Let us sing a song of glorious adventures! Welcome to Classic World of Warcraft, where our exploits include slaying monsters, doing battle with the opposing faction, and cooking. That's right, pull out that apron and saucepan because it's time to choose the best recipes for everyone's favorite secondary profession.
Whether you're grinding your fishing skill or finishing an epic quest chain, it's nice to know there's a hot meal waiting at the end of it. Here are ten of our favorites, and all of the following are recipes available as part of your Cooking skill, so special quest recipes that you can't repeat, like Calmette Surprise, are not included.
10 Savory Deviate Delight
This is probably the first cooking recipe you'll buy at the auction house, and it's not cheap, either. The recipe is an extremely rare drop from random mobs in the Barrens, so you don't stand a good chance of finding it by accident. If you do, you might want to trade it for gold instead of learning it as it's not only a popular recipe but one of the game's must-have items.
The raw version of this fish is easily found in the pools of the central Barrens and is also fun, but it's effects are random. Cooked as Savory Deviate Delight, your character turns into either a Pirate or a Ninja. Ever try to get five pirates or five ninjas running a dungeon?
9 Herb Baked Egg
This is one of the earliest recipes you learn, and it's the first one that includes an ingredient that is rare and valuable, the humble Small Egg. For most of the year, this low-level item is fairly cheap and inconspicuous.
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During the Feast of Winter Veil, however, it's value increases exponentially because it's one of the reagents used to make the Gingerbread Cookie recipe. You can find them on the auction house for ridiculous prices at the right time of year. It's worthwhile to keep that in mind if you ever need cash for a special in-game project.
8 Poached Sunscale Salmon
If you find this recipe, then you can consider yourself a true explorer. It's one of a few high-level recipes available in a tiny seaside town of Steamweedle Port. Most people find them on the auction house as opposed to finding this obscure vendor, Glixxix.
Everyone feels like a Paladin with the gold seal of this health-regen buff hovering over their heads, and it's very handy to have as it's one of the few food items to give a buff without additional ingredients, like spices or milk. You can fish for salmon in high-level areas like the Western Plaguelands, Feralas, and the Hinterlands.
7 Spiced Wolf Meat
This may feel a bit weird for those that have a wolf mount but think of it this way, it's not like you're eating your own wolf. An early recipe that you get from a trainer, this is the first recipe to require spices that you also purchase from a vendor and also give you a handy buff.
It's handy to have, especially for races like Humans and Orcs, since many of your lower level quests involve killing wolves anyway. Wolves and at this level frequently drop the Stringy Wolf Meat needed to make this recipe, which gives you a stamina and spirit buff.
6 Gingerbread Cookies
A simple recipe that even very low-level players and cooks can use, what makes the recipe for Gingerbread Cookies special is that it's only available at that special time of year, the Feast of Winter Veil.
You can easily buy it from a Smokeywood Pastures vendor for only a few silver, so don't be fooled by those overpriced recipes that you see on the auction house. You can not only use this recipe to finish the quest "Treats for Grandfather Winter" but make more cookies that can be used as presents for your guildmates or sold on the auction house.
5 Goldthorn Tea
Tired after a day of heavy questing, with hardly a drop of mana left? Sit back and put your feet up with a nice cup of Goldthorn Tea. Mages can conjure their own food and water, but other magic users like Warlocks and Shamans don't have those powers.
One of the options that they do have is the recipe for this special herbal tea. Out of all the recipes available to players, this is the only one exclusively for restoring mana. Herbalists can pick up this medium-level herb in the wild and others can easily find it on the auction house.
4 Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops
Of course, the only purple recipe in the game would have to be on this list. As part of the epic "Sceptre of the Shifting Sands" quest chain, this is one of the easier links to finish. And unlike other quests that require mats to complete but don't result in the player getting the recipe at the end, this time you do.
The chops themselves aren't exactly epic even if the title is that magical color, giving a generous health restoration and a +25 to stamina, but it only lasts for 15 minutes. The real adventure is completing this infamous quest chain.
3 Dragonbreath Chili
Are you a Fighter or Rogue that wants to wield the same fiery powers as a Mage or Warlock? You can with this recipe, which is available from vendors in Dustwallow Marsh. It makes sense, as the local environment is infested with dragonkin and the lair of Onyxia herself is located in the southern part of the zone.
You might say the whole area has a common theme, so naturally, the recipe you'd obtain here would be connected with dragons somehow. It's a fun recipe for melee players with the buff that allows you to breathe fire for ten minutes.
2 Strider Stew
This is the only recipe on the list that's only available to Horde players, and it goes along with life and leveling in the Barrens. It's also one of the few recipes that require hunting for what seems like an uncommon ingredient, a Shiny Red Apple.
New players learn a valuable lesson here, as the apples are easily available from certain vendors rather than as drops or from cooking vendors. Higher-level recipes also require similar mats, and it helps to know where to find them. You have to slay quite a few of these hapless striders anyway, so you might as well put the mats to some good use.
1 Undermine Clam Chowder
Use this recipe to level your cooking up at the same time you're running certain dungeons at this level or exploring the shoreline of Ashenvale. The creatures along the coastline frequently drop the Zesty Clam Meat that you need to make this recipe.
Like Spiced Wolf Meat and Strider Stew, this can help you level your secondary skills as you level your character. After killing a few naga in places like Blackfathom Depths and Wailing Caverns, your bags will be filled with bits of zesty clam meat. Put that to good use and make some delicious chowder.