Follow a recipe all the way back
Use work, source and use pages to plan a real production chain.
Read a recipe in order
First check the trade and required level. Then check any additional unlocks, the ingredient basket and the output quantity. A job can be learned but still unable to start because an ingredient is protected by a reserve, the destination has no spare storage, or a special requirement remains unmet.
The action page lists declared base values. Tools, mastery, equipment, selected recipe options and other bonuses can change the live interval, yield, preservation or ingredient cost. A base two-second job is not a claim that every save completes it in exactly two seconds.
Choices and quality matter
Some jobs let you choose a source material, producing different quantities. Others replace their output as mastery reaches new preparation tiers. A lower-tier recipe may stop being the current output; do not assume every listed tier is freely selectable.
Cooking can produce ordinary or perfect food. Projects asking for a named ordinary item require that item; a perfect counterpart has its own identity. Inspect the quality setting when gathering a project basket.
Use the whole chain
On an item page, Sources answers where the item enters the economy; Uses answers which jobs, fittings, chapters, crops or techniques need it. Random rewards and guaranteed outputs are labelled separately.
A chance to obtain an item is not a fixed number of attempts. Rare drops, crop survival and work failures can make actual preparation longer than the base interval suggests. Keep a cash and food margin instead of budgeting every last unit.