How to calculate recipe cost

If you don't know what each dish costs you, you don't know what you make when you sell it. Costing a recipe isn't hard: it's six steps and a calculator. Here they are with a real example, so by the end you have the cost per plate, your food cost % and the price you should charge.

What you need before you start

• Your most recent invoices or receipts. Cost is based on what you paid last time, not what you remember.
• The recipe with exact quantities. "A handful of cilantro" can't be costed; 1.5 oz can.
• A kitchen scale. You'll use it to weigh portions and measure trim loss.

Step 1. Standardize the recipe

Write the recipe the way it's actually made in your kitchen: every ingredient with its quantity and unit, and how many portions the batch makes. If every cook makes it differently, the cost changes every day, which is why the standard recipe comes first.

Include everything on the plate: the marinade, the salsa, the tortillas, the garnish. If something is made separately (a sauce, a marinade), treat it as a sub-recipe.

Step 2. Find the unit cost of each ingredient

Divide what you paid by the pack size, in the same unit you use in the recipe.

Unit cost = Price paid ÷ Pack size

If you buy by the pound but the recipe uses ounces, convert first: 1 lb = 16 oz. Don't mix weight and volume (pounds and cups) unless you know the ingredient's density; weighing it is easier.

Step 3. Adjust for yield (trim loss)

Almost no ingredient is used whole. Onions get peeled, meat gets trimmed and shrinks when cooked, pineapple loses its skin and core. Yield is the percentage that actually makes it to the plate.

True unit cost = Unit cost ÷ Yield

To measure it, weigh the ingredient as purchased, prep it as usual and weigh it again. If 10 lb of onions end up as 9 lb peeled, the yield is 90% and the true cost goes from $0.50 to $0.56 per lb. Measure it once per ingredient and write it down; you don't need to repeat it every week.

This is the step people skip most, and it's the one that makes a recipe look cheaper than it is. With proteins the gap can be big: a pork shoulder with a 75% yield costs a third more than the invoice says.

Step 4. Cost each ingredient in the recipe

Multiply the amount the recipe uses by the true unit cost.

Ingredient cost = Amount used × True unit cost

For example, 2 oz of guajillo chiles at $0.56 an ounce (100% yield) cost $1.12.

Step 5. Get the cost per plate

Add up every ingredient: that's the recipe cost (the whole batch). Divide it by the number of portions and add what each plate carries on its own: the to-go container, the sauce cup, the napkin.

Cost per plate = Recipe cost ÷ Portions + Per-plate costs

For this number to be real, portions have to be served the same way every time. Weigh the standard portion and use ladles or scales on the line.

Step 6. Calculate food cost % and menu price

Food cost % tells you how much of the price goes to ingredients:

Food cost % = Cost per plate ÷ Menu price × 100

And if you already know the percentage you want (many restaurants aim for roughly 28–35%), you get the price like this:

Menu price = Cost per plate ÷ Target food cost

A $3.00 plate with a 30% target gives $3.00 ÷ 0.30 = $10.00. Then round to a price that fits your menu.

Full example: al pastor tacos (10 orders of 3)

This batch makes 10 orders of 3 tacos. Each order also carries $0.15 for the container and napkin, and sells for $11.99.

• Cost per order $27.21 ÷ 10 + $0.15 = $2.87
• Food cost % $2.87 ÷ $11.99 × 100 = 23.9%
• Gross profit per order $11.99 − $2.87 = $9.12
• Price at 30% food cost $2.87 ÷ 0.30 = $9.57

Look at the pork: without the yield it would cost $13.96 instead of $18.61, and each order would look almost 50 cents cheaper than it really is. That's money lost without anyone noticing.

Sub-recipes: sauces, marinades and bases

If you make a sauce or marinade in a big batch and use it across several dishes, cost it as its own recipe: add up its ingredients and divide by what it yields (for example, $6.40 for 64 oz = $0.10 per ounce). Then, in each dish, add that sauce as one more ingredient with its cost per ounce.

Common recipe costing mistakes

• Ignoring trim loss. The most expensive mistake, especially with meat, fish and fruit.
• Using old prices. If avocados went up 40% and your costing is six months old, your real food cost is something else.
• Forgetting the "small stuff". Oil, salt, spices, limes, free salsas. One by one it's little; together it can be several points of food cost.
• Not counting packaging. On to-go orders the container can cost more than the side.
• Eyeballed portions. If one order gets 4 oz and the next gets 5, your real cost is 25% higher on half your orders.

How often to recalculate

Every time a key ingredient changes price, and at minimum whenever you change the menu. In practice, with prices moving every week, keeping a spreadsheet current by hand is something almost nobody keeps up with.

That's why we built Kitchfly: you log your purchases and the cost of every recipe updates on its own, with each ingredient's yield and your sub-recipes. If a dish goes over your target food cost, it tells you.

Frequently asked questions