Recipe Cost & Batch Yield Calculator

Calculate total batch production costs and individual portion costs for prep items, gravies, sauces, and baked goods.

Including prep trim waste (peeling, trimming, cooking loss) yields realistic recipe portion costs. Weigh a sample batch once rather than estimating trim loss by feel — the difference between an assumed 5% loss and an actual 15% loss compounds across every portion the recipe produces, and re-check it whenever your supplier or cut of ingredient changes.

Why yield percentage changes the real cost per portion

A kilogram of raw ingredient rarely yields a kilogram of usable product once trim, peeling and cooking loss are accounted for — so the raw invoice cost understates true portion cost until yield percentage is factored in. See recipe management for how that's handled automatically once it's built into your menu.

One base recipe, costed once, used everywhere

A base gravy or dough used across several dishes only needs costing once as a batch — the per-portion figure it produces then applies to every dish built on it, rather than recalculating from scratch for each menu item.

Batch size matters more than it looks like it should

A recipe costed for a 5kg batch and scaled up to 20kg does not always cost exactly four times as much — bulk ingredient pricing, reduced per-unit prep time, and rounding in small-batch measurements all shift the per-portion figure. Cost your recipes at the batch size you actually produce, not a round number that is convenient to calculate.

Sub-recipes compound — cost the base before the dish that uses it

A curry that uses a house-made base gravy is only accurately costed once the gravy itself is costed as its own batch recipe. Skipping that step and estimating the gravy's contribution by eye is where recipe costing most commonly drifts from reality, especially for dishes built on a shared base used across several menu items.

Frequently asked questions

Why should kitchens use batch recipe costing?

Batch items like curry bases or bakery doughs are prepared in bulk; calculating per-portion cost ensures accurate pricing when plated.

Are batch recipe numbers I enter stored or shared?

No. The calculation happens locally in your browser and nothing is sent to a server.

Can I cost recipes for multiple kitchens or outlets with this tool?

Yes — it's free and unrestricted, useful for a central kitchen costing recipes shared across several outlets.