Reliable Cooking — Valheim 1.0 Workstation Compatibility Fix

Familiar cooking controls, optional faster cooking, extra food slots, no burning and automatic finished-food collection. Independently implemented by Gomisan and inspired by aedenthorn's Cooking Station Tweaks, with explicit handling for the Frost Foundry's native single moving cast slot and fuel/input controls.

Choose what you cook — no chest food loading by default

Reliable Cooking never pulls ingredients from storage. Reliable Crafting 0.1.10 has a separate Cooking.FoodFromChests option that is OFF by default. Carry the prepared food you want to bake; stored meat and Seal Blubber stay in the chest. Fuel refills and recipe-based cauldron crafting have separate behaviour.

0.1.2: complete cooking batches

All completed food now ejects together in one update through Valheim's native output handler. Ownership is checked between slots and each completed slot must clear before continuing. Cooking used on its own also guards local food/cast payment against rejected writes and exceptions. The same input checks compose with Reliable Crafting 0.1.10.

Client-only multiplayer

Carried food can be loaded normally into remote-owned ovens and racks; friends and the server do not need this mod. Inputs use Valheim's native network request. The next request waits for the previous input's progress to be observed, and an unmodded owner's oven is limited to its four native slots. Remaining food stays carried when those slots are full or a request is pending. Load it normally after collecting the finished batch; there is no automatic queued refill.

The peer controlling the station runs cooking, burning and automatic output using its own settings, as with Cooking Station Tweaks. Food.CookTimeMultiplier=0.2 means one fifth of the native cooking duration when your client controls the station. An unmodded owner still uses native timing. The mod never forces station ownership or synchronizes settings.

SlotMultiplier defaults to 1 for consistent capacity in mixed installations. Extra slots work while an owner configured for them controls the station. Remote loading can use expanded capacity advertised by a current Reliable mod owner, limited by the sender's own slots. A later owner with fewer slots cannot process extra indices; matching slot settings on every potential owner, including a server, are needed to keep expanded capacity through handoffs. Empty extra slots before reducing capacity or removing a cooking mod.

Native food requests have no transaction acknowledgement. Observed progress reduces rapid overfilling but cannot guarantee recovery from disconnects or simultaneous identical-food races.

Deep North and settings

Supported food stations: wooden cooking station, iron cooking station and oven. The Frost Foundry retains its native recipes, one slot, moving mechanism, full-durability output and crafter settings. Food slot multiplication never applies to the foundry. Cast timing and cast output are separate; automatic cast ejection is off by default. Use Reliable Smelting 0.3.1 for Frigid Kiln and foundry refuelling.

Defaults: PreventBurning=true, AutoPop=true, SlotMultiplier=1, CookTimeMultiplier=1, CastTimeMultiplier=1, AutoPopCasts=false. Food slots are capped at 32. Changing foundry timing also changes its fuel consumption. Restart after slot, timing or no-burning changes.

Automatic output emits one item per completed slot and does not award the manual collection skill/random yield bonus. Cast output requires a living local player for native attribution. Foundry cast inputs retain their local-owner guard.

Install

Requires BepInExPack_Valheim. Exit Valheim, disable/remove Cooking Station Tweaks, then install this ZIP with one ReliableCooking.dll. Use only one cooking-tweak implementation at a time. Configuration: BepInEx/config/au.tyvalheim.reliablecooking.cfg. Existing Reliable settings remain; aedenthorn's settings are not imported. Match the old slot count when migrating a filled station, then empty it before lowering capacity.

Failure handling and testing

Customization stages recipe/slot/effect replacements before applying them. A failed setup retains original arrays and native initialization. Ambiguous input/output exceptions pause that assistance until restart without rewriting configuration or repeating a committed action. Inspect inventory and station contents before retrying.

Cooking 0.1.2, Crafting 0.1.10 and Smelting 0.3.1 pass 2,302 isolated Unity assertions against Valheim 1.0.17. Tests cover ten actual Poteitr through local and mixed-owner cooking/refill batches, configured speed, native foundry conversions and injected failures. Network delivery, elapsed time, rendering services and world spawning are fixtures. The author retested all three mods together and approved publication on 14 October 2026; automated checks are not a guarantee for arbitrary mod combinations or live multiplayer races.

Acknowledgement

Original feature inspiration: Cooking Station Tweaks by aedenthorn. This is an independent implementation, not an official update or endorsement. No original CST code/DLL, game assets or framework DLLs are bundled. Credits are also provided for the dedicated Permissions and Credits field.

Coded with the assistance of ChatGPT 6.0. Promotional title/header images are AI-generated illustrations, not in-game screenshots.

Credits

Reliable Cooking: Gomisan. Coded with the assistance of ChatGPT 6.0.

Original feature inspiration and acknowledgement: aedenthorn, author of Cooking Station Tweaks. https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/895 Reliable Cooking is a new independent implementation of the familiar cooking features, addressing the Valheim 1.0 Frost Foundry incompatibility. It is not an official update or endorsement by aedenthorn. No original Cooking Station Tweaks DLL or source is bundled.

BepInEx and HarmonyX teams/contributors: framework and runtime patching. Iron Gate: Valheim and its workstation systems. No game assets, game DLLs or framework DLLs are distributed.

Thunderstore installation

Install with your mod manager, or exit Valheim and extract the BepInEx folder into your game folder. Keep one copy of the DLL. No configuration or saves are bundled.

AI disclosure

Coded with the assistance of ChatGPT 6.0. Packaging and documentation were prepared with OpenAI Codex. Promotional illustrations and the store icon use OpenAI image generation and are not gameplay screenshots. The Thunderstore assembly adds AI attribution metadata; its gameplay methods and resources are unchanged from the tested Nexus DLL.

Promotional artwork

AI-generated promotional illustration already used on Nexus; not a gameplay screenshot.

Discord and feedback

Nexus comments/bug reports or Discord are equally welcome. Use whichever is easier; no need to cross-post. Gomisan's Mods Discord Browse the mod feedback forum New members should join using the invite before opening a direct post.

More From Gomisan

Valheim

• Reliable Cooking — Cooking conveniences that preserve Frost Foundry controls.
• Single Berserkir — One-handed Berserkir axes with a shield and all three gem upgrade paths.
• Compass Waypoints and Clock — Compass, clock and map waypoint planning.
• Reliable Crafting — Craft using materials from nearby permitted chests.
• Lumaheim - Gamma and Brightness Controls — Adjust in-game gamma and brightness.
• Usain's Belt — A configurable movement-focused utility belt. Coming soon to Thunderstore
• Crow's Nest — Climb to a ship-mounted lookout on Longships and Drakkars. Coming soon to Thunderstore
• Saga Lens - Photo Mode — Capture Valheim screenshots with photo-mode controls. Coming soon to Thunderstore
• The Fifth Beacon — Place coloured navigation beacons and lighthouse signals. Coming soon to Thunderstore
• Smuggler's Pouch — Carry a limited quantity of portal-restricted items through portals. Coming soon to Thunderstore
• Crude Chemistry — Craft throwable alchemical bombs. Coming soon to Thunderstore
• Scalpel's Skelly Staff — A staff for summoning skeleton companions. Coming soon to Thunderstore
• RPG Equipment — Additional equipment slots for your Viking.
• Reliable Smelting — Automate smelter supplies using nearby containers.
• Magic Hammer — Building assistance using nearby materials. Coming soon to Thunderstore
• Light Azeez Light — Keep supported fires and lights fuelled. Coming soon to Thunderstore

Going Medieval

• Faster Repairs — Speed up building repairs. Coming soon to Thunderstore
• Wild Crop Recovery — Recover crop seeds through wild plants. Coming soon to Thunderstore
• Wild Growth — Increase natural plant regrowth. Coming soon to Thunderstore
• Wild Orchards — Wild fruit and nut trees with harvests and saplings. Coming soon to Thunderstore

Changelog

0.1.2 — beta, 13 October 2026

• Keep native carried-food input at remote-owned ovens/racks, pacing new requests until previous slot progress is observed. Use native capacity for an unmodded owner and current-owner advertised capacity where available; spare food stays carried.
• Coordinate the shared input checks when Cooking and Crafting are both active, including refilling after a completed batch and fast add/collect updates.
• Eject all completed food in one update, rechecking ownership between slots and verifying each native output clears its slot. No automatic replay on an ambiguous failure.
• Add guarded local carried-food/cast commits for Cooking used on its own, preserving material totals on rejected writes and injected exceptions.
• Explain client-only ownership behaviour: the current owner's slot and cooking-speed settings determine processing; settings are not synchronized.
• Validate complete ten-Poteitr local and mixed-owner batches, configured 0.2 cooking time, standalone material conservation and the shared 2,302-assertion native suite with Crafting 0.1.10 and Smelting 0.3.1. The author retested all three mods together and approved publication on 14 October 2026.

0.1.1 — beta, 13 October 2026

• Stage slot/effect/recipe customization before publishing it. On failure, deactivate staged clones, retain original arrays and let native station switches initialize.
• Exclude failed customizations from automatic output.
• Recheck station ownership immediately before ejecting completed items.
• Pause automatic output until restart after an exception, without rewriting configuration or automatically retrying the failed action.
• Pass the shared 1,034-assertion native suite with Crafting 0.1.8 and Smelting 0.3.1, including injected failures and both output mods enabled.

0.1.0 — beta, 12 October 2026

• New independent Cooking Station Tweaks compatibility replacement, crediting original author aedenthorn.
• Food no-burning, automatic output, opt-in slot multiplier and cooking-time controls. Default native capacity for mixed-mod groups.
• Preserve the Frost Foundry's single moving slot and native input/fuel switch initialization.
• Separate foundry timing/output settings; default native cast timing and manual output.
• Clone conversion definitions and extra-slot effects; retain existing slot indices.
• Validate real Valheim 1.0.17 prefabs, all foundry recipes and combined Reliable mod interactions in an isolated Unity project.