Food is the single biggest thing separating a Viking who survives from one who keeps waking up naked next to a gravestone. Your health and stamina in Valheim come almost entirely from what you have eaten, not from levelling anything up. So it is worth understanding properly.
All the numbers below are pulled straight from the wiki, so they are the real values rather than my guesswork.
How food actually works
You have three food slots. Each food you eat fills one slot and adds its health and stamina to your maximums for as long as it lasts. Three different foods means all three slots working. Eating the same thing three times does not stack, it just refreshes the one slot.
So the goal is always three different foods, all active, topped up before they run out. A food is at full strength when you eat it and tapers as the timer runs down, so re-eat at around a quarter left rather than waiting for it to vanish.
The early game shortlist
These are everything you can realistically get your hands on in the Meadows and Black Forest. Sort them by what you are short of: health if you keep dying, stamina if you keep running out of swing.
| Food | Health | Stamina | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
 Raspberries | 7 | 20 | 10 min |
 Blueberries | 8 | 25 | 10 min |
 Honey | 8 | 35 | 15 min |
 Mushroom | 15 | 15 | 15 min |
 Yellow mushroom | 10 | 30 | 10 min |
 Grilled neck tail | 25 | 8 | 20 min |
 Cooked boar meat | 30 | 10 | 20 min |
 Cooked deer meat | 35 | 12 | 20 min |
 Boar jerky | 23 | 23 | 30 min |
 Queen's jam | 14 | 40 | 20 min |
 Carrot soup | 15 | 45 | 25 min |
What I would actually eat, and when
- First hour:
Raspberries, Mushroom and Grilled neck tail. All three are free, all three are within walking distance of where you spawned. - Once you have a cooking station: swap the berries for Cooked boar meat or Cooked deer meat. Deer is the better of the two.
- Once you have a beehive: Honey is worth a permanent slot. Only 8 health, but 35 stamina and it lasts 15 minutes, and you can farm it forever without leaving base.
The ones that stay good far longer than you expect
This is the bit most guides skip. A few early foods keep earning their slot deep into the game because of how long they last or how much stamina they give:
- Boar jerky, 23 health and 23 stamina for a full 30 minutes. It is the longest lasting early food in the game and it is made from an animal you will be killing anyway.
- Honey, 35 stamina for 15 minutes from a renewable hive at your own base.
- Queen's jam, 40 stamina from berries you are already picking.
- Carrot soup, 45 stamina once you are farming carrots, and still respectable well past the Black Forest.
The pattern: for stamina, early foods stay competitive for a surprisingly long time. For health, they fall off fast and you do need to keep cooking upward.
The best stamina foods in the game
For sailing, running and anything where you are not expecting to get hit:
| Food | Health | Stamina | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
 Roasted crust pie | 34 | 100 | 30 min |
 Scorching medley | 32 | 95 | 25 min |
 Fish n bread | 30 | 90 | 30 min |
 Spicy marmalade | 30 | 90 | 25 min |
 Mushroom omelette | 28 | 85 | 25 min |
 Salad | 26 | 80 | 25 min |
 Ashlands gourmet bowl | 75 | 75 | 50 min |
 Blood pudding | 25 | 75 | 30 min |
 Bread | 23 | 70 | 25 min |
 Eyescream | 21 | 65 | 25 min |
The best health foods in the game
For bosses and anywhere that hits hard:
| Food | Health | Stamina | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
 Piquant pie | 105 | 35 | 30 min |
 Mashed meat | 100 | 34 | 25 min |
 Fiery svinstew | 95 | 32 | 25 min |
 Bonemaw meat | 90 | 30 | 25 min |
 Misthare supreme | 85 | 28 | 25 min |
 Honey glazed chicken | 80 | 26 | 30 min |
 Meat platter | 80 | 26 | 30 min |
 Serpent stew | 80 | 26 | 30 min |
| Ashlands gourmet bowl | 75 | 75 | 50 min |
 Lox meat pie | 75 | 24 | 30 min |
The rules worth remembering
- Three different foods, always. Two is a wasted slot.
- Re-eat before a food fully runs out, not after.
- Health foods for fights, stamina foods for travel. You can change the mix per trip.
- Do not save your best food. Food you did not eat did nothing for you.
Get this right and everything else in Valheim gets easier. For the stage by stage picks, see the food tier list by biome, and pair it with the right meads. Happy cooking!
