FFXI Miser's Cooking guide

This isnt as fully detailed as my goldsmithing guide. I've only just started on cooking. And there are lots of other cooking guides out there. This one is just a little more focused on how to do it economically.

Principles of saving money

#2. At "low" (below 50) levels, pick your synths based on what crystals are cheap for you. Then narrow your choices based on price of ingredients.

#3. Buy your ingredients at the cheapest place!
It helps to have either an airship pass, or "mule" chars, or linkshell buddies willing to send you stuff from the city they are in. Most of the stuff you need will be from "Regional Vendor"s. Buying at AH, or from the "wrong" NPC, will cost you 2x-4x the price. Note that 80% of the time, the Cooking Guilde shop is the Wrong Place to buy stuff.

#4. Sell your results at the most expensive place!
The cooking guild shop is actually the best place for NPC, when it is open. Closed darksday, and 22:00-5:00.

#5. Since most of your synths up to level 43 are water, go get "Moghancement: Water", by buying about 6 water jugs and putting them in your mog house layout. They're really really cheap, if you buy from the goblin in Rabao. 200g each?

More random tips on crafting in general, can be found in my goldsmithing guide. This page is strictly cooking for now.

Leveling steps

These are, of course, cheapest in san d'oria. So go there and buy from either the grocery store, or "regional vendor". (Corua, in main square of southern city). Sell back to cooking guild shop in windhurst for best price, or just right back to Corua. You will lose money, but not much, if your crystals are free.

Again, obviously, these are cheapest in windhurst, since that's where the regional vendor should pretty much always be. (the taru by "Odin's gate" in Waters)

There are actually a bunch of places that have rock salt, all the time. I think the san d'orian grocery store always has it. But there is also a "regional vendor" for it. (Volbow?) The tricky one is the selbina milk. Find whoever owns Valkurm Dunes, and stock up big time on milk from that city's vendor.

Then go live in the cooking guild for a while.

Here's where you'll want either a lot of patience, or a WHOOLE lot of safe/storage space.You can actually make money, or at least break even, at this stage, since selbina butter actually sells decently in AH.

just go to Kazam and buy the pineapples there (right on the docks). Technically, there's a regional vendor, that you might get lucky with. but Kazam will always have them, and always at a good price. Stock up! Then head back to windhurst and the guild for synth aid.

You can end up losing fairly little money, if you sell your juice straight back to the guild shop. If crystals are free, you'll only lose about 15gil per good synth. 110g per FULL failed synth.

Or, if you want to wait it out at the AH, you may end up making a little money back overall, since they can sell for up to 400g. But it may take quite a while to sell, and they dont stack.

I would have liked to have just done melon juice, like I did pineapple at 20. But apparently, a multi-ingredient recipie is more difficult. Many many failures, and almost no skillups. It is an "incredibly tough" synth at level 30. At skill level 32, it's more reasonable... IF the moon is close to full.(80-100%?) So do fish broth or something else at this point.

Fish broth is: water crystal, 4x bastore sardines (caps at 37)
Please note: if you are not fishing up the sardines yourself, with a sabiki rig or something, then this can be a noticable money loser. It's about 100 gil per fish. But at least it's only for 2 levels.
Also note that you should buy them in sandoria or bastok AH, NOT windhurst, or you'll be wasting 500g per stack.

Hmmm.... I've just heard a rumor that pet food is sellable to NPC for an actual profit! Have to try that too...

32(33)-40: (Note: this is only good at 32 if moon is near full. Otherwise, you should wait to 33 or maybe even 34)
Melon juice: water crystal, thundermelon, watermelon.

Go to Rabao and buy the pineapples there. Like Kazam, technically, there's a regional vendor, that you might get lucky with. but Rabao will always have them, and always at a good price. Stock up! Then head back to windhurst and the guild for synth aid.

If you sell back to guild shop, you'll lose more money than with pineapple juice, since each synth is about 500g, and they only buy back for around 300. The good news is, you can AH melon juice for 1000g each. The bad news is... it will take a few real life days to sell all the melon juice you'll make out of your leveling.

Or, if you want to wait it out at the AH, you may end up making a little money back overall, since they can sell for up to 400g. But it may take quite a while to sell, and they dont stack.

Go back to Kazam, and the Npc on the docks, and grab your tomatoes. Sell right back to the NPC. who the heck drinks tomato juice anyway???

Congratulations! You can now make apple pies. And mithkabobs. and probably a few more things of interest. Too bad you cant make money just by making these any more, since the high-level cooks sell all the NQ synths "at cost", or even lower. But if this is where you wanted to be... congrats!

43-50: If you have a San d'Oria mule, or can get there easily, you may as well stock up on San d'Orian Grapes, and get to 50 on grape juice. Note, though, that this sync requires dark crystals. Hopefully, you have a way of getting dark crystals cheaply. But if not... Jeuno appears to be the cheapest place to buy them. Since grape juice sells for 1000g, the only losses you will suffer should be from breakage, even if you have to buy your crystals. To avoid breakage, make sure to do this dark crystal synth when moon is DARK (0% or close to it). This is the opposite of normal synths.
If you have fire crystals to burn, and leftover butter, there is also the option of batagreen saute(52 cap). But you might want to save the butter until beaugreen saute, which will get you to 55

50-55: Beaugreen saute: Fire crystal, 1xbeaugreens, 1xselbina butter. Sell to NPC for slight loss.

55-60: Yagudo drink: DARK crystal, 3xbuburimbu grape, 1xyagudo cherry

!!WARNING!!

!!END WARNING!!

60?-64: Pumpkin soup: ogre pumpkin, Sell to NPC. A bit of a loss, unfortunately, when you factor in breakages. but teeny-tiny. the speed of turnover makes up for it in my book. There isnt really anything better that I'm aware of. Prices on melon pies have tanked.

55-60: apple au lait: water crystal, 2xfaerie apple, 1 honey, 1 milk.
Yaay, water synth again! These dont sell that fast, but you can break even, or better, depending on where you sell, if your crystals are free.

64-72: pear au lait: water crystal, 2xpear, 1 honey, 1 milk.
You can make some nice money here too, if you sell em in Jeuno for 2k a pop.

Sidebar... at 67, I went for a diversion, and spend $$$ and much game time to get 30,000 GP. Then tried some squid sushi for a while. This has its positives and negatives. The main negative being that to get cheap ingredients, you'll have to :
1. camp the guild shop for rice (I'm no gardener)
2. go to norg for decent prices on wasabi and vinegar
3. the primary ingredient, gigant squid, is expensive, and not that common.

But on the brighter side, it makes money, plus gives occasional skillups, even when I was doing it on lightsday, WITH synth aid, facing the direction of the crystal (south, for earth). Very low breakage rate for me, as long as it isnt new moon or something.

73-81: pamama au au lait: water crystal, 2xpamama, 1 honey, 1 milk.
[Havent tried this yet, but it is my plan. yaay, water!]

Rumour has it that Pumpkin pie (lvl85 synth!) is a good moneymaker.
Fire, Maple Sugar, Cinnamon, Selbina Butter, Water, Bird Egg, Pie Dough, Selbina Milk, Ogre Pumpkin
i'm looking forward to it! Then maybe rolanberry pies to 90.

There's also yellow curry as a lvl85 synth if you like that stuff:
Fire, Popoto, Wild Onion, Selbina Milk, Coeurl Meat, Turmeric, Curry Powder, Water

Best direction to face for success on synths

Element	Direction
Fire	NorthWest
Water	West
Lightning	SouthWest
Earth	South
Wind	SouthEast
Ice	East
Light	NorthEast
Dark	North

Cheezy elemental chart

Guild point items I've seen so far, in order (short time only)

Roast Trout
 ???
Pamama tart
Tortilla