Food now provides a passive fortification bonus that lasts for a set duration depending on its nutritional value and food group. No longer will you find yourself in the awkward position of having to gorge yourself on 47 wheels of cheese in the middle of a battle, cluttering your inventory with 50 lbs of food just in case you need it, or, like me, just ignoring food because you find it stupid.

No scripts, can be installed or uninstalled at any time, ESL-flagged.

This mod is designed to be a minimalist alternative to needs mods or food and cooking overhauls and to be as simple and compatible as possible. The bonuses are minor and primarily intended to add fun and flavor to the food of Skyrim, but without overwhelming you with new systems or monotonous busywork.

There are three food groups:

- Hearty Foods include meats and dairy products. Fortifies health.

- Brain Foods include fruits, fruit pastries, and vegetables. Fortifies magicka.

- Starchy Foods include breads, tubers, and sugary desserts. Fortifies stamina.

Note: recipes that require ingredients from several different categories will usually fall into the category of the main ingredient.

You can retain one passive bonus from each food group. A more powerful bonus from the same food group will always take precedence over a weaker one.

The nutritional value (magnitude) and satiation (duration) of foods are determined by their availability and the complexity of their recipes. Values are intended to reward players for their effort and luck.

There are three tiers:

- Morsels include raw meats, ingredients, and smaller foods that are commonly available: 10 fortification for 15 minutes.

- Dishes include cooked meats, soups and stews with simple recipes, and slightly rarer foods: 20 fortification for 25 minutes.

- Entrées include foods that require more complex recipes and rare ingredients, including all cooked rare fish: 35 fortification for 40 minutes.

Note: Homecooked Meals gain the benefits of all three food groups at once at the level of entrées in addition to the vanilla regeneration perk.

Compatibility

This mod does not touch alcohol, skooma, potions, recipes, or anything else outside of the food ingestibles themselves. New foods added by other mods won't share the passive effects of this mod. I'm open to making patches if there's demand, but no promises.

- USSEP is no longer a dependency and is not compatible out of the box (only affects one single food item), but there's an optional compatibility patch in the downloads section.

- Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul: Incompatible

- Survival Mode: Incompatible. If you really must play with Survival Mode (not recommended), version 1.1.1 of the mod is technically compatible, but its values will not correlate with this mod's system, and it will force you to eat far more food than is required by this mod.

- Last Seed: Incompatible.

- Campfire/Frostfall: Compatible.

- Vokrii: Compatible. The "Slow Metabolism" perk doubles food duration.

- Trua: Compatible. The Dibella blessing increases food duration when praying.

- Wintersun: The Z'en and Sanguine follower effects don't cooperate with my food effects for some reason. Making a patch is probably beyond by abilities.

- Hunterborn: Incompatible.

Recommendations

To further minimize having to fumble with your inventory during combat: Smart Optimal Salves

My other mod: Spooky Spawns