Cooked Slot (Hold Your Hat)

The Cooked slot is played on a 6x6 grid with Cluster Pays. A winning combination, or cluster, is formed when 5 or more identical symbols appear that are connected vertically, horizontally and diagonally. The bigger the cluster, the bigger the payout with 20 symbols required for a symbol’s top payout. Like the mechanic? Check out the best Cluster Pays slots.

With a 10p minimum bet per spin, the maximum bet in the UK is £5 (or £2 if you’re under 25). Use the plus and minus buttons either side of the main ‘Spin’ button (outside the UK, the max bet goes up to £100 a spin). Players outside the UK, there are Autoplay and Quick Play functions.

The Cooked RTP rate is 94%, which is below the 96% slots average. However, it’s the only RTP rate available. Based on a £20 balance and playing at the minimum bet of 10p per spin, you’ll run out of funds after 3,317 spins theoretically.

Medium volatility (6/10), a winning cluster will land every 1 in 3.53 spins on average as the hit frequency rate is 28.3%. In terms of max exposure, Cooked comes with 10,000 x bet max wins.

With a food theme, the Cooked slot takes you a culinary war in the jungle. The story follows chef Jean-Pierre Gratin who has retreated to a remote tropical island after luxury ship SS Gourmand sunk.

Not to be deterred, he sets out to create a dish, Le Grand Brûlé, that is so powerful that it ‘threatens to overwhelm the world with a single taste’ (according to Hold Your Hat). Rival islanders aim to stop the bitter chef before his ambition foces a global disaster.

The setting is a jungle kitchen where you’ll see a burning stove with a monkey imprisoned underneath. As well as jars of ingredients, knives and gas cannisters, the soundtrack is suspenseful and stirring (which ties in with the chef’s state of mind).

On the 6x6 grid, symbols include gloves, coconut water spray bottles, purple ingredient bottles, a canned compass, chopped tomotoes, a chef’s hat and diving helmet. With 5 payout levels for each symbol, the diving helmet is the best paying symbol, awarding 50 to 300 x your total bet for 20 in a winning cluster.

Special symbols include the Chef Bonus Scatter, a Multiplier, various animals including a Lemur, Toucan, Chameleon and Great Blue Shark. You’ll also come across Coins, a Heart and a Magnet. Their functions are described in more detail below.

Cooked Mobile

Hold Your Hat uses HTML5 technology meaning Cooked is playable on desktop, tablet and mobile devices. Compatible with iOS and Android smartphones, you play in Portrait Mode. To see the detail in the graphics and animations, a larger screen (such as a laptop or PC) is recommended.

Cooked comes with cascades, several Inventory features that can combine altogether and free spins with a persistent multiplier.

Cascade

When a winning cluster of symbols lands on the grid, the Cascade feature is triggered. Winning symbols are remove from the grid, with all feature symbols (except the Magnet and Multiplier) moved to the inventory. The remaining symbols drop into the empty positions with new symbols dropping in to fill the newly empty positions. Cascades continue as long as new winning clusters appear.

Inventory features

As mentioned, feature symbols move to the inventory after a win. Activating from left to right after a symbol refill, they include the Lemur, Toucan, Chameleon, Great Blue Shark, Magnet, Heart and Multiplier: remember that Magnet and Multiplier symbols don’t move to the inventory.  

There are Extra Life counters that track the remaining activations for feature symbols, with symbols removed once they run out of extra lives. It also counts down for symbols that cannot perform their feature. Below is what each Inventory feature entails:

• Lemurian Flip: the Lemur points out a symbol and flips it downwards or sideways. Any symbol appear on the same row/column flips over to become the first one. Coins increase in value when flipped and any Lemur, Great Blue Shark, Chameleon or Toucan symbol on the path triggers. If a Lemur is hit, the flip rotates 90 degrees and continues in 2 new directions. Only Magnet, Heart and Chef Bonus Scatter symbols act as stopping points for the symbol flip.
• Toucan Spell: the Toucan puts a spell on a selected symbol, increasing its payout level by 1 or more steps (there are 5 payout levels). It switches to another symbol if the chosen payout symbol has reaches the top level.
• Chameleon Flash: the Chameleon zooms in on a payout symbol and once the flash goes off, it transforms all instances of that symbol into another symbol.
• Great Blue Shark: the Great Blue Shark cuts the grid with his knife and clones 1 or more rows, resulting in a larger grid. When the maximum number of rows is reached (up to 10), payout symbols are upgraded instead.
• Magnetic Collector: the magnet collects all Coins in view. Multiple Magnet symbols in the inventory also collect the values from each other. The Magnet symbol then keeps its accumulated coin value as long as it has extra life (it will otherwise disappear on the next symbol drop).
• Heart: Activating before Inventory features, it increases the extra life counters for each feature symbol in the inventory by the number shown. The Heart symbol remains on the grid if they are no feature symbols into the inventory.

Free Drops Bonus

The Free Drops Bonus feature is triggered by landing 3 or more Chef Bonus Scatters. 5 free spins are awarded for 3 scatters with 1 extra free spin for each additional scatter.

Additionally to the base game, Multiplier symbols can appear. it increases the global multiplier by the number it displays. This multiplier is persistent and applies to all subsequent wins in the feature. With the Inventory emptied between free spins, the payout levels and number of rows when you trigger feature is carried over. Finally, Chef Bonus Scatters can land with a maximum of 8 extra free spins possible.

Bonus Buys

Cooked comes with 5 bonus buy options. Below are the details:

Cooked Slot

Rating: 4.2/5

Hold Your Hat’s debut slot is a fun and exciting game with multi-layered features that can combine for a whacky jungle experience and 10,000 x bet max wins.

Chris Taylor

The Cooked slot is Hold Your Hat’s debut release and they’ve definitely not played it safe. This multi-layered Cluster Pays game has more than meets the eye. Focusing on a crazy chef and a team of rival animals, the graphics and animations are fun, engaging and a little whacky. The lemur reminds me of Madagascar’s King Julien.

Using a Cluster Pays mechanic, I like the fact you can create winning clusters when symbols are connected diagonally, as well as the standard of both horizontally and vertically.

However, the focus is on feature symbols: they are added to the Inventory when next to a winning cluster. The Lemur flips symbols to reveal the same symbol with Coins increasing in value. When the Toucan activates, it increases symbol payouts, with 5 levels to achieve. The Chameleon transforms symbol with the Great Blue Shark increasing the number of rows, up to 10, with rows cloned.

With the Magnet collecting Coin values, several Magnets will see them collect values from each other. If you combine this feature with Lemur flips and Great Blue Shark row clones, there is a chance of plenty of Coins on the grid. With the Heart keeping the inventory symbols alive, you need a combination of Inventory features to interact for any substantial win potential.

In the free spins, there is the addition of the Multiplier feature, which is persistent throughout the feature. Build the multiplier and combine various Inventory features for the chance of big wins.

With 10,000 x bet max win potential, Cooked can pop off if the Inventory features combine. The multi-layered mechanics provide for an interesting and ambitious debut slot from Hold Your Hat and that’s something I need to commend them for. It bodes well for future releases even though ELK Studios’ influence is clear to see in my opinion.

If you like the look of Cooked, I recommend ELK Studios’ Pirots 4 and Relax Gaming’s Beast Gains, which are both character-led. Prefer multi-level slots? You cannot go wrong with Print Studios’ Tarasque.

The Cooked slot review was written by Chris Taylor from our OLBG Expert team who has written over 10,000 slot game reviews in an iGaming career spanning over 2 decades.

Chris Taylor

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Chris Taylor is an industry veteran originally from Gibraltar. Having worked in the online gambling industry since 2004, Chris loves slots and has reviewed over 10,000 online slot games. Running a slots-focused website for 13 years, Chris is the go-to guy for everything slots-related.