Running out of fridge space fast? Need to know the best way to organize it? This guide is for you!
Oh, that coveted fridge space. One minute you think you have enough, the next you’re buying three mini-fridges from Robin.
If you’re an avid cook in the game or just trying to make every recipe at least once, there’s a good chance you’ll find yourself short on slots faster than sleazy old Morris can talk. And the ugly truth is that Stardew Valley doesn’t have a bigger fridge option. So how do you make the most of your fridge space?
Thoughtful organization.
First, what is the fridge even for?
Fridge storage is different from chest storage in that the game pulls from your fridge (and inventory) for cooking, not your chests. So even if you have an array of beautifully color-coded food chests, the ingredients aren’t accounted for in the list of recipes you can cook.
And fridge storage fills up fast, which is why some players have upwards of six or seven mini-fridges in their homes. Once you upgrade your Farmhouse, the mini-fridge is available for purchase through Robin at the carpenter’s shop for 3,000 gold. You also get one in the mail if you bring Gus a wapping two dozen eggs in the ‘Gus’ Famous Omelet’ quest.
If you use your fridge as regular storage, you’re not getting the most out of Stardew cooking!
The best ingredients to keep in the fridge
Your fridge only has 36 slots, not nearly enough for all the recipes you acquire from broadcasts and friendships. Each additional mini-fridge gives you another 36 slots, but there are 80 recipes in the game!
There is a method to the madness of fridge storage, and if you do it right, it might even feel like you have a bigger fridge. Just like real-life cooking, some ingredients are used more often than others. Wheat Flour, for example, is used in 22 different Stardew recipes. It might feel odd to put flour in the fridge, but we highly recommend it!
With that in mind, keep common cooking ingredients in your fridge, such as:
- Wheat Flour
- Eggs
- Sugar
- Oil
- Milk
- Vinegar
- Tomatoes
- Cave Carrots (who knew!)
- Rice
After that, start looking at the recipes you want to cook and stock up on those ingredients as you harvest and forage them. Tomatoes, cranberries, cave carrots, and common mushrooms are a good start. If you have more than one fridge, you’ll benefit from organizing them into categories. Put your harvested and foraged items in one, and your purchased/animal products in another. That way you’re not hoarding twelve hot peppers in three different places.
Pro tip: Cooking with gold star ingredients doesn’t have any special benefits. Stick to the regular ol’ crops for cooking!
Word to the wise
When cooking, the game pulls from three places, in this order:
- Your inventory
- Your fridge
- Any mini-fridges
If you have a gold star pumpkin in your inventory, be sure to take it out before you cook. Otherwise, you’ll be using it for your pumpkin pie instead of cashing it in for a hefty profit. Likewise, if you’re not careful, you could use a rare fish to make sashimi. And while Sebastion might thank you in his own aloof way, your legendary fish won’t.
Mods for a bigger fridge
If you do the research, you can find a few mods out there that expand your fridge storage or turn chests into mobile fridges like this one on Nexus. However, we’ve found most of them to be a bit…wonky. Some don’t work in multiplayer, and others make you more liable to use coveted ingredients on accident.
At the end of the day, your best bet at increasing your fridge space is to organize like a pro and then buy a mini-fridge or two. Another option is placing chests inside the Farmhouse and pulling from them as you need, but you probably already knew that.
