Cooking is an activity that makes its way into every RPG. It's not only a daily necessity, but also part of world events, holidays, and endgame content. World of Warcraft has a whole secondary profession dedicated to Cooking. Any character can learn it and level it, so competition among players when it comes to Cooking is fierce, regardless of class.
In the retail version of the game, many of these recipes have disappeared entirely except for the ones that players keep in their banks as keepsakes, souvenirs, or investments, to be sold on the Auction House for an impressive sum. Others are possible to get, but like everything in World of Warcraft: Classic, it takes persistence, patience, and a touch of unhealthy obsession.
6 Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops
Every time there's a discussion about the rarest Cooking recipes in WoW, this recipe is the first one everyone thinks about. "Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops" is the only recipe in Classic that has an Epic quality, and the reason it's so rare is that it's only available as part of the Scepter of the Sifting Sands quest chain. It's still available on the Auction House in some realms, and is priced at more than 6000 gold most of the time.
The "Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops" quest is a lengthy chain that includes a couple of different recipes and steps to self-improvement, such as learning Draconic. If the player completes the whole chain, they have all the parts to create the scepter and ring the gong in Silithus.
5 Skullfish Soup
The Crescent-tail Skullfish is only found in one place: the murky waters that line the bottom of Deadwind Pass next to Karazhan. It's the only ingredient required in Skullfish Soup, which restores mana and gives the character a buff to critical strike rating and Spirit. The recipe still exists in retail, except it improves Versatility instead.
This is one of the earliest raid-required buff food recipes that most players encounter, and it makes sense that it would be found close to the haunted home of Medivh. This is one of the random drops from the Barrel of Fish, a reward for completing the daily cooking quest in Shattrath.
4 Broiled Bloodfin
Another recipe that randomly drops from the Barrel of Fish, Broiled Bloodfin is just as useful as Skullfish Soup, but it has defensive properties, giving the character an increased resistance to all schools of magic. Tanks and other melee classes used it extensively, also bringing it into battlegrounds.
The Bloodfin Catfish is only found in the dark recesses of Deadwind Pass in WoW: Classic. For those playing retail, the disaster of the Cataclysm expansion let a few into the troll raid, Zul'Aman.
3 Stormchops
One of few recipes of Superior quality (aka, a blue item) that appears in the game, this recipe is a contribution from The Burning Crusade expansion. It is also a possible daily quest reward, but players have a better chance of finding this one. In addition to being found in the Crate of Meat, it also appears in the Barrel of Fish or the Spice Bag from the Dalaran daily.
After enjoying a helping of Stormchops, any character will randomly shock nearby foes with nature damage. This can be fun, allowing anyone to play Shaman, but it can have the unwanted side effect of aggroing too many nearby mobs.
2 Savory Deviate Delight
"Eat me," says the raw version of this recipe, the Deviate Delight fish. It's a reference to the book Alice in Wonderland and the fish will make the character smaller or larger, but it has several other effects that are totally random. They are only found in the ponds near the Barren's oases. Cook them into Savory Deviate Delight, however, and that effect narrows down to two possibilities: Ninja or Pirate.
Horde players have an advantage when it comes to finding this random world drop, since it appears in a vast zone where the Alliance doesn't have a strong presence. This is a low-level area and the recipe only requires a skill of 85 to make, but it's difficult to find. On the Auction House it sells for over a 1000g, making it one of the most expensive items that's still available in the open world.
1 Delicious Chocolate Cake
Another bind-on-pickup recipe from the Outland or Northrend Cooking dailies, the recipe for Chocolate Cake is one of the two Superior recipes available in the game. This one doesn't have any combat-related abilities or buffs, however. Its only effect is that it makes the character eating it "very happy" for an hour, just like eating chocolate cake in real life. The real incentive to making the Delicious Chocolate Cake is the complete the Achievement, "The Cake Is Not A Lie."
There's a small collection of dishes in the game that have no other effect than to change the character's mood, and the recipe for Delicious Choclate Cake is the only one that's randomly rewarded as for the daily Cooking quest. The other four — Haunted Herring, Tasty Cupcake, Last Week's Mammoth, and Bad Clams — drop randomly in Northrend dungeons.