Chapter 7 – Recipe and Menu Costing
This chapter is remixed from Basic Kitchen and Food Service Management by The BC Cook Articulation Committee.
Outline:
- Standard portion costs
- Costing Individual Items on a Plate
- Yield Testing
- Using Yield to Calculate Food Costs
- Yield Tests and Percentages
- Cooking Loss Test
- Calculating quantities to purchase
Learning Objectives:
- Calculate standard portion costs
- Calculate APQ (as purchased quantity) ingredient amounts for both costing and food ordering purposes
- Calculate yield and waste percentages (for both trimming and cooking losses)
- Determine edible portion cost (EPC) or “true cost” of recipe ingredients and menu items
- Determine portions available to serve from (APQ) as purchased quantity
- Complete volume to weight conversions to calculate (APQ) as purchased amounts and (APC) as purchased cost of ingredients
Key Terms:
- Portion cost
- As purchased
- Edible portion
- Yield
- Yield percentage
- Waste
- Waste percentage
- Edible portion cost (“true cost”)
Standard Portion Costs
A standard recipe served in standard portions has a standard portion cost. A standard portion cost is simply the cost of the ingredients (and sometimes labor) found in a standard recipe divided by the number of portions produced by the recipe. Standard portion costs change when food costs change, which means that standard portion costs should be computed and verified regularly, particularly in times of high inflation. If market conditions are fairly constant, computing standard portion costs need not be done more than every few months. Details about recipe costs are not usually found on a standard recipe document but on a special recipe detail and cost sheet or database that lists the cost per unit (kilogram, pound, milliliter, ounce, etc.) and the cost per amount of each ingredient used in the recipe or formula. The standard portion cost can be quickly computed if portions and recipes are standardized. Simply determine the cost of each ingredient used in the recipe and ingredients used for accompaniment or garnish. The ingredients in a standard recipe are often put on a recipe detail sheet (Figure 1). The recipe detail sheet differs from the standard recipe in that room is provided for putting the cost of each ingredient next to the ingredient. Recipe detail sheets often have the cost per portion included as part of their information and need to be updated if ingredient costs change substantially. They can also be built in a POS system database or spreadsheet program that is linked to your inventory to allow for the updating of recipe costs as ingredient costs change.
Menu item: Seafood Newburg
Yield: 10 portions
Portion size: 125 g of seafood
Selling price: $12.99
Cost/portion: $4.07
Food cost %: 31.3%
Then include…
| Ingredient | Quantity | Units | Cost/Unit | Extension |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lobster Meat | 500g | kg | $38.00 | $19.00 |
| Scallops | 250g | kg | $25.00 | $6.25 |
| Shrimps | 250g | kg | $14.0