Recipe Cost Calculator
What a dish really costs to make, ingredient by ingredient and per portion.
Part of the 👨🍳 Chefs and Cooks toolkit, with more tools made for the job.
The recipe
How many portions it makes, and optionally what you sell a portion for.
Gives the food cost percentage and the profit.
The ingredients
For each one: what the pack costs, how much is in it, and how much the recipe uses. Use the same unit for pack size and amount used, such as grams.
“Usable” is the share of what you buy that you can actually use after trim and peeling. Leave it empty for 100%. The yield and trim calculator works it out from a weighing.
Type the portions and a few ingredients, and the cost per portion appears here.
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Type how many portions the recipe makes and, for each ingredient, the price of the pack, the size of the pack and how much the recipe uses. This shows the cost of each ingredient, the cost per portion and, with a selling price, the food cost percentage.
Costing a recipe is the first step in pricing a menu, and the place where most beginners go wrong. The usual mistakes are using the weight you buy instead of the weight you can use, leaving out the small things like oil, seasoning and garnish, and guessing the portion count. The sum itself is simple. For each ingredient you work out the price of one unit, multiply it by the amount you use, and scale it up if part of what you buy is lost to trim. Then you add them up and divide by the portions. This tool does it, and keeps the working visible so you can see where the money goes.
How it’s worked out
- For each ingredient, the price of one unit is the pack price divided by the pack size. Use the same unit for the pack size and the amount used.
- The cost of that ingredient is the price of one unit times the amount used, divided by the share that is usable. If you leave the usable share empty, 100 percent is used.
- The recipe total is every ingredient added together. The cost per portion is the total divided by the number of portions.
- With a selling price, the food cost percentage is the cost per portion divided by the price. What is left of the price is what pays for everything else.
A recipe that costs 6.11 in ingredients and makes 4 portions costs about 1.53 a portion. At a menu price of 12, that is a food cost of about 12.7 percent. If you use 2 kg of a product that costs 10 a kilo and is 80 percent usable, that line costs 25 and not 20.
Common mistakes
- Costing the weight you buy, not the weight you use. Trim, peel and bones are lost, so a product that is 75 percent usable costs a third more than its pack price suggests.
- Leaving out the small things. Oil, butter for the pan, seasoning, garnish and sauces add up over a night.
- Guessing the portions. Weigh or measure a real portion, because a recipe that makes 4 on paper often makes 3 on the plate.
- Using old prices. Costs change, so recheck your main ingredients regularly.
Questions
Which unit should I use?
Any, as long as the pack size and the amount used are in the same one, such as grams, kilograms, litres or each. The tool does not convert between them, so type the pack size in the unit you use for the recipe.
What does "usable" mean?
The share of what you buy that ends up in the dish, after peeling, trimming and bones. Leave it empty for 100 percent, or work it out with the yield and trim calculator.
Does the cost include labour and overheads?
No. It is ingredients only. Labour, energy, rent and tax come out of what is left after the food cost, so a food cost target alone does not guarantee a profit.
What should I do next?
Use the cost per portion in the menu price calculator to set a price, or in the yield and trim calculator to check a product you buy whole. The links below the tool lead there.
Where the method comes from
Estimates only
These are estimates and general information, not financial, tax or food safety advice. Prices, yields, portion sizes and target percentages depend on your kitchen, suppliers and menu, so use your own figures, and follow your local food safety rules.
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