How do you calculate the cost of a recipe?
Convert each ingredient's pack price into the price of the amount the recipe actually uses, add those amounts together, then divide by the number of portions the recipe yields.
Cost per portion = total ingredient cost ÷ portions the recipe yields
Turn pack prices into recipe prices
Ingredients arrive in packs; recipes use fractions of packs. Divide the pack price by the pack size to get a unit price, then multiply by the quantity the recipe uses.
A 5 kg bag of rice at $11.50 is $2.30/kg. A recipe using 900 g of rice costs 0.9 × 2.30 = $2.07 in rice.
Account for waste and trim
You pay for the whole item, not the edible part. If you buy 1 kg of whole chicken and use 700 g after trimming, your cost per usable kilo is the pack price divided by 0.7.
For ingredients with heavy trim — whole fish, leafy greens, bone-in meat — cost the purchased weight, not the plated weight.
Worked example
A tray of lasagne that yields 8 portions:
- Beef mince, 1 kg
- $9.40
- Pasta sheets, 500 g
- $2.10
- Tomato passata, 1.5 l
- $3.20
- Cheese, 400 g
- $4.80
- Béchamel ingredients
- $2.30
- Total recipe cost
- $21.80
$21.80 ÷ 8 portions = $2.73 per portion before packaging.
Frequently asked questions
Should packaging be part of the recipe cost?
Keep them separate. Recipe cost tells you what the food costs; packaging is a per-portion cost you add afterwards. The calculator above keeps both lines visible so you can see which one is moving.
How often should I re-cost a recipe?
Any time a key ingredient price moves noticeably, and otherwise every few months. Protein and dairy prices tend to move fastest.
What about salt, oil and spices?
They are small individually and meaningful together. Either cost them properly, or add a single 'seasoning' line of a few cents per portion so they are not invisible.