The free yield estimator — what one serving really costs

The yield estimator answers: after bones, trimming and cooking loss, how many servings does this purchase give, and what does each one cost? It is free, needs no account, and runs in your browser.

Two kinds of yield

Choose the one that matches how you sell the food:

• Percent left is for food that loses weight when you trim or cook it, such as chicken with bones, vegetables with peel, or meat that shrinks. You enter the share of what you bought that you can serve.
• Servings per unit is for food you turn into a count: one whole chicken cut into 8 pieces, one kilo of rice cooked into 12.5 cups. You enter how many servings one unit makes.

Use it

1. Pick your currency, the kind of yield, and the unit you buy it by: kilogram, pound, litre, or piece.

2. Enter what the purchase cost and how much you bought.

3. For percent left, enter your yield, the share of what you bought that you can serve. If you do not know it, open Measure my yield, enter the weight before and after preparing a test batch, and tap the button to use the result. Then enter one serving in the small unit: grams for kilograms, ounces for pounds, millilitres for litres.

   For servings per unit, enter how many servings one unit makes.

4. Optionally, enter your selling price per serving to see profit and food cost.

Either way it shows the cost per serving and how many servings you get. Percent left also shows how much is usable and the real cost per unit of servable food.

Why the real cost is higher than the price you paid

You pay for the whole purchase but sell only part of it. A kilo of chicken that gives 700 g to serve costs you the price of a kilo for 0.7 kg of food, so the food costs about 43% more per kilo than the receipt says. Costing dishes from the shelf price is the usual reason a busy shop makes less than it expects.

Yield over 100%

Meat and vegetables lose weight; rice and pasta gain it. The estimator accepts yields above 100% for those, up to 500%. Beyond that it assumes a typo, most often the before and after weights swapped.

Measure it yourself

Weigh a batch raw, prepare and cook it the way your kitchen does, and weigh what is ready to serve. Test again when you change supplier, cut or method. A chart from the internet describes someone else's kitchen.

Using the number in Kasenso

Kasenso keeps the same idea inside your recipes. A recipe yield records how much of the served unit one purchased unit makes, and every cost, stock deduction and report follows it.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good yield?

It depends on the food and how you prepare it. Trimmed vegetables and boneless cuts keep most of their weight; whole chicken or whole fish keep much less. Test your own rather than trusting a table.

Why does the serving box use grams and not kilograms?

A serving is a small amount. The tool converts to the unit you buy in for you. This is a unit conversion only, and nothing is converted between currencies.

Does it include labour, gas or packaging?

No. It costs the ingredient only. Add those separately when you set a selling price with the pricing calculator.

Is my data saved or sent anywhere?

No. It is worked out in your browser and gone when you close the page.

Next: back to all guides.