Permafrost Best Early Food: Foods Ranked by Hunger Restored

Hunger is one of the meters you have to keep topped up in Permafrost, and it drops faster than anything else you can refill cheaply in the first hours. The food you can reach near the start varies wildly in how much it fills that meter, so knowing which items give the most hunger per trip keeps you out of the Famished and Starving warnings while you get a base going. Each meter runs from 0 to 300, so the number a food restores is capped by how empty you are when you eat it.

Quick answer: The Dish restores 90 Hunger, the most of any early food, and is cooked from one raw Meat in 3.6 seconds at a lit fire with no Parasites risk.

Permafrost early food ranked by hunger restored

These are the foods a new player can realistically reach in the first hours, ranked by the hunger they restore. Where a food also refills another meter, that is listed so you can tell a plain filler from one that does double duty.

Food	Hunger	Also restores	Value
Dish	90	—	30
Canned food (Soup, Ham, Pasta, Tomatoes)	90	—	10–15
Beef Jerky	80	—	15
Dried Mushrooms	80	—	10
Granola Bar	40	Energy 40, Stamina 40	12
Chocolate Bar, Instant Oatmeal	40	—	10
Bag of Chips	40	—	8
Nut Mix	40	—	12
Meat (raw)	30	—	5
Mushrooms	30	—	8
Frozen Veggies, Frozen Fruit	20	—	8
Frozen Pizza	20	—	25
Edible Root	15	Health 15	2
Energy Drink	10	Stamina 60, Energy 25	15
Improvised Tea	10	Cold Res. 45, Health 45	15
Improvised Coffee	10	Energy 45, Cold Res. 45	10
Herbs	5	Health 25	8
Coffee Beans	5	Energy 15	5

Ranking is by the hunger each food restores on a single use, read straight from the item tooltips. The table reflects Permafrost version 0.44.2; the in-play readings below are from Survival difficulty.

Why the Dish is the best early food

The Dish restores the same 90 Hunger as a full tin of soup or ham, but it is built from material you can gather and renew yourself. One piece of raw Meat restores only 30 Hunger on its own and carries a 30% chance of giving you Parasites each time you eat it raw. Cooking that same Meat into a Dish triples the hunger it fills and removes the Parasites risk entirely. A cooked Dish carries no Parasites chance.

With the meter empty, one Dish added 89, while two raised it from 0 to 177. Since the meter caps at 300, eating one at 250 Hunger wastes most of its value; hold onto them until the meter drops considerably.

How to cook a Dish from raw Meat

Get raw Meat. It drops from deer, boar and other carcasses, and the General Trader in Horizon sells it for 5 Bucks each. Open the trader’s BARGAIN screen, highlight Meat, use SPACE to equalize the deal and R to accept.

BARGAIN trade screen with raw Meat highlighted in the trader's stock, showing its value and hunger. — The BARGAIN screen with Meat selected from the trader’s stock, showing its value and hunger before you accept the deal.

Check the Meat in your inventory. Open the pack with TAB, select the Meat, and its tooltip confirms Hunger 30 and a value of 5. This is the base ingredient every plain Dish is cooked from.

Inventory screen with raw Meat selected, its hunger and value tooltip shown next to the crafting list. — The inventory with raw Meat selected, its hunger and value shown beside the crafting list.

Light a fire. Horizon’s kitchen, marked with a pot sign to the left of the gate, has a Campfire you open with F. Put Wood in the FUEL slot and press X to turn the fire on.

Place the Meat in the PRIMARY ingredient slot and press R to cook. The panel reads a 3.6 second cook time and reports “+1 Dish” when it finishes.

Cooking panel with raw Meat set in the primary slot, the fire lit and the Cook option ready. — The Cooking panel with raw Meat in the primary slot, the fire running and the Cook option ready.

The cooked Dish goes straight into your backpack grid. Eat it from the inventory by right-clicking the item and choosing CONSUME, or from a quick slot by selecting it and pressing LMB.

Cooking panel highlighting the finished Dish with its hunger and value, prompting you to collect it from the fire. — The Cooking panel highlighting the finished Dish, its hunger and value,.

CONSUME does nothing inside the Cooking panel.

Canned and dried food that needs no fire

The tins match the Dish on hunger without any cooking. Can of Soup, Can of Ham, Can of Pasta and Can of Tomatoes each restore 90 Hunger and turn up in Fridges, Suitcases, Toolboxes and the occasional Frozen body further out from the start, with traders stocking them later. They are the simplest way to hit 90 Hunger when you have no fire handy.

Beef Jerky and Dried Mushrooms sit just below at 80 Hunger and also need no preparation. Beef Jerky is sold at Hunter’s Glade and found out in the world rather than in Horizon, while Dried Mushrooms come packed and ready to eat.

Snacks and background starting items

The Granola Bar restores 40 Hunger, 40 Energy and 40 Stamina in one go, which makes it the pick of the lighter foods. It is the Survivor background’s starting quick-slot item, and eating it at a bit hungry pushed Hunger from 66 to 104 and Energy from 167 to 206.

Inventory tooltip for the Granola Bar showing its hunger, energy and stamina values. — The Granola Bar tooltip on the inventory screen, listing its hunger, energy and stamina values.

Chocolate Bar (Smuggler’s starting item), Instant Oatmeal (Hunter’s starting item), Bag of Chips and Nut Mix all restore 40 Hunger with no extra meters. They scatter across Bags, Lockers, Military crates, Office cabinets, Suitcases, Toolboxes and Fridges, and traders carry some of them.

Drinks are the weakest hunger source but earn their slot for other meters. Energy Drink gives 10 Hunger alongside 60 Stamina and 25 Energy, Improvised Coffee gives 10 Hunger with 45 Energy and 45 Cold Resistance, and Improvised Tea gives 10 Hunger with 45 Cold Resistance and 45 Health. Treat the tea as a cold and healing item, not a meal.

Foraging: roots, mushrooms and herbs

A bush harvested with F gives 1 Wood and usually 1 Edible Root, so you pick these up while gathering fire fuel. A root restores 15 Hunger and 15 Health but carries a 5% Parasites chance per piece. Mushrooms grow in caves and sheltered spots such as Bone Cave and restore 30 Hunger when picked with F. Herbs restore just 5 Hunger but 25 Health, and crafting Improvised Tea takes five of them.

A bush in the snow with the Press F to harvest prompt while the A New Beginning quest tracks Find Wood. — A bush with the “Press F to harvest” prompt while the “A New Beginning” quest tracks Find Wood, a harvest usually giving one Wood and one Edible Root.

Looting containers for food

Containers you open across ruined buildings and vehicles hold a mix of tins, snacks and crafting goods. Bags, Lockers, Military crates, Fridges and Suitcases are the ones that can carry food.

An open loot container panel on the inventory screen with the Take all button available. — Robyn’s reward box in Horizon, with a Dish among its contents as the Survivor’s Gloves recipe unlocks.

The order to eat in your first hours

Eat a Granola Bar when the A Bit Hungry warning shows (around 140): it is 40 Hunger and tops up Energy too.
While gathering Wood, collect Edible Roots from bushes, up to a handful.
At Horizon, purchase Meat, cook all of it into Dishes, store them in your quick slots, and eat one when Hunger is around 60.
Keep Improvised Tea for cold rather than hunger: 10 Hunger is nothing, but 45 Body Warmth can save you overnight.

How you know the Dish worked

Cooking succeeds when the panel reports “+1 Dish” and the finished Dish appears in your backpack grid. Eating it moves the Hunger meter up by close to 90 if you were low, and the A Bit Hungry warning clears once the meter rises. No decay showed on any food, so a stack of Dishes keeps until you need it, and both Dishes and most other foods stack to 20.