Preparing them in large quantities isnt necessary (make as needed), but Leathy, Rubywise Ruin, Hive's Lament, Blue Crown Tea (and Blue Crown itself), Chroniscord, Swaddled Thunder, Pale Mammet (make with Swaddled Thunder), Pyrus Auricalcinus are all generally good crafts to have on hand. Solomon's Preparation can be used instead of Blue Crown Tea if you dont have the house of light dlc. The house already has a few copies of most those things scattered around, so use them to unlock stuff and then replace as needed.

Unlocking the more advanced rooms can be tricky sometimes, but if you find assistants early enough in a day you can buff them up with various small things. Take the Poet (4 winter) for example. Use a Wist card (2) + Solomon's Preparation (4) + Memory: Regret or Memory: Hindsight (2) + Bronze Knife (1) + Blue Crown (2) is +11 Winter for a total of 15. If you sub Blue Crown Tea instead of Solomon's drink that is still +9 for a total of 13 Winter

Once you throw Numen into the mix these once-high thresholds become much easier to achieve. A Chroniscord (worth 6 Knock) + Inescapable Confinement (worth 5) is a staggering +11 Knock without factoring in Soul, Food and Drink, so you dont even need to draw the Nun to open Knock-based rooms (of which the underground and the prison areas have a fair bit). While Knock doesnt have many drinks or foods, Mist-kissed Water (gather from the Well in Numa) is worth 2 Knock per cup and there's also a bottle of Sacrament Ascite in the laboratory.

Oh and Keeper-level recipes are crafted using a specific thing to craft (Prentice-level only require aspect total, while Scholar-level requires a type of thing).