Minecraft wiki entry for Survival_in_an_infinite_desert, associated text: Using precious fuel for cooked food is a luxury you almost certainly can't afford. Because of the shortage of fuel (if you lack a pickaxe to mine coal or a campfire to cook food) arguably one of the most important iron items to craft is a bucket. That has the highest claim on any iron you find (with the exception of an iron pickaxe). With a bucket, you can switch to using lava as fuel. Lava is highly abundant in the desert biome, far more so than wood. With a Lava Bucket, cooked food and smelting become viable.