How am I to even raise the chemistry skill to 1 without reading a book or dosing out points in char creation?
The preparation and use of animal skins is almost as old as the hills themselves, in light of that, a point in chemistry seems like a big ask for something of this nature, its very primitive tech and should remain so.
It’s applied science, not chemistry as far as I know. You can grind it up by doing Applied Science skill 0 tasks. Namely, getting salt from salty water getting soapy water from soap and … wait for it … water or making makeshift antiseptic by literally pouring ethanol into a bottle (from another bottle).
It’s an autolearned recipe so that’s all you need apart from survival skill 1 which you can use the same trick for (grind level 0 crafts and actions). I think quick butchery of zombie corpses would work. Or make makeshift hammers, sock mitts (put your hands in socks, genius!) etc.
Thanks for the informative response. Running a single batch of salt>salt water worked perfectly to get it to level 1.
As the skill requirements for curing were not immediately apparent in the game, I referred to Cured pelt (craft) - Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (which is where I got the chemistry from)
I think the skills got shuffled around in experimental not long back (Barter skill is no more, for one).