What does it cost to level Cooking right now?

23g in reagents at today's US auction prices, over about 118 crafts. Sell the results and it comes back to 21g.

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 17:57 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 · Outland Cooking · US · prices as of 17:57 UTC

Cooking leveling 1 → 75 · Outland Cooking

23g in reagents over about 118 crafts. Sell what you make and it comes back to 21g.

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

Serpent Flesh×1267

Total23

Step 1 · Skill 1 → 65

Orange→Green

Golden Fish Sticks

needs the recipe item

About 98 crafts.7

per skill point12

Golden Darter×98

Step 2 · Skill 65 → 72

Orange→Yellow

Spicy Crawdad

needs the recipe item

About 8 crafts.7

per skill point1

Furious Crawdad×8

Step 3 · Skill 72 → 75

Green

Crunchy Serpent

needs the recipe item

About 12 crafts.8

per skill point2

Serpent Flesh×12

Skill 75 — done. Now sell what you made.

Crafted itemUnitsEachTotal

Golden Fish Sticks981

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

Back in your pocket21

What's worth crafting with Cooking right now

Questions

How this route is built

What does it cost to level Cooking right now?: 23g in reagents at today's US auction prices, over about 118 crafts. Sell the results and it comes back to 21g.
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 17:57 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.