Cooking pot not heating past 200

[p-aranoid]

For some reason when I try to make red meat stew the cooking pot will not heat past 200 degrees. Veg stews work fine, the recipe shows as valid, but when i add red meat (I check to make sure it's not bushmeat) specifically the heat gets stuck at 200. Happens on both multiplayer and single player. It worked fine the first few days i played the game too. Anyone know what's going on? Is this a bug?

[Maelstrom]

What fuel are you using to cook the meal?

[fluffydragon]

what kind of food are you using? the pot wont cook if its not a valid meal. Like two slots of red meat and veggies, or two red meat and a veg and fruit. there are no valid meals with only one red meat. except for soup but that needs a full bowl of water in it.

Edited October 27, 2025 by fluffydragon

[p-aranoid]

2 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

What fuel are you using to cook the meal?

Tried with both firewood and coal, neither get the food past 200 even when the heat itself is above 200

[p-aranoid]

2 hours ago, fluffydragon said:

what kind of food are you using? the pot wont cook if its not a valid meal. Like two slots of red meat and veggies, or two red meat and a veg and fruit. there are no valid meals with only one red meat. except for soup but that needs a full bowl of water in it.

tried with 2, 3, and 4 pieces of meat, tried with 2 meat and 2 veg, tried with only one meat in all four slots and with stacks of six in each slot. made sure its the same number of ingredients in every slot. it shows as a valid recipe and it will start to heat but never gets past 200

[Maelstrom]

Meat stew must have meat in the first two slots of the cookpot.  The other two can be any combo of veggie and/or fruit.

[p-aranoid]

4 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

Meat stew must have meat in the first two slots of the cookpot.  The other two can be any combo of veggie and/or fruit.

Yes, I know that. I did that. It's a valid recipe, it just wont cook past 200

[hstone32]

The number on the bottom represents the fuel temp. The number in the arrow represents the food's temp. In the image you posted, it looks like it's cooking just fine. You don't even need the fuel's temp to remain above cooking temp the whole time, because the food temp will only begin to drop once there is a significant enough difference between fuel and food temp, although it only rises when the fuel temp is higher.

I'm guessing that 200 represents a sort of max food temp. If I recall correctly, the cooking temp of red meat is 150. This means you get a maximum of 50 degree buffer for cooking red meat.

edit: this sort of reflects real-life cooking mechanics. Your stove fire may be really hot, well above 250 degrees. but because the boiling point of water is 100 degrees, most food cannot physically get hotter than 100, until after all the water has evaporated.

Edited October 27, 2025 by hstone32

[p-aranoid]

3 hours ago, hstone32 said:

The number on the bottom represents the fuel temp. The number in the arrow represents the food's temp. In the image you posted, it looks like it's cooking just fine. You don't even need the fuel's temp to remain above cooking temp the whole time, because the food temp will only begin to drop once there is a significant enough difference between fuel and food temp, although it only rises when the fuel temp is higher.

I'm guessing that 200 represents a sort of max food temp. If I recall correctly, the cooking temp of red meat is 150. This means you get a maximum of 50 degree buffer for cooking red meat.

edit: this sort of reflects real-life cooking mechanics. Your stove fire may be really hot, well above 250 degrees. but because the boiling point of water is 100 degrees, most food cannot physically get hotter than 100, until after all the water has evaporated.

Yes, but it won't finish cooking, it just stays at that position indefinitely no matter how long I leave it. The arrow won't fill or move at all. It freezes once it reaches 200 degrees and it won't finish cooking. 

[hstone32]

5 minutes ago, p-aranoid said:

Yes, but it won't finish cooking, it just stays at that position indefinitely no matter how long I leave it. The arrow won't fill or move at all. It freezes once it reaches 200 degrees and it won't finish cooking. 

Strange, there's been cases when the ui freezes and the green arrow doesn't progress, but the food still cooks. Are you sure the meal doesn't cook all the way through, and that it isn't just the ui arrow that freezes?

[p-aranoid]

2 hours ago, hstone32 said:

Strange, there's been cases when the ui freezes and the green arrow doesn't progress, but the food still cooks. Are you sure the meal doesn't cook all the way through, and that it isn't just the ui arrow that freezes?

Pretty sure? I've left it for in-game hours before and the only thing I got for it was 12 less firewood in my stockpile  I can try it again just to rule out UI freeze though, didn't know that was happening

[p-aranoid]

2 hours ago, hstone32 said:

Strange, there's been cases when the ui freezes and the green arrow doesn't progress, but the food still cooks. Are you sure the meal doesn't cook all the way through, and that it isn't just the ui arrow that freezes?

AHA yes it was a UI freeze! TYSM