Minecraft wiki entry for Quick_ways_to_get_food, associated text: Cooked foods have better saturation and restore more hunger than raw meat. Player can kill mobs with fire using Fire Aspect or Flame enchantments, flint and steel, fire charges, lava (although this may burn the items that are dropped from the mob) or some naturally generated fire in the nether. Most fish can be tricky to set alight (being underwater) but sometimes it is actually possible. While building a furnace is an option, if you only need to cook a few items you may be better off making a campfire.