After all, hunger is about as certain as death and taxes. At first glance, Stardew Valley seems to be no different. Gus sells food at the Saloon, and your own dishes sell for a reasonable price. Nothing farther from the truth. Most dishes sell for less than what the uncooked ingredients would have sold for. Overall, it seems impossible to make cash as a cook in Pelican Town. I don’t know how Gus does it! Still, some recipes defy the trends and turn otherwise unappealing ingredients into profitable delicacies. Let’s check them out!
5. Tropical Curry
Value added: 60g At first glance, something like the Tropical Curry seems like a fairly profitable dish. It sells for a hefty sum of 500g, and it only takes some fruits and a Hot Pepper to make! Regrettably, things aren’t so simple. Had you sold the ingredients instead, you’d have gotten 40g for the Hot Pepper, 100g for the Coconut, and a staggering 300g for the Pineapple. If we take that from the 500g selling price, we find that our work putting together the ingredients added 60g of value to the finished product. It’s one of the few recipes that actually turn a profit, but you’d still make much more money from putting everything in Preserves Jars or Kegs. The recipe also costs 2000g at the Ginger Island Resort, so… yeah.
4. Bread
Value added: 50g Baking Bread is an excellent way to add some value to your Wheat. One packet of Wheat seeds costs just 10g, and it costs you nothing to mill it into Wheat Flour. Your work as a cook is also free, so at a 60g selling price, each crusty baguette makes you 50g richer. Still, you’d only want to do this if you don’t have enough Kegs to process all your Wheat into Beer, which sells for a surprising 200g and nets you 190g profit. You’ll get the recipe on the 28th of Summer of Year 1 from The Queen of Sauce.
3. Sashimi
Value added: 10g-45g Sashimi is highly convenient because you can make it out of any fish – including cheap ones. Unlike real-life Sashimi, this Stardew Valley dish sells for 75g regardless of the fish used to make it. That makes cooking a 200g Pufferfish into Sashimi a sizable loss, but cheap fish/mollusks like the Anchovy, Carp, Mussel, and Periwinkle become more valuable. Almost everything you can get from a Crab Pot can be turned into Sashimi for higher profits, so it’s worth keeping in mind for the Crab Pot maniacs out there. Gotta hand it to Linus for coming up with such a genius recipe.
2. Algae Soup
Value added: 40g The Algae Soup is the first item on this list I would go out of my way to cook for profit. Cooking it into this slimy stew is the only way to process Green Algae and, therefore, the only way to add value to it. I guess nobody likes pickled algae… It sells for a healthy 100g, but each Green Algae goes for 15g, and you need four to make the dish, leaving you with 40g for your hard work. Clint will share this recipe once your relationship is at three hearts or more.
1. Pale Broth
Value added: 100g Algae Soup is nice, but the true algae-based delicacy of Pelican Town’s cooking tradition is Pale Broth. Selling for 150g and taking only two White Algae (25g) to make, the Pale Broth nets you an easy profit of 100g. There isn’t anything else you could have done to add value to the White Algae, so Pale Broth is a big win. You’ll get the recipe from Marnie at three hearts, which shouldn’t be too hard to achieve. If you put your mind to it, you’ll be shipping delicious white gruel as soon as Spring of Year 1.
