In fact, some dare say that they are actually pretty similar, but the end result is what changes. That’s actually not too far off from reality – you could say that both are forms of cooking, right? They’re pretty similar in Skyrim at least? Fine maybe they’re both a tad different. But here I’ve created this list of the best cooking mods that you can quickly install in your game for new recipes and alchemy. I know you’ll love most of the mods here if you’ve been playing the game for a while and you’ve kept it vanilla. Some of these improvements are quite basic, while others are most certainly drastic changes of pre-existing features. In any case, these mods will do wonders to bring a breath of fresh air to your game. Try them out and see what you think – I had a blest testing them on my modded save!
20. Technicolor Alchemy Overhaul
Check Out This Mod I’m not sure how much spare time you need to have if you’re going to make a mod like this, so let’s just thank the creator of this mod. Technicolor Alchemy Overhaul adds more than 3,500 new plant locations to the game so you can collect plants where you couldn’t before. It’s a QOL improvement but a fantastic mod nonetheless.
19. Dovahcook
Check Out This Mod Dovahcook is awesome! This completely lore-friendly mod adds over 40 new recipes to the game for the enjoyment of your virtual paladar. Be sure to try them all out and get those cooking skills up – some of them are super useful and can serve a fantastic purpose throughout all of the game if you learn how to use them well.
18. Drinks for the Thirsty
Check Out This Mod Are you a loser that orders milk in a bar? If so, this mod is for you. Pretty self explanatory title and it’s a neat bit of added detail if you’re into this kinda… thing.
17. Apothecary Inventory Rebuild
Check Out This Mod Why in the living hell do apothecaries sell so few items that I want to purchase when I’m trying to do quality alchemy? I have no idea why vanilla apothecaries are so useless, but this mod fixes that. You’ll get to purchase actually useful stuff from every apothecary in the game, as this mod modifies their inventory and the stuff they sell to make them far more user-friendly.
16. Alchemy Redone
Check Out This Mod What I really like about Alchemy Redone is that it aims to add a new crafting system to the game without substituting the existing vanilla system. As such, both are able to coexist. And you can even choose whichever one is more convenient to you wherever you go. This mod also adds portable crafting stations. So give it a go, you nomad alchemists!
15. Alchemy Ingredient Storage
Check Out This Mod Ah, QOL mods. We all love them, don’t we? This fantastic mod allows you to sort your alchemist inventory much better than the vanilla game does. As such, whenever you enter your home you will have access to some satchels that allow you to keep your alchemy items separated from the rest, and also let you organize them as good as you could do it manually. It might not be a super complex mod. But given how much gameplay improves with this, I’m placing it on my list.
14. Dynamic Potions
Check Out This Mod Alright, this mod might be super practical but it’s basically cheating. So it gets the 14th spot on my list and not a position higher. It makes potions much easier to customize, but it does allow you to manually tune the duration of their effects. So you could turn a regular potion into the same version of it with a duration that is 30 times longer than the original. Cool and practical? Of course. Cheating? Eh, let’s just say it’s not. Potions in Skyrim don’t last as much anyway.
13. Osare Food
Check Out This Mod Cooking pots will be your new best friends with the fantastic Osare Food mod, which adds a ton of new awesome recipes to the game. I know that base-game Skyrim doesn’t come with too many cooking options, but this mod will really make you rethink your whole point of not cooking in the game. It adds foods with different effects and fantastic models. So be sure to drop them after cooking them to see how they look (as impractical as that sounds).
12. The Great Book of Alchemy
Check Out This Mod The Great Book of Alchemy is very similar to the Alchemist Compendium mod, as it adds a book with all of the recipes in the game. However the Alchemist Compendium is a far better-looking book, which is why this one is ranked at number 12 while the latter is ranked at 5. That’s just how the cookie crumbles guys.
11. Immersive Potions
Check Out This Mod I’ll be straight with you – this mod doesn’t make things easier. This makes potions non-stackable and also makes instant potions actually work over a 5-second period. Why? To make things more immersive. Why would you not want that? Well I honestly don’t like it, but I’m adding it to the list because I know some of you will really dig the feeling of a “real” gameplay experience.
10. Better Stronger and More Effective Deadly Poisons
Check Out This Mod I think you can guess what this mod does; it basically makes the default poisons stronger and more effective. Shocking, I know. It’s part of the GEMS list, which is a list that features the best gameplay enhancement mods for Skyrim! What this mod does is basically change the crap damage that poisons do in the game, making them far more effective. And allowing you to actually use them and not just drop them as soon as you find them (I know you do that, don’t lie to me).
9. Gromits Cooking Recipes
Check Out This Mod Let’s be honest; cooking in Skyrim sucks. Who would want to waste their time doing something that barely adds any value to the game? Well this mod completely changes that. It makes cooking much more worthwhile while also keeping things balanced so cooking doesn’t become OP either. In any case, this mod completely enhances cooking in the game. Give it a go if you’re tired of the vanilla recipes! Dullness won’t be an issue with Gromits Cooking Recipes.
8. Combine Potions
Check Out This Mod Oh yes. This is one of my favorite mods on the list. It might not be the most efficient or complicated one, but it certainly ups the quality of life of an alchemist by a bunch. You get to combine potions and its effects, saving a ton of inventory space by stacking effects within each other. Its fantastic use is that you’ll be able to carry much less in your inventory. For example, let’s say that you combine two health regen potions that weight 5 points each, and give you 10 seconds of health regen each. Combine both and you get a potion that weighs 5 points and heals you for 20 seconds. Super cool!
7. Field Alchemy
Check Out This Mod Hey, how come alchemist in movies and in old stories got to craft their potions and do their shenanigans on the go, but we don’t get to do it in Skyrim? Well put that crap aside with this amazing mod! The Field Alchemy mod allows you to grab your mortar and pestle and go on an adventure as you would. It doesn’t matter where you are, as long as you have your items with you, you’ll be able to get your alchemy done on the go. Why wait to get home when you can craft them while on the field?
6. Herbal Tea
Check Out This Mod Well technically this isn’t an alchemy mod, nor a cooking mod per se. I’m adding it anyway because I think it’s actually pretty cool. Do you know how annoying it is to pick a cool flower and finding out that its effect, when turned into a potion, is just like a 5-second boost to your speech, or whatever? Well this mod allows you to put those flowers into better use by creating teas of all sorts in cooking pots! Why isn’t it an alchemy or cooking mod, then? It doesn’t really require any skill for you to prepare the tea, much like someone who knows nothing about cooking food could prepare tea in real life without having any skill at it. It’s a cool mod though so try it out and you’ll see!
5. Alchemist Compendium
Check Out This Mod The Alchemist Compendium is the name of a legendary book that this mod adds to the game. The book holds the secrets to alchemy in Tamriel, and opening it will allow you to see all of the ingredients, its effects, and recipes. This mod basically saves you the trouble of having to tab out of the game to Google where to go next on your health-regen recipe. I hate when I have to quit the game to find out an effect when someone in Skyrim probably wrote it in a book. You can now access this book like a true student would do.
4. Babettes Feast
Check Out This Mod Babette’s Feast doesn’t add as many new recipes as other mods, but it does make you give a thought or two to what you’re going to eat before you prepare it. So this mod adds a few recipes that make the Dragonborn able to feast on some tasty homemade dishes, so you can actually use your skills as a cook for a bit instead of slaying enemies up and down. Even the mightiest of warriors needs to cook from time to time. Skyrim is no place to take advantage of others. Learn to cook your own food, man!
3. Harvest Overhaul
Check Out This Mod Harvest Overhaul is one of the best alchemy mods simply because you get the ingredients that you really deserve whenever you harvest a plant or flower. It simply makes no sense that harvesting berries only gives you a single unit, or sometimes when you harvest certain flowers and you only get a single one, when the model of the plant has various of them growing. This doesn’t make sense, but it’s also not fair for you to get like 10 nightshades on a single harvest. That’s where Harvest Overhaul kicks in, though! This mod makes the number of harvested items to feel more realistic while also keeping the vanilla balance of the game intact. Gone are the days of roaming for hours looking for three of the same plant when one would’ve done!
2. Radiant and Unique Potions and Poisons
Check Out This Mod One of the less immersive things that alchemists have to undergo in Skyrim is watching their hand-crafted potions look exactly like each other. How cool would it be if my potion of strength were different from my potion of health regen? Well this mod adds a staggering 100 textures into the game, keeping each bottle (sort of) unique and making each one look representative of its content. It might just be a visual change, but the level of immersion that it adds helps it snag my number 2 spot on this list.
1. Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul
Check Out This Mod This might not my absolute personal number one pick for alchemy and cooking mods. But it’s also one of my favorite overhauls for Skyrim ever, so I think it belongs here. In fact, if you’re looking for an overhaul to the vanilla system that has a level of quality unmatched by most other mods, then this one might exactly what you’re after. This mod adds (among other things) new portable alchemy stations that allow you to take your art wherever you go, new effects, critters, and even ingredients that all stick to the lore of Skyrim and make the experience of the game feel way more enhanced than in its vanilla state. Talk about the full package! It also adds many new food items that you can cook and even cannibal recipes that you can try out if you’re crazy enough to be a follower of Namira. It’s a massive overhaul and one of the best mods that you can add to your game.
