The formula
Yield % = Edible portion weight / As-purchased weight x 100
True cost per usable unit = Total as-purchased cost / Edible portion weight
As-purchased quantity to order = Usable quantity needed / Yield (as a decimal)
Why it works this way: you pay for the whole ingredient as it arrives, skin, bone, peel and all, but you can only sell the part that survives prep. Dividing the trimmed weight by the delivered weight tells you how much of every purchase is real product, and dividing the full invoice cost by that smaller weight gives the cost your recipes should have been using all along. The ordering formula runs the same maths backwards, so a recipe needing 10 lb trimmed at 70% yield means ordering 14.3 lb.
Published yield tables are a starting point, not an answer: whole fish commonly yields 40 to 55%, fully trimmed tenderloin 60 to 75%, peeled onions 88 to 92%. Your own test on your supplier’s spec beats any table.
How to use it, with an example
- Pick one ingredient and one delivery.
- Weigh it exactly as it arrives, before anyone touches it. That is the as-purchased (AP) weight.
- Prep it the way your kitchen normally does, to the standard your recipes assume, then weigh what is left. That is the edible portion (EP) weight.
- Enter both weights, the total cost of that delivery, and how much trimmed product your prep list needs, then read the yield, the true cost per usable pound, and the order quantity.
Worked example: A kitchen buys a 10 lb beef tenderloin for $120, an invoice price of $12.00 per lb. Trimmed of fat, silver skin and chain, it gives 7 lb of steak-ready meat. The yield is 7 / 10 = 70.0%, with 3 lb (30.0%) lost to trim. The true cost is $120 / 7 = $17.14 per usable lb, a 42.9% uplift over the invoice price that never appears on any bill. To have 10 lb of trimmed tenderloin ready for the weekend, the kitchen must order 10 / 0.70 = 14.3 lb as purchased. The calculator above is prefilled with these same numbers, so you can see a finished result before you run your own test.
Yield tests stay honest only when the weights are captured at the moment they happen, not reconstructed at month end. In Odoo for Restaurants, the Odoo Inventory module records stock by product with its purchase cost, so a yield figure from your own test can sit against the real item your recipes draw from, instead of living in a notebook only one chef can find.
Common mistakes
- Costing recipes at the invoice price. The most expensive mistake in this whole area. A tenderloin at $12.00 a lb that yields 70% is a $17.14 ingredient, and every plate costed at $12.00 is under-costed by design. Our guide on how to create restaurant recipes and calculate ingredient cost builds yield into the costing from the first line.
- Running the yield test once and treating it as permanent. Supplier spec changes, a new case size or a different butcher on the knife all move yield. Retest your top ten cost items every few months and after any supplier change.
- Testing a perfect trim instead of the normal trim. A careful test trim by the head chef gives a better yield than a Friday night trim by a tired line cook. Test the way the kitchen actually works, or the number is fiction.
- Throwing usable trim away and still counting it as loss. Bones, skins and vegetable trim that genuinely go into stocks, sauces and staff meals are not waste. If your kitchen reuses them, they belong in the usable weight, valued honestly. The line between trim and waste is covered in how to manage food waste in restaurants.
- Mixing cooked and raw weights. Yield at the cutting board and yield after cooking are two different numbers. A roast loses more weight in the oven. Measure the one your recipe costing actually uses, and label it clearly.
- Ignoring low-value items with terrible yields. Herbs and citrus for juice are cheap per case and expensive per usable ounce: lemons yield around a third of their weight as juice, tripling their real cost per ounce.
FAQs
What is a good yield percentage for restaurant ingredients?
There is no single good number, because yield depends on the ingredient. Pre-prepped and portion-controlled products should be close to 100%, peeled onions and root vegetables usually land at 80 to 92%, trimmed beef primals at 65 to 85%, fully trimmed tenderloin at 60 to 75%, and whole fish at 40 to 55%. A yield well below the normal range for that ingredient is the warning sign, not the yield itself.
How do I run a yield test in my kitchen?
Weigh the product as purchased, prep it to your normal standard, and weigh the usable product. Divide usable by as-purchased and multiply by 100. Repeat on two or three deliveries and use the average.
What is the difference between AP and EP cost?
AP cost is the price per unit on the invoice, for the product as it arrives. EP cost is the price per unit of the part you can actually serve, after trim loss. EP cost is always higher when there is any waste, and EP cost is the figure that belongs in recipe costings and on the restaurant menu costing guide style of plate calculation.
Why do published yield tables disagree with each other?
Because yield depends on the specification of the product, how it is trimmed and who is holding the knife. Two honest tables can put the same strawberry crop several points apart. Use tables to sanity-check your own tests, never as a substitute for them.
How often should yields be retested?
Whenever a supplier, product spec or prep standard changes, and on a rolling basis for your highest-cost ingredients. Proteins deserve a retest every few months because a two-point yield slip on a $12 a lb item is worth hundreds of dollars a month. Keeping the test results with your inventory records, as restaurant inventory management tips recommends, makes the retest a habit instead of a project.
