With so many awesome new recipes, it would be nice if you could learn them somehow as you progress in the game. A few ideas:

Scrapping: When you scrap an item you learn recipe(s) involving the original item and/or the material components you scrap it into, starting with the cheapest recipes needing the original item (or its components) and as few other cheap items as possible.

Combining: Similar to scrapping but inverted, starting with recipes needing the crafted item (or its components) and as few other cheap items as possible. You might even learn some simple recipes from invalid item combinations, but maybe not as many.

Consuming: Similar to scrapping but when you eat/drink/consume an item instead, starting with recipes needing the consumed item (or its components) and as few other cheap items as possible. "Should I really drink this toxic concoction? Of course! For science!"

Loremaster: Perhaps this civil ability could affect how many recipes you learn with each scrap/combine/consume, or how many expensive components can be missing from the scrap/combine/consume for you to still be able to learn an item's recipe.