I only even found it this was a thing by looking at the wiki. And I STILL forget because it is NOT intuitive.
Itās as intuitive as drinking the water from a sewer, and about as healthy.
This one understands that survival games pride themselves on being opaque to the point of being obtuse, but there comes a point when that turns into, not just counter intuitive, but counter reality absurdism.
The point at which a Baker, Blacksmith, and Bushcraft instructor would come together to note exactly how incorrect a thing is. Thatās where this is, a punishment for player knowledge of how to actually make the object in question. Itās right up there with water from the dregs being refreshing while raw oysters are poisonous. Because drinking out of a septic tank is rewarded, while eating oysters in the most common way they are served is punished.
I role play with my kitchen! I always use branches only in my stove and when i have a kiln furnace i place one in the kitchen just to fix bread. I again use only branches to warm up my furnace 
.
Dried wood.
Dried wood imparts the smoky sweet flavour that BBQ craves.
Possibly with a little bark thrown in.
The Charcoal Briquette kiln is such an amusing thing
This one canāt sear a steak over charcoal.
This is tragic.
Such tragedy.
A deep fried southern heart breaks from the despair event horizon.
Now this one craves a steak, and the butcher doesnāt open for 8 hoursā¦
We have still rustic ovens here in my island. Old ladies know how to handle them only. They use dried olive tree branches to heat the furnace and they fix bread. After they finish with bread they put a huge pan inside with lamb and beans and they seal the furnace to let it cooked the whole night. I cannot describe the taste this plate has. The other day you can eat even the bones (dont 
) they are soft as the meat.
Thereās a reason we use to go to villages to eat every Sunday.
Even simple beans cooked this way have honey taste.
Age of Gastronomy Chapter 1 here we go!
ā¦in my dreams. 
Age of Civilization, ancient and wicked.
Alternatively
Age of Decadence.
Rework of the Food and Drink system.
Expansion of the auto harvest system introduced with Golems
Settlement system that revises the concept behind the thrall pot, possibly expanding it to include religious buffs through the compound.
Battle Pass/Bazaar offerings could run the gamut of Temple themed attire (Follower, Priest, and Religious Guards), more professional wear along the lines of the Blacksmith and Chef outfits, to include more workstation skins (hopefully ones that function at a better level than the current basic only ones), Noble and Peasant attire for under represented cultures such as Vendyhans, Kothians, and Zamora.
If not a Vendyhan or Zamoran build set, then expansion packs along those lines.
Long list of domestic item placeables.
Perhaps we can finally use the Barber Feat and get some grooming for our property people.
Of course, far too much to ask, but it could easily be an entire Age filled out easy.
Thatās a different game. A sort of post-apocalyptic ancient Rome, turn-based tactical RPG. Short, but with quite a lot of replayability.
Itās been a long time since I last played it, so I donāt remember if food or alcohol was very useful in it.
As for Conan Exiles, itās sad that thereās a huge variety of foods in the game, the vast majority of which fall under ānot worth the troubleā and the rest under ārecipe not available on Siptah unless RNG lottery favors youā. End result, I eat whatever my dead enemies drop, and my thralls eat whichever animal I butchered on my way to the enemy.
To be entirely fair, grilled steak is probably the only food one should feed their thralls until they are 20th level.
Which is sorta a problem
Iād argue that gruel is.
Guess it depends on the player/playstyle.
Gruel gives decent healing, but itās level bonus is Strengthā¦
Which isnāt Vitality.
This one finds property people extremely fragile of late, and with their damage nerfs, focusing on strength or agility seems Quixotic.
They are useful for applying status problems like Bleed/Poison/Gouge/Sunder, but this one no longer finds them to be utile damage dealers.
Coupled with no limited to stun locking, and this one tends to prioritize HP over all else.
Except Darfari, they hit like a Rockslide, but they are extreme glass cannons at early levels.
Of course playstyle will vary, that is very natural, and you are absolutely correct.
This one isnāt pontificating to change anyoneās preferences, but in case someone new or returning peeks at the thread, this one prefers to offer the long form supports.
I personally donāt desire the vitality from steak.
I prefer the boost to strength because my build focuses around boosting their damage as much as possible. I can still get 4k+ hp on a thugra without steak and 5k+ on dalinsias without steak (using rebirth potions).
I have yet to lose a thrall to vanilla content since age of sorcery started.
Playstyle/person will often determine what preferred leveling food is.
I fully recognize though this isnāt everyoneās experience and a desire for more hp on thralls is prevalent especially since age of war start. Things I kill easily without my thralls dipping even below half can kill another playerās thrall who may play/approach the fight differently.
For my particular play style, thralls are in an even better place than age of sorcery.
+1.
I feed them steaks too, like @LostBrythunian but mostly because i role play. I have fed them so many years with gruel that even i got sick of it .
But i wish fishes, not necessarily buff fishes, would give better benefits from stakes. Itās way more healthy food in real life than steaks and they should be more beneficial to thralls too.
Then again lobsters, shrimps and some wine in base should gave them a comforting boost and eventually some points in their attributes! Not too many to become unfair for pvp, just some to be rewarding for the player that treats them ācorrectlyā.
Useful or not, I would LOVE new recipes for both, food and drinks.
Also, would love different food storage, not necessarily based on ice.
For example it would be nice to have one based on salt.
Finally, some free āfood decorationsā would be nice.
It would be ok to have paid ones if prices werenāt ridiculously high.
PS: I would add a special feature for cimmerian berserkers that gain something like +25% damage if they drink alchol (and maybe +40% if itās mead).
Exactly, strength means your thrall kills things faster, and the decent healing means they stay up longer. Vitality meansā¦the fight takes longer than it aught to. So why would you go with steak? It just doesnāt make sense.
One should always be the center of attention and divert the gaze of the opposition away from their āpropertyā. Though good armor also helps.
Right, because you are feeding them steaks. 
Now, what is the best food to level your thrall? Whatever you feel like feeding them. 
Tell this one you havenāt used thralls since the Age of War nerf without telling this one you havenāt used thralls since the Age of War nerf.
Yes, pump them full of desert style chili.
Very beneficial. Perhaps if there was a gaseous expulsion emoteā¦
But thatās the rub of Role Playing Games.
Itās a game, but itās also acting.
If itās very beneficial to oneās immersion to engage in statistical trap choices, then more power to them.
A few points of Strength wonāt make much of a difference when the thrall stands around like an idiot, tries to punch the Red Mother, or keeps using the two-handed swordās overhead chop attack against a small, moving target and missing.
The way I play, my thrall is the anvil, and I am the hammer. The thrall is just dumb as a box of hammers. I just took a new fighter thrall on a stroll, and basic skeletons were doing full combos against him and pretty much stunlocking the idiot, who only got a few strikes back before getting tired of swinging a sword and gave the turn back to the skeleton. Iām sure the thrall wouldāve won eventually, as the skeleton wasnāt doing much damage, but I wouldāve died of starvation (or boredom) while watching.
I most certainly have! My Captainās Bodyguard Undina was an absolute MONSTER! (found the legendary sword with agility right before I got her so that certainly helped lol).
Neither will the few points of vitality. NOTHING will trump funcom coding!!!
Vitality makes it more forgiving to take damageā¦
What do Thralls excel at? Getting hit by everything and taking damage.
Legendary Weapons are OP enough for Thralls to deal a lot of damage though.
Getting in the way and not following orders?