Cooking Guide by Paitre

Yet Another Cooking Guide (YACG)
Recently a number of people in my primary linkshell have been asking me for advice levelling up Cooking and Woodworking since I'm making gil with both (mostly via Lumber, Arrows, Fish Baits and Pet Foods - volume is king!) During one of the conversations I decided that it'd probably be...useful to get this written down so I don't have to type out the same damned guide each and every time a friend asked for a way to do things.

So, here it is, and on to Paitre's Cooking Guide for Fun and Profit!

Guide Philosophy

 * Concentrate on Synths using Earth or Water Crystals.
 * Concentrate on keeping losses minimized and maximizing profit synths
 * Keep all synths within 5 levels, where possible.
 * NPC when it makes sense, otherwise AH it or use it yourself.
 * Avoid having to use guild support as much as possible so you can synth at vendor sites.

-or in other words- 
 * Do break-even/profitable synths that avoid Fire Crystals!

This guide follows pretty faithfully what I did when I skilled Cooking up a couple months ago (or so). I -did- powerlevel it, and went from ~3 to ~47, or so, in a weekend. There -have- been some modifications, and I'll note -possible- alternatives, but I can't promise that they're -good- alternatives based on my philosphy (listed above).

Da Guide
Before I get going into the meat of the guide (the part I'm sure you're reading this post for), I have a couple of things that I want to make sure are reiterated - Buy your ingredients from Regional Vendors, or the San d'Orian grocer when at all possible, with the caveat that the AH can be used for unavailable, or lower priced, goods. For example, you're not going to find Shell Bugs at a vendor, and Coeurl Meat is less expensive from the AH, typically.

Guild Items
Whenever you hit an '8' (8, 18, 28, 38, 48, 58) you need to turn in the rank-up item to the Qhum Knaidjn in Windurst Waters at the Guild. 8 : Salmon Sub 18 : Pea Soup 28 : Vegetable Gruel 38 : Meat Mithkabob 48 : Apple Pie 58 : Yagudo Drink

Recipes

 * 0-3
 * Carrot Broth.
 * Earth Crystal, 4x San d'Orian Carrot
 * Pretty much everyone does this one. It's reasonably cheap, and while the NPC buyback sucks (~200 or so per stack), it avoids Fire Crystals :)


 * 3-9


 * Pet Food Alpha.
 * Earth Crystal, Horo Flour, Distilled Water, Bird Egg, Hare Meat
 * I, personally, liked this one because I was able to put to use all that damned Hare Meat I kept picking up levelling. It also was less lossy for me (even buying the meat from AH...)  than doing Orange Juice or Sliced Sardines.


 * 3-7 (Alternative)
 * Herbal Broth.
 * Water Crystal, 2x Frost Turnip, 2x Beaugreens
 * I don't know what this NPCs for, I also don't recall off the top of my head what it AHs for. It -is-, however, rather inexpensive to make, which is always a good thing.


 * 3-10 (Alternative)
 * Orange Juice.
 * Water Crystal, 4x Saruta Orange
 * Unless you're -using- these, I really don't recommend it. Yes, it's cheap, but it's NPC buyback is worse. And again - I did them.

NOTE: Personally, I'd probably do a stack of each of the above three synths to figure out which one NPCs off for the least loss, then bang out the rest of the way to cap before moving on. If I were to do things over again, I'd at least give Herbal Broth a shot. As it is, I did 2 or 3 levels of Juice and a couple of Pet Food Alpha before moving to the next synth.


 * 7/9-11
 * Sliced Sardines
 * Wind Crystal, Bastore Sardine
 * These AH for -about- what it costs to make them, maybe a little less, depending on the market. If you're skilling up fishing, you are doing this one for the cost of your crystals. Each stack of synths == 2 stacks of product.


 * 11-15
 * Bug Broth
 * Water Crystal, 2x Lugworm, 2x Shell Bug

NPC for profit if you can get the Shell Bugs for 2k/stack. The Lugworms -better- be coming from a vendor :)


 * 15-20
 * Selbina Butter
 * Ice Crystal, Selbina Milk, Rock Salt
 * I tried to avoid it in favor of Pet Food Beta, really I did. I got tired of the Pet Food, and it AHs at break-even to slight profit, so why not? I'm not including Pet Food Beta because it -is- a loss unless you have the meat from farming or exping on sheep.


 * 20-26
 * Meat Jerky
 * Ice Crystal, Dried Marjoram, Rock Salt, Giant Sheep Meat
 * I -only- did this one in keeping with my 5-6 level gap philosophy. If I were to do it again, I'd be taking a long, hard look at Salsa. This was also my first really bad loss synth. I stopped at 24 and switched to Insect Paste. AH or NPC. It's still a loss.


 * 19/20-24 (Alternative)
 * Salsa
 * Water Crystal, Kazham Peppers, Mithran Tomato, Rock Salt, Gysahl Greens, Wild Onion
 * It appears to be relatively cheap to synth. Each synth == 1 stack, and it's used in all the higher level taco recipes which -seem- to be semi-popular. If I knew what it AH'd for, I'd be more inclined to have it be my primary recommendation.


 * 24/25-29
 * Insect Paste
 * Earth Crystal, Millioncorn, Distilled Water, Little Worm
 * I don't believe I need to wax poetic about this one, -everyone- knows it's a profit synth for cooks, particularly in nice, high volumes. You could also ignore all the recipes after 19 for this if you really want. Just make sure you use guild support.


 * 29-36
 * Meatballs
 * Earth Crystal, San d'Orian Flour, Distilled Water, Hare Meat
 * I know, 7 level gap. Which means that your first level or two of this is going to have to be done in Windy at the guild, with paid support. The alternatives would be Sardine Balls and/or Trout Balls before moving over. Regardless - all fish baits are AH bait :)


 * 36-39
 * Pet Food Delta
 * Earth Crystal, Rye Flour, Distilled Water, Bird Egg, Land Crab Meat
 * NPC for profit, depending on the price of Land Crab Meat.


 * 39-43
 * Pie Dough
 * Water Crystal, San d'Orian Flour, Rock Salt, Selbina Butter
 * Another "standard" skill-up synth here, although you might also want to consider Windurst Tacos to 41. AH pricing/sales history would be the determining factor here, I'd think.


 * 41/43-46
 * Picked Herring
 * Ice Crystal, Nosteau Herring, Dried Marjoram, Rock Salt
 * Another synth where the fish/meat price (Nosteau Herrings) determine NPC profitability. Can't be helped, it -is-, afterall, the economy, stupid! If you're feeling brave you can avoid this one...


 * 43/46-49
 * Pet Food Epsilon
 * Earth Crystal, Cockatrice Meat, Lizard Egg, Rye Flour, Distilled Water
 * It AHs for profit, what more can I say?


 * 43/46-49 (Alternative)
 * Fish Mithkabobs
 * Fire Crystal, 2x Shall Shell, Nebimonite, Bastore Sardine, Bluetail
 * I did these because I didn't realize that the price on Cockatrice Meat had absolutely collapsed on Pandy. 50k/stack for a 49cap synth was kinda painful at the time, but it brough in 60k/stack synths. I don't regret doing them at all, tho. The only question now is getting the fish at reasonably low prices - the pricing has rebounded some since the huge fishing patch (which I, btw, love...the patch, that is).


 * 49-52 : Crayfish Balls.
 * Earth Crystal, 3x Crayfish, San d'Orian Flour, Distilled Water
 * AH for profit, or use to catch Nebimonites for even more profit :)


 * 52-55
 * Beaugreen Sautee.
 * Fire Crystal, Beaugreens, Selbina Butter
 * This is the -FIRST- Fire Crystal synth that I really didn't see a genuine alternative for, although Mulsum (56) may be ok, depending on how it AHs, and the pricing of Grape Juice and Honey. IOW - stick with NPCing Sautees. Make your own Butter for this, too. You'll HQ about 1/3 the time.


 * 55-59
 * Pet Food Zeta.
 * Earth Crystal, San d'Orian Flour, Lizard Egg, Coeurl Meat, Distilled Water
 * Another AH profit synth on a Pet Food. Yay!


 * 55-60 (Alternative)
 * Yagudo Drink.
 * Dark Crystal, Yagudo Cherry, Buburimu Grape
 * Get the ingredients from vendor only. Seriously. Getting them any other way aside from farming will result in losses, otherwise - it's profitable (1800-2k/ea).

Final Note: I realize that this appears to be similar, in many respects, to Dasher's. Prior to today, I had never -seen- his before. Go figure. Mine only goes to 60, tho, since I'm not going past that point for the forseeable future. I'll probably be writing up my Woodworking guide sometime soonish, tho.