1 to 300 Cooking Guide
Before I start, you need to realize this is not a 1-80 leveling guide, it's just a guide that will help you get your cooking skill up quick, if you need a leveling guide, the best ones are: Joana's 1-80 Horde leveling Guide for horde, and Penn's 1-80 Alliance leveling guide for alliance.
Following on from my combined Fishing and Cooking guide, here's a straight 1 to 300 cooking guide using materials found on mobs.
Please note it is a LOT easier and cheaper to level your cooking whilst leveling your Fishing at the same time.
I've tried to pick the cheapest, easiest and quickest recipes to make and where possible I've tried to stick to trainer only recipes. So get your ass to a cooking trainer and pick up the apprentice cooking skill.
Once you've trained as an apprentice cook, you'll have 3 recipes to start with (along with the fire making skill), they are as follows:
Herb Baked Egg
Roasted Boar Meat
Charred Wolf Meat
So of these recipes, you'll only be wanting to use the Roasted Boar Meat or Charred Wolf Meat recipes, as they dont need any other reagents to cook.
So lets start cooking :)
Horde
Levels 1 to 40
Kill any of the following:
Mottled Boars around Orgrimmar for Chunks of Boar Meat.
Wolves and Stalkers around Mulgore for Stringy Wolf Meat.
Darkhounds around Tirisfal Glades for Stringy Wolf Meat.
You'll need about 45 Wolf Meat or about 55 Boar Meat.
Cook the Boar Meat and Stringy Wolf Meat until 40 (train on Spiced Wolf Meat at level 10 and use this to get skill ups quicker, but you'll have to buy mild spices).
At this point you really should take up Fishing as it's easier to fill the gaps, patriculary if your on the Horde side. But people have requested a cooking only guide, so let's try and stick to mob drops.
Levels 41 to 90
At level 50 train as Journeyman Cook.
Goto The Sepulcher in Silverpine Forest and buy the Smoked Bear Meat recipe from Andrew Hilbert.
Kill Grizzled Bears around Silverpine Forest for Bear Meat.
You'll need about 60.
Levels 91 to 125
Go find Grub in The Barrens. He's in a Tower by Grosh'gek Farm, just north off the road between Crossroads and Ratchet and pick up the quest for Dig