Cooking in Stardew Valley: Unlocking, Recipes, & Making Dishes

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Cook up something delicious in your Stardew farmhouse kitchen

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Unlocking Cooking

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How to Cook

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Useful Recipes

If you've been exploring Pelican Town in Stardew Valley, you may have learned some recipes. But how do you cook these recipes? After you upgrade your farmhouse, you will have access to your very own kitchen where you can cook up dishes that can restore your health and stamina, give you buffs, or can be given as gifts to other people around town. In this article, we'll explain how to cook in Stardew Valley.

Things You Should Know

Cooking is unlocked once you've upgraded your farmhouse for the first time, which adds a kitchen to your house.
You can get recipes by watching TV, befriending townspeople, increasing your skill levels, and buying them from shopkeepers.
The stove can only use ingredients that are stored in your inventory, in the fridge, or in your mini-fridge.

Section 1 of 3:

Unlocking Cooking

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Cooking is unlocked after upgrading the farmhouse for the first time. When you've upgraded, a kitchen is added, which allows you to start cooking. The kitchen comes with a stove, which is the cooking interface, and a refrigerator, which has 36 item slots like a chest.
- Only ingredients in your inventory, your fridge, or your mini-fridge (a furnishing item) can be used to cook items on the stove.
- You can also use the Cookout Kit to cook anywhere, which is unlocked at Foraging level 9. The Cookout Kit is made of 15 wood, 10 fiber, and 3 coal. Any Cookout Kits placed will disappear overnight.

Section 2 of 3:

How to Cook

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1
Obtain a recipe. You have one recipe unlocked by default, Fried Egg, which requires one chicken egg. To get other recipes, you have a few options:
- You can learn 32 recipes from watching The Queen of Sauce on TV. New episodes of The Queen of Sauce air every Sunday in Year 1 and Year 2, and reruns that feature a random recipe play every Wednesday.^{[1]XResearch source}
- 37 recipes can be learned by befriending other people in town. The requirements to unlock each recipe vary, but many villagers will give you recipes at three hearts and seven hearts.
- You get 7 recipes for leveling up your skills. These recipes usually help increase your stats when you are using those skills, so they're good to learn.^{[2]XResearch source}
- 4 recipes can be purchased from vendors in the game, though some of these vendors are not unlocked until you've completed another task (such as getting to the volcano dungeon or opening the island resort).
2
Check the recipe's ingredients. If you interact with the stove, all the recipes in the game will be visible. If you hover over a recipe, you know it will show you what ingredients you need.
- Ingredients in black text are available in your inventory, fridge, or mini-fridge. If an ingredient is highlighted in red, it is missing.
- If a dish says ??? when you hover it, you haven't learned the recipe to make that dish yet.
3
Gather the ingredients. You can get ingredients in many ways:
- Growing them on your farm via crops or tree fruit
- Gathering them from your livestock
- Making artisan goods such as cheese or mayonnaise
- Foraging items from around Pelican Town
- Catching fish or gathering crab pot animals
- Buying items from the store
- Making a dish that becomes an ingredient in another dish
- There are two miscellaneous ingredients: maple syrup and squid ink. Maple syrup is gathered from a tapped maple tree and is used to make maple bars. Squid ink is dropped by squid kids or gathered from a fish pond containing squid or midnight squid and is used to make seafoam pudding and squid ink ravioli.^{[3]XResearch source}
4
Click on the stove, then click on the dish you want to make. You can then place the dish in your inventory. Click on the dish multiple times to make multiple dishes.
- If one of the ingredients is red but you know you have it, check your chests. The stove can only use ingredients that are in your inventory, in the fridge, or in your mini-fridge.

Section 3 of 3:

Useful Recipes

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Almost every recipe will restore health and stamina. However, some recipes can provide powerful buffs that can help you through some difficult situations in-game. There are many helpful recipes in the game but below are some that you shouldn't miss out on:
- Pumpkin Soup: Obtained after raising friendship with Robin to 7 hearts. Requires 1 pumpkin and 1 milk. Gives you a +2 defense buff and +2 luck buff for 7 minutes and 41 seconds.
- Complete Breakfast: Obtained from the Queen of Sauce on 21 Spring, Year 2. Requires 1 fried egg, 1 milk, 1 hashbrowns, and 1 pancakes. Gives you a +2 farming buff and +50 maximum energy for 7 minutes.
- Lobster Bisque: Obtained from the Queen of Sauce on 14 Winter, Year 2, or from Willy after getting his friendship to 9 hearts. Requires 1 lobster and 1 milk. Gives you a +3 fishing buff and +50 maximum energy for 16 minutes and 47 seconds.
- Banana Pudding: Obtained from the Island Trader for 30 Bone Fragments. Requires 1 banana, 1 milk, and 1 sugar. Gives you a +1 mining, luck, and defense buff for 5 minutes and 1 second.
- Miner's Treat: Obtained by getting your mining skill to level 3. Requires 1 cave carrot, 1 sugar, and 1 milk. Gives you a +1 mining buff and +32 magnetism for 5 minutes and 35 seconds.