Philosophy

I wanted a route to becoming a master baker that did not require tons of hunting, using up tons of practice points, or spending a lot of cash.  In short, I wanted to get there quickly in "real life" time using as few game resources as possible.  So this method gets you to mastery with minimum money (about 2pp net total cost) and minimum game time.

Phase 1:  Getting started

Put one practice point (yep, one point) into baking, and possibly one into fishing.

Save ALL your rat, wolf, bear, and lion meat - which are only worth a few coppers.  Also save snake eggs, and possibly bat and wasp wings if needed as well.

Phase 2:  Sandwich Artist (sorry Subway); Skill 1-31

DO NOT make edible goo!  This is a HUGE money looser as those firebeetle eyes are worth valuable silver to the newbie.  Go buy bread and make rat sandwiches (Rat meat, bread) until trivial (skill 26).  Then make wolf sandwiches (meat, bread) to skill 31 (try to save your bear meat for braising).  This works because you can sell each sandwich back for over 30cp!  The bread costs about 13cp, and the meat was free or cheap.  You may actually come out slightly ahead, and will get to a skill of
31.

Notes:  When the sandwiches became trivial for me I had a success rate of about 75%.  At this point, if I bought rat meat from a vendor for 11cp, and the bread for 13cp then each sandwich cost 24cp in ingredients.  They sold at 33cp each... which means that at skill 31 on average I made 1cp per rat sandwich using ALL store bought supplies!  Wolf and Bear meat sanwiches sold for 36cp each, and were slightly more profitable.  So if you are not a low level, and don't want waste time killing rats and wolves then by all means buy the meat!  At worst, it will cost no more than 1 gp to get to skill 31.  Check the vendors near newbie areas.  I was able to fill two backpacks with wolf, bear, and rat meat - and they still had meat left over!

Phase 3: Grill Master; Skill 31-60

Make wolf/gator steaks (Meat, spices, sauce) while your skill is less than 47.  After skill 47 wolf/gator meat isn't much good, so use it up first.  Then make Beer braised rat/lion/bear (meat, spices, short beer) to skill 60.

Beer braised lion and bear are especially nice as you get two items per success, so always use lion and bear meat for beer braising, even if your skill is less than 47.  Other guides will tell you to make steaks with lion/bear meat - Bad guides!  Bad!

Rat meat is often plentiful (and cheap) on vendors in newbie zones, and braising it can be a fast vehicle to get your skill to 60 if you are willing to spend an extra gold or two.

You will loose money on this phase, but not a lot.  Even buying everything from vendors you won't loose more than 2pp.  It's also handy to have a spit at this point so you don't have to run and carry everywhere, but that's optional.

Note:  Many people make batwing crunchies (batwings, frosting) to get to skill 45.  This is a good option if meat is scarce.

Note:  If you are a proficient smith, you probably make skewers to increase skill - the skewers can be used with rat meat to make rat kabobs (Rat meat, spices, jug of sauces, skewers) in addition to making wolf/gator steaks.

Phase 4: Fishing, Fishing, Fishing; Skill 60-82

Ugh.  I tried to find some way around this phase; fishing is tedious, but there's not a lot of options to get from 60 to 80 skill points.  So grab a pole and some bait and be prepared for tedium.  Catch fish and make fish fillets (Fish, jug of sauces) to skill 82 (or slightly less if you are impatient like me).  This will take 200 fish or more.  The good news is that it is profitable.  You will make back any money that you've spent so far and then some, as you get two fish fillets per success and they sell for about 25cp each.

If you are lucky enough to be able to buy your fish, then do so!  It will cut your profits in half, but you'll make the money up by adventuring during the time you saved versus fishing.

Phase 5: Cookie Monster; Skill 82-102+

If you are lucky you'll be able to buy the snake eggs you need to make clumps of dough (flour, milk, snake egg; combine in a Mixing Bowl).  Use the dough to make cookies (clump of dough, spices, frosting) to skill 102.  Again, the emphasis here is to get to 100 as fast as possible, so I use many store-bought goods.  You will loose a little money on cookies, but not more than 2pp.

If you are unlucky, and snake eggs are not in great supply, make as many cookies as you can, then go back to fishing.  You can make fish/shark rolls (fish/shark, batwings) to get to skill 135, but don't expect a lot of success while your skill is less than 100.  Another option to get to 135 is the oddly named Gator rolls (fish, wasp wings) - yes, use fish and not gator meat.

Congratulations.  You are now a Master Baker.

Power tips:
- If you choose to hunt your meat use the wolf/bear/cat pelts in conjunction with tailoring to make armor.  Tattered armor
- If you choose to smith you'll get a lot of rusty daggers fishing. These can be sharpened for low level smithing skills.

-Ramsy
Cleric of the 6th Circle of Life
Qeynos, Seventh Hammer