Leveling cooking

Leveling cooking can be pretty expensive if you just create everything that's orange in your skillbook. Your most important helper will be the skill list at Wowhead. While I write down everything I did, prices may vary in realms. However the main guidelines are the same.

• Don't wast time and money for making campfire to cook. Larísa made a list of free cooking points. Hint: every dwarfen brazier in Ironforge will do.
  
• Start with Spiced Bread. It's trained by the trainer and it's ingredients are sold by the cooking supplyer by the shocking price of 6c each. Use it until slvl35.
  
• Don't use anything with small egg or stringy wolf meat. Everyone levels his profession with these skills. Instead take a walk to the fishing supplier and buy recipe for Slitherskin Mackerel or Brilliant Smallfish, which can be bought in the AH for coppers. This will make your way up to slvl50 or more.
• At slvl 50 start making Longjaw Mud Snapper. Recipe at the fishing supplier, fish in the AH, for coppers. Don't forget to buy Journeyman cooking!
• Bristle Whisker Catfish is your next friend at slvl 100. Though it's sold for silvers, not coppers, it's still much cheaper than the alternative meat.
• At slvl 150 you have to buy the expert cookbook If you are not high enough level, to buy it from vendor, you have to buy it from the AH. It will be of high cost.
• Bristle Whisker Catfish greens at slvl 160 and grays at 180, so it can bring you to 175, if you buy/fish lot of fish, but usually it's not the case. If you level fishing too, make it the case!
  
• Tangy Clam Meat, Tender Crocolist Meat, Raptor Egg, Lion Meat can help you out to slvl 175. Buy the cheapest, but expect ugly prices.
  
• After 175 Mithril Headed Trout are the cheap fish. Of course needs a vendored recipe. It brings you up to slvl 225
  
• To learn Artisan Cooking, you need to be lvl 35 and complete a quest in Gatzgetzan. You can buy the ingredients in the AH.
• Buy the recipe of Filet of Redgill in Booty bay and cook all the fish you can buy/fish, at least up to slvl 250, but try to push it higher.
  
• After slvl 260 cook Nightfin sapper and Raw Sunscale Salmon. You can fish them in Winterspring, together with Raw Whitescale Salmon, your next fish. Fish enough of this two until your skill reaches minimum 275. It worth to go beyond, since Raw Whitescale Salmon is rare and you will need 1 for each skillup to 300
  
• After that, cook Raw Whitescale Salmon, up to slvl 300
• Buy and learn Master Cookbook
• Learn the recipe and catch/buy Barbed Gill Trout. It will let you up to slvl 330.
• Figluster's mudfish will let you up to slvl 350 by cooking it to Grilled Mudfish.
• Golden fish sticks of Golden Darter can push you up to slvl 360
• From there practically Spicy Crawdad is the only food that push you higher, up to slvl 375
  

Always check the whole recipe list, and use the cheapest available material. While my guide use the usually cheapest materials, the fish, but you can be lucky by finding cheap meat. Materials belonging to recipe-taught skills are usually much cheaper than materials of trainer-taught skills. Don't hesitate to use these skills.

Dechion pointed out that the cheapest fish is the one you fish out. You can level cooking and fishing together with practically 0 cost, if you have the patience to fish. I don't, since a minute spent by the water is a minute not spent in the AH. Time is money friend!

Warcraft Econ wrote that in Lich King buff foods will be harder to get, so cooking will be a valueable profession. Learn it!