What does it cost to level Cooking right now?

416g in reagents at today's US auction prices, over about 164 crafts. Sell the results and it comes back to 409g.

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 16:57 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 · US · prices as of 16:57 UTC

Cooking leveling 1 → 85 · Northrend Cooking

416g in reagents over about 164 crafts. Sell what you make and it comes back to 409g.

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

Worg Haunch×802

226

×80226

Northern Spices×13883

114

×138114

Musselback Sculpin×12461

×12475

Total416

Step 1 · Skill 1 → 20

Yellow

Grilled Sculpin

trainer

About 26 crafts.15

per skill point83

Musselback Sculpin×26

Step 2 · Skill 20 → 75

Orange→Green

Poached Northern Sculpin

needs the recipe item

About 98 crafts.141

per skill point2

Musselback Sculpin×98

Northern Spices×98

Step 3 · Skill 75 → 85

Green

Worg Tartare

needs the recipe item

About 40 crafts.259

per skill point25

Worg Haunch×80

Northern Spices×40

Skill 85 — done. Now sell what you made.

Crafted itemUnitsEachTotal

Poached Northern Sculpin985

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

Back in your pocket409

What's worth crafting with Cooking right now

Questions

How this route is built

What does it cost to level Cooking right now?: 416g in reagents at today's US auction prices, over about 164 crafts. Sell the results and it comes back to 409g.
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 16:57 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.