What does it cost to level Cooking right now?

345g in reagents at today's TW auction prices, over about 134 crafts. Sell the results and it comes back to 338g.

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 20:54 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 · Cataclysm Cooking · TW · prices as of 20:54 UTC

Cooking leveling 1 → 75 · Cataclysm Cooking

345g in reagents over about 134 crafts. Sell what you make and it comes back to 338g.

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

Lavascale Catfish×525

Total345

Step 1 · Skill 1 → 40

Orange→Green

Lightly Fried Lurker

needs the recipe item

About 82 crafts.82

per skill point2

Striped Lurker×82

Step 2 · Skill 40 → 75

Orange→Green

Lavascale Minestrone

needs the recipe item

About 52 crafts.263

per skill point7

Lavascale Catfish×52

Skill 75 — done. Now sell what you made.

Crafted itemUnitsEachTotal

Lightly Fried Lurker824

823

Lavascale Minestrone525

522

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

Back in your pocket338

What's worth crafting with Cooking right now

Questions

How this route is built

What does it cost to level Cooking right now?: 345g in reagents at today's TW auction prices, over about 134 crafts. Sell the results and it comes back to 338g.
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 20:54 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.