chapter 5

Recipe Costing

Class Name
Instructor Name
Date, Semester

Foundations of Cost Control

Daniel Traster
The Costing Sheet

The goal of the costing sheet is to determine the total recipe

cost and cost per portion.

To complete, it requires:
• A recipe with a list of ingredients and their quantities
• Y% for each ingredient as it is to be prepped
• AP$ for each ingredient
• EP$ for any item requiring a butcher’s test

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Costing Sheet: Heading

The costing sheet heading includes the following:

• Recipe Name
• Number of Portions (Yield) for the recipe
• Cost per Portion (calculated in the costing sheet)
• Spice Factor and Q Factor
• FC% and Selling Price (covered later)

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 Sample Costing Sheet before Calculations

Recipe: Cous Cous with Carrots and Raisins

Spice Factor:
Portions: 8 Q Factor:
Cost per portion: FC% Selling Price:
Ingredient Quantity Y% AP$ AP$ EP$ Extended $
converted
Cous Cous 2 cups 100% $4.20/Qt

Carrot, diced 4 oz 77% $0.68/#

Raisins 4 oz 100% $4.37/#

Chicken Stock 16 oz 100% $0.84/Qt

Parsley, 2 Tbsp 1 bun = 8 $0.72/bun

chopped Tbsp

Salt/Pepper To taste To taste Spice Factor

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Converting Units in Costing Sheet

Units in “price per unit” must match the units in the

ingredient list.

Invoice units and ingredient units don’t often match.

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Common Invoice Pricing

Invoices often list prices per case size, which may be broken
down as number of units in a case and size per unit.
•Examples:
― 12/1Qt
― 40#
― 8/5#
― 6/#10 cans
― 80 count

Written as “number/number with unit” the first number is the

number of containers in a case. The second is the size of each
container.
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Making Invoice Pricing Useable

1) Calculate total weight or volume as:

Total wt. = number of units X weight per unit

2) For volume, substitute volume for weight.

3) Next, calculate AP$ (per unit) as:

AP$ = total cost ÷ total weight (or vol.)

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Example Using Total Weight

Diced tomato costs $16.54 for a case of 6/#10 cans. Kitchen

tests show a #10 can contains 6# 6oz of product. What is
the cost per oz?

6# 6oz = 102 oz
Total wt. = units X wt/unit =
6 X 102oz = 612oz

Cost/unit = cost ÷ total wt. =

$16.54 ÷ 612oz
= $0.027/oz
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Example using Pack Size

Vinegar costs $31.80 for 4/1Gal. What

is the cost per cup?

Step 1: Break down the case by pack size.

How much does each container cost?
$31.80 /4 = $7.95 cups

Step 2: Determine the Equivalents

Equivalent 1 Gal = 16 cups
Formula: Cost/unit = cost ($7.95) ÷ vol. (16c)
=$0.496/c (Round up)= $0.50/c 9
Possible Complications in Unit Conversion

Weight listed on can is not the same as product’s drained weight.

• Solution: test a can and use the drained weight for the calculation.
Container measures contents in weight but recipe measures in
volume or vice-versa.
• Solution: Open container to measure volume (or weight) and use
this figure for calculations.

Note: In both cases, Y% is accounted for by test, so Y% becomes

100% on costing sheet.

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Calculating EP$ for Costing Sheet

EP$ = AP$ ÷ Y%
• Y% in decimal form.
• Only use AP$ with units that match the ingredient’s units.
• For items from a butcher’s yield test, just enter the EP$ from
the test and convert to units that match the ingredient’s units.
• For items with Y% = 100%, AP$ = EP$

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Calculating Extended Costs or “Extension”

Extended cost or extension is the total amount of money that

each ingredient contributes to the total cost of the recipe.

Extension = Ingredient Quantity x EP$/unit

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Total Recipe Cost

Sum of all
Total
ingredient
Recipe
extended
Cost
costs

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 Cous Cous Recipe: Part II
Recipe: Cous Cous with Carrots and Raisins
Spice Factor:
Portions: 8 Q Factor:
Cost per portion: FC% Selling Price:
Ingredient Quantity Y% AP$ AP$ EP$ Extended Cost
converted
Cous Cous 2 cups 100% $4.20/Qt $1.05/c $1.05/c $2.10

Carrot, diced 4 oz 77% $0.68/# $0.043/oz $0.056/oz $0.224

Raisins 4 oz 100% $4.37/# $0.273/oz $0.273/oz $1.092

Chicken Stock 16 oz 100% $0.84/Qt $0.026/oz $0.026/oz $0.416

Parsley, 2 Tbsp 1 bun = 8 $0.72/bun $0.09/Tbs $0.09/Tbs $0.18

chopped Tbsp

Salt/Pepper To taste To taste Spice Factor S.F S.F. N/A

TOTAL $4.012
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Spice Factor (S.F.)

• Adjusts recipe cost for ingredients like spices, herbs, and

seasonings.
• Each operation decides what ingredients are included in Spice
Factor.
• Saves time on costing each spice or herb separately in a recipe.
• Allows for seasoning “to taste.”

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Spice Factor (S.F.)

• Divides cost of spices and seasoning across all dishes rather

than making heavily spices ones extremely expensive.
• Can be used to account for garnishes and “reject” dishes
returned by customer
• Can be applied either to recipe’s total cost or to cost per
portion

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Determining the Spice Factor

Decide which items will be included in spice factor. Calculate

cost spent on those items over a period of time.
If desired, include value of “reject” or ruined dishes over the
same period.

S.F. = value of S.F. items ÷ value of total food purchases

(over the same period)

3. Convert S.F. to % form.

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Example 5c

Restaurant purchases $120,000 in food over 3 months.

Spice factor items over that period are valued at $2,600.
What is the restaurant’s spice factor?

SF = Value of SF items ÷ total food purchases

= $2,600 ÷ $120,000 =
0.0216 or 2.2%

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Adjusting Recipe’s Cost Using S.F.

SF-adjusted recipe cost =

Recipe Cost x (1+S.F. in decimal form)

• Use this equation on all recipes regardless of spice or herb use

• If dish contains multiple components, adjust each recipe for
SF.

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Example 5d

A recipe’s total cost is $27.72. SF = 2.2%. What is the SF-

adjusted cost for the recipe?

SF-adjusted cost = recipe cost X (1+SF)

= $27.72 X (1 + 0.022) =
$27.72 X 1.022
= $28.33

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Q Factor

• Applies only to entrées

• Accounts for add-ons, side dishes, or other “freebies” that
come with an entrée
• Added (not multiplied) to the entrée price

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Process to determine Q Factor

Complete costing sheet for all possible add-ons (soup, salad,

bread, butter, dessert, etc.), if any, that come with the
purchase of an entrée.
Select the most expensive cost per portion among each set of
choices the customer gets.
Sum of all
of the most
Q Factor expensive
options for
each choice 22
Why Q Factor?

• If guest orders the most expensive add-ons with his/her dish,

the cost is covered in the entrée’s cost (and thus, sales price).
• If guest chooses cheaper add-ons, the restaurant realizes extra
profit.

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Example 5e

Restaurant includes choice of soup or salad and bread and

butter with each entrée. What is restaurant’s Q Factor if:

Chicken Noodle Soup = $0.58

Cream of Broccoli Soup = $0.53
House Salad = $0.85
Spinach Salad = $0.97
Bread = $0.12
Butter = $0.08

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Example 5e (cont.)

• Most expensive choice for soup or salad is Spinach Salad at

$0.97.
• Bread is $0.12 and butter is $0.08

Q Factor = total of most expensive choices

= $0.97 + $0.12 + $0.08
= $1.17

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Calculating True Cost Per Portion

For an entrée, the true cost per portion is

the dish’s cost per portion + Q Factor

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Example 5f

Restaurant’s Q Factor is $1.17. If a particular entrée costs

$6.22 per portion (S.F. adjusted), what is the true cost per
portion?

True cost per portion =

Cost per portion (S.F. adjusted) + Q Factor
= $6.22 + $1.17
= $7.39

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To Calculate True Cost Per Portion from a Costing Sheet

Divide total recipe cost by the recipe’s yield

Cost per portion =
total recipe cost ÷ number of portions
Multiply cost per portion X (1+SF) to get spice factor adjusted
cost per portion. (This is true cost per portion for non-
entrées).
If applicable, add Q Factor to get the true cost per portion for an
entrée.

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Example 5g

Entrée recipe serves 36 portions and costs $138.96 total.

Spice factor is 2.6% and Q Factor is $2.78. What is true
cost per portion for this dish?

Cost per portion

= recipe cost ÷ yield
=$138.96 ÷ 36
= $3.86
SF adjusted cost per portion = cost per portion x (1 + SF)
=$3.86 X 1.026
= $3.96

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Example 5g (cont.)

True cost per portion

= SF adjust cost per portion + Q Factor
= $3.96 + $2.78
= $6.74

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Cous Cous True Cost Per Portion

Recipe: Cous Cous with Carrots and Raisins

Spice Factor: 3.1%
Portions: 8 Q Factor: N/A
True Cost per portion: $0.52 FC% Selling Price:
Total – sum of ingredient extensions (from earlier slide) $4.012

Cost per portion (total ÷ 8 portions) $0.502

SF adjusted cost per portion ($0.502 X (1+0.031)) $0.518

Q Factor – would be added to an entrée, but not relevant for a side dish, so $0.518
True Cost per portion = SF adjusted cost per portion

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Summarized Costing Process

1. Enter into costing sheet: recipe name and portion yield, ingredient list
with quantities, Y% for each ingredient, AP$ for each ingredient from
invoice.

2. Convert AP$ from invoice to AP$ with units that match the ingredient
units.

3. Calculate EP$ = AP$ (converted) ÷ Y% for each ingredient.

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Summarized Costing Process

4. Calculate Extended Cost = Ingredient Quantity X EP$ for each ingredient.

5. Calculate total recipe cost = sum of all extended costs.

6. Calculate Cost per portion = total recipe cost ÷ recipe yield.

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Summarized Costing Process (cont.)

7. Calculate Spice Factor adjusted cost per portion = cost per portion X (1 + Spice factor).

(Note: this calculation may be applied to the total recipe cost and performed before step 6
instead).

8. Calculate Q Factor and add it to the entrée’s SF-adjusted cost per portion, if applicable.

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Standardized Recipes

Standardized (or standard) recipe is a recipe written in sufficient detail

that a range of cooks could prepare it as written and the results would be
identical. It is the recipe that all cooks in the kitchen must follow when
preparing a given dish.

Often includes
•grades and brands of ingredients
•type of pan
•cooking method
•portion size
•storage and prep information
•plating instructions
•diagram/photo of finished dish 35
Why Use Standardized Recipes?

• Critical to maintaining consistency for guests.

• A must if costing sheets are to be relevant to the dish’s actual
cost in the kitchen.
• They are the source for the ingredient quantities used on the
costing sheets.
• They are a control tool – chefs may:
― post them prominently
―distribute computerized
―yield-adjusted versions daily
―and/or oversee production closely to confirm compliance

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Portion and Quality Control

• Critical to meet guest expectations, which prevents customer

and revenue loss.
• Keeps recipe costing accurate, which prevents excessive food
cost and thus, profit loss.
• Often monitored by expediter or sous chef per the chef’s
standards.
• Portion control often allows a very small variance (+/- ¼ oz)
to account for the real world.

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Tools to Monitor Portion Size

Weight:
Spring, beam, or digital scales
Volume:
Measuring cups, ladles, portion scoops, ramekins, kitchen or
slotted spoons (somewhat imprecise), or serving containers
(like a coffee cup or beer mug)
Count:
The human eye to count by hand. No variance is acceptable for
portion by count.

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Quality Control

The expediter should catch and correct errors before they

reach the customers

Examples of quality errors:

•undercooked food
•incorrect garnish
•wilted or unattractive components
•sloppy plate presentation
•error on guest’s special request

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