The 2.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons introduced many new features, including cooking. From pies to pizza, there are a ton of dishes for you to whip up, and even a couple of drinks, too! No matter if you want to cook to eat and gain energy, to decorate your house/island, or just for the sake of cooking, this article will guide you along your journey into the culinary world of Animal Crossing.
Steps
Part 1
Part 1 of 4:
Preparing to cook
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Make sure you have the 2.0 update downloaded. Because the cooking was added in that update, you won't be able to cook without downloading it. When you click on the game to play, it should tell you that there is a new update available for download, and you'll be able to download it. If you don't see that, select the game and press +. You'll see a screen with a bunch of options. Scroll to the Software Update section and select Via the internet you should then be directed to a download screen.
- Make sure you have enough free memory to download the update. The update is pretty big, so it'll take up a good chunk of memory.
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2Obtain at least 2,000 Nook Miles. You can do this by either completing a couple of Nook Miles + achievements, or completing a couple of normal Nook Miles achievements. You may even have enough saved up already if you've been playing a while or don't spend your Nook miles too often.
- Every day, you'll have five brand-new Nook Miles + achievements. These will give you two times more Nook Miles, which will help you get Nook Miles quicker.
- While it might seem like a lot of nook miles, the new update also came with some new Nook miles goals that are worth checking out if you get stuck.
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3Purchase the "Be a Chef! DIY recipes +" upgrade for your DIY recipes app at the Nook Stop. This will cost 2,000 Nook miles, and can be purchased at the NookStop in Resident services. This will "unlock" the cooking feature, which is important if you want to cook. Once you've purchased the upgrade, you will see your character look at their phone and you'll see a message from your player stating how you can now cook.
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4Craft a kitchen if you haven't already. You may already happen to have a kitchen item already, but if you don't, you can craft one. After buying the "Be a Chef! DIY recipes +", you should get a DIY recipe for a stonework kitchen. You can craft one for 30 stones, 15 clay, and 10 iron nuggets. Once you've crafted one, place it somewhere on your island or in your house where you can access it.
- If you don't have enough materials, you can get more from the rocks on your island. If that's still not enough, you can also travel to Nook Miles islands or head on one of Kappin's boat tours. If necessary, you can also simply wait for the rocks to refresh.
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Part 2
Part 2 of 4:
Finding cooking DIY recipes
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1Purchase the "Basic Cooking Recipes" DIY recipe set from Nook's Cranny for 4,980 bells. Timmy and Tommy will then send you a bunch of new recipes via NookPhone. This is an easy way to obtain a couple of cooking DIYs without really having to put in that much effort. It also gives you the recipe for whole-wheat flour and brown sugar, which you'll need to make certain dishes.
- This will only show up in Nook's Cranny if you have already gotten the cooking upgrade for your DIY recipe app, so don't just try to get this right away when you download the update.
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2Look for cooking DIYs in message bottles. There are a couple of different ways to find message bottles, but here are a few: (Note that you won't get a cooking DIY every time you use one of these methods, but it is a possibility.)
- Find them on your beach. Every day, you'll get two message bottles on your beach-one in the day and one later in the evening. It's not guaranteed that you will get a cooking DIY, but it is possible.
- Look for message bottles when you go on one of Kappin's boat tours. You are guaranteed to get a message bottle every time, so it's a pretty good strategy. And if you get lucky, you might land on an island full of a certain crop, which increases your chances of finding a cooking DIY.
- Find message bottles on mystery island tours. While you have a lower chance of finding a DIY, let alone a cooking DIY, this is a possible strategy.
- If you have the Happy Home Paradise expansion pack, check the beach along the main island for a message bottle. Like before, you might not get a cooking DIY, but you possibly could.
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3Obtain cooking DIYs from villagers. Sometimes, if you enter a villager's home, you'll find them hard at work in front of their kitchen. If you chat with them and ask what they are doing, they will offer to teach you the recipe for whatever they are making.
- Note that even if a villager doesn't have a kitchen in their house design, sometimes one will appear randomly when the villager is cooking. So even if none of your villagers seem like they would enjoy cooking as a hobby, it's always worth it to check just in case.
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4Go fishing or diving. While it might sound weird at first, catching certain fish or sea creatures may cause your player to think up an idea for a seafood recipe. For example, if you catch a sea bass, it may give you the recipe for grilled sea bass.
- Remember that not every creature will give out a recipe. However, if you keep working by trial and error, you're sure to find recipes eventually.
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5Try buying some turnips from Daisy Mae. Even if you're not interested in investing in the "stalk market", buying turnips from her is actually beneficial for this too. If you've been playing for a while, you may know that Daisy Mae will gift you with bamboo shoots when you buy from her, but in the new update, she will actually give out some special exclusive cooking DIYS the next day in the mail if you buy from her.
- Even if you don't plan on selling them to make a profit, don't sell the turnips you bought from Daisy Mae. Some of her recipes are bamboo or turnip themed, and the latter would be hard to craft without any turnips.
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Part 3
Part 3 of 4:
Gathering ingredients
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1Collect fruit if it is needed in the recipe you're crafting. If it's your native fruit, you can buy it from Nook's Cranny. If you have the species of fruit you want, you can also harvest fruit from your trees. Assuming you don't play online, you should already be able to find three kinds of fruit. The first in your native fruit – that's the fruit that grows on your island. The second is your sister fruit – this is the fruit that shows up on certain mystery island tours. Lastly, there are coconuts, that show up on most mystery and tour islands.
- If you don't have a certain kind of fruit that's not your native or sister fruit, you can also trade online with a friend. You can either do this by having them come over and give you the fruit or you coming over to pick the fruit you need (assuming you have permission).
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2Grow crops and harvest them. By buying crop starts from Leif, you can plant your own garden full of vegetables. Just wait until the vegetable you want is in Leif's selection, then you can buy it and plant it. Don't forget to water the plants too – this will increase your crop yield. Once you've waited a few days, you can pick your fully grown crops. They are now ready for use.
- If Leif isn't showing up on your island very much, you can also pay 100,000 bells to have him set up a permanent show on Harvey's island, so you can access him whenever you like.
- For every day you water the crops, that is one more of the crop. For example, if you water a tomato once, you will get 2, and if you water it twice, you will get 3 (which is the maximum amount you can get).
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3Go fishing/diving if you are making a seafood dish. A lot of the cooking DIYs will have something to do with fish or sea creatures, and if that is the case for the dish you want to make, you'll have to go fishing/diving for any sea creatures you might need. If you at to go fishing, you'll need a fishing rod, and a wetsuit if you want to go diving.
- Make sure the critter you want to catch is in season during the month/time you're in. You don't want to go on a wild goose chase only to find out you can't actually catch a certain critter.
- If the right fish don't seem to be spawning in the right place or you're getting stuck, try digging up some Manilla clams on the beach with your shovel and crafting them into fishing bait to catch fish even faster.
- Make sure you fish in the right place. Don't fish for a river fish in the ocean.
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Part 4
Part 4 of 4:
Cooking the Recipes
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1Head to your kitchen. Wherever you placed your kitchen – in your house, in a decorative place outside, or even just the first place you had room, head there. (Make sure you have everything you need in your inventory with you as well.) When you find the kitchen, head over to it and press A. You should now see a screen with all of your cooking recipes.
- If you really don't want to use your own kitchen, sometimes you may be able to use one inside a villager's home.
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2Make some flour and sugar if required for the recipe you are making. Sometimes, even after collecting all the ingredients for a certain dish, it appears as if you are still missing something. But don't worry. This probably means you have to craft flour or sugar. This can be done by crafting the flour/sugar separately from the main dish. Once you've changed the required sugarcane and wheat into their processed form, you should be able to continue on with your cooking.
- In addition to normal flour and sugar, there is also the alternates, whole-wheat flour and brown sugar. They require the same ingredients to craft, but are different things, so check your recipe before crafting the wrong ingredient.
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3Cook the dish. Finally, after all the preparation, you can craft your dish. Scroll through the recipe menu to find the recipe you wish to make. Click on it. Now that you've collected everything you need, there should be a blue "craft it" button at the bottom of the screen showing the recipe. Click on that and you should see an animation of your character cooking up a storm. Once the animation is finished, your character will show off the cooking. You are now done.
- If you have a lot of recipes, it may be easier to click "R" to shortcut to the sweet/savory section, depending on your recipe.
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4Enjoy your cooking!Advertisement
Community Q&A
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QuestionWhy is it so complicated to cook?IdabelleCommunity AnswerBecause cooking was added over a year into the game's initial release, Nintendo decided to add a lot of cooking mechanics as a way to combat the lack of new content for older players.
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