Cooking 101

Cooking, like all crafts, has several paths that can ultimately lead you to your end goal (i.e. high-leveled cooking). The recipes on this page are limited to the one (or two) best options for someone starting in the craft with very little gil to invest. Of course, farming your own materials (especially crystals) will always reward a small, tidy profit. However, those who lack the patience to spend hours killing hapless crabs for land meat can choose from these recipes knowing that we've kept their pocketbook in mind. For this reason, recipes with cheaper crystals and ingredients were chosen over those that could be slightly more expensive. Of course, the ease of the synth was also kept in mind.

As mentioned above, there is no one correct way to level up your crafting. Players who kept all their crystals from early leveling might be sitting on stockpiles of Fire or Wind Crystals and stacks of Bird Eggs. Tailor your crafting style to what is easily available to you at the time. The basic crafting philosophy is to level up as cheaply as possible… and perhaps even make some gil during the process.

All the recipes in this guide come down to cost. Water crystals (compared to Fire or Wind) are relatively cheap. Recipes that require these crystals are far more desirable than any other. This guide should skyrocket someone to Cooking (60) in about a day or two, given funds, time, and patience. I would also like to thank the infamous Wolfsfable, whose advice on Cooking 0-30 helped motivate me to get 30-60. His work was the initial inspiration for this guide.

Levels 0-3: Carrot Broth (03)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Water Crystal	San d'Orian Carrot (x4)	Carrot Broth (x4)

• 1 Water Crystal
  
• 4x San d'Oria Carrot
  

Purchase or farm a couple stacks of Water Crystals and head to Raimbroy's Grocery in Southern San d'Oria (F-7). Purchase the carrots from Aveline for around 22-33 gil. You can try to sell your Carrot Broth on the AH or turn around and sell them right back to Aveline for about ?? gil. You won't make much profit, but you might just break even. When you've capped your Cooking skill at (3), it's time to move on to Windurst. You're going to need the Advanced Synthesis Support.

Levels 3-11: Sliced Sardine (11)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Wind Crystal	Bastore Sardine	Slice of Sardine (x2)

• Wind Crystal
  
• 1x Bastore Sardine
  

Between the hours of 3:00-18:00, you can buy Bastore Sardines for around ?? gil from Babubu, the Tarutaru Fisherman's Guild Merchant in Port Windurst (C-8). However, you can also fish these up quite easily or buy them from the Auction House cheaply. Take this skill up to it's cap at (11).

Levels 11-17: Selbina Butter (20)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Ice Crystal	Selbina Milk, Chunk of Rock Salt	Selbina Butter (x4)

• Ice Crystal
• 1x Rock Salt
• 1x Selbina Milk

This is a good receipe for a couple of reasons. First, it's easy and skills you up fast. Secondly, all the butter you make can be used for making Baked Popotos (the next item on the guide). If you're already in Windurst, the most conveinient source of Rock Salt is going to be Lebondur, the Vollbow Regional Merchant, located at (F-6) in Port Windurst. Luckily, Windurst had control of Vollbow during the times I was making all my receipes with Rock Salt. However, if you are not so fortunate, you can purchase Rock Salt from Benaige of Raimbroy's Grocery in Southern San d'Oria (F-7). Rock Salt runs around 14-16 gil.

Selbina Milk can be bought off Dohdjuma in Selbina (G-10) for about 50-60 gil. It can also be bought for the same price, and fairly often, from Phamelise, the Zulkheim Regional Merchant in Southern San d'Oria (K-9). However, most of the time I was able to buy the Selbina Milk for little or no markup from the Windurst Auction House. A stack of 12 for around 700-800 gil is reasonable.

Make sure to keep all your Selbina Butter for Baked Popotos. It's also nice later on for Apple Pies (if you have some mage friends).

Levels 17-22: Baked Popoto (22)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Fire Crystal	Popoto, Selbina Butter	Baked Popoto (1)

• Fire Crystal
• 1x Popoto
• 1x Selbina Butter

Buy Popotos from Baehu-Faehu, the Sarutabaruta Regional Merchant in North Windurst Waters (G-5), for about 44-48 gil. Using the Selbina Butter you created earlier, you can easily and cheaply make this synth up to 17 or even cap it at 22 if you like. You can sell back the Baked Popoto for around ?? gil.

Levels 22-25: Pet Food Gamma (29)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Earth Crystal	Horo Flour, Dhalmel Meat, Distilled Water, Bird Egg	Pet Food Gamma (x6)

• Earth Crystal
• 1x Horo Flour
• 1x Dhalmel Meat
• 1x Distilled Water
• 1x Bird Egg

Levels 25-30: Pineapple Juice (30)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Water Crystal	Kazham Pineapple (x2)	Pineapple Juice (1)

• Water Crystal
• x2 Kazham Pineapple

Levels 30-34: Fish Broth (37)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Water Crystal	Bastore Sardine (x4)	Jug of Fish Broth (x2)

• Water Crystal
• x4 Bastore Sardine

Levels 34-39: Pet Food Delta (39)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Earth Crystal	Land Crab Meat, Bird Egg, Rye Flour, Distilled Water	Pet Food Delta (x6)

• Earth Crystal
• x1 Land Crab Meat
• x1 Bird Egg
• x1 Rye Flour
• x1 Distilled Water

Levels 39-43: Tomato Juice (43)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Water Crystal	Chunk of Rock Salt, Mithran Tomato (x3)	Tomato Juice (1)

• Water Crystal
• x1 Rock Salt
• x3 Mithran Tomato

Levels 43-49: Garlic Cracker (49)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Fire Crystal	Mhuara Garlic, Tarutaru Rice, Distilled Water, Rock Salt	Garlic Cracker (x12)

• Fire Crystal
• x1 Mhaura Garlic
• x1 Tarutaru Rice
• x1 Distilled Water
• x1 Rock Salt

Levels 49-53: Beaugreen Sautee (55)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Fire Crystal	Selbina Butter, Clump of Beaugreens	Beaugreen Sautee (1)

• Fire Crystal
• x1 Selbina Butter
• x1 Beaugreens

Levels 53-55: Spicy Cracker (59)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Fire Crystal	Distilled Water, Rock Salt, Tarutaru Rice, Kazham Pepper	Spicy Cracker (x12)

• Fire Crystal
• x1 Distilled Water
• x1 Rock Salt
• x1 Tarutaru Rice
• x1 Kazham Pepper

Levels 55-60: Yagudo Drink (60)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Dark Crystal	Yagudo Cherry, Buburum Grapes (x3)	Yagudo Drink (1)

• Dark Crystal
• x1 Yagudo Cherry
• x3 Buburimu Grape

Levels 55-60: Stone Cheese (61)

Crystal	Ingredients	Yeild
Dark Crystal	Selbina Milk, Chunk of Rock Salt	Stone Cheese (x4)

• Dark Crystal
• x1 Selbina Milk x1
• x1 Rock Salt x1