Runescape Cooking - Feel the Burn:How To Cook Rocktail Fish Without Burning: What You Do From Level 93 to 95

I wrote this guide for high-level Runescape P2P (Pay to Play) members. It's purpose is very narrow... to teach you how to NOT burn any Rocktail while your cooking levels are between 93 and 95, when you can cook them, but still burn a few.

I know it works, because that's exactly how I leveled up.  I wound up getting my 99 in Cooking almost accidentally, thanks in large part to cooking Rocktails as early as I could.

Rocktail fish are known to be the 2nd fastest fishing experience in Runescape, so once you can catch them at fishing level 90, you should definitely switch up from Shark (or whatever you've been fishing up to that point). It helps to also have level 73 Mining so you can mine your own bait. They are found in the Living Rock Caverns below the Dwarf Tunnels of Ice Mountain. The area is filled with aggressive creatures (which must be killed to obtain the bait, unless you buy it.)

At a selling price of over 2,000 gold per fish, burning Rocktail can cost a lot, in terms of gold or time spent fishing.

Rocktail gives 225 experience per fish to cook, and are one of the few foods that sells higher cooked than raw, making it profitable to buy raw and sell cooked.

They heal for 230 life points, and can heal you for 100 lp above your maximum, making them the best one-bite food in Runescape.

When you first can cook Rocktail at level 93, it's easy to burn them, even with Cooking Gauntlets.  At Cooking level 95, with the Cooking Gauntlets, you will no longer burn Rocktail.  But for level 93 and 94, you need some help.  Once you've made it to level 95, you can cook anywhere you want, and not spend anything.  But until then, a little help can make the Rocktail go a lot further.

That help is found as Chef's Delight.  With it boosting your cooking levels, you'll never burn a Rocktail.  Use it until level 95, then just wearing the gauntlets is enough.  LIke shark, there is no "No-Burn" level without the guantlets, but that's okay.  If you're high enough to find this article useful, then you probably got your cooking gauntlets a long time ago  If not, do the "Family Crest" quest, and you get Family Gauntlets as a reward.  Take the family gauntlets to Caleb in Catherby, pay him 25,000 gold, and he'll convert them to cooking gauntlets.  I've also found them useful as Goldsmithing gauntlets, so will change them back and forth depending on my current goals.

You probably knew about Chef's Delight.  Your player-owned-house most likely has a brew dispenser of it.  What you learn here will be the easiest and most affordable way of cooking rocktail.  Below is the technique, and below that is a cost breakdown, based on my own experience from cooking.

Your Cooking level has to be MINIMUM 95 after drinking a Chef's Delight. For this to really work, higher would be better, so you'll have more time before you need to take another drink.

Your house should have a Demon Butler, a kitchen stocked with a range, a barrel dispenser of Chef's Delight, and wall shelves for the beer glass.

Bring with you:
Lots of gold to pay your Butler (7,500 per 125 Rocktail if you've done "Love Story")
Noted Raw Rocktail (doesn't matter whether you fished it yourself, or bought it)
1 house teleport.
Nothing else in your inventory - You'll be using as much inventory space as possible.

Equipment worn:
Cooking Gauntlets. (You can wear anything else you want, but you must be wearing cooking gauntlets.)

Click on your Demon Butler to make him follow you (or ring the bell pull if you have one)

Get a beer glass from your kitchen shelf.  Fill it with Chef's delight.

Click on the noted rocktail
Click on the demon butler
Select Un-Cert, and type 25
Drink the Chef's delight while he is un-noting your rocktails.
When the demon butler fills your inventory with Raw Rocktail, click on a raw rocktail.
Click on the range, and select cook all.
After they've cooked, right-click on a cooked rocktail and select Use (don't left-click, you'll eat it!), click on the demon butler, select Bank, and type 25.
While he's gone, re-fill your glass with Chef's Delight.
When he gets back, uncert 25 more noted rocktail fish.
While he's gone, drink your Chef's Delight.
When he returns, cook the fish.

Keep repeating the cycle until you've cooked all your fish. 

Don't forget when you're done to take some Super Restore.  Otherwise the Chef's Delight leaves your fighting skills looking kind of wimpy, since it cumulatively reduces Attack and Strength with each drink.

Quick, easy, and even at level 93, where you've just barely qualified to cook Rocktail, you will NEVER BURN YOUR ROCKTAIL. The best part is, you only have to follow this procedure until level 95, when you quit burning Rocktail (with the gauntlets worn).

By the way, once you've gotten to cooking level 95 in Runescape, the best place to cook is the Cook's Guild. If you've done the Varrock Achievement Diary, you have access to a tiny room with a bank and a cooking range right next to each other. This is the fastest access in Runescape between the bank and a range. After you no longer need Chef's Delight, any range will do. I used to like the one in Catherby next door to the bank. But the Cook's Guild (after Varrock Achievements) is back-to-back the closest, and fastest, cooking in Runescape.

Rocktail are a great way to get to 99 cooking.  I've been buying raw at highest and selling cooked at median for fast turnaround.  I'm losing a very small amount of money that way, but going very fast.

 Not burning your Rocktail is really really big... Compare the cost of cooking Rocktail normally, to the cost of using your demon butler:

Rocktail currently sells at the Runescape Grand Exchange for more than 2,000 gold.  If you burn 3 per pack on average, you've wasted 6k gold, or 30k per 125 Rocktails (the amount you cook before the butler charges you for his services).

A single glass of Chef's Delight goes on the Grand Exchange for 4,500 gold.  Since I drink one glass per inventory in my house, that's equal to 4,500 gold per inventory if I buy it from the GE, times 5 inventories equals 22.5K for 125 Rocktails.  (Yes, I know you can buy it from a bartender in Yanille for 1 gold, but trying to buy that many one at a time isn't worth the effort to me.)

If you've done the Love Story quest, you get a huge discount on your servant fee.  I pay 7,500 gold every 10 trips.  Since he's making 2 trips, one to bank and one to unnote, then I'm getting 5 inventory-fulls per time to pay him.

At 25 Rocktail per inventory, that means I'm getting 125 Rocktail un-noted, cooked, and banked, for 7,500 gold.  And no burnt fish stinking up the house.

To sum it up:
30k gold lost out of 125 Rocktail (on average) if you just wear the cooking gauntlets and cook somewhere else in Runescape
.
22.5k gold spent out of 125 Rocktail if you buy Chef's Delight from the Grand Exchange and cook somewhere else (Cooking Guild is best)

7.5k gold spent out of 125 Rocktail if you cook in your home, drink your own Chef's Delight, and pay the butler.

Turns out it really IS cheaper to stay home and cook!

I usually fish 1000 Rocktail or more, then go cook them.  That means a cooking cost of 240k gold, 180k, or 60k respectively, depending on which technique you use.

At 95 Cooking, you can cook Rocktail anywhere in Runescape and avoid burning by using the cooking gauntlets, but until then, cooking in your home is the cheapest and easiest method available. Besides, it's fun... I like that my kitchen has a practical use, instead of just taking up one of my alloted rooms.


I may have skimmed too briefly over how to get some of the requirements. But there are plenty of Runescape guides on how to fish in the living rock caverns, or how to build your kitchen, how to win quests. The emphasis here is on cooking rocktail without burning them.

Too much extra detail just bogs down the main point. And honestly, if you're high-level enough to find this guide useful, you most likely have or can easily get everything you need without me holding your hand. :^)

Monique and I have been playing Runescape for nearly 6 years now.  Our nephew made me sit down and sign up so we could play it while he was visiting.  I got hooked.  Monique, being unique, didn't gripe about the time I spent playing.  She said... "That looks interesting - How do you play it?"

Since then, we've just kept on going.  We play the quests together, we hunt penguins together, and we often work on skills together.  She became a player mod since she's so nice and outgoing.  I'm a surly old curmudgeon, and usually have my chat turned off so I can concentrate on playing.  I'm pretty high level in combat skills, she excels in what I call "the boring skills"... she's level 99 farming, and very high-level in crafting, herblore, and the like.  Surprisingly, she's been making a move on the Slayer skill.  Looks like her Slayer level will be higher than mine very soon, the rate she's working on it!

I've never seen the need to write a Runescape guide before, since there are already so many available.  But I happen to be in the very narrow niche this guide is for, realized it was a pretty cool technique, and thought I'd share.