A Guide to Cripps' Special Stew Recipes in Red Dead Redemption 2

Choosing the right camp upgrades can make your life in Red Dead Redemption Online a whole lot easier, especially if you decide to take on the Trader role. One of the upgrades that I think gets misunderstood far too frequently is the Stew Pot.

If you have the cash, you should definitely pick up this upgrade. Unless you manage to get it when it’s on sale, the Stew Pot costs $650, so many players hesitate. However, this little upgrade is well worth the scratch. If you cook and eat one of the two highest-quality stews, your character will walk away with golden cores. This is one of the the fastest ways (maybe the fastest) to refill your cores in the entire game.

(As a side note: stews do impact your character’s weight, but not as much as eating canned goods will.)

To access the Stew Pot, simply walk up to it and hold triangle to open the recipe menu or square to dish up a pan full of stew. Once you have the stew, hold R2 to eat it. (All of these controls are for the PS4 version of the game.)

So let’s talk about quality. There are six tiers of stew in the game, and you can basically toss any of your leftover meat into the pot to wind up with something to eat. However, it’s really only the top two tiers that you should focus on. Also, no matter which stew you cook (aside from the Base Quality Stew), it will last for three in-game days before reverting back to Base Quality Stew.

So now, let’s explore all six stew tiers in Red Dead Online, from worst to best.

Base Quality Stew

The Base Quality Stew is what’s in the pot if you don’t add anything to it. Eating it will fill your cores just a tiny bit.

Low Quality Stew

Adding meat of questionable quality will result in Low Quality Stew. This stew refills your cores just a bit more than the Base Quality Stew. Adding one unit of any of the following items will create the Low Quality Stew:

Gamey Bird Meat
Stringy Meat
Herptile Meat
Gritty Fish Meat

Note that you only need one of these things to make the stew. You can scroll through stew recipes by tapping left or right on the D-pad.

Medium Quality Stew

Slightly higher-quality meat will result in Medium Quality Stew, which fills your cores slightly more than the Low Quality Stew. Adding one unit of any of the following items will create the Medium Quality Stew:

Gristly Mutton
Flaky Fish Meat
Plump Bird Meat
Crustacean Meat

Note that you only need one of these things to make the stew. You can scroll through stew recipes by tapping left or right on the D-pad.

High Quality Stew

Decent-quality meat will result in High Quality Stew, which fills your cores to the maximum amount. Adding one unit of any of the following items will create the High Quality Stew:

Prime Beef Joint
Mature Venison Meat
Tender Pork Loin
Game Meat
Succulent Fish Meat
Exotic Bird Meat

Note that you only need one of these things to make the stew. You can scroll through stew recipes by tapping left or right on the D-pad.

Superior Quality Stew

Now we’re cooking. The Superior Quality Meat will refill your cores to the maximum level, as well as make them gold (level IV) for a full in-game day. There is only one recipe:

Big Game Meat x3

If you can’t make the Cripp’s Special, you should always make Superior Quality Stew.

Big Game Meat comes from large predator animals, such as alligators, bears, and wolves (contrary to popular belief, large herbivores such as bison and elk will not drop Big Game Meat). The best way to farm Big Game Meat is to head to Lagras and hunt some gators (most gators will drop 5 Big Game Meat). Additionally, some Trader resupply missions will send you to find some rival traders who have been killed by wolves. These missions will allow you to acquire a small amount of Big Game Meat.

Cripps’ Special

The Cripps’ Special is the top-tier of stew in Red Dead Online. Nothing tops it. This stew will fill your cores, plus give you golden cores (Level IV) for three in-game days. If possible, you should always make the Cripps’ special.

However, this one is a bit tricky. See, there are several different versions of this stew, yet only one of them will ever be available at a time. The Cripps’ special stew changes every three in-game days, and I’ve found that it usually changes if you log out and log back into the game. There are no recipes to collect or anything, so you have no control over which Cripps’ Special is available (though you can potentially keep resetting your game to try to find the one you want).

The best method for making Cripp’s Special stew is to keep as many of the different types of meat and herbs on hand (this Red Dead Wiki will help you track down any specific type of meat you need). The canned ingredients, as well as many of the alcohol types, can be purchased from your Wheeler, Rawson & Co. catalog, which will send the item directly to the post box at your camp. There’s no reason to keep piles of canned peas on hand when you can just order them and have them delivered instantly to your camp.

You can also log your current Cripps’ Special recipe by pressing R3 (on the PS4). This places the recipe in your log, which gives you an easy reference for which ingredients you’re missing (you can access your log using the online menu, which you open by pressing left on the D-pad on PS4). To be perfectly clear, this does not let you keep the recipe — the recipe will still change every three in-game days.

Here is a complete list of every Cripps’ Special recipe: