How to Make a Golden Carrot in Minecraft

Guide Java Bedrock

Quick answer: Surround a carrot with 8 gold nuggets on the crafting table. Golden carrots restore 6 hunger but a massive 14.4 saturation - the best craftable food in the game - and they brew Potions of Night Vision.

What you need

1 carrot
8 gold nuggets

Step by step

Get a carrot: village farms, zombie drops, or your own crop grown from one.
Gather 8 gold nuggets: craft one gold ingot into 9 nuggets, mine Nether gold ore, or raid bastions and ruined portals.
Place the carrot in the center slot of the crafting table and ring it with the 8 gold nuggets.
Take the golden carrot: 6 hunger and 14.4 saturation per bite, the highest saturation of any food you can craft.
Brewing bonus: add a golden carrot to an Awkward Potion in a brewing stand to get a Potion of Night Vision.
Animal bonus: golden carrots also tame, breed and heal horses and donkeys, and breed rabbits.

Java vs Bedrock

Same recipe and stats in Java and Bedrock: 8 nuggets around a carrot, 6 hunger and 14.4 saturation, and golden carrots brew Night Vision in both editions. Master-level farmer villagers sell them for emeralds (3 carrots for 3 emeralds in Java).

Versions: Golden carrots were added in Java 1.4.2 (12w34a, Pretty Scary Update) and Pocket Edition v0.12.1. Farmer trading arrived in 1.14, and they started showing up in ruined portals (1.16), trial spawners and vaults (1.21).

Frequently asked questions

Why is the golden carrot considered the best food?

Saturation, not hunger. It restores 14.4 saturation - more than steak or porkchops (12.8) - so you can run, heal and fight far longer before the hunger bar drops again, and carrots plus gold are both farmable.

Golden carrot or steak?

Golden carrot for saturation (14.4 vs 12.8), steak for hunger (8 vs 6). Late game, most players carry golden carrots because high saturation is what keeps natural regeneration going.

Is it worth buying golden carrots from villagers?

A master farmer sells 3 golden carrots for 3 emeralds, which beats crafting if you have a gold farm shortage but emeralds to spare. Otherwise a piglin bartering setup or Nether gold farm makes crafting trivially cheap.