Now that you’ve unlocked the kitchen and started cooking, the next step is figuring out how to find Stardew Valley’s best recipes. And while the best recipes are a matter of taste–pun intended–some provide more in one dish or in your wallet than others. In this article, we cover which recipes are ideal for their specific purpose. Whether it’s buffing your farming energy, keeping you awake in deep Mine runs, or dropping them in the bin to raise your daily income.
Table of Contents
Best Recipes for Turning Profit
Stardew Valley’s best recipes for making gold are Coffee (150g) and Tropical Curry (500g). There are many dishes that sell for more. But, the cost of the ingredients is either equal to or more than the dish itself. The Fish Taco, for instance, sells for 500g, but its individual ingredients-Tuna, Mayonnaise, Red Cabbage, and a Tortilla–can be sold for 600g at their base values. On the other hand, Coffee beans are 15g gold apiece, so it takes 75g (5 beans) to make a cup that sells for 150g. Tropical Curry has a higher profit margin, with ingredients worth 350g at base values. But, it’s second to coffee because its ingredients are harder to acquire. Unless you have Qi Seasoning, you’re better off selling the individual ingredients for virtually every other dish if the goal is to make money
Best Recipes for Farming and Foraging
The best recipes for farming are the Farmer’s Lunch, Pepper Poppers, and Complete Breakfast. Farmer’s lunch increases farming by +3, which helps with hoeing and watering in preparation for later work. The Pepper Poppers add a +2 farming bonus, but they buff the player’s speed by +1; the Complete Breakfast has the same +2 farming bonus, with a 50% buff in Max Energy.
The most effective foraging recipe is Tropical Curry, which provides a +4 boost in this stat. The Autumn’s Bounty is also useful for foraging; while it only provides a +2 foraging increase, it also gives +2 defense and lasts for 2 minutes longer than the curry. Making it ideal for foraging in dungeons.
Best Recipes for Fishing
Lobster Bisque is Stardew Valley’s best recipes for fishing. Its fishing boost of +3 is less than the Seafoam Pudding (+4), but its duration is more than almost 5 times as long at almost 17 minutes compared to the pudding’s 3.5. The Lobster Bisque further separates itself by providing a Max Energy boost of 50%. Meaning just one of these meals would allow you to spend all day fishing, and doing so much more efficiently.
Best Recipes for Combat and Mining
Even after all the updates the Roots Platter is the classic adventurer’s meal you shouldn’t enter a dungeon without. A +3 bonus to Attack is always going to be useful. Less obvious is the usefulness of the Miner’s Treat, which provides a +3 bonus to mining and +32 buff to magnetism. If your strategy is more defensive. Consider the Mango Sticky Rice as an alternative to the Roots Platter, as it provides a +3 buff in defense instead. Of course, there is no rule that says you can’t consume all three and really become a powerhouse.
Best Recipes for Gifts
Since most dishes and artisan goods are universally-like, gift-giving with cooking recipes is more about figuring out what people dislike or hate and avoiding it. You’ll find that the ‘strange’ characters–i.e. Krobus, Willy, and Leo–are typically the ones who don’t like the same recipes everyone else does. For example, Krobus is the only character who loves Void Mayonnaise, which every other person in Stardew Valley hates. Leo is neutral about a lot of dishes others like, and as you’d expect. Most of Willy’s likes are seafood-related and he dislikes everything else.
For most people, you’re safe with sweets like Chocolate Cake and Cranberry Candy, or crowd-pleasers like Salad or Artichoke Dip. Everyone will have their specific tastes about dishes they simply won’t eat (like Leah with Pizza); thankfully, version 1.5 records their likes and dislikes after each first attempt. So you’ll learn pretty quickly what not to give someone.
Honorable Mentions
While it didn’t make the lists above, the Maple Bar is worth mentioning here because of its everyday utility. It provides a +1 buff in farming, mining, and fishing, and these buffs last for 16 minutes and 47 seconds. Along with being one of the longest buffs in the game, the Maple Bar is the perfect snack for the days when you’re bouncing around from the farm to the watering hole to the Mines in one trip.
Keep in mind that the recipes listed here don’t take into account any difficulty in finding the ingredients, but you can assume the best recipes require the most work. Some of the ingredients included in these dishes must be cooked from separate ingredients themselves, in fact. Once you’ve started making them, the advantages they provide should make it easier to make more.
