ESO Spoiler: Provisioning Leveling

Provisioners plying their trade
Doing the daily provisioning quests is not a half-baked idea.

If you have a supply of recipes and ingredients, you can level provisioning in less that an hour. This tome suggests recommendations on leveling recipes, their ingredients, and links to sources of ingredients.

Why Level Provisioning?

Provisioning passives available to 

  • Increase the duration of food and drink buffs by up to 20 minutes
    (Gourmand – Food, Connoisseur – Drink)
  • Increase the number of items crafted without increasing the number of ingredients up to four items per set of ingredients.
    (Chef – Food, Brewer – Drinks)
  • Get free mats including rare purple ingredients generally only available from hirelings and reward boxes (if you do the dailies).
  • Unlock top-tier crafting writs to earn a chance a getting sealed provisioning writs that can be used to earn vouchers (crafting currency) or sold for gold. 

Note:
The steps below are the most efficient way to level provisioning from an inspiration gain perspective. If you want a fast and easy method, see TheoryCRAFTING: Provisioning Rank 50 in under 6 minutes?

Getting Started

  1. Need 5 Skill Points
  2. Need 4 recipes
    1. Green level 15 recipe (Food or Drink)
    2. Green level 25 recipe (Food or Drink)
    3. Green level 35 recipe (Food or Drink)
    4. Green level 45 recipe (Food or Drink)
      See shopping list below.
  3. Need the ingredients for all the recipes above in quantities identified.
    1. Level 15 – 90 of each ingredient
    2. Level 25 – 75 of each ingredient
    3. Level 35 – 85 of each ingredient
    4. Level 45 – 120 of each ingredient
      The ingredient list will vary with the recipes you were able to obtain.
      See shopping list below.
  4. Bag or Bank space need for all the recipes above and their ingredients
  5. Need access to a crafting station
  6. Boost your Inspiration (Crafting XP) – ESO+, Orc Race, 10+ Thief Champion Points spent in The Lover tree (Inspiration Boost perk)

Walkthrough

  1. Visit your racial starter town and become certified in Provisioning.  (Optional: experience and a free recipe)
  2. Learn all of the obtained leveling recipes. 
    Tips: 
If you are having trouble finding some recipes, you can buy the following writ recipes from chefs and brewers when you are at the appropriate provisioning proficiency
25 - Ginger Wheat Beer (DC), Honey Rye (EP), Mermaid Whiskey (AD)
35 - Neried Wine (DC), Rye-in-your-eye (EP), Sorry Honey Lager (AD)

The chefs will always sell recipes for your proficiency level. However, you will consume more ingredients if using the 10, 20, 30, and 40 recipes. (Partial list of vendors).  List of Alternative recipes.
  3. Obtain leveling recipe ingredients.
    See shopping list below.

    Tip: Search the Guild traders or visit TTC website to locate and obtain ingredients quickly. If you wish to farm your own materials, check out popular farming spots from the community.

If you can’t find any ingredients, you can reliably farm them in any delve or public dungeon with bandits.  
Good farming spots are Sanguine’s Demense (Shadowfen),Vile Manse (Reaper’s March), and
 the Hollow City (Coldharbour)
  4. Make the level 15 recipe until you get to level 20 provisioning (should take a couple less than 90)
  5. Put a skill point into Recipe Improvement
  6. Make the level 25 recipe until you get to level 30 provisioning (should take a few less than 75)
  7. Put a skill point into Recipe Improvement
  8. Make the level 35 recipe until you get to level 40 provisioning (should take a few less than 85)
  9. Put a skill point into Recipe Improvement
  10. Make the level 45 recipe until you get to level 50 provisioning (should take a few less than 120)
  11. Celebrate!

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LadyJohanna of Reddit offers the following tips:  

Turn on auto-loot and search every single container all over everywhere (especially delves) to find recipes, Provisioning mats, and other goodies. Thieving and laundering is encouraged; just don't get caught.

Use green quality recipes to level. Blue and purple quality will not give more inspiration. The inspiration granted is based on recipe level, not recipe quality. Green is cheapest and most effective. Unless you have more ingredients than you know what to do with and you're cooking for your own alts or friends' characters -- then by all means go as fancy as you want.

Many tri-stat foods sell very well to trial and PvP content players.

Do daily Provisioning writs for a chance at purple-quality ingredients and more recipes.

Shopping List

For convenience, I used an old recipe spreadsheet to quickly paste the information in to this article.  Some event and DLC recipes may be missing.

Tip: Sourcing Provisioning Ingredients
Tip: 
To save on ingredients, find levelling recipes with similar ingredients.
Isinglass - Old Clear-Eye (15), Enlightenment Tea (25), Pink Profundity (35), Winter Rose Tea (35), Camlorn Mint Tea
Honey - Sweetberry Tonic (15), Ginseng Sling (25), Honey Rye (25), Sorry, Honey Lager (35), Slyph Gin (45), Sweet Dreams Tea (45), Sweet Scamp Mazte (45)

Proficiency 1

Obtain 1 of the recipes below and approximately 90 items of each ingredient.  List of Alternative recipes

For example,  1 Gingerose Tea Recipe, 90 Rose, and 90 Ginger.

Tip: Search the Guild traders or visit TTC website to locate and obtain recipes.  Recommend doing drink recipes as they are less popular and the recipes are usually cheaper.
  • Red Hipposcras  (15) Surilie Grapes, Ginger
  • Tawny Port (15) Yeast, Metheglin
  • Gingerose Tea (15) Rose, Ginger
  • Green Scourgut Tea(15)  Bittergreen Seaweed
  • Sourflower Tea  (15) Lotus, Lemon
  • Isinmate Infusion (15) Yerba Mate, Isinglass
  • Kelp Kaveh (15) Coffee, Seaweed
  • Sweetberry Tonic (15) Acai Berry, Honey
  • Rose Lager (15) Wheat, Rose
  • Acai Dry Mazte (15) Rice, Acai Berry
  • Tsaesci Tea (15) Lotus, Ginseng
  • Bitter Kaveh (15) Bittergreen,  Coffee
  • Comberry Tonic (15) Comberry, Guarana
  • Stir-Fried Garlic Beef (15) Red Meat, Garlic
  • Rabbit Millet Pilaf (15) Small Game, Millet
  • Pan-Fried Trout Food (15) Fish, Flour
  • Deshaan Honeydew Hors D’ouevre (15) Melon, Saltrice
  • Fried Green Tomatoes Food (15) Tomato, Seasoning
  • Balmora Cabbage Biscuits Food (15) Greens, Flour
  • Port Hunding Cheese Fries (15) Potato, Cheese
  • Spicy Beet Salad (15) Beets, Flour
  • Monkeypig Cutlets Food (15) White Meat, Bananas
  • Rabbit Loin with Bitter Greens (15) Small Game, Greens
  • Shepherd’s Pie Food (15) Game, Potato
  • Melon-Radish Salad (15) Melon, Radish
  • Tomato Borscht Food(15) Tomato, Beets

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Proficiency 2

Obtain 1 of the recipes below and approximately 75 items of each ingredient. List of Alternative recipes

For example,  1 Mermaid Whiskey Recipe, 75 Barley and 75 Seaweed.

  • Honey Rye (25) Rye, Honey
  • Mermaid Whiskey (25) Barley, Seaweed
  • Enlightenment Tea Brew (25) Lotus, Isinglass
  • Mead de Menthe Brew (25) Mint, Metheglin
  • Thrassian Chai (25) Jasmine, Seaweed
  • Athlete’s Guzzle (25) Acai Berry, Lemon
  • Busy Bee Brew (25) Coffee, Metheglin
  • Ginseng Sling (25) Ginseng, Honey
  • Bitter Remorse Ale (25) Wheat, Bittergreen Ginger
  • Truth-Glimpse (25) Barley, Mint, Isinglass
  • Drowned Sailor Ale (25) Yeast, Ginseng, Seaweed
  • Ginger Port (25) Surilie Grapes, Yerba Mate, Ginger
  • Ginkgo Double Brandy (25) Rice, Ginkgo, Honey
  • Azura’s Rose Tea (25) Rose, Guarana, Isinglass
  • Celestial Tonic Tea (25) Jasmine, Acai Berry, Metheglin
  • Cornerclub Kaveh (25) Comberry, Coffee, Lemon
  • Cheese Pork Schnitzel (25) White Meat, Cheese
  • Chicken and Biscuits (25) Poultry, Millet
  • Salted Cod Food (25) Fish, Seasoning
  • Cantaloupe Bread (25) Melon, Flour
  • Cinnamon Gorapples (25) Apples, Seasoning
  • Green Bananas with Garlic (25) Bananas, Garlic
  • Eidar Radish Salad Food (25) Radish, Cheese
  • Potato Rice Blintzes (25) Potato, Saltrice
  • Rihad Beet and Garlic Salad (25) Beets, Garlic
  • Baked Sole With Bananas (25) Fish, Bananas, Flour
  • Colovian Roast Turkey (25) Poultry, Tomato, Millet
  • Pork and Bitter Melon Food (25) White Meat, Melon, Saltrice
  • Hunt-Wife’s Beef Radish Stew (25)Red Meat, Radish, Seasoning
  • Necrom Beetle-Cheese Poutine (25) Red Meat, Radish, Seasoning
  • Elsweyr Corn Fritters (25) Jazbay Grapes, Corn, Flour
  • Hearthfire Vegetable Salad (25) Pumpkin, Beets, Saltrice

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Proficiency 3

Obtain 1 of the recipes below and approximately 85 items of each ingredient. List of Alternative recipes

For example,  1 Nereid Wine Recipe, 85 Surilie Grapes and 85 Seaweed.

  • Nereid Wine (35) Surilie Grapes, Seaweed
  • Rye-in-Your-Eye (35) Rye, Metheglin
  • Sorry, Honey Lager (35) Wheat, Honey
  • Pink Profundity (35) Jasmine, Isinglass
  • Puckermint Tea (35) Mint, Lemon
  • Winter Rose Tea (35) Rose, Isinglass
  • Crystal Clarity(35) Ginseng, Isinglass
  • Rihad Qishr  (35) Coffee, Ginger
  • Seaberry Tonic (35) Acai Berry, Seaweed
  • Night-Grog (35) Yeast, Comberry, Ginger
  • Pyandonea Merlot Brew (35) Surilie Grapes, Ginseng, Seaweed
  • Vigilance Gold Ale Brew (35) Wheat, Coffee, Lemon
  • Jasminkgo Tonic (35) Jasmine, Ginkgo, Honey
  • Monkeypants Mazte ((35)Rice, Jasmine, Yerba Mate, Bevez Juice
  • Bruma Jugged Rabbit Food (35) Small Game, Seasoning
  • Camlorn Pork Sausage (35) White Meat, Garlic
  • Crispy Cheddar Chicken Food (35) Poultry, Cheese
  • Apple Cobbler Supreme Food (35) Apples, Flour
  • Clan Mother’s Banana Pilaf (35) Bananas, Saltrice
  • Rimmen Raisin Cookies (35) Jazbay Grapes, Flour
  • Indoril Radish Tartlets (35) Radish, Flour
  • Roasted Beet and Millet Salad (35) Beets, Millet
  • Twice-Baked Potatoes (35) Potato, Seasoning
  • Minotaur Slumgullion (35) Red Meat, Pumpkin, Millet
  • Forge-Wife’s Spudmelon Pie (35) Melon, Potato, Flour
  • Blackwood Stuffed Banana Leaves (35) Bananas, Greens, Millet

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Proficiency 4

Obtain 1 of the recipes below and approximately 120 items of each ingredient. List of Alternative recipes

For example,  1 Dreugh Spit Recipe, 120 Ginseng and 120 Seaweed.

  • Sweet Scamp Mazte (45) Rice, Honey
  • Sour Gin Fizz (45) Yeast, Lemon
  • Whiskey Sour (45) Rye, Lemon
  • Camlorn Mint Tea (45) Mint, Isinglass
  • Jasminger Tea (45) Jasmine, Ginger
  • Sweet Dreams Tea (45)  Lotus, Honey
  • Lemonic Invigoration (45) Guarana, Lemon
  • Shimmerene Tonic (45) Acai Berry, Isinglass
  • Dreugh Spit Brew (45) Ginseng, Seaweed
  • Anequina Stout Brew (45) Barley, Bittergreen, Lemon
  • Night Cordial Brew (45) Rice, Comberry, Seaweed
  • Sylph Gin Brew (45) Yeast, Lotus, Honey
  • Narsis Wickwheat Ale (45) Wheat, Yerba Mate, Isinglass
  • Centurion’s Friend Kaveh (45) Jasmine, Coffee, Seaweed
  • Akaviri Pork Fried Rice (45) White Meat, Saltrice
  • Blacklight Oxen Meatballs (45) Red Meat, Saltrice
  • Solstheim Elk and Scuttle (45) Game, Cheese
  • Mage’s Gorapple Porridge (45) Apples, Millet
  • Melon-Chevre Salad Food (45) Melon, Cheese
  • Banana Bread (45) Bananas, Flour
  • Radish Kebabs (45) Radish, Seasoning
  • Savory Thorn Cornbread (45) Corn, Saltrice
  • Vvardenfell Ash Yam Loaf (45) Potato, Flour
  • Oyster Tomato Orzo (45) Fish Tomato, Saltrice
  • Sun-Dried Caravan Provisions (45) Apples, Beets, Seasoning
  • Drunken Goat Cheese Food (45) Jazbay Grapes, Radish, Cheese

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Note: Wondering what the columns with x's are? They indicate if the recipe provides Health, Magicka, or Stamina (in that order)

References

  1. Official ESO Forums, bbritton8883525_ESO