10 Stardew Valley Meals I Actually Want To Try

Summary

• Plenty of the Stardew Valley recipes are similar or identical to foods you could find in real life, making many recipes possible to create in real life.
• Some of the more traditional meals, like Pepper Poppers or Complete Breakfast, make for standard staples in real life or in Stardew Valley.
• Rarer meals, like Strange Buns or Ancient Fruit Wine, would be interesting to try just to say you have.

I’ve been playing Stardew Valley pretty much since it came out; I’ve seen the recipe book in the game expand as update after update dropped for the game. I’ve spent my time in my farmhouse kitchens, slaving away over a hot stove to craft every recipe in Stardew Valley.

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But which of them, I thought to myself, would I actually want to try in real life? As I prepared my farmer for a day in the Mines, I scrolled through her recipe book and considered what all of the meal recipes in Stardew Valley would taste like in real life.

10 Complete Breakfast

The Most Important Meal Of The Day

Description

You'll feel ready to take on the world!

Recipe

1 Fried Egg, 1 Hashbrowns, 1 Milk, and 1 Pancakes

Having gone to so many rock shows when I was in college, I’m no stranger to the concept of rolling into a diner half-sober at 1:30 in the morning and ordering a fat stack of breakfast. You never really chose the diner life back then, but it was the only thing open that late, and you could get so many carbs for so few dollars.

I’m older and aged out of my partying days now, but you can take the girl out of the breakfast scene, but you can’t take the breakfast love out of the girl. Pancakes, eggs, hash browns, and milk? I’ll take three Complete Breakfasts, thanks.

9 Pepper Poppers

I Like 'Em Hot

Description

Spicy breaded peppers filled with cheese.

Recipe

1 Cheese and 1 Hot Pepper

There’s most likely something similar to Pepper Poppers on the menu at every dive bar in every small town ever, but I’ve never had one, and I’d love to. The recipe describes it as “spicy breaded peppers with cheese,” and those are all some of my favorite words.

Imagine sitting down at the Stardrop Saloon with your closest Pelican Town friends, ordering a plate or two of Pepper Poppers with your Beers, and kicking back for a fun night out with your pals at the end of a long week.

8 Survival Burger

World's Weirdest Veggie Burger

Description

A convenient snack for the explorer.

Recipe

1 Bread, 1 Cave Carrot, and 1 Eggplant

Admittedly, I’m not fully sold on the idea of Cave Carrots, but I guess actual carrots grow in dirt, so how different would it be, truly? I’m a big fan of veggie burgers – I’m not a vegetarian, but they’re refreshing sometimes after a few days of not eating too well – and I’ve tried my fair share of weird patties.

Granted, now the recipe has been pushed back to the Level Eight Foraging reward in the 1.6 update, after having been the Level Two. I’ve already said I don’t care much for the “great” outdoors, so I may have to rely on Gus at the Stardew Valley Fair for my fix.

7 Pumpkin Soup

Hearty Autumn Goodness

Description

A seasonal favorite.

Recipe

1 Milk and 1 Pumpkin

Listen, I'm a 30-year-old white woman, I acknowledge that I lean into being basic when the leaves start to change and the air begins feeling crisp. I’ve consumed my fair share of Pumpkin Spice Lattes in my day, and I love seasonal meals when it’s cozy weather – Pumpkin Soup is right up my alley.

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I’m not sure what it is that makes me trust Robin’s cooking innately, but Pumpkin Soup is one of her recipes, and it sounds really tasty. It’s just Pumpkin and Milk, and though I don’t fancy myself a great cook, even I could whip that up.

6 Pink Cake

The Iconic Pelican Town Dessert

Description

There's little heart candies on top.

Recipe

1 Egg, 1 Melon, 1 Sugar, and 1 Wheat Flour

A fun fact about me is that before I doubled down on pursuing writing as a career, I was determined to open a bakery of my own. I’ve taken patisserie classes I college, I worked in a grocery store bakery for seven years, and I can decorate a cake like a Pink Cake in five minutes, tops.

What I’ve kept from these experiences (other than an ability to perfectly pipe buttercream flowers, which I don’t know how to apply to my work as a gaming journalist…) is my taste for all things sweet. I’ve never tried a melon-flavor cake myself, but oh man, does it sound like a treat.

5 Cranberry Candy

Sippin' On The Beach

Description

It's sweet enough to mask the bitter fruit.

Recipe

1 Apple. 1 Cranberry, and 1 Sugar

When you taste your first Cranberry Candy in Stardew Valley depends entirely on when you unlock the Ginger Island Resort. If you haven’t been out to Ginger Island and unlocked this optional upgrade before the very end of your first year, you can grab the recipe from the Queen of Sauce on TV in Pelican Town.

But specifically, I want to try a Cranberry Candy at the Ginger Island Resort. I want to roll down the dock on a sunny morning after a ferry ride over to the Fern Islands, rock up to the bar at the Resort, and ask Gus to start my day off right with a sweet, fruity drink.

4 Fiddlehead Risotto

What Is It About These Ferns?

Description

A creamy rice dish served with sauteed fern heads. It's a little bland.

Recipe

1 Fiddlehead Fern, 1 Garlic, and 1 Oil

Even though the description of Fiddlehead Risotto in-game describes it as “a little bland,” but maybe if I add a few more ingredients for seasoning, this could be tasty. The main draw of it for me is, what the heck is a Fiddlehead Fern?

I could probably forage something similar IRL, but I don’t really fancy myself much of an outdoorswoman – I save that for the screen. Fiddlehead Risotto restores quite a bit of Health and Energy, too, though, so it must be some kind of nutritious after all that time rummaging in the dirt.

3 Tropical Curry

Tasty Island Vibes

Description

An exotic, fragrant curry served in a pineapple bowl.

Recipe

1 Coconut, 1 Hot Pepper, and 1 Pineapple

Keeping with the warm, sunny Ginger Island vibes, I’m a big supporter of using sweet, tropical fruits in savory dishes. Shield your eyes if this is a sensitive subject for you, but maybe the most intimate thing I’m willing to confess publicly is, I love pineapple on pizza.

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Now that half our readers have closed this article, probably, I’ve already befriended Leo for my own reasons (those reasons being that I think he’s a cute little guy). He sends the recipe as you Increase your friendship with him, and I trust a child of the islands to provide a particularly potent tropical treat.

2 Strange Bun

Alright, I'll Bite

Description

What's inside?

Recipe

1 Periwinkle, 1 Void Mayonnaise, and 1 Wheat Flour

Not even the in-game descriptions for Strange Buns can actually describe what they are, and I am curious. It doesn’t sound particularly inviting, flavor-wise, with Perwinkle a freshwater catch (I don’t like seafood) and Void Mayonnaise is a “thick, black paste that smells like burnt hair.” Uh… yum?

I won’t pretend that Strange Buns sound appetizing, but I’m willing to try plenty of things at least once. Granted, I’m not entirely sure why Shane knows the recipe for this – what kind of weird Chicken nonsense has been happening at Marnie’s to provide Shane with Void Mayo?

1 Ancient Fruit Wine

Like No Other Adult Beverage

Description

Drink in moderation.

Recipe

1 Ancient Fruit

This one is maybe the most fantastical food item in Stardew Valley, but there’s something so wholly alluring about trying a taste of a food that’s been extinct for billions of years. There are plenty of foods in real life that’ve gone extinct throughout human history, so imagine suddenly getting a chance to try something that has.

I’m leaning into the Ancient Fruit Wine because it sounds like the most decadent use of an ancient berry like the Ancient Fruit. Wine made from extinct fruits sound like god and goddess behavior, so I’m ready to pour myself a weird blue glass into my finest drinkware and kick back for a storied sip.

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