Roughly Enough Recipes: Crafting the Uncraftable in Minecraft
Vanilla Minecraft is packed with iconic items that, for some reason, have always been locked behind exploration, villager trading, or sheer luck. Tridents, saddles, name tags, and horse armor are just a few examples of gear you cannot craft in a crafting table. Roughly Enough Recipes (RER) steps in to change that, adding a collection of brand-new crafting recipes that feel like they have always belonged in the game. This mod is perfect for players who love the vanilla aesthetic but want a bit more control over their inventory without breaking immersion.
What Is Roughly Enough Recipes?
Roughly Enough Recipes is a lightweight mod designed to fill the gaps in Minecraft’s crafting system. It introduces dozens of recipes for items that were previously uncraftable, all while sticking closely to the game’s original style. You will not find overpowered shortcuts or cheap exploits here. Each recipe is balanced, using materials that make logical sense within the Minecraft universe. For example, a trident might require prismarine shards and an iron ingot, while a saddle could combine leather, iron, and string in a way that mirrors how the item would realistically be assembled.
The mod’s creator has gone to great lengths to ensure that every addition looks and feels vanilla. The crafting patterns, the required resources, and even the quantity of output items are carefully tuned so that nothing stands out as a modded anomaly. This makes Roughly Enough Recipes an ideal choice for vanilla-style modpacks, where the goal is to enhance the base game without introducing entirely new mechanics or fantasy elements.
How It Enhances Vanilla Gameplay
One of the biggest frustrations in a standard survival world is the hunt for rare items that are entirely dependent on RNG. Tridents, for instance, only drop from drowned mobs with a low probability, and even then you need to kill a drowned holding one. With RER, you can craft a trident after gathering the right ocean materials, rewarding exploration in a different, more predictable way. Similarly, name tags and saddles, which are normally found in dungeon chests or traded from villagers, become craftable from common resources like paper, string, leather, and iron. This reduces the grind without trivializing the experience.
The mod also breathes new life into multiplayer servers and custom modpacks. Server owners can offer a more consistent progression path, while modpack creators can rely on RER to provide baseline recipes that complement other mods. If you are building a modpack that stays close to the vanilla spirit, this mod is practically a must-have. It removes the need for tedious villager trading halls or hours of mob farming just to obtain a handful of utility items.
Key Recipes You Can Now Craft
While the full list is extensive and best explored through an in-game recipe viewer like Just Enough Items (JEI), here are some of the standout additions that Roughly Enough Recipes brings to the crafting table:
- Tridents – Crafted using prismarine shards, prismarine crystals, and iron ingots, giving ocean monuments a new purpose beyond sponges and gold blocks.
- Name Tags – A simple recipe involving paper, string, and an iron nugget, allowing you to name your pets without relying on fishing or chest loot.
- Saddles – Combine leather, iron ingots, and string to finally ride that horse you tamed without scouring the world for a dungeon.
- Horse Armor – Iron, gold, and diamond horse armor can now be crafted using their respective materials in a horse-shaped pattern, making mounted combat more accessible.
- Enchanted Golden Apples – While still expensive, the recipe uses gold blocks and an apple, bringing back a classic item that was made uncraftable in later updates.
- Chainmail Armor – Crafted with iron nuggets and chains (or iron bars), giving this often-overlooked armor set a proper crafting method.
These recipes are not just thrown together; they follow logical patterns that match existing vanilla recipes. For instance, chainmail armor uses a layout similar to other armor sets, and the trident’s shape in the grid mimics its actual appearance. The attention to detail is what makes RER so seamless.
Compatibility and Recommended Mods
Roughly Enough Recipes is designed to work alongside other popular utility mods. Since it only adds recipes and does not introduce new blocks or entities, compatibility issues are rare. However, some recipes may conflict with those added by other mods. This is where Polymorph comes in. Polymorph is a mod that resolves recipe conflicts by allowing you to cycle through different outputs for the same crafting pattern. It is highly recommended to install Polymorph alongside RER to avoid any frustration when two mods try to claim the same crafting grid layout.
To see all available recipes in-game, you will want to use Just Enough Items (JEI). RER does not include a built-in recipe viewer, so JEI will display every new recipe right in your inventory screen. You can also browse the uncraftable item recipes through community galleries, which showcase many of the additions before you even install the mod. Remember that the gallery images only show a selection; the full recipe list is much larger and best explored dynamically with JEI.
If you are managing a custom modpack or simply want a smoother way to handle installations, a modern launcher can make all the difference. For instance, the foxygame.net launcher lets you browse and install Roughly Enough Recipes directly from its built-in mod menu, saving you the hassle of manual downloads and file management. This kind of flexibility is especially handy when you are juggling multiple mods and want to keep everything organized.
Installation and Setup
Getting Roughly Enough Recipes up and running is straightforward. First, ensure you have a compatible version of Minecraft Forge or Fabric installed. The mod is available on Modrinth and other reputable platforms, and you can download it as a standard .jar file. Place the file into your mods folder, and you are good to go. If you are using a launcher that supports one-click mod installation, the process is even simpler—just search for the mod, click install, and the launcher handles the rest.
For the best experience, install JEI and Polymorph alongside RER. JEI will let you view every recipe without memorizing patterns, while Polymorph will prevent any recipe collisions from blocking your crafting. Once everything is in place, load up your world and start experimenting with the new crafting options. You will quickly find that many previously rare items become a natural part of your survival toolkit.
Conclusion
Roughly Enough Recipes is a small mod with a big impact. It elegantly solves one of Minecraft’s oldest quirks—the inability to craft certain essential items—without straying from the game’s core identity. Every recipe feels deliberate and balanced, making it a seamless addition to any vanilla-inspired modpack or solo world. Whether you are tired of hunting drowned for a trident or simply want to craft a saddle for your trusty steed, RER delivers a clean, vanilla-friendly solution. Pair it with JEI and Polymorph, and you will wonder why these recipes were not part of the base game from the start.