Before resorting to carrying an entire backpack of field snacks down into the Mines or, Yoba forbid, into the Skull Caverns, it’s time to look into the cooking skill. Crafting recipes from all the delicious locally sourced ingredients around the farm and Pelican Town is the absolute best way to succeed in Stardew Valley. Beyond just filling up your health bar, every recipe grants a boost to the energy bar and provides unique buffs that can make a huge difference, especially in combat.
The best foods in Stardew Valley aren’t always just the hardest to find (though those rarities are usually amazing), but what will best help the player succeed in their goal. Goals can range from trying to plant as many crops as possible on the first day of a new season to getting all the way to the bottom of the Skull Caverns in one trip. The following foods range from complicated to insanely simple, but they all provide much needed energy and useful buffs.
Table of contents
Salad
For the lazy farmer, grabbing a few salads to stack up in their inventory might be the right move. While the recipe calls for leek, dandelion, and vinegar (which can be mildly annoying to source in early game), salads are also available every day at The Stardrop Saloon for a reasonable 220 gold.
This dish might not be the very best in terms of unique buffs, but it is relatively cheap, always available, and easy to consume without overwriting any other buffs players might have. Eating up some salads while in combat or spending a day fishing is a convenient way to gain back a good amount of energy and health.
Maple Bar
The humble maple bar is made from simple ingredients – maple syrup, sugar, and wheat flour – and is the ultimate every day boost. Maple bars provide +1 farming, +1 fishing, and +1 mining, which makes it the perfect snack to kick off an all-rounder sort of day in Stardew Valley. Players can switch from planting to a little fishing trip at the lake to a quick nip into the Mines for some ore, and the over 16-minute duration of the buffs means it’ll last all day.
On top of being a great morning boost, almost every Villagers likes the maple bar, with the exception of Sam who loves it and Krobus, Leo, and Willy, who hate it. That means it’ll work as an easy gift for almost anyone players see strolling around town.
Pumpkin Soup
The hearty pumpkin soup may just be the best recipe in Stardew Valley in terms of resource cost. The recipe only calls for two simple ingredients, pumpkin and milk, which makes it easily accessible for any players that have a barn on their farm and saved up pumpkins from the fall harvest.
Pumpkin soup gives 200 energy and 90 health, alongside +2 luck and + defense, making it a stellar choice for mining trips. The only drawback to pumpkin soup is that players can’t just learn it from tuning into their TV, as at least seven hearts of friendship with Robin is required, but that requirement isn’t too hard to achieve. After that is reached, she’ll send the recipe through the mail
Lobster Bisque
For fans of fishing, lobster bisque is the perfect meal. Another simple recipe that combines milk with lobster, consuming lobster bisque in the morning is the ideal set up to get in a long day at the beach or river. The meal gives +3 fishing and +5 max energy for a lengthy 16 minutes and 47 seconds.
There are two ways to learn how to make lobster bisque, as players can either befriend Willy to nine hearts or tune into The Queen of Sauce TV show on Winter 14, Year 2. Earning hearts with Willy could be the faster option, as long as players see him every week and make sure to gift items he likes.
Coffee/Triple Shot Espresso
In both real life and Stardew Valley, coffee is an essential item for getting a daily boost. Both coffee and the triple shot espresso recipes are combined here, since triple shot espresso is simply made from three coffees. The +1 speed boost gained from the caffeine, which lasts for one minute and 23 seconds for coffee and four minutes and 12 seconds for triple shot espresso, can help speed players along in any task.
Coffee’s speed boost stacks with food buffs, increases horse speeds, and is loved or liked by every single adult in the game, which makes it an easy gift.
Crab Cakes
Another popular choice for mining days are crab cakes. Made from crab, wheat flour, egg, and oil, crab cakes are simple to make and provide helpful buffs in speed and defense. The best benefit from crab cakes is that the buffs last for the entire day, so players won’t need to keep snacking throughout a mining trip.
To make the most out of crab cakes, combine it with a coffee (or three), as the speed buff stacks and makes for an incredibly speedy day of slaying monsters and picking up loot.
Complete Breakfast
To make the most out of an important day of farming, like the very first day of the season, a complete breakfast is the best route to take. Complete breakfast gives +2 farming and +50 max energy, which can help with a busy schedule.
Though it does combine a few recipes, which can make it seem quite resource intensive, making a complete breakfast only requires two eggs, one potato, one wheat flour, one oil, and one milk. Those are then crafted into pancakes, fried eggs, hashbrowns, and milk to be combined into one hearty meal.
Miner’s Treat
The most helpful piece of candy in Stardew Valley is miner’s treat, a colorful lollipop that gives +3 mining and +32 magnetism. Made from two cave carrots, one sugar, and one milk, miner’s treat is a great choice if players are bringing bombs to the Mines or Skull Caverns and need to gather up supplies fast.
Spicy Eel
Spicy Eel is the number one choice of dish to bring for a mining day, since the buff of +1 luck and +1 speed can make a huge difference when searching for rare items or hoping for fewer monster spawns. The recipe can only be learned by gaining seven hearts with George, which makes sense considering his love of hot peppers.
This is another recipe that should be combined with coffee for the best stats down in the Mines.
Cheese
Unlike the other fancy recipes on this list, cheese is the simplest food that players should consider on days where they might use up energy and lose health. By making sure the cows in the barn are happy, players can easily make a consistent supply of gold star quality cheese. This food gives 225 energy and 101 health, which combined with being cheap and easily accessible from early game makes it the most underrated food in Stardew Valley.
