skill with several viable routes. The best method is not automatically the one with the largest experience-rate number: startup time, travel, real input prices, useful outputs, and the amount of attention you can sustain all belong in the decision.
This guide treats levels as unlocks rather than a single uninterrupted race to 99. Use the route below as a strong default, then switch when a quest, diary, equipment upgrade, or account goal makes another method more valuable to you.
Cooking gauntlets and selected ranges reduce burn chance for supported food. They can move a method's practical starting level forward.
Real experience rates depend on banking and animation rhythm. A nearby range is sometimes worth more than a small burn-rate improvement.
Raw and cooked prices are separate markets. A profitable spread can reverse while a large batch is being processed.
LEVEL-BY-LEVEL METHOD FINDER
Set your level. Get the methods that apply now.
This is the working core of the guide: source-backed training sections filtered by current level and account type, with full rates, quantities, requirements, setup notes, and method tables kept beside their revision.
ACCOUNT
3 Cooking sections shown for Members at level 1.
Open a section for its full setup, evidence, and tables.LEVEL 1–30 • MembersLevels 1–30: Poison karambwan
5 detailed notes
Levels 1–30: Poison karambwan
From level 1 to 30, 1-tick cook raw karambwan into poison karambwan. Karambwan can be cooked without tick delay by holding down 1 and rapidly using raw karambwan on a fire or range. This method costs money, but the overall loss will be relatively small as reaching level 30 would take less than ten minutes.
Note that cooking poison karambwan does not have any requirements, unlike cooked karambwan.
168 successfully cooked poison karambwan are required to reach level 30. Players are advised to buy at least 500 raw karambwan, as the burn rate is high at lower levels. Assuming all 500 raw karambwan are used to reach level 30, this would result in a loss of −118,000. If the player is not going to use tick manipulation, it is recommended to cook other fish (see below) as this is cheaper and it would offer similar experience rates.
- From level 1 to 30, 1-tick cook raw karambwan into poison karambwan. Karambwan can be cooked without tick delay by holding down 1 and rapidly using raw karambwan on a fire or range. This method costs money, but the overall loss will be relatively small as reaching level 30 would take less than ten minutes.
- 168 successfully cooked poison karambwan are required to reach level 30. Players are advised to buy at least 500 raw karambwan, as the burn rate is high at lower levels. Assuming all 500 raw karambwan are used to reach level 30, this would result in a loss of −118,000. If the player is not going to use tick manipulation, it is recommended to cook other fish (see below) as this is cheaper and it would offer similar experience rates.
Verify against Pay-to-play Cooking training, revision 15160490. Community reference material is attributed to the OSRS Wiki; this fan guide adds its own planning tools and route framing.
LEVEL 1–30 • MembersLevels 1–30: Cooking fish
6 data rows
Levels 1–30: Cooking fish
Alternatively, cook various fish for early experience. This is slower than cooking poison karambwan, but cheaper and less click-intensive.
The fish needed for each level range are shown in the table below. Buy roughly 2.5 times more raw fish than the amount of successfully cooked fish needed, as the burn rate is fairly high at lower levels.
| Levels | Fish | XP each | XP total | Successfully cooked fish | Raw fish (approx.) | Price uncooked | Price cooked | Profit/Successfully cooked fish | Profit/XP (approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-5 | Sardine | 40 | 388 | 10 | 25 Raw sardine | 26 | 13 | −13 | −1.30 |
| 5-10 | Herring | 50 | 766 | 16 | 40 Raw herring | 69 | 26 | −43 | −2.93 |
| 10-15 | Mackerel | 60 | 1,257 | 21 | 53 Raw mackerel | 9 | 27 | 18 | 0.08 |
| 15-20 | Trout | 70 | 2,059 | 30 | 75 Raw trout | 31 | 16 | −15 | −0.88 |
| 20-25 | Pike | 80 | 3,372 | 43 | 108 Raw pike | 81 | 46 | −35 | −1.96 |
| 25-30 | Salmon | 90 | 5,521 | 62 | 155 Raw salmon | 30 | 29 | −1 | −0.51 |
Verify against Pay-to-play Cooking training, revision 15160490. Community reference material is attributed to the OSRS Wiki; this fan guide adds its own planning tools and route framing.
Members • MembersQuests for Cooking experience
11 data rows
Quests for Cooking experience
| Quest | Experience reward | Cooking requirement | Other requirements |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cook's Assistant | 300 | — | — |
| Rag and Bone Man I | 500 | — | — |
| Big Chompy Bird Hunting | 1,470 | 30 | 5 , 30 |
| Gertrude's Cat | 1,525 | — | — |
| Heroes' Quest | 2,825 | 53 | 55 , 53 , 25 , 50 |
| Forgettable Tale... | 5,000 | 22 | 17 |
| Scrambled! | 5,000 | 36 | 38 , 35 |
| Tai Bwo Wannai Trio | 5,000 | 30 | 15 , 5 /65 for iron accounts |
| Meat and Greet | 8,000 | — | — |
| Recipe for Disaster | 28,000 | 70 | 175 , 48 , 50 , 53 , 53 , 25 , 59 , 40 , 50 , 40 , 40 , 10 , 10 , 36 |
| Total | 57,620 | — | — |
Verify against Pay-to-play Cooking training, revision 15160490. Community reference material is attributed to the OSRS Wiki; this fan guide adds its own planning tools and route framing.
FOUR EDITORIAL STARTING POINTS
Shortlisted routes with executable instructions.
Use the finder above for the complete method library. These four routes are the fan-guide shortlist: each includes its setup, repeatable sequence, realistic rate band, and most important failure point.
0185k–320k XP/hr
1–99 • LOW ATTENTION
Banked fish
BEST FOR
Simple sustainable training
ECONOMY
Profit/loss depends on burn rate
LOCATION
Myths' Guild, Rogues' Den, or Hosidius kitchen
REQUIREMENTS
Raw fish and the best burn-reduction setup for that food
INVENTORY / LOADOUT
Raw fish; cooking gauntlets where supported
EXECUTION
- Choose a food only after checking its burn threshold and raw/cooked spread.
- Use the closest appropriate stove or fire and cook full inventories automatically.
- Sell a small cooked batch before buying the full level target.
02141k–272k XP/hr
30–99 • LOW ATTENTION
AFK karambwans
BEST FOR
Long bankstanding sessions
ECONOMY
Often profitable
LOCATION
Hosidius kitchen before no-burn; Rogues' Den or Myths' Guild later
REQUIREMENTS
Tai Bwo Wannai Trio cooking access
INVENTORY / LOADOUT
Raw karambwan, cooking gauntlets do not affect karambwan
EXECUTION
- Buy and test one inventory at the planned cooking location.
- Cook each full inventory normally and rebank with minimal movement.
- Recheck the raw/cooked spread because karambwan demand can make the method profitable.
03464k–1.04m XP/hr
30–99 • HIGH ATTENTION
One-tick karambwans
BEST FOR
Maximum active Cooking speed
ECONOMY
Often profitable before opportunity cost
LOCATION
Rogues' Den fire
REQUIREMENTS
Precise repeated clicking and a stable connection
INVENTORY / LOADOUT
Raw karambwan
EXECUTION
- Position the inventory and fire so repeated use actions require minimal travel.
- Manually cook each karambwan on consecutive ticks rather than using the automatic batch.
- Use short sessions and stop when accuracy falls; mistakes erase much of the advantage.
04470k–490k XP/hr
35/68–99 • HIGH ATTENTION
Jugs of wine
BEST FOR
Fast, straightforward bank XP
ECONOMY
Usually a moderate loss
LOCATION
Any bank
REQUIREMENTS
Level 35 to make; level 68 removes failure
INVENTORY / LOADOUT
Jugs of water and grapes in equal quantities
EXECUTION
- Combine grapes with jugs of water using a consistent bank layout.
- Keep making batches during the fermentation delay so XP arrives in large drops.
- Do not log out or interrupt the batch carelessly before the delayed XP resolves.
COOKING CALCULATOR
Turn a level goal into hours and materials.
Select a method for its realistic experience-rate band. Add XP and GP per action when you want an exact resource estimate for your chosen item.
The level formula is exact. Time and budget are planning estimates: your equipment, banking, failures, attention, and live Grand Exchange prices determine the real result.
SETUP PROGRESSION
Upgrade the part that actually controls the rate.
| Stage | Setup | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Burn reduction | Cooking gauntlets and Hosidius kitchen where supported | Lower burns before buying higher-tier raw food. |
| Fast banking | Rogues' Den fire or Myths' Guild stove | Bank distance controls items processed per hour. |
| Active | Minimal interface movement for karambwans or wines | Input accuracy determines the entire rate. |
| Profit | Live raw/cooked price comparison | Include expected burns and GE sale tax. |
THE ROUTE
From level 1 to cape
1
1–30
Basic fish and Cook’s Assistant
Use starter foods or quest XP to get beyond the highest burn rates.The opening objective is access, not perfect efficiency. Use quests and inexpensive equipment to compress levels where possible, and avoid over-investing in a method you will outgrow quickly.2
30–65
Bankstanding fish
Cook the best cost-effective fish your level supports near a bank.This is where the skill settles into a repeatable loop. Upgrade the parts of the setup that affect every action, measure a representative session, and keep travel or banking from becoming the hidden bottleneck.3
65–90
Karambwans or higher fish
Karambwans reward attention; standard fish offer a calmer loop.At the mid-game checkpoint, compare the fastest route with account progress, useful outputs, and attention. A slightly slower method can be more efficient overall when it also supplies quests, diaries, or another skill.4
90–99
Choose speed or value
Wines are fast and click-heavy; high-tier fish can lose less money.Late-game training is a sustainability problem. Recheck prices and unlocks, alternate high-focus sessions with calmer ones, and choose a route you can repeat without turning the cape into a chore.LOWER-INTENSITY ALTERNATIVE
Bake pies or make specialty foods when you value collection log or supply outcomes over raw XP.
LEVEL REFERENCE
Milestones worth planning around
These are decision points, not instructions to stop. Boostable requirements and quest gates can change when an unlock becomes usable.
| Level | Unlock | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | Tuna | A common early food and training step. |
| 40 | Lobster | A classic free-to-play food tier. |
| 45 | Swordfish | Stronger free-to-play healing. |
| 65 | Karambwan | Fast training and an important combo food. |
| 80 | Shark | Staple high-healing food. |
| 84 / 90 | Anglerfish / dark crab | High-tier food with specialised use. |
QUEST ROUTING
Let account progress do part of the grind.
Quest experience is most valuable when it skips slow early methods or opens a training system you will keep using.
Cook's Assistant
A tiny introduction that opens the Lumbridge range relationship.
Recipe for Disaster
A long cooking-themed quest series with major glove rewards.
Tai Bwo Wannai Trio
Unlocks proper karambwan cooking and related account content.
CHOOSE YOUR ACCOUNT
The route changes with the rules you play by.
Spend for the time you value
Mains can choose between wines for very fast experience, karambwans for active training, and conventional fish for a calm bank loop. Price a representative batch with expected burns before buying the full grind.
Optimise the whole supply chain
Cooking follows the food you gather. Tempoross, Fishing, kingdom resources, and shop ingredients can all supply the skill; preserving useful boss food may be more important than the fastest XP.
Know the edge of the map
Free-to-play progression uses fish, pies, pizzas, and wines. Wines offer speed after their unlock, while fish preserve useful supplies and provide a simpler rhythm.
REVISION-PINNED REFERENCE
The detailed tables behind the recommendations.
Pulled in one batch from the Old School RuneScape Wiki on August 2, 2026. Every table keeps its source page and revision so you can verify requirements or spot a later game update.
Levels 1–30: Cooking fish6 reference rows
| Levels | Fish | XP each | XP total | Successfully cooked fish | Raw fish (approx.) | Price uncooked | Price cooked | Profit/Successfully cooked fish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-5 | Sardine | 40 | 388 | 10 | 25 Raw sardine | 26 | 13 | −13 |
| 5-10 | Herring | 50 | 766 | 16 | 40 Raw herring | 69 | 26 | −43 |
| 10-15 | Mackerel | 60 | 1,257 | 21 | 53 Raw mackerel | 9 | 27 | 18 |
| 15-20 | Trout | 70 | 2,059 | 30 | 75 Raw trout | 31 | 16 | −15 |
| 20-25 | Pike | 80 | 3,372 | 43 | 108 Raw pike | 81 | 46 | −35 |
| 25-30 | Salmon | 90 | 5,521 | 62 | 155 Raw salmon | 30 | 29 | −1 |
Levels 30–99: Cooked karambwan8 reference rows
| level | XP/h (1t) | XP/h (AFK) |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | 464,000 | 141,000 |
| 40 | 534,000 | 160,000 |
| 50 | 605,000 | 180,000 |
| 60 | 672,000 | 198,000 |
| 70 | 742,000 | 218,000 |
| 80 | 813,000 | 251,000 |
| 90 | 883,000 | 263,000 |
| 99 | 950,000 | 273,000 |
Levels 30–99: Cooked karambwan2 reference rows
| Method | needed | Profit total | GP/XP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-tick | 75,185 | 10,628,588 | 0.82 |
| AFK | 71,289 | 11,548,044 | 0.89 |
Levels 10–99: Bake Pie12 reference rows
| level | Item | XP each | XP/h | Supply cost each | Profit each | Profit/XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Redberry pie | 78 | 147,000 | 484 | −385 | −4.94 |
| 20 | Meat pie | 110 | 207,000 | 467 | −427 | −3.88 |
| 29 | Mud pie | 128 | 241,000 | 1,686 | −784 | −6.12 |
| 30 | Apple pie | 130 | 245,000 | 437 | −336 | −2.58 |
| 34 | Garden pie | 138 | 260,000 | 1,666 | −1,621 | −11.75 |
| 47 | Fish pie | 164 | 309,000 | 1,728 | −1,410 | −8.60 |
| 52 | Botanical pie | 180 | 339,000 | 2,236 | −1,308 | −7.27 |
| 60 | Mushroom pie | 200 | 377,000 | 11,508 | −816 | −4.08 |
| 70 | Admiral pie | 210 | 396,000 | 1,422 | −1,330 | −6.33 |
| 73 | Dragonfruit pie | 220 | 415,000 | 1,922 | −1,547 | −7.03 |
| 85 | Wild pie | 240 | 452,000 | 4,181 | −3,587 | −14.95 |
| 95 | Summer pie | 260 | 490,000 | 1,866 | −1,164 | −4.48 |
Cooking level table12 reference rows
| Minimum level | Food | Experience | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shrimps, Meat, Chicken. Anchovies | 30, 40, 30, 30 | All these items are easily obtainable by fishing or killing beginner monsters. You can also pick up meat dropped by cows in the cow field in Lumbridge where many people train and leave meat lying around. Also, when you kill chickens for the |
| 15 | Trout | 70 | Trout can be multi purposed. They can serve as mid level food, or as power levelling items for both Fishing and Cooking. You can also pick up trout from many power-fishers at the river near Barbarian Village. Power-cooking trout is a popula |
| 20 | Pike | 80 | Pike are generally harder to fish, expensive, and yield a low amount of experience. |
| 25 | Salmon | 90 | Salmon can be used for mid level food and are mainly obtained by fly fishing above level 30 Fishing or you can pick them up at the barbarian village where power fishers drop them. |
| 30 | Apple pie | 130 | Apple pie can be made as mid level food. However, 32 Cooking is needed to enter the Cooks' Guild to make these pies in bulk. |
| 30 | Tuna | 100 | Tuna can be used as mid-level food. They are very popular for training Cooking since power-fishers (mostly at Musa Point) often drop them ready to be picked up and cooked, creating a free source to train Cooking quickly. Cooked tuna also ha |
| 32 | Cooks' Guild | N/A | The Cooks' Guild is a good place to train Cooking by making jugs of wine and apple pies, as it provides materials sufficient to make them. |
| 35 | Pizza | 143 | Cooked pizza can be used as food. They should not be sold, but kept for adding toppings later on. |
| 35 | Jug of wine | 200 | Jugs of wine are the fastest Cooking experience in the game for both F2P and members for power-levelling and are commonly used for Cooking training. Wine heals 11 hitpoints, but decreases the Attack stat when drunk, limiting their use to Ra |
| 40 | Lobster | 120 | Lobsters can be cooked as mid-high level food. Cooked lobster can sometimes be sold for more than its raw counterpart. |
| 45 | Swordfish | 140 | Swordfish can be cooked as mid-high level food, giving the highest healing rate for free players in a single bite. As with all fish it is consumed in one bite. |
| 45 | Meat pizza | (143+26) | Meat pizzas can be made merely by adding cooked meat on plain pizza. Raw meat is easily obtainable from killing giant rats, cows, and bears. |
Alternate method to level without burning food6 reference rows
| Fish | Start level | End level | Number of fish | Price of uncooked fish | Price of cooked fish | Profit/Loss (overall) | Price per uncooked fish | Price per cooked fish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trout | 50 | 58 | 1760 | 54,560 | 28,160 | −26,400 | 31 | 16 |
| Salmon | 58 | 64 | 2029 | 60,870 | 58,841 | −2,029 | 30 | 29 |
| Tuna | 64 | 74 | 6893 | 351,543 | 323,971 | −27,572 | 51 | 47 |
| Lobster | 74 | 86 | 20846 | 2,230,522 | 1,980,370 | −250,152 | 107 | 95 |
| Swordfish | 86 | 99 | 67405 | 12,941,760 | 13,750,620 | 808,860 | 192 | 204 |
| Totals | 98933 | 15,639,255 | 16,141,962 | 502,707 | — | — | — | — |
SOURCE PAGES
- Pay-to-play Cooking training ↗revision 15160490
- Free-to-play Cooking training ↗revision 15111982
- Ironman Guide/Cooking ↗revision 15220678
- Cooking ↗revision 15264540
- Cooking/Level up table ↗revision 15255271
Reference tables are adapted with attribution from the community-maintained OSRS Wiki. Editorial recommendations, method walkthroughs, warnings, and calculators are original fan-guide material.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Cooking FAQ
When do I stop burning food?
Every food has its own threshold, and supported ranges or cooking gauntlets can lower it. Check the exact item before purchasing a large raw stack.
Are wines always the fastest?
They are a very fast bank method but involve delayed XP, failure before the no-fail level, and usually a financial loss. Karambwans can compete with much higher attention.
KEEP RESEARCHING
Read the OSRS Wiki training reference ↗Game updates can change rates, requirements, and best methods. Check the community reference before a large purchase.
Ready to price the route?