Cooking vs Baking

[Khaos]

Am I going to have to pick one or the other? Is one better to go with over the other? Any cooking advice in general?

[SLG-Dennis]

You can pick both.

[Sperber]

They are pretty much identical in effectiveness.

Cooking lets you use more different crops to produce vegetable soup which makes it viable for any kind of biome farming. Baking has a strong focus on wheat which only grows in grassland.

Cooking uses only one workstation for all its food processing steps (Butchery aside). Baking also requires a Mill to make flour (and the associated skill).

The baking oven has a bit more versatility over the ironcast stove in also offering recipies for baked vegetables (better than charred and fried versions) and two alternative mortar recipies for masons.

The two professions synergize very well, as you need top tier food from both to maximize your XP bonus. Also the irconcast stove produces the tallow along with crispy bacon that the baking oven needs as ingredients for its pies.

[Khaos]

Awesome, thanks guys!

[The Talented Wilford Brimley]

Depends on collab levels really. On high collab it's likely you'll pick one or the other, and which you go with will probably depend on the availability of ingredients.

And as far as cooking advice goes, get the best modules you can get your hands on in those as quickly as possible. With no modules you'll constantly be scavenging for ingredients, but with high tier modules you'll have tons of food in no time. Like tons lol.