"Cooking Meat" : what the heck is it for

[Xika]

It's possible to combine Raw Meat with Sunset Herb, Red Oil, or Powerlard, producing an item called "Cooking Meat", which can then be combined with the Chef's Kit to prep for BBQ.

I am able to make Gourmet Steaks using regular Raw Meat, and the timing feels (seemingly?) the same using either Raw Meat or Cooking Meat; I admittedly have not done extensive testing on this.

What the heck is this expensive but seemingly useless item for besides roleplaying as a grill-master...

[Risky(Glyph)]

You can also make chilled/spiced meat to get the effects of both hot/cold drink and a gourmet steak in a single item, freeing up some space in your inventory.

I'm not 100% sure but I believe the timing is the same for all meats/sets, aside from one specific set that is faster.

[Xika]

Yeah, I know about the other kinds of meat combinations. I'm just confused about the use case of Cooking Meat.

[Lutyrannus]

It's possible to combine Raw Meat with Sunset Herb, Red Oil, or Powerlard, producing an item called "Cooking Meat", which can then be combined with the Chef's Kit to prep for BBQ.

I am able to make Gourmet Steaks using regular Raw Meat, and the timing feels (seemingly?) the same using either Raw Meat or Cooking Meat; I admittedly have not done extensive testing on this.

What the heck is this expensive but seemingly useless item for besides roleplaying as a grill-master...

What I recall from when I used it last was that it guaranteed Gourmet Steaks, but I'm not 100% sure there. I had no clue you could use Red Oil or Powerlard!

[Xika]

It's possible to combine Raw Meat with Sunset Herb, Red Oil, or Powerlard, producing an item called "Cooking Meat", which can then be combined with the Chef's Kit to prep for BBQ.

I am able to make Gourmet Steaks using regular Raw Meat, and the timing feels (seemingly?) the same using either Raw Meat or Cooking Meat; I admittedly have not done extensive testing on this.

What the heck is this expensive but seemingly useless item for besides roleplaying as a grill-master...

What I recall from when I used it last was that it guaranteed Gourmet Steaks, but I'm not 100% sure there. I had no clue you could use Red Oil or Powerlard!

This is not true; I tested it again just now, and was able to use Cooking Meat on the Chef's Kit to produce Rare Steak, Well-done Steak, and Burnt Meat.

[Lutyrannus]

It's possible to combine Raw Meat with Sunset Herb, Red Oil, or Powerlard, producing an item called "Cooking Meat", which can then be combined with the Chef's Kit to prep for BBQ.

I am able to make Gourmet Steaks using regular Raw Meat, and the timing feels (seemingly?) the same using either Raw Meat or Cooking Meat; I admittedly have not done extensive testing on this.

What the heck is this expensive but seemingly useless item for besides roleplaying as a grill-master...

What I recall from when I used it last was that it guaranteed Gourmet Steaks, but I'm not 100% sure there. I had no clue you could use Red Oil or Powerlard!

This is not true; I tested it again just now, and was able to use Cooking Meat on the Chef's Kit to produce Rare Steak, Well-done Steak, and Burnt Meat.

Interesting, whenever I made it originally I must have just done the timing properly for Gourmet Steaks and had assumed that's what they were for. I may consider doing some testing with them to see what they are for... if I discover anything, I'll report back here.

[Xika]

What I recall from when I used it last was that it guaranteed Gourmet Steaks, but I'm not 100% sure there. I had no clue you could use Red Oil or Powerlard!

This is not true; I tested it again just now, and was able to use Cooking Meat on the Chef's Kit to produce Rare Steak, Well-done Steak, and Burnt Meat.

Interesting, whenever I made it originally I must have just done the timing properly for Gourmet Steaks and had assumed that's what they were for. I may consider doing some testing with them to see what they are for... if I discover anything, I'll report back here.

Thank you kindly!

[Lutyrannus]

So, I did a bunch of testing, and while I'm not certain, my immediate guess is that the only real difference between raw meat and cooking meat is that cooking meat has a much wider window of time for gourmet steaks. I timed it, they're all the same color for the same time, so it's not like it's anything to do with easier well-done steaks, but the one thing I noticed most frequently is that I wound up making way more gourmet steaks with cooking meat than with raw meat, even when I did my best to try to have the exact same timing between the two, and would alternate between cooking and raw.

I may consult my guidebook about this, and see what it says, but I'm not sure. Usually I try to wait until I'm closer to the end of the game to reference the guide, but honestly, I am super curious lol, so I might end up doing it anyways.