Most Favourite Gifts and the Pot in Harvest Moon

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It really is not necessary ever to give the 'Most Favourite' Item to a prospective spouse in order to win his/her heart in Harvest Moon. In the 'boy' version of HM DS, I was able to raise every girl's heart level to deepest red without ever giving the girl her 'Most Favourite' gift AND was able to do it by the earliest date when I would be able to marry in the game. In Cute, the same holds true. I had every ordinary bachelor at deepest red heart level before the end of Autumn in the first year.

What I did not notice previously, however, was the fact that every 'Most Favourite' item for any of the ordinary bachelors of the Valley requires the use of a Pot to prepare. You cannot acquire the Pot before the middle of the first Autumn, even if you upgrade your house once at the earliest possible date in order to be able to purchase the Kitchen and all Implements. The Pot is the implement that is offered LAST...

Here are the Most Favourites:

Carter: Candied Potato, prepared with a Yam and a POT
Griffin: Fish Stew, prepared with a medium fish and a POT
Gustafa: Hot Milk, prepared with Milk and a POT
Marlin: Elli Leaves, prepared with Bodigizer XL, Turbojolt XL and all six Failed Dishes (one of which must be made with the POT)
Rock: Cheese Fondue, prepared with Bread, Cheese, Wine and a POT
Skye: Finest Curry, prepared with Rainbow Curry, White Curry and all six Failed Dishes (most of which ingredients require a POT)

As for the bachelors of Mineral Town:

Cliff shares Skye's taste in his Most Favourite item, which is 'Finest Curry'. This dish did not exist in FoMT or MFoMT but Cliff apparently has acquired a love of it since he first became acquainted with Ruby's cooking. He formerly considered a simple Curry Rice to be the best gift of all! Grey's Most Favourite remains Baked Corn, always and forever. Kai's remains the Pineapple. Trent still loves Milk and Rick loves the Spa Egg above all other items... These Most Favourites date from their FoMT/MFoMT days.

The 'Most Favourites' for the Mineral Town bachelors are acquired in different ways. Only the Finest Curry requires the Pot. A Spa Egg requires the unlocking of the first Hot Spring by experiencing Flora's 255 FP Event. A Pineapple is a Summer Crop grown from seed purchased at the Casino window. Baked Corn is made in an Oven. Milk probably will be the first 'Most Favourite' that you acquire, when your first cow reaches maturity.

The eligible girls in the original HM DS are different from HM Cute Valley bachelors with respect to the means by which their Most Favourites are obtained... but in Cute, as you can see, if you wish to make the Most Favourite dish for any Valley bachelor, you must have the POT.

I have included some photographs of the bachelors and their responses when they are given their 'Most Favourite' item. Of all of them, it is Carter's response that is particularly poignant... one wonders if he were a lonely boy, sent off early in life to boarding school...