Baking

I am not sure whether the baking books in Norrath have had their many errors corrected in the editing process of the last few patches, but I have yet to find an error in the ingredients at http://www.jetcity.com/~starbell/lostalliance/baking/eqbaking.htm and I have tried almost all of the recipies. The only mistake I found is that she indicates that only a spit can be used for some recipies, which is incorrect. I have never in my life used a spit but use an oven for everything except clumps of dough which can only be made in a mixing bowl. I hear that spits are great if you plan to do baking on the run, but as I spend a lot of time in cities anyway it is easier for me to stop there rather than carry around another container.

I know Starbell's site has been updated at least within the last couple of months, so it should be reasonably up to date as well! When I started baking, the baking books on vendors were not only wildly inaccurate but also were simply too numerous to lug them all around. So, I copied down everything on Starbell's site in an order that made sense to me and as I tried them I noted the quantity they make and when they became trivial. I emailed her with a question once and she was very helpful and friendly!

I have found that the most economical and fun way to learn to bake is simply to collect components of recipies until they are taking up too much space and then head to the nearest good baking city to spend some quality time with the oven. I prefer to do most of my baking between Qeynos and Halas, since all the things that can be store bought can be found between those two cities. This way you get to work through all kinds of different recipies for variety (you'll be the hit at every party!) and can finally put those wretched wasp wings and spider legs to a good use!

If you are interested in pottery, it complements baking perfectly. There are many tools associated with baking (skewers, pie tins, smokers, pots and more) and all can be crafted with pottery. This way, if you have a bit of extra cash to burn, you won't have to take up precious storage space to have all the tools on hand, but can craft things for use when you need them.

Good luck, good hunting, and enjoy your baking!

Some players will say that baking is perfectly useless. Well, in a kind of way its true. First all kinds of foods are consumed at the SAME rate. Also, different meals will not affect your character in ANY way. Some say that iron rations makes your mana regen faster. It is yet unconfirmed but i havent seen a difference myself.

Well, why should i bake then?

Because its fun... Why killing these goblins? Why making xp? Why raiding nagafen`s lair? All you play with are just pixels :) Baking has no more and no less purpose than these things.

Baking gives you the chance to see new items (the birthday cake is quite a sight hehe) and is a formidable platform for roleplaying. Also, its quite easy to practice and one of the cheapest skill of the game. I wont bother with all the recipes since Allakhazam gives an extensive frequently updated list list. Also a trivial list is also pretty useless since you can experiment yourself what suits your skill-raising needs without losing 500pp per failure. The main problem you will encounter is finding the ingredients to beguin your new passtime.

First, try to use farmed items (dropped from monsters) as less as possible if you want to raise your skill quickly. Raising your skill with mammoth sandwich will require more hunting than cooking :). Try to buy your ingredients. Personally, i raised my skill around freeport. Parthar (house in e com near w freeport zone) sells the most basic ingredients for baking such as frosting, spices, sauce....... Also, lots of easy-to-mass-produce foodstuffs require bats wings. You can buy an unlimited supply of these in w freeport mageguild 2nd floor and in e comm (kathya firespinner, near w comm zone). This will allow you to make alot of batwing crunchies and fish rolls.

After this, you can start to make some really nice meals with pies and eventually cakes. The problem with pies is finding snakes eggs to make dough. There is no place where you can buy an unlimited supply of these (at least to my knowledge), just barsh snakes :) Or ask newbies to hunt them for you. Some shops can sells a few (check around erudin). At last come the gourgeous birthday cake, proof of your mastery over baking... Youll need to get brownies parts for this. Some low brownies can spawn rarely in Gfaydark. But your most reliable source lies in Lesser Faydark. There is an old tower surronded by pixies (forgot loc). If you kill a tons of pixies some brownies outcasts may spawns. They have some chance to drop part when killed. Beware tough, youll need to be 35+ to easily solo them. If you got a whole groups of 50ties who dont know what to do you can try to persuade them to attack the main brownie village. There is two brownie guards there that are very dangerous. They hit hard, roots and have a nasty habit of resisting everything you throw at them. If you manage to kill them, youre free to slaughter all the little cute green brownies inside for your chocolate feast.

Thats all for today, post further question if you feel like it...