What’s worth cooking? Stardew Valley

As the title says, what is worth cooking in SDV? Either profit or for a good energy source.

Best options

Sashimi for any fish that sells for less than 75g. Many villagers like it as a gift and if you have crab pots or do a lot of fishing then you’ll soon have tons of it to use for gifting and energy.

Spicy Eel (Speed+Luck) or Crab Cakes (Speed+Defense) are good for mining expeditions.

Foods that boost fishing skill are useful when trying to catching difficult fish.

During the Salmonberry/Blackberry seasons you can get extra berries by eating food that boosts foraging skill (you get 1 extra berry for every 4 levels of skill). Level 10 foraging + Botanist + Pancakes = 4 iridium quality berries per bush.

Most food is a good energy source. If you just want energy then focus on what is easiest to make with what you’re growing, rather than trying to min/max energy gain. You can also just buy Salads from the bar and save your ingredients for requests and achievements.

Other foods really worth looking into:

• Pink Cake and Chocolate Cake — Multiple people love these as gifts and they are very easy to make
• Spicy Eel — Luck and zooms in the mines
• Crab Cakes — Zooms for work. This is the longest speed boost and lasts almost all day.
• Coffee — Has a unique speed buff. Stacks with other food.
• Lobster Bisque — +3 Fishing buff that lasts all day. Perfect for legendary or eel hunting.
• Dish o the Sea — Another easy source of +3 Fishing

For all those fish that don’t sell for much, turn them into Sashimi. Not only does it sell for more, but out of 34 people, only 5 find that eating precisely cut raw fish to not be that appealing.

As for cooking-for-buffs, I tend to go with the Maple Bar, as it’s useful regardless of what you decide to do that day. Sure, it’s not as good as something like Dish o’ the Sea or Roots Platter, but it’s always good to keep ones options open and the Maple Bar buffs Fishing, Farming and Fracking (well, mining, but it ruined my three letter alliteration) for the equivalent of a day.

Coffee. Brew as much of it as possible. Mainline it.

As for profitable recipes, well, pretty much anything you get given is profitable if you don’t take into account what you may have needed to give in order to get given gifts.

I’d go with Algae Broth and Pale Broth. Remember that anything that you cook for profit is best done with the lowest quality ingredients.

Once I get past the point where I need food just to complete my daily farm chores, my focus turns to foods that offer defense against the monsters in the mines (and, later, Skull Cavern). Autumn’s Bounty, Stuffing, and Eggplant Parmesan (which, despite the name and description, contains no cheese) are my preferred mid-late game food sources, with the last offering the highest level of defense (+3). All require high friendship levels with specific villagers, though you can get a few dishes of Autumn’s Bounty as a reward for completing one of the Community Center bundles.

Though it’s not exactly a cooked dish, I also grow coffee as soon as I can get my hands on a bean, and drink that pretty frequently, especially in the mines and Skull Cavern (the speed boost stacks with the other boosts from the foods I mentioned). I reserve a few spots in the Greenhouse for year-round coffee growing even when I have enough Ancient Fruit to fill the building.

Original Link – Continuation of discussion