What does it cost to level Cooking right now?

216g in reagents at today's EU auction prices, over about 164 crafts. Sell the results and it comes back to 209g.

Where do these numbers come from?

The skill thresholds are read from the game client data for build 12.1.0.68914. The prices are the region-wide auction house, refreshed every few minutes; these are the snapshot taken at 17:31 UTC.

Why does the route change when I reload?

Because the prices did. The cheapest recipe for a stretch of skill is whichever one's reagents are cheapest at that moment, and that moves through the day.

Profession leveling · Northrend Cooking · EU · prices as of 17:31 UTC

Cooking leveling 1 → 85 · Northrend Cooking

216g in reagents over about 164 crafts. Sell what you make and it comes back to 209g.

Start skill

Trainer recipes only

Recipe names carry the colour the profession window gives them: orange is a point every craft, yellow is three in four, green is one in four.

Before the first craft — buy it all at once

One trip to the auction house. Vendor lines are cheaper from the profession vendor than from the board.

ReagentNeedEachTotal

Northern Spices×13878

Fangtooth Herring×12139

×12147

Bonescale Snapper×330

×390

Total216

Step 1 · Skill 1 → 3

Yellow

Grilled Bonescale

trainer

About 3 crafts.90

per skill point45

Bonescale Snapper×3

Step 2 · Skill 3 → 20

Yellow

Pickled Fangtooth

trainer

About 23 crafts.8

per skill point52

Fangtooth Herring×23

Step 3 · Skill 20 → 75

Orange→Green

Spicy Fried Herring

needs the recipe item

About 98 crafts.114

per skill point2

Fangtooth Herring×98

Northern Spices×98

Step 4 · Skill 75 → 85

Green

Worg Tartare

needs the recipe item

About 40 crafts.92

per skill point9

Worg Haunch×80

Northern Spices×40

Skill 85 — done. Now sell what you made.

Crafted itemUnitsEachTotal

Spicy Fried Herring985

Capped at what the market takes in 3 days, so a route never pretends to sell hundreds at once.

Back in your pocket209

What's worth crafting with Cooking right now

Questions

How this route is built

What does it cost to level Cooking right now?: 216g in reagents at today's EU auction prices, over about 164 crafts. Sell the results and it comes back to 209g.
Where do these numbers come from?: The skill thresholds are read from the game client data for build 12.1.0.68914. The prices are the region-wide auction house, refreshed every few minutes; these are the snapshot taken at 17:31 UTC.
Why does the route change when I reload?: Because the prices did. The cheapest recipe for a stretch of skill is whichever one's reagents are cheapest at that moment, and that moves through the day.

A first craft pays Knowledge, not skill, so it is shown as a badge and left out of the craft count. Vendor reagents are priced at the lower of the vendor and the auction house.