So, wondering if you can be a little fancy, eh? Stardew Valley has quite a few meals to offer you, but none have such a real-world air of elegance than Caviar. This surprisingly good food comes in a purple bowl and seems to be made of a bunch of eggs. However, the process to make it is insanely specific and not exactly simple. It takes a lot of dedication to make this culinary delight.
Caviar is a high-value meal made by processing Sturgeon Roe. So, before you can even consider crafting it, you need to get some of that delicacy. Don’t worry, though, because the process is simple once you learn what’s required. Before you sit down to make some yourself, you can read through this guide and decide whether or not its worth it.
How To Get Sturgeon Roe
Sturgeon Roe is created when Sturgeons are placed in a fish pond. Every day, you have a chance to find Roe in the fish pond when you stop by it in the morning. If the fish pond is specifically full of Sturgeons, then the roe will be a distinctly purple color. That means you have the start of your caviar recipe.
Fish Ponds are built from the Carpenter’s Shop, and they occupy a 5×5 square grid on your farm. You can place fish in here and they will reproduce and create specific materials.
Sturgeons may be caught in the Mountain Lake during the Summer and Winter seasons from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. It can also be caught on a Wilderness Farm, should you have that farm type. We suggest farming it from the Mountain Lake, though you can collect it from Krobus if you get lucky with his shop in the sewers.
Place a Sturgeon in the fish pond and do your thing for a day or two. You should start seeing Roe pretty soon. As your Fish Pond becomes more and more full of Sturgeon, you’ll have a higher and higher chance of producing Roe. However, improving a Sturgeon pool is quite expensive, costing one Diamond, three Omni Geodes, one Nautilus Shell, and a random choice between one Jelly, one Pickle, or two Maple Syrup.
You can get more roe by upgrading your pool, bumping your chance of getting the costly good from 20% to around 100% at 10 fish.
How To Make Caviar
In order to make Caviar, you must place Sturgeon Roe into a Preserves Jar for around four days. At the end of that period, you can interact with the jar to get your cured eggs out of its wooden prison.
Once you have your fish pond of sturgeon, a Preserves Jar should be an easy thing for you to accomplish. The jar requires Farming level 4 to learn the recipe, but one is given to you for either the Quality Crops Bundle or Rare Crops Bundle. The craft is very easy, only requiring 50 Wood, 40 Stone, and eight Coal.
With a Preserves Jar placed down, simply interact with the jar while holding Sturgeon Roe to place it inside. Then, you can do your thing for four whole days. At the end of the cycle, the jar will tell you when your Caviar is ready for selling… Or eating. Eating is fine, too.
Expert Tip
Caviar sells for 500g, or 700g with the Artisan’s 40% buff to profits. That’s a very reasonable thing to sell, especially if you’ve already dedicated yourself to growing Sturgeons, and is one of the most profitable things you can get from a Fish Pond in terms of pure money. Just make sure you have the Preserves Jars to handle your sturgeon’s roe as well as anything else you want to pickle. 5-6 jars should be enough to handle your Sturgeons in case they produce 2 roe a few times in a row.
Other Uses For Caviar
If you don’t want to sell Caviar, it makes for a highly restorative food at 175 Health and 75 Energy, great for combats. Everyone in the town likes Caviar except for the kids – Jas and Vincent – and Sebastian. You can use it with a Sewing Machine to create the Fashion Hat. And you may use it to fulfill the missing bundle at the Abandoned JojaMart, where its a pretty reasonable option.
