Okay, so leet me deepen you in that knowledge in two steps:

1- While playing that wonderful game, you have probably noticed that whenever you drain all your stamina out, the stamina bar will start shining and will have a delay of some seconds in order to start regenerating again. (Keep that fact in mind)

2- Proceeding, if you have already played as a melee character, you have noticed that you can power attack even if you have only 1 point of stamina, and even that way, you won't be dealing less damage than you would by having full stamina (Also keep that in mind)

Concluding, the only thing that keeps you from spamming power attack is the stamina delay.

Foods made in the Cooking place have some unique effects, as an example:

You may think that those effects are nothing special, but let me tell you, remember that stamina delay that I told you about? So, those 2 stamina points per second from the food literally removes that shining bar delay. In other words, you will have a power attack every time, being able to lock an enemy on stagger.

Considering how cheap the ingredients are, it is totally worth. Also, they last 12 minutes, which means 12 minutes dealing power attacks

Also, as long as you have soup, you won't have to spend points in stamina, since you won't be using stamina at all (of course you will be over encumbered all the time)

There are in total three foods with that effect:

Beef Stew +25 stamina // +2 stamina per second

• Raw Beef
  
• Carrot
  
• Salt Pile
  
• Garlic

Vegetable Soup +1 stamina per second // +1 health per second

• Cabbage
  
• Potato
  
• Leek
  
• Tomato

Venison Stew +1 stamina per second // +1 health per second

• Venison
  
• Salt Pile
  
• Potato
  
• Leek

You are able to stack their effects, but I don't think that the delay will be even shorter by doing so, I guess you should use only one at a time, unless you really like health and stamina regen.

If you are a mage, don't feel excluded, as we have Elsweyr Fondue:


That wonderfullnes increases your magicka regen by 25%, which is not so impressive. BUT, it also gives you 100 POINTS of magicka, being better than many potions you can find, and lasting a lot longer (12 minutes).

Elsweyr Fondue:

• Eidar Cheese Wheel
  
• Moon Sugar
  
• Ale

Even if you are not a shield user, by using that kind of power, you are able to abuse the shield bashing system. By staggering your oponent over and over, you can use the intervals to deal some damage with your weapon. With that, you are able to kill giants in the beggining of the game (only one at a time, of course), just keep smashing that face and you will be able to fulfill your desire of killing a giant at level 1

(A guy named cookie told me that information)

Oh, and don't forget the power of BAKING! You can use garlic, butter, and bread (whole loaf) to make two helpings of garlic bread, which cures disease. This is ESSENTIAL on Survival Mode (where shrines cost 100 gold to use), especially because garlic bread also restores hunger and is one of the lightest weight cooked foods.

Crostatas and apple dumplings are also very easy to make with an oven, and give minor buffs to characters who aren't alchemists. It's not as OP as vegetable soup, but a little bonus damage is better than none!

Thx cookie

Now that you are an OP warrior, just start a new legendary save and kill whatever you want. Thank me later :)