What does it cost to level Cooking right now?

42.6kg in reagents at today's TW auction prices, over about 108 crafts. Sell the results and it comes back to 42.6kg.

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 17:54 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 · Pandaria Cooking · TW · prices as of 17:54 UTC

Cooking leveling 1 → 75 · Pandaria Cooking

42.6kg in reagents over about 108 crafts. Sell what you make and it comes back to 42.6kg.

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

Krasarang Paddlefish×5830

1,762

×581,762

Juicycrunch Carrot×12501

1,250

×12501,250

Total42,624

Step 1 · Skill 1 → 25

Orange→Green

Krasarang Fritters

needs the recipe item

About 58 crafts.1,762

per skill point73

Krasarang Paddlefish×58

Step 2 · Skill 25 → 75

Orange

Spicy Vegetable Chips

needs the recipe item

About 50 crafts.40,862

per skill point817

Jade Squash×1250

Pink Turnip×1250

Juicycrunch Carrot×1250

Skill 75 — done. Now sell what you made.

Crafted itemUnitsEachTotal

Spicy Vegetable Chips25014

25035

Krasarang Fritters583

582

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

Back in your pocket42,587

What's worth crafting with Cooking right now

Questions

How this route is built

What does it cost to level Cooking right now?: 42.6kg in reagents at today's TW auction prices, over about 108 crafts. Sell the results and it comes back to 42.6kg.
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 17:54 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.