Food Mods for the Intrepid Adventurer
Some mods in my load order that improve upon the cooking in Skyrim. It's one of the game's many features that didn't get to bake long enough in the oven.
*Ignore the low res on some textures in my screenshots, I am using downsized textures for mod testing/faster loading
Base
I use most of of SimonMagus' overhauls (everything except for Candlehearth, Blade and Blunt, and Starfrost specifically). Most of these are modular, and can be substituted with other mods with the appropriate patches.
Prerequisites
Base Object Swapper
Dynamic Activation Key
Keyword Item Distributor (KID)
Model Swapper
SkyPatcher
Patch Wizard xEdit Scripts - Convert to FLM LLOS SkyPatcher etc
Cooking
Gourmet - A Cooking Overhaul
Survival
Campfire - Complete Camping System (Supports Skyrim VR)
Survival Control Panel
Survival Mode Improved - SKSE
Stress and Fear - A Dynamic Sanity System
Simple Hunting Overhaul
Enabling Survival Mode is optional, since it only serves to create a natural break in Skyrim's dungeon-crawling to go eat and sleep. That could be annoying if all you want to do is dungeon-crawl, but I would still recommend grabbing Survival Mode Improved if only to disable it entirely in the mod's .ini file.
For the same reasons, Stress and Fear is also optional. If you leave it enabled, be sure to make a KID patch so that eating modded foods will reduce stress too. Refer to the KID .ini file in Stress and Fear for reference.
The Food
On to the meat of things.
The Main Dishes
The below all have recipes and perks patched to use Gourmet's system.
Diverse Foods - Base Object Swapper and Diverse Foods - Better Integration and Gourmet Extension (Model Swapper - SkyPatcher) -- adds new ingredients and new recipes, in addition to diversifying the appearance of vanilla ingredients.
Meats Meals and More - Food Additions -- adds new recipes based on existing vanilla meats.
Mealtime - a Food and Recipe Mod and Mealtime - Gourmet Patch -- the variety of desserts alone implemented here is amazing. Probably one of the most well known mods that adds new food.
Medieval Norwegian Food Additions -- smaller mod that adds historical meals from Norway to Skyrim.
Tundra Berries -- recommended to install Medieval Norwegian Food Additions' patch for this mod.
Sometimes diverse foods knocks over items, because Skyrim's collisions are handled by pixies. If you hear something being flung in the distance, that's probably why.
I have nothing but respect for players who take their time placing these things down neatly ;u;.
The Appetizers
This section has singular items that don't have dedicated Gourmet recipes or Gourmet patches. They can be skipped if you don't like one or the other. (Some will require manual patching in SSEEdit).
Actual Sweet Roll Variants (Base Object Swapper - New Flavours - High Poly Sweetroll) -- cute mod that adds some new colors to Skyrim's dead horse of a joke.
Berries jam -- requires Mari's Tundra Berries. I suggest removing Moon Sugar from the recipe requirements in SSE Edit since Moon Sugar is a spice, like salt.
Battlehorn Beverages - Hearthfire Wine Expanded -- adds the rest of the wines from the Oblivion DLC to Skyrim
CHOCOLATE -- from the same author of Mealtime. Adds chocolate to Skyrim.
Croissants of Skyrim Missing Food - Carlotta's Fresh Pumpernickel
Missing Food - Hillevi's Mince Pies
Missing Food - Orgnar's Famous Skeever Liver
Missing Food - Valga's Potage le Magnifique
Pasties of Skyrim
Sandwiches of Skyrim
Simple Bosmer Harvesting -- cannibalism mod for Bosmers that comes with new recipes :).
Tundra Berries - Recipes -- requires Mari's Tundra Berries.
Varietea - Yet Another Tea Drinking Mod -- another great mod from aviform.
Yet Another Coffee Mod (For Apothecary and Gourmet)
Zerofrost's Tamriel Alchemy - New Drinks -- adds water, milk, tea, juice, and new potions based on models from other games. Might look out of place in vanilla.
Honorable Mentions
Alchemical Cooking Recipes - SSE Port -- looks cool, but I haven't tried it.
Anna Soups and Stews
Baked In Mud Crabs - clay baking recipes for campfire cooking -- adds variants of vanilla recipes that require clay to imply the food is cooking in clay cookware.
Be a Milk Drinker - SPECIAL EDITION and the edited version Be a Milk Drinker espfe and some patches -- adds non-alcoholic options and fondue to Skyrim.
Bosmeri Cuisine - SSE -- neat mod that adds more meat based recipes, soups, and teas for Bosmer or Cannibal characters.
Brewer - An Alcohol Brewing Mod -- adds brewing stations and more alcohol to Skyrim
Chicken and Ramen Noodle Soups SSE
Elsweyr Imports - SSE
Mushroom Soups SSE
Noodles
Reb's Season Of The Carrot- Carrot Carrot Carrot Carrot Tomato -- might be one of the cutest mods on the nexus.
Skyrim Food Expansion -- similar to (and compatible with) Diverse Foods. Unfortunately, it is not optimized. (Almonds have 2K textures ;u;).
Sweets and Such - Baking Expanded SE
Warm Drinks SSE - Simple Tea And Coffee Recipes - for Campfire
Tangentially Related Honorable Mentions
Beyond Skyrim - Bruma SE -- it adds some new foods and recipes to the province, in addition to everything else.
Cheesemod for EVERYONE -- more of a treasure hunt than a cooking mod, but notable for the incredible amount of cheese it adds.
Lively Farms -- adds more the crops to farms (apple trees, pears, carrots, and tomatoes).
Food Size Scaling - Base Object Swapper -- fixes the silly video game proportions.
True Homecooked Meals -- changes the model for the Homecooked Meals your spouse gives you to something more reasonable than an entire apple pie.
