For cooking:
Each ingredient:
*Restores some amount of hearts
*Has an effect
*Has an effect potency
*Has an effect duration
As an example, the Ironshroom has 0.5 base hearts, the 'Tough' effect (raises defence), 2 potency, and a duration (0:50 seconds).
When you cook something, the result:
*Restores 2 times the sum of the base hearts
*Has the effect of the base ingredients (can't stack, if the base ingredients have more than one particular effect between them, there's no effect in the product)
*A potency depending on whether the sum of the ingredients' potencies reaches certain levels
*An effect duration equal to some base amount dependent on the effect plus some bonus amount equal to the sum of the ingredients' durations
In addition to this, there are certain 'synergy bonuses' for some food combinations, for when you make a more complex dish like Meat Pie or Seafood Meunière. But these are normally just a few more hearts restored, and are rarely worth aiming for specifically.
Finally, you can sometimes get a 'critical cook', which randomly makes the result stronger. You can force this by cooking during a Blood Moon.
Cooking is a little disappointing the more you get into it, in all honesty, because most of the complexity is just noise. Nine times out of ten, you're better off just using 5x the same ingredient for best effect; the synergy bonuses are normally just too weak to go for.
haha
