I was super excited to hear that someone had made a Minecraft Gather, Cook, Eat cookbook. As a massive fan of the game, and someone who likes cooking, even I couldn’t help but take a peek at the little book’s recipes. Getting my hands on it, I set about cooking up a storm and testing out some of the recipes with my family. Here’s what I discovered and why you should definitely get your hands on this unofficial cookbook too.
Before I even talk about the recipes, let’s admire this Minecraft cookbook for a moment. The author, who has made their book free to download, based the book’s art and design off of the Minecraft logo, making the whole thing feel like a spinoff from Mojang’s game.
My playful nine-year-old daughter, who is a massive Minecraft fan and often makes her own Minecraft-inspired food (of varying dubiousness) was my first guinea pig when cooking from this unofficial cookbook. We were both initially suspicious of template recipe Suspicious Stew, as its title didn’t instil me with confidence that it would be tasty. Even my four-year-old son, who is a true Minecraft-lover and eats whatever we put in front of him, came over to try it, curious but ready with a contingency plan of eating his sister’s (also a true Minecraft-lover and more experienced cooker than her brother).
The ingredients for this stew are hearty and wholesome, a combination of potatoes, lentils, mushrooms, carrots, and onions. I followed the recipe as written, but added extra ‘flavourings’ because I’m used to adding extra things to stews, and felt inspired to make something really flavourful. I added soy sauce (I cook using lots of Asian ingredients because I’m half Chinese, so it’s a natural default) as well as some salt and pepper towards the end of the cooking time, which it definitely needed.
The end result was a delicious soup that was very filling and hearty. One bite of this Minecraft recipe and even my son, initially the most suspicious of my testers, took a big spoonful and went back for seconds. My daughter took some for dinner the next day, trying it warm and out the microwave, but I have to say I enjoyed mine cold as a leftover. All three of us have tried this stew multiple times since, and even though my kids know it’s based on Minecraft, they very much consider it a family recipe now.
Clay blocks fudge was the next recipe on our list, a simple combination of cookie crumbs, condensed milk, and chocolate, which sounds more simple than it turned out to be. The end result looks a lot like Minecraft blocks, but my kids were so hungry that I only got a few bites’ worth of them actually sitting still to go “Hurr durr minecraft” before they were eating it without hesitation. The recipe also calls for white chocolate, which is an ingredient I had never come across before, making me wonder how well it would work out. We turned the heat really low and it took a while to melt, but the result was rather cake-like. Still delicious though.
Filled with fun and unique recipes infused with the essence of Minecraft, this unofficial cookbook is a great gift for fans of the game who also enjoy cooking.