How to cost a recipe (with a free template)

To cost a recipe, work out what each ingredient costs per unit you use it in (per ounce, per each), multiply that by the amount the recipe uses, and add up the lines. The total is your plate cost. Divide the plate cost by the menu price and multiply by 100, and you have the food cost percentage for that dish.

Line cost    = amount used × cost per unit
Plate cost   = sum of every line cost
Food cost %  = plate cost ÷ menu price × 100

The math is short. The hard part is getting a true cost per unit. You buy by the case and cook by the ounce, and part of every case never reaches the plate. One dish, a chicken Caesar salad, runs through every step below.

All prices here are made up for the example, from fictional vendors. Use your own invoices.

Download the free recipe costing template

The template has one row per ingredient and seven columns.

Download the recipe costing template (Excel). It also opens in Google Sheets.

Building your own? Put the columns in order A to G. Cost per unit is =B2/C2, line cost is =E2*F2, and plate cost is the sum of column G.

Here is the finished salad. The steps below show where each number comes from.

At a menu price of $12.00, food cost is $2.88 ÷ $12.00 × 100 = 24%.

Step 1: Turn a case price into a cost per unit

Vendors sell by the case or the bag. Recipes use ounces, slices and pieces. To connect the two, divide what you paid by the number of units in the case.

Cost per unit = case price ÷ (packs in the case × size of each pack)

• Mayonnaise from Heartland Foodservice comes 4 x 1 gallon jars for $64.00. A gallon is 128 fl oz, so the case holds 512 fl oz. $64.00 ÷ 512 = $0.125 per fl oz.
• Parmesan comes 2 x 5 lb bags for $73.60. That is 10 lb, or 160 oz. $73.60 ÷ 160 = $0.46 per oz.
• Burger buns come 8 packs of 12 for $43.20. That is 96 buns, so each bun costs $0.45.

Keep these conversions by the scale: 1 lb = 16 oz, 1 gallon = 128 fl oz, 1 quart = 32 fl oz, 1 cup = 8 fl oz and 1 kg = 2.2 lb.

A fluid ounce measures volume. An ounce measures weight. The two are close for water and thin sauces and far apart for flour or chopped greens. If a recipe says "1 cup" and you buy by the pound, weigh one cup once and write that weight on the recipe.

Two details on the invoice change the cost per unit.

Catch weight. Meat, fish and some cheeses are often billed by the weight that shipped, so the case total changes with every delivery. Use the price per pound on the invoice. See catch weight explained.

Pack size changes. If a case of 6 x 5 lb bags becomes 4 x 5 lb bags at the same price, you now pay 50% more per pound. Check the pack size on every invoice. See how to spot supplier price increases and pack size changes.

Step 2: Adjust for yield and trim

Yield is the share of what you buy that ends up on the plate. You pay for the outer leaves, the cores, the bones and the water that cooks off. So the cost per usable ounce is higher than the cost per ounce on the invoice. Chefs call the two weights "as purchased" (AP) and "edible portion" (EP).

Yield %              = usable weight ÷ weight as purchased × 100
Cost per usable unit = price paid ÷ usable amount

Example 1: a case of romaine

A 24-head case of romaine from Valley Fresh Produce costs $42.00 and weighs 30 lb when it arrives. After trimming, coring, washing and drying, you have 21 lb of leaves ready to chop.

• Yield: 21 ÷ 30 × 100 = 70%
• Cost per lb as purchased: $42.00 ÷ 30 = $1.40
• Cost per lb usable: $42.00 ÷ 21 = $2.00, which is $0.125 per oz

The salad uses 6 oz of leaves. At the invoice price per pound, that looks like $0.53. The real cost is $0.75.

Example 2: a whole chicken

You roast whole chickens from Prairie Meats at $2.10 per lb and pull the meat for salads. One 4 lb bird costs $8.40. After roasting, with the skin and bones off, you pull 28 oz (1.75 lb) of meat.

• Yield: 1.75 ÷ 4 × 100 = about 44%
• Cost per usable oz: $8.40 ÷ 28 = $0.30

The salad uses 4 oz of chicken, which costs $1.20. At the raw price per ounce it would look like $0.53.

Together, these two yield fixes add $0.90 to the plate. At 400 salads a month, that is $360 a month that a recipe card without yield would never show.

Run your own yield test

Your yields will differ from these. They change with the vendor, the season, the size of the product and who is on prep.

1. Weigh the product as it arrives.
2. Prep it the way your kitchen does: trim, cook, cool, pull or portion.
3. Weigh only what you can serve. Leave out trim, even trim that goes into stock or staff meal.
4. Divide the usable weight by the starting weight.
5. Repeat on a few deliveries and use the average.
6. Write the yield on the recipe. Test again when you change the vendor, the cut or the prep method.

For a starting point, the USDA Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs has yield information for many foods (foodbuyingguide.fns.usda.gov, as of 2026-10-09). Your own scale is the better source for your kitchen.

Step 3: Cost sauces and dressings once, as a batch

A sub-recipe, or batch recipe, is anything you make in bulk and use in other dishes: dressings, sauces, stocks, spice rubs, pickled onions. Cost it once, find its cost per unit, and use that as one line in each dish.

Here is the house Caesar dressing.

The batch should make 64 fl oz, but some stays in the blender. Use the 60 fl oz that goes into containers, because that is what you can serve.

Cost per fl oz of dressing = $15.00 ÷ 60 = $0.25. The salad gets a 2 fl oz ladle, so the dressing line is $0.50.

Two habits keep batch costs right:

• In a spreadsheet, link the batch cost cell into each dish instead of retyping it. When parmesan goes up, the dressing goes up, and so does every dish that uses the dressing.
• Batches can sit inside batches. Croutons might use your house garlic butter. Cost the inner batch first.

Step 4: Add up the plate and find your food cost %

Add every line to get the plate cost, then divide by the menu price. Two more formulas help when you set prices.

Menu price for a target = plate cost ÷ target food cost %
Gross profit per plate  = menu price − plate cost

If you want this salad at 22%, the price is $2.88 ÷ 0.22 = $13.09. At $12.00, each salad leaves $9.12 after food.

Look at both numbers. A $34 steak at 35% food cost leaves $22.10 per plate, more than twice what the salad leaves, even though its percentage is higher. Menu engineering shows how to sort your menu by both.

These lines are easy to leave off a recipe card:

• the side that comes with the dish, such as fries, rice or a side salad
• bread, chips and salsa, or anything else served free to the table
• garnish and the lemon wedge
• fryer oil and the oil in the pan
• the sauce under the protein and the ramekin on the side

For salt, pepper and other pinches, you can add a small fixed amount per plate instead of costing each one. Pick one way and use it on every recipe.

Step 5: Count the modifiers

A modifier is anything your POS (point of sale, the system that rings up orders) adds to the ticket: extra cheese, no bun, add bacon, dressing on the side. The recipe card shows the dish as written. The ticket shows the dish as it was served, and each modifier moves the cost.

Free extras cost money every time. If extra dressing goes out 300 times a month, that is $150 a month that the recipe card never shows. Paid add-ons can lose money too, when the charge has not changed since the ingredient went up.

Removals and swaps need a look as well. On a burger, "no bun" saves the $0.45 bun from Step 1. If "no bun" means a lettuce wrap and a side of fruit, the swap can cost more than the bun did.

To cost modifiers by hand:

1. Find how many times each modifier was used last month. Your POS sales reports are the place to look.
2. For each one used often, write down what it adds, removes or swaps, and how much.
3. Multiply the cost change by the number of uses.
4. Raise the charge on add-ons that cost more than they bring in. Decide whether each free extra should stay free.

Step 6: Keep costs current when prices move

A recipe cost is right on the day you write it. After that, prices move and pack sizes change. A short routine keeps your costs current:

• Use the price per unit from your latest invoice. A price list or a quote can differ from what you were billed.
• Update the ingredients you spend the most on first.
• Recost your best sellers every month, and right away when a big ingredient moves.
• Keep the old cost and its date next to the new one. Note why it changed, for example a price rise or a new vendor.
• When a plate cost goes up, choose what to do about it: change the price, the portion or the vendor, or accept the thinner margin for now.

Spreadsheet or recipe costing software

A spreadsheet works for a short menu and a few vendors. With many dishes and weekly price changes, someone has to type each new price and check every dish it touches.

If you are looking at recipe costing software, ask:

1. Where do the prices come from: what you paid on your invoices, or a price list someone types in?
2. Does it handle batch recipes and yield?
3. Does it cost POS modifiers, or only the recipe as written?
4. Do you have to type every recipe in yourself?
5. When a price or an amount is unclear, does it guess, or does it ask you?

How RestaurantMate costs your recipes

RestaurantMate is a digital restaurant manager for restaurants and restaurant groups. It reads the invoices from your vendors, so it knows what you paid for each item.

You send your recipes in any format (a photo, a PDF, a spreadsheet) to your agent in the app or to our team. RestaurantMate sets them up, clears the obvious ones and asks you only about the unclear ones, each as one short question with a couple of answer buttons.

Each ingredient line is priced from what you paid on your invoices. RestaurantMate turns each invoice price into a price per pound or per each. A price you set by hand is used first. If nothing has been delivered yet, the vendor's list price is used and labeled as a list price. AI never guesses a price. A line with no price shows as missing, so you know what to fix.

Dressings and sauces are set up as batch recipes. Each modifier gets a rule that says what it adds, removes, swaps or scales, so extra cheese and no bun are costed from your POS sales. That works with Toast and SpotOn today, and we add your POS on request.

Every recipe shows Cost over time. Each change in that list says why it happened, for example a price move or a vendor switch. Every recipe also shows Cheaper options, which lists the same ingredient from another of your vendors. You can switch to it for that one recipe or in every recipe.

RestaurantMate is free for 60 days, then $99 a month per location, plus a $300 refundable deposit for the RestaurantMate device. No card required to start. See how recipes work on the recipes and food cost page or in the help article.

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Common questions

What food cost percentage should I aim for?

There is no single right number. It depends on the dish and on your prices. Set a target for each category and compare dishes inside the same category. Look at dollars per plate too.

What is the difference between recipe cost and actual food cost?

Recipe cost, also called theoretical cost, is what your food should have cost based on what you sold. Actual food cost comes from your counts: opening inventory plus purchases minus closing inventory. The gap between the two is waste, over-portioning, comps, theft or recipes that are wrong. How to lower your food cost covers the full formula.