Yield, edible portion cost and the Q factor, a worked plate from raw cost to menu price, and how to keep cost cards current.
By Rob Bruni, founder of OpsEdge Hospitality, twenty years running restaurants, bars, clubs and resorts. Updated November 2026.
Free printable: Food Cost Leak Audit (PDF)
A recipe cost card is the itemized cost of one portion of one menu item, built from the ingredients at current prices and the yields you actually get. It is the foundation of food cost, menu engineering and every pricing decision. Most restaurants either do not have them or have ones from the year the menu launched. This guide covers the terms, the steps, a worked example from raw cost to menu price, and how to keep the cards current without it becoming a second job.
A cost card lists every ingredient in a dish, the amount used per portion, the cost of that amount at today's price, and the total. From it you get plate cost, food cost percent at the current menu price, and contribution margin in dollars. Without it, you are pricing by feel and finding out on the P&L whether the feel was right.
The cards matter for three decisions. Pricing: a $4.40 plate cost supports a very different price than a $9.80 one. Menu engineering: the margin on each item is what sorts stars from dogs. Purchasing: when the card shows that one ingredient is 40 percent of the plate cost, that ingredient gets a par, a second quote and a portion scale.
Yield is where most cost cards fail. Costing a 6-ounce chicken breast at the AP price of whole chicken understates the plate by 45 percent. Do a yield test once on every item you break down in house: weigh it in, weigh the usable product out, divide. The recipe yield guide walks through a full yield test, including cook loss.
Sub-recipes (a sauce, a stock, a dressing) get their own card costed per batch and then per ounce, so the entrée card just pulls "2 oz chimichurri at $0.31 an ounce." Change the sauce card once and every dish that uses it updates.
Pan-roasted chicken, menu price $24
| Ingredient | AP cost | Yield | EP cost | Portion | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken, whole (breast and thigh) | $5.20/lb | 55% | $9.45/lb | 7 oz | $4.13 |
| Fingerling potatoes | $2.10/lb | 95% | $2.21/lb | 5 oz | $0.69 |
| Green beans | $3.40/lb | 88% | $3.86/lb | 3 oz | $0.72 |
| Pan jus (sub-recipe) | $0.22/oz batch cost | 2 oz | $0.44 | ||
| Butter, herbs, garlic | itemized | $0.38 | |||
| Q factor at 4% | $0.25 | ||||
| Plate cost | $6.61 | ||||
Food cost at $24: 27.5%. Contribution margin: $17.39
Two things the card shows that feel alone would not. The chicken is 62 percent of the plate; a 25 cent rise in the AP price moves plate cost by 32 cents, so this is the item to quote with a second supplier and to portion on a scale. And if the line is actually plating 8 ounces, which is common, plate cost is $7.20 and food cost is 30 percent. One ounce of drift on one protein is 2.5 points on the dish.
At a 30 percent target, the $6.61 plate prices at $22.03, so $24 leaves room. But price to the margin, not just the percent. A $34 steak at 38 percent food cost contributes $21; a $14 pasta at 22 percent contributes $10.92. The steak is the better item for the business even though its percent looks worse. Menu engineering is where the two numbers get used together.
Round to the price point that fits the menu (no 99-cent endings on a full service menu, no dollar signs), and check the item against its neighbors. A $24 chicken next to a $26 ribeye needs a reason.
The free prime cost and pour cost calculators take a few numbers and show where you stand against the benchmark for your concept, and what each point is worth in dollars over a year. No signup.
Open the free tools Get the weekly Excel sheetA cost card is a snapshot. Prices move every quarter, some every week. The routine that keeps the cards useful:
Our Recipe Cost Card System links an ingredient price list to every card so a price change updates every dish that uses it, with sub-recipes, yields and a menu price calculator built in.
Cost cards feed the inventory and variance process too: theoretical usage is recipes times sales mix, and without accurate cards the variance report points at the wrong products.
Every guide on this site is cut from a workbook or playbook we built for real operations. The paid versions hold the complete templates, formulas and training material, one-time purchase, Excel and Google Sheets.
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Twenty-four places food cost leaks, from the dock to the dish pit, with an OK or FIX box for each. Walk it once a month. Two printable pages.
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Download the PDFList every ingredient with the amount per portion, pull current invoice prices, convert to cost per ounce or each, apply the yield for anything trimmed or portioned (edible portion cost equals as-purchased cost divided by yield), multiply amount by cost for each line, add them up, and add 3 to 5 percent for unweighed items like salt, oil and garnish.
Edible portion (EP) cost is the cost of the usable product after trimming, peeling, cooking loss or portioning. It equals the as-purchased price divided by the yield percent. A $5.20 per pound whole chicken at a 55 percent yield is $9.45 per pound of usable meat.
Divide plate cost by your target food cost percent for a starting price (a $6.61 plate at 30 percent prices at about $22), then check the contribution margin in dollars and the item's position against its neighbors on the menu. Price to margin, not only to percent.
A Q factor is a small percentage, usually 3 to 5 percent, added to the itemized cost of a dish to cover ingredients nobody weighs: seasoning, cooking oil, garnish, bread and butter, condiments. It keeps the plate cost honest without costing every pinch of salt.
Re-price the top 20 sellers monthly, everything quarterly or when the menu changes, and update any card the same week a key ingredient moves more than 10 percent on the invoice. Retest yields annually or when a supplier or cut changes.
Usually one of four things: yields not applied on the cards, portions on the line larger than the recipe, prices on the cards older than the invoices, or waste, spoilage and comps not captured. A weekly inventory count and a variance report by product will show which.
