Red items are actually out of your skill range and cannot be learned. Orange items are the guaranteed skillups. Just to note, incase you didnt know. If you have a recipie learned, then you can make it without failure. Tycho from PA told a funny joke about that when he did a review during CB once. It was something along the lines of "Its like trying to make a PB&J sandwich, but ending up with a huge mess in your kitchen and two loaves of burnt bread."