Best Food in Minecraft

Quick answer

• Golden carrots are the best everyday food: the highest saturation of any normal food.
• Steak and cooked porkchop fill the most hunger at once.
• Keep your hunger bar at 9 drumsticks or more to heal naturally.

Not all food is equal. Some fill your bar but leave you hungry again in a minute. Here's what's actually worth eating.

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Hunger vs saturation

• Hunger is the drumstick bar you can see (20 points).
• Saturation is hidden. It drains first, so high saturation means your bar stays full for longer.

Food ranked

Food	Hunger	Saturation
Golden carrot	6	14.4
Steak	8	12.8
Cooked porkchop	8	12.8
Cooked mutton	6	9.6
Cooked salmon	6	9.6
Bread	5	6
Baked potato	5	6
Pumpkin pie	8	4.8
Cake (per slice)	2	0.4

Healing foods

Golden apples and enchanted golden apples aren't for filling up. They give Regeneration and Absorption hearts. Save them for fights.

How natural healing works

On Java, eating at a full bar with spare saturation heals you even faster. That's why high-saturation food like golden carrots and steak keeps you alive in fights.

Where to get the best food

• Golden carrots: 1 carrot + 8 gold nuggets. A carrot farm plus gold makes this endless.
• Steak: breed cows with wheat.
• Porkchops: breed pigs with carrots, potatoes or beetroot.

Cheat sheet

• Best overall: golden carrots
• Most hunger: steak and porkchop
• Stay at 9+ drumsticks to heal
• Golden apples are for fights, not hunger