Throughout his career, game developer Tim Cain kept a tradition of including recipes in games he worked on, including the following:

• Stonekeep - Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins (found at the end of the game's credits and in a separate text file on the disc).
• Fallout - Mushroom Clouds (found in the game's manual; a recipe for a Desert Salad can also be found, but according to Cain this one was contributed by lead designer Christopher Taylor).
• Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura - Grandma Cookhill's Three Bowl Bread (found in the game's manual)
• The Temple of Elemental Evil - Chocolate Chip Cookies of the Gods (found in the game's manual)
• Pillars of Eternity - Tim's Cookbook, a cookbook with 15 recipes first released as a backer reward during the game's Kickstarter campaign and later bundled digitally with the Definitive Edition.

Cain first learned to cook and bake while in college, being influenced by his dormmate who was studying to become a sous chef. He frequently tried and modified recipes from his mother, his friends, and cookbooks, and brought in his excess batches to work at Interplay Entertainment. The Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins became popular among his coworkers, and near the end of Stonekeep's development, Taylor received permission from Cain to include the recipe in the game, beginning the tradition.

A nod to Fallout can be found within the game. Outside the city of Tulla is a person named Albert, who had been sent out on a quest to retrieve a water gem for Tulla. When the play finds them, Albert has been cast out of the city, due to the influence of the outside world. This is also how the story of Fallout goes and both Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, the main developers of the original Fallout series, also worked on Arcanum..