so i have never really done a crafting character, always a BoS, guns and science brother!

i am having difficulty knowing what is an ingredient and what is just a something i eat/sell.

ex. i just now found out that hubflowers are used in crafting. i have a boatload of carrot flowers, yet i see i see nothing that uses them in crafting.

also, am i correct that stuff like cram/blamanco/crisps/porkANDbeans/etc can only been consumed/sold?

what about silt beans? just a consumable or an ingredient?

it would be nice if like "tagging" junk items i had something similar that told me if the item was used in chem/cook/etc

p.s

just heard that bad news, no more Bowie .......

you can tag ingredient in the cooking / chem station too!

The food that you find when scavenging stores and buildings (basically man-made food like yum yum deviled eggs or blamco brand mac and cheese) are only consumables. Tatos, mutfruits, razorgrains, corn, melons, gourds, and carrots are used as crops to feed your settlers and ingredients for some stews. Flowers and alcoholic beverages are ingredients for stews and/or chems (for example; a radstag meat, gourd, silt bean, and vodka are the ingredients for radstag stew).

Well, the most common thing to look for, is if it has rads, if it has rads while eaten it's most likely used in cooking. Especially the meats, the water can be the same way except purified water, no rads, doesn't matter.

The only real thing I do cook is the radstag and radscorp for their bonus effects, other than that I only cook what I need and rely on stimpaks to heal me if i need it that bad, but it's rare that i resort to food to heal. And I don't like bonus effects like Rad-X or for the radstag steak gaining an extra 25 lbs of carrying weight. I like to do it all on my own, next play through that will change tho. I will use everything to support my character.

And if that rad thing doesn't work, you can mark whatever you are missing for search (it will show up with a magnifying glass next to it if it is something you are searching for) and if you buy the perk you can get everything you are searching for highlighted in green.

thnx

If it grows it's an ingredient for food; If it can be scrapped, it contains stuff for crafting.

I don't know where this 'crafting character' idea comes from...all you are doing is making stuff that's already in the game, for the most part, other than a few foodstuffs. I cook because some things early game are handy when stimpaks are scarce, and chems are very handy to drag along and chug-a-lug down when needed.