Want to know how long it takes to make cheese or what goes into crafting a cheese press? Need to know who likes getting gifted this artisan good? Everything you need to know about cheese in Stardew Valley is found below within this detailed guide.
Description
Cheese is classified as an artisan good in Stardew Valley and described as your basic cheese. It is extremely profitable to produce and knowing how to make one is a fantastic way to turn your cows into even bigger money-makers!
 | Stardew Valley Cheese |
How to get Cheese in Stardew Valley
There are two ways to get cheese. The first way to get your hands on some cheese is very simple, all you need to do is put milk into a cheese press. The second way is purchasing it from the Desert Trader. Each of these methods is described in more detail below.
Making Cheese yourself
To make cheese on your farm, you need to have a cheese press on your farm. You can craft this artisan equipment once you reach farming level 6. It takes 45 wood, 45 stone, 10 hardwood, and 1 copper bar to craft. Or if do not want to craft one, you could go the long way around and get one as a reward for completing the Animal Bundle in the Pantry.
Interacting with the cheese press with a bottle of milk or large milk (of any quality) in your hand will begin the cheese-making process. The machine will then animate to show it is working. After 200 minutes (or 3 hours) have passed then you are ready to harvest your cheese.
 | A Cheese Press |
The quality varies with cheese depending on the milk product put in. Normal quality milk will produce normal quality cheese meanwhile large milk will produce gold quality milk.
Purchasing Cheese
To buy cheese from the Desert Trader, you must travel to the Calico Desert. You must either travel by bus, desert totem, or desert obelisk. Once you arrive in the desert and locate the merchant, you need to make sure that you have the appropriate items to barter. This is because even though the trader sells a variety of exotic goods, he does not take gold for his goods.
Every Friday, you can purchase 1 cheese in exchange for an emerald from the Desert Trader. That is, every Friday other than the 15th through 17th of winter when the Desert Trader is at the Night Market.
What to do with Cheese in Stardew Valley
Since cheese is classified as an artisan good there are a wide array of uses for this object from selling, eating, crafting, and more!
If you do choose to eat it, cheese gives 125-325 energy points and 56-146 health points depending on the quality of the item. Fair bonuses, but given how expensive cheese is, it might not be the best use for this artisan good. Plus, given how quickly cheese can be produced in the press, you can produce numerous cheese items in a single day, which is why it is such an important artisan good. Cheese prices will be expanded upon in the table below.
| Cheese Quality | Base Price | Price with Rancher Profession | Price with Artisan Profession |
| Base Cheese | 230 gold | 276 gold | 322 gold |
| Silver Cheese | 287 gold | 344 gold | 401 gold |
| Gold Cheese | 354 gold | 414 gold | 483 gold |
| Iridium Cheese | 460 gold | 552 gold | 644 gold |
Crafting with Cheese
Aging Cheese
If you place cheese into a cask, it allows it to age from a lower quality item to higher quality. If a base quality cheese is put into a cask, it takes 3 days to become silver. Silver cheese takes 4 days to age into gold quality cheese. Then, 7 more days need to pass before iridium quality cheese is produced.
 | A Cask |
Cooked Dishes
Cheese is used in three different cooked dish recipes. The most important cheese dish is pepper poppers. This spicy breaded pepper dish filled with cheese is not just a great gift-giving item, but it also gives amazing buffs. Consuming pepper poppers gives a +2 farming buff and a +1 speed buff on top of restoring 130 energy points and 58 health points. The recipe is really simple too as it only requires a hot pepper and cheese to craft.
 | Pepper Poppers |
Another important recipe is the simple pizza. This popular dish restores 150 energy points and 67 health points. More importantly, it is a loved dish by both Sam and Shane. Pizza gives no buffs when consumed. The recipe to craft pizza is wheat flour, a tomato, and cheese to craft.
 | Pizza |
The last cheese recipe is cheese cauliflower. It is described as smelling great and is loved by Maru. It restores 128 energy points and 62 health points. Cheese cauliflower gives no buffs when consumed. The recipe to craft cheese cauliflower is rather simple, only requiring cheese and a cauliflower.
 | Cheese Cauliflower |
Tailoring
Lastly, cheese can also be used to craft a shirt using the sewing machine, or as yellow dye in the dye pots. Both of these are located inside Emily and Haley’s Home inside Pelican Town, 2 Willow Lane.
 | The shirt crafted using cheese. |
Gifting
Mostly everyone in town likes receiving cheese as a gift, except for four Pelican Town residents. Harvey dislikes cheese and Jas, Sebastian, and Vincent hate getting cheese as a present.
Quests/Bundles
Cheese is not used in any quests.
Though it can be used as an option in the Artisan Bundle for the Pantry room. There is a list of 12 items to choose from and you only need 6. The list includes truffle oil, cloth, goat cheese, cheese, honey, jelly, an apple, and apricot, an orange, a peach, a pomegranate, and a cherry. If you decide to use cheese for this bundle, you can use a cheese of any quality.
Completing this bundle will give a keg immediately, and finishing the whole room will restore the dilapidated Greenhouse. This building is essential in your Stardew Valley experience, as it allows you to grow crop and fruit trees all year-round.
