Profitability of Cooking!

This is a quick and relatively easy to scroll through chart of the profitabiity of certain dishes when it comes to shipping cooked food versus just selling the raw product. Some people like myself, tend to stock up on non-quality items. Here's a way to get some bang for your buck assuming you do not wish to wait for your crops to pickle or ferment. I had been unable to find a detailed breakdown of the actual numbers and sales prices, so I figured it would be nice to make a chart.

Lets get the basics down

After the first upgrade to your house, you will find that you now have a kitchen with which to cook in. Recipes can be obtained via buying (i.e. from Gus), watching the weekly Sunday Cooking Show and its subsequent Wednesday reruns (in case you missed it!), and getting recipes from the other villagers after attaining a certain level of heart relationship with them.

But players will wonder:

Q1. Is cooking absolutely necessary in the game?
A1. Apart from the Chef's bundle in the community center, no. You don't really have to cook. The 2 required dishes for the bundle are [Fried Egg] and [Maki Roll]. Depending on the RNG, both can be bought from Gus' saloon. Linus can also gift you [Maki Roll] in the mail if your heart relationship is high enough.

Q2. Any achievements for cooking?
A2. Yes. There are 3 achievements tied to cooking: [Cook], [Sous Chef], and [Gourmet Chef], which require you to cook 10, 25, and all dishes respectively.

Q3. Can I get bonuses from eating the food?
A3. Absolutely. Apart from Health and Energy replenishments, some foods add bonuses to fishing, mining, foraging, farming, defense, combat, speed, and/or luck.

Q4. What about gifting?
A4. You can definitely gift other villagers food if you'd like! Whether or not they like your cooking depends on their taste.

Q5. Is it profitable?
A5. Here's what this guide is really all about.

So fasten your aprons and whip out those spatulas, time get cooking.

But hang on to your horses, check out this awesome guide {The Recipe Cookbook of Pelican Town} first! It works as an in-game cookbook as well as teaching you everything else you want to know about cooking in Stardew Valley!

Cooking versus Artisan Goods

As of the moment there are very, very few dishes that are worth the cost of cooking largely due to the fact that either you (A) get more money from selling the raw goods, or (B) the cost of processed goods vastly outweigh the profit of the dish.

Here's a valid question, If there's so few dishes that are worth the effort then why not forgo selling cooked food altogether? The simple answer is that you can get money faster (ship overnight) than if you were to wait for the preserves jar or keg.

Selling cooked food works especially well if you need money in the short term, for fish, and/or forage items.

Fish-only or forage-only dishes such as [Carp Suprise] and [Roots Platter] get you more money for non-quality versions since there is no option to convert it to an Artisan Good.

To each their own playstyle, but keep in mind that cooked foods sell at a set price while kegs and preserves run on a formula with the potential 50% increase in the value of these artisan goods if you take the Artisan profession upon reaching level 10 in farming.

Preserves:

• [~2 days]: 50g + 2(BaseCropValue)

Keg:

• [~2 days; Beer]: 200g
  
• [~2 days; Pale Ale]: 300g
  
• [~4 days; Juice]: 2.25(BaseVeggieValue)
  
• [~7 days; Wine]: 3(BaseFruitValue)

Still, I'm giving you an option you can take, and it's an option backed by numbers so you don't have to guesstimate. Do with it what you will. And enjoy this game regardless of whether you want to cook, farm, ranch, mine, fish, or jelly your way to the top.

Net Gains/Losses

Here's a chart of the potential net gains and losses from cooking food and selling it versus selling only the raw materials. All the raw materials used in the calculations are the cheapest versions.

There is one nuance to take into account, however. Oil is the only processed cooking ingredient that can be bought from Pierre's store at 200g, but also crafted with an oilmaker (level 8 farming) with corn. For some recipes this absolutely tips some of the dish's losses into gains because of the 100g difference in cost.

Things highlighted green guarantee a gain, while red is a loss. Things left white shows no net difference in profit. Lastly, things that are blue show the new profitability if one were to cook using oil they converted from corn. These are all listed in the order that appears when you bring up the cooking menu.

Sashimi TL;DR

For sashimi, any fish item that falls under 75g is technically more profitable, though the margin decreases as the price of the fish increases. Another wrench can also be thrown into this pricing mix if you chose the FISHER ==> ANGLER profession making your fish worth 25% to 50% more. Here's a list of base-value *NONQUALITY* fish that fit the description:

Fishing:
Anchovy (30g) || profitable at all ranks
Carp (30g) || profitable at all ranks
Sardine (30g) || profitable at all ranks
Bream (45g) || profitable at all ranks
Ghostfish (45g) || profitable at all ranks
Chub (50g) || profitable at all ranks (breaks even w/ angler sale boost)
Red Snapper (50g) || profitable at all ranks (breaks even w/ angler sale boost)
Smallmouth Bass (50g) || profitable at all ranks (breaks even w/ angler sale boost)
Perch (55g) || profitable up to fisher sale boost
Shad (60g) || profitable (breaks even w/ fisher sale boost)
Rainbow Trout (65g) || profitable without sale boost

Crab-pot:
Periwinkle (20g) || profitable at all ranks
Mussel (30g) || profitable at all ranks
Oyster (40g) || profitable at all ranks
Cockle (50g) || profitable at all ranks (breaks even w/ angler sale boost)
Shrimp (60g) || profitable (breaks even w/ fisher sale boost)
Snail (65g) || profitable without sale boost

If you crab-potted the pond right next to your house you could sashimi just about everything that wasn't trash or a crayfish. Not to mention, if you choose the TRAPPER ==> MARINER professions in the fishing skills tree, you can eventually opt to never catch trash. Considering that the percentage of getting the profitable fish are much higher (Periwinkle 55%; Mussel 35%; Snail 25%), a visit to the kitchen would be in order.


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I hope this guide has helped you answer some questions about cooking and feel free to ask, comment or share this guide!

Happy farming~!

Edits

~~~~~~~~~
4/9: added Sashimi TL;DR
4/27: added profitability checks based on fisher & angler professions

[Azalde]

@Sylvanni Because turning wheat into beer sells for 200, exactly twice as much as a wheat flour, whereas if you just turn the wheat into wheat flour you only get one.

[Sylvanni]

I am confused about this guide. I am assuming the parenthesis in the raw food section are the cost of purchase? So, why is it assumed that you buy wheat flour? You can build mills and mill wheat flour, which drastically changes the color on a number of your entries.

[Im A Lesbian For Ms.Pauling]

Algae Soup is another great cooking item. 4 algae sell at 60 gold, or you could take them and make one algae soup which sells for 100 gold. Nothing to go crazy about, but a nice way to maximize profits from the non-catches.

[Black Mambo № 5]

Nice work!

[Kitsunabi]

Added a list of fish as a TL;DR section! Thanks for letting me know!

[Black Mambo № 5]

For Sashimi you could use the crab-pot fishes as well, how do the numbers hold up if you use those crab-pot items?

[Kitsunabi]

As mentioned in the second line of the first paragraph of net gains and losses, these have the intention of using non-quality versions of fish, forage and crops. Had I factored in the 3 variations in prices, the profit and losses would vary widely and the you'd have at least 12 pages worth of graphs. It is always recommended to sell items that are either silver or gold star.

[CatBug]

For the carp dish, with proper level in fishing, selling it raw with a golden star will net 45*4 = 180. A bit more compare to dish price. Further amplified with the angler perk, which will give you a total 50% price increase. Thus dishes with fish aren't as profitable

[Magikarp]

The detail in this guide is amazing. Really in-depth, well thought out. You should make more amd more guides! No matter how little or simple it is, I believe you could make a guide out of it, like you have done about cooking. Keep it up mate!

[FΛЦƧƬƧFΛЦП]

This is very nice! This must have taken a lot of time and effort to put together and it looks so good to boot. I'm impressed and grateful that people like you can put so much effort into something such as the cooking mechanics and prices of any said game. Great work!!!