Cooking is one of the most basic life skills, and it’s no different for your Sims in The Sims 4. It’s nearly impossible to survive as a Sim without the cooking skill, so you’ll have to level it up in every playthrough.
As part of theBusiness and Hobbiesexpansion pack, a new feature has been added that allows you to create and pass down Family Recipes. These family recipes are not only delicious (most of the time), but they come with the added perks called Special Touches.
These gameplay features are an amazing addition to The Sims 4, particularly if you spend a lot of time taking part inLegacy Challenges. When you’re 10 generations into a challenge and still using recipes created by the original starting Sim, it’s a nice touch that really adds to the immersion.
Here’s everything you need to know about creating Family Recipes, and how to unlock additional Special Touches, inThe Sims 4.
How to create Family Recipes in The Sims 4
If you own theBusinesses and Hobbiesexpansion forThe Sims 4, you’ll find that interacting with any cooking item will bring up a new option to “Create Family Recipe”. Selecting this will bring up a menu (shown above) that allows you to select a base recipe, an additional ingredient, and a Special Touch.
What you make here is up to you, and it doesn’t even need to be particularly appetizing. You can combine a Chocolate Cake with Avocado if the mood takes you, and your Sim is unlikely to complain at the taste or turn it down.You can make a maximum of 10 Family Recipes, as you cannot make more than one recipe using the same Special Touch.
As part of theBusinesses and Hobbiesexpansion, a new item called “Grammy’s Family Recipes” was added to the Build and Buy menu, costing 85 Simoleons. This item works like any cooking station, and you can create Family Recipes directly from it.
When you’ve created a Family Recipe and cooked it for the first time, you’re able to prepare it from the “Family Recipes…” option when interacting with a cooking item. You’ll also be able to teach it to another member of the family, or even a family friend if you don’t mind sharing your secrets.
You’ll also be able to view all of your created Family Recipes, and clicking on them will reveal the options you chose when creating them.
How to get more Special Touches in The Sims 4
You’ll need to add a Special Touch to every Family Recipe that you make, and which ones you’ll have unlocked depends on how long your Sim has been around and what they’ve experienced during their life. If you’re playing with an established Household, you’ll likely have access to many of the available Special Touches by default.
Remember, you’re able to only create one recipe using each Special Touch.Trying to reuse a Special Touch that you’ve already used in a Family Recipe will replace the original Family Recipe, so it’s worth unlocking as many Special Touches as you can.
However, if you’re playing with a new household, you’ll need to unlock additional Special Touches by having experiences in the world at large. Here’s how:
When a Family Recipe infused with a Special Touch is consumed by a Sim, they’ll gain the Meal Effect as a perk that lasts a fixed amount of time. How long each perk lasts varies, and you can find out how long you have left with a particular perk by hovering over it underneath your Sim in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
