Building recipes that cost right

This guide is for whoever builds your recipes, whether that’s you or your manager. It covers the parts people trip on: weight vs. volume, trim, batches, and portions. It takes about 20 minutes to read. Keep ShelfCount open in another tab and build your first recipe as you go.

How ShelfCount thinks about an ingredient

Every item has three units. There’s the unit you buy it in, and the item’s cost is the price of one of those. There’s the unit you count it in on the shelf. And there’s the unit recipes use it in.

Between them sits the pack chain: how one purchase unit breaks down, step by step. Once the chain is right, the math takes care of itself. Packaging units like “case” never go inside a recipe, and things you count one at a time are “each.”

Three examples:

• Ranch dressing. You buy a case of 6 one-gallon jugs for $60. You count jugs. Recipes use fluid ounces. The chain is 1 case = 6 jugs, 1 jug = 128 fl oz. That works out to about 7.8¢ per fl oz, so a 2 fl oz cup of ranch costs about 16¢.
• Bacon. You buy a 15 lb case for $67.50. You count cases, or pounds once a case is open. Recipes use it by the slice, as “each.” The chain is 1 case = 15 lb, and the item also knows there are about 15 slices to the pound. That makes a slice about 30¢, so 3 slices on a BLT is about 90¢.
• Onions. You buy a 50 lb bag for $30. You count bags. Recipes use ounces. The chain is 1 bag = 50 lb, and ShelfCount already knows a pound is 16 oz. That’s about 3.75¢ per ounce before you peel anything. (Peeling is covered in the trim section below.)

More on setting these up in Items, units, pack sizes, and costs.

Weight or volume? Pick one and stick with it

Here’s the one that catches most people. oz means weight: what the scale says. fl oz means volume: what the measuring cup says. They are not the same thing. A cup is 8 fl oz no matter what’s in it, but a cup of flour weighs about 4.4 oz and a cup of water weighs about 8.3 oz.

Weigh anything solid, chopped, shredded, or scooped: cheese, flour, diced vegetables, meat. How tightly it packs changes how much fits in a cup, but it doesn’t change the weight. Measure by volume anything you pour or ladle: milk, dressings, sauces, oil.

If you buy something by weight, try to use it by weight in your recipes too. When you can’t, ShelfCount needs one number to cross over: a weight per each (one slice of bacon is about 1 oz), a volume per each, or a weight per volume (one cup of flour is about 4.4 oz). Without that number, the recipe cost shows as not computable instead of a guess. The unit dropdown in a recipe only offers units ShelfCount can actually reach from the item’s units.

Starting points, verify once with your own scale. These are commonly published kitchen approximations, not exact values. Your scoop and your cheese will differ a little.

Yield and trim: costing what you actually use

A head of lettuce doesn’t all reach the plate. Pull the core and the outer leaves and a 16 oz head might give you 9.6 oz you can use. If your recipes cost lettuce at the raw price, every sandwich looks cheaper than it really is.

ShelfCount handles this with a prep recipe, not a yield % box. Make a prep recipe called Prepped Lettuce. Its one ingredient is 1 head of Lettuce (or 16 oz). Its yield is 9.6 oz. Your menu recipes then use Prepped Lettuce by the ounce instead of raw lettuce. If a head costs $1.92, raw lettuce is 12¢ an ounce but Prepped Lettuce is 20¢ an ounce. The loss rides along in the price, and 2 oz on a sandwich costs 40¢, not 24¢.

Cooking gain works the same way. Dry pasta soaks up water, so it weighs more cooked. A prep recipe called Cooked Macaroni might use 16 oz of dry macaroni and yield whatever one batch weighs after cooking and draining. A pound of dry pasta often comes out around 2 lb cooked, but weigh one of your batches to get your number. Your plates then use Cooked Macaroni by the cooked ounce.

When not to bother: if you use 95% or more of what you buy, skip the prep recipe. Shredded cheese out of the bag, sliced bread, and bottled sauces are close enough. Save it for things with real loss: whole produce, bone-in meat, anything that cooks down or plumps up.

Prep recipes: batches, portions, nesting

A prep recipe is something you make in a batch and then use inside other recipes. Every prep recipe has a yield: how much one batch makes, with a quantity and a unit. The cost per unit is the batch cost divided by the yield.

Say your sausage gravy uses flour, butter, milk, sausage, salt, and pepper, and one batch makes 130 fl oz. If the whole batch costs $9.75, gravy costs 7.5¢ per fl oz. Each plate of biscuits and gravy gets a 4 oz ladle, so the menu recipe uses 4 fl oz of gravy: 30¢.

If your line thinks in ladles, not ounces, set the yield to 32 each instead (130 fl oz is about 32 ladles). Then the menu recipe uses 1 each of gravy, and each ladle comes out to about 30¢. Either way works. Pick the one that matches how your cooks talk.

A few more things:

• One ingredient is fine. Prepped Lettuce is a prep recipe with a single ingredient.
• Prep recipes nest. A roux can be a prep recipe inside the gravy, and the gravy sits inside the menu recipe. Costs roll up through every layer.
• Scaling doesn’t change the recipe. The Batches control lets you see a half or double batch on screen. The saved recipe and its cost per unit stay the same.
• Prices update on their own. When butter goes up, the gravy’s cost updates, and so does every plate that uses it.

Menu recipes: one plate, everything on it

A menu recipe is one thing you sell, and it always makes one serving. The yield is fixed at 1 each, so you never have to think about it. List everything the guest gets, in the amount one plate gets.

A burger might be 1 bun, a 4 oz patty, 1 slice of cheese, 0.5 oz of Prepped Lettuce, 1 fl oz of sauce, and 1 sheet of wrap paper. If you want paper goods and to-go containers in your food cost, put them in the recipe too.

A menu recipe can use prep recipes, but not another menu recipe. If two plates share a build, make the shared part a prep recipe. A combo plate can include 1 each of a Fries prep recipe instead of listing the potatoes and oil again.

Each menu recipe is linked to the item you sell in your POS, so every sale takes its ingredients out of inventory. See Mapping your menu to recipes.

Your first five recipes

1. Pick your 5 best sellers. They drive most of your food cost, so they’re worth getting right first.
2. List every ingredient on a piece of paper, down to the sauce cup and the wrap.
3. Check each item exists in ShelfCount and can be used in the unit you want (oz, fl oz, or each). Fix any gaps on the item first.
4. Weigh the scoops once with the scale trick above. Write the numbers down.
5. Enter the recipe. Make any prep recipes first (the sauce, the prepped produce), then the menu recipe that uses them.
6. Read the cost and sanity-check it. Compare it to the menu price. A $14 burger that costs $1.10 or $9.00 to make probably has a unit wrong somewhere.

Questions we get

My recipe says 1 cup of flour but I buy a 50 lb bag

Switch the recipe to weight if you can: 1 cup of flour is about 4.4 oz. If your bakers really do scoop by the cup, add a “cup” unit (8 fl oz) under Items, units, and costs and give the flour item a weight per volume. Cups then show up in the unit list.

My 1 oz scoop of diced onion actually weighs 0.9 oz

Enter what the scale says, 0.9 oz. A “1 oz” scoop holds 1 fl oz by volume, and diced onion is lighter than water. The scale is the truth.

I use the same item by the slice in one recipe and by the ounce in another

That’s fine once the item knows what one slice weighs. Give it a weight per each (say, 1 slice = 1 oz) and both “each” and “oz” will be in the unit list.

My meat is priced per pound and the case weight varies

Make the purchase unit “lb.” Enter the cost per pound from the invoice, count it by the pound, and use it by the pound or ounce in recipes. A case that weighs 38.6 lb one week and 41.2 lb the next doesn’t matter anymore.

Do I add water?

Not as an ingredient, unless you buy it. Tap water costs next to nothing and you don’t count it. Do include it in the yield, though: if the water is part of the 130 fl oz of gravy, the yield is 130 fl oz.

The cost says it can’t be computed

Something is missing a number. Usually an ingredient is used in a unit its item can’t reach, like cups of something bought by the pound with no weight per volume. Check that each ingredient has a cost, and that any prep recipe inside it has a cost too.

My old spreadsheet had a Yield % column. Where does it go?

Into a prep recipe. For each row with a yield under about 95%, make a prep recipe like Prepped Lettuce: the raw amount in, the usable amount out. Rows at 95% or higher can be skipped.

I buy chicken tenders by the case, and some recipes use “each” and others “oz”

Give the item a weight per each. Weigh 10 tenders, divide by 10, and enter that (say, 1 tender = 1.5 oz). Now a kids’ meal can use 3 each and a salad can use 4 oz.

I count cases but cook in ounces

That’s what the pack chain is for. Set it once (1 case = 4 bags, 1 bag = 5 lb) and you can count cases and cook in ounces. You never do the conversion yourself.

The unit I need isn’t in the list

The item is usually missing a bridge. Add a weight per each or a weight per volume and more units appear. If the unit itself doesn’t exist yet, you can add it. See Items, units, pack sizes, and costs.

Prices changed. Do I redo my recipes?

No. When an item’s price changes, every recipe that uses it recalculates on its own, including recipes nested inside other recipes.

Should wrap paper and to-go boxes be in the recipe?

Yes, if you want them in your food cost. Add them to the menu recipe like any other ingredient, at 1 each. Whatever you choose, do it the same way on every recipe so your numbers compare fairly.

How exact do I need to be?

Close is good enough. Be careful with the expensive things: meat, cheese, seafood. A pinch of salt or a sprinkle of parsley won’t move your food cost.

A menu item uses half of another menu item (a half order of biscuits and gravy)

Build both from the same prep recipes. A menu recipe can hold prep recipes, but not another menu recipe. So the full order is 2 biscuits and 8 fl oz of gravy, and the half order is 1 biscuit and 4 fl oz. If the gravy recipe changes, both plates follow.

What’s the difference between a prep recipe and a menu recipe?

A prep recipe makes a batch with a yield you set, like 130 fl oz of gravy. A menu recipe is one serving of something you sell. Prep recipes go inside menu recipes.

Can my manager see costs?

Yes. Managers and admins see costs. Staff can see recipes but not costs. More in Recipes and costing.

How do I give the line a recipe card?

Use the Print recipe button on any recipe for a one-page card. You can also add a plating photo and a “How it’s done” video link, which anyone who opens the recipe can see. See Training videos.

Dry pasta weighs less than cooked. Which do I enter?

Enter what your line actually portions. If cooks weigh out cooked pasta, make a Cooked Macaroni prep recipe and use it by the cooked ounce. If they use pre-portioned dry bags, use the dry pasta directly.

What about things I make once a week in a big batch?

Make a prep recipe for the full batch, with the full yield. How often you make it doesn’t change what an ounce costs. If leftovers get tossed at the end of the week, log that in the waste log.

My scoop is a volume but the item is bought by weight

Weigh the scoop with the scale trick and enter the weight in oz. That’s the simplest fix. If you’d rather keep the recipe in scoops or cups, give the item a weight per volume.

Still stuck?