Smokehouse and Drying Rack
Screenshot by Prima Games

How To Preserve Food in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2

Get some food ready for the road

Hunger and nourishment play a key part in survival while treading the roads of Bohemia in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Henry needs to eat and while finding food isn’t much of a challenge, keeping it fresh for longer periods of time can be, as the quality of food goes down fast.

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Here is how you can preserve food in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 so it doesn’t spoil so quickly.

Preserve Food in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2

Food in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 provides players with nourishment, nutrition, health, and energy. Most food items affect at least two of these stats, but nearly all provide nourishment to reduce hunger. However, food degrades over time in your inventory, so it’s best to eat it promptly or preserve it. Eating spoiled food will cause food poisoning, which can be quite annoying.

You can preserve food in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 through the following approaches:

Both approaches have different effects, and while some food items can be both smoked and dried, others can only be either smoked or dried. To explain the benefits of either approach, we’ll use Mutton (Raw) as an example.

Smoke Food Items

Across Bohemia, you’ll find smokehouses that Henry can use to smoke food items for free. These small wooden containers emit visible smoke.

Once spotted, they will be marked on the map as well.

Interact with the Smokehouse, select all the food items you want to smoke, and hit confirm.

It’ll play out a small animation, and you will receive the smoked versions of the food items. Smoked food items increase the Durability, which is the number of days the item will remain fresh to 5 from 1. Here is how it affects Mutton:

StatMuttonSmoked Mutton
Nourishment+13+18
Nutrition100%100%
Energy00
Health00
Alchohol0%0%
Durability (days)15
Freshness98%100%
Weight0.40.4
Price1.31.9

So, this means that instead of lasting a single day, the Smoked version of Mutton will now last Henry a total of five days. Additionally, it provides a bit more nourishment, making it a better food item overall.

Dry Food Items

Similarly, players can dry food items and different herbs in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 to preserve them and increase their durability exponentially. To do this, approach any Drying Rack in Bohemia, and interact with it. Just like Smokehouses, Drying racks will be marked on the map as well.

This method doesn’t cost any money either, but drying racks might not be accessible at night as these are usually a service provided by some establishment or are part of someone’s house.

Interact with the Drying rack, select all the food items you want to dry, and hit confirm. Just like the Smokehouse, you’ll receive the dried versions of the food items.

Compared to smoking, the biggest appeal of drying an item is that the durability increases from 1 day to infinity. This means that you can carry the dried item with you indefinitely and it won’t spoil.

Since Mutton can be both smoked and dried, here is the effect a Drying rack has on it:

StatMuttonDried Mutton
Nourishment+13+14
Nutrition100%100%
Energy00
Health00
Alchohol0%0%
Durability (days)1Infinite
Freshness98%100%
Weight0.40.2
Price1.32.4

Smoking vs Drying Food Comparison

Ideally, you want to opt for drying food items over smoking them. However, every food item can’t be dried, which is why you’ll have to pick and choose what’s right. If an item can be both smoked and dried, always try to dry it. We used Mutton as an example specifically because it can be both smoked and dried. Here is a quick recap of the effects both techniques had on it:

StatMuttonDried MuttonSmoked Mutton
Nourishment+13+14+18
Nutrition100%100%100%
Energy000
Health000
Alchohol0%0%0%
Durability (days)1Infinite5
Freshness98%100%100%
Weight0.40.20.4
Price1.32.41.9

Apart from slightly better nourishment, there is no reason to smoke Mutton over drying it.

Best Perks for Food Preservation in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2

The following perks should be prioritized if you want to preserve food, improve how nourishment works, and feel rewarded for keeping fresh items in your inventory.

SectionPerkDescription
SurvivalMaster CookIf you cook, dry or smoke an unspoiled ingredient or food, after processing will have a 100% condition. It does not apply to herbs, as they always have a 100% condition after drying, regardless of the perk.
VitalityAsceticYour Nourishment will decrease 30% slower, in other words you will last longer without food before hunger starts to bother you.
VitalityBalanced DietIf you don’t overeat, get drunk, or starve for 3 consecutive days, your stamina will recover 20% faster and you will gain 10% more experience in the Vitality stat. If you overeat, get drunk or starve, you will lose the perk effect and will need to reactivate it.
AlchemyArt of PreservationRaw food and herbs you have in your inventory will spoil 50% slower.
SurvivalFlower PowerIf you have more than 30 fresh or dried herbs (not spoiled) in your inventory, your Charisma will count as 2 more.

Having some smoked or dried food with you in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 can remove the worry of constantly having to look for fresh, unspoiled food. It’s a fun system that encourages players to plan ahead, especially if they need to travel for long and might need food along the way.


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Ali Hashmi
Ali has been writing about video games for the past six years and is always on the lookout for the next indie game to obsess over and recommend to everyone in sight. When he isn't spending an unhealthy amount of time in Slay the Spire, he's probably trying out yet another retro-shooter or playing Dark Souls for the 50th time.