Can you cook just about any food?

[The Professor]

And if so, does it make it better? For example, am I better off cooking my potatos? Will I get good cooking exp for it?

[cyberspy]

You only need to cook food that says do not eat raw. But yes you can cook any food. I don't know if its possible to burn food that cant be "cooked" or if you get cooking XP for it.

[The Professor]

Hmm..I just tried cooking a potato myself. Yeah, it improved it's hunger reduction and gave it a boredom and unhappiness removal, but I don't seem to have gained any exp. I wonder how to level up cooking then? Nothing but broccoli soup?

[gekkobear]

things you can cook, that give xp that I know:

Not really "cooking" (no stove, needs cooking knife) but gives cooking xp:
Slice watermelon (or smash watermelon, but slice is better)
Slice bacon to rashers
Slice rashers to bits.

Cook as-is: steak, salmon, chicken, popcorn (REALLY FAST), TV Dinner (FAST), Bacon, Bacon rashers, Bacon bits (FAST).

Be careful not to overcook; burned food will catch fire; and burning down your safehouse ruins the entire concept of "safehouse". Be sure to turn off the oven when you're done. :)

Simple prepare:

bowl + knife + cabbage + some other veggie/beans/tuna = boring salad... (more ingredients of differing types can make simple or tasty salad).

Can of soup + cooking pot = pot of soup ... can then be cooked.

can of beans + bowl = bowl of beans, can then be cooked (I think, dunno I use beans for soup usually).

Cooking Pot + water source = pot of water (no xp, but needed for other soups).

Pot of water + one of chicken/salmon/steak/peas/broccoli/open tuna can/open beans can/carrots ... maybe others? = boring soup

Pot of water + 1 of above list + 1 of (something else from above list or butter/egg/flour/sugar = simple soup.

Pot of water + simple soup stuff + 1 more ingredient (not one of the 2 already used = tasty soup.

All pots of soup types can be cooked (expect to take from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on which one) .

After cooking canned/boring/simple/tasty soup; use that with 4 bowls to make 4 * "bowl of XXX soup" Which is better than eating all in one go (1-2 bowls will likely cap your hunger to "Very well fed" leaving you 2 bowls for later; they go bad in 1-2 days so refrigerate or use within a day)

Slicing 2-3 bacon to rashers, and the resulting rashers to bits; then putting all the bits in an oven and turning it on (don't turn oven on first as they won't all cook the same time) can result in a LOT of cooking xp.

Having read a cooking skill book for the level you're working toward (1-5 is beginner/intermediate/advanced/expert/master respectively) will give you a multiplier for reading the full book (3 at lvl 1, 5 at lvl 2, increasing each level).

Many foods can't be cooked (or burned) as-is but lots of those can be used in soups/salads; and more recipes are expected to be added in time (potato salad and all the salads are a recent addition; new recipes are coming over time that I've seen).

And I doubt you get any xp for cooking foods that don't need cooking (and don't have an uncooked/cooked tag)...

I'm a big fan of soup; flour/sugar bags have multiple uses before they're gone... and there's a lot of perishable choices you can use to get a long lasting "very well fed" buff to carry & healing.