What Is Recipe Yield? How to Calculate It (With Examples)
Recipe yield tells you how much usable food a recipe actually produces. Ignoring it is one of the most common reasons restaurant food costs run higher than expected — and menu prices end up too low.
Key Definition
Recipe yield is the total amount of ready-to-serve food produced by a recipe after all preparation — trimming, cooking, portioning, and plating. It is expressed as a weight, volume, or number of servings.
Why Recipe Yield Matters for Food Cost
Most restaurant owners calculate food cost using the purchase price of ingredients. That is a mistake — what you pay per kilogram is not what you actually use per kilogram.
Consider salmon. You buy a 1 kg fillet at $28/kg. After removing the skin and pin bones, you have 720g of usable fish. Your real cost is:
If you ignored yield, you would underprice your salmon dish by nearly $11 per kilogram of protein. Over hundreds of portions, that is a significant profit leak.
The Three Yield Formulas
Yield Percentage
Yield % = (Usable weight / Raw weight) x 100
800g cooked chicken from 1,000g raw = 80% yield
True Cost After Yield
True cost/kg = Purchase price / Yield %
$20/kg / 0.80 = $25/kg true cost
How Much to Buy
Raw quantity = Required yield / Yield %
Need 600g cooked; yield 80% → buy 600 / 0.80 = 750g raw
Yield Percentages for Common Restaurant Ingredients
These are industry-standard yield percentages used for menu costing in North American restaurants.
| Ingredient | Typical Yield | What Is Lost |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken breast (boneless) | ~80% | Cooking shrinkage |
| Beef tenderloin | ~65-70% | Trim fat, silverskin |
| Salmon fillet | ~70-75% | Skin, pin bones removed |
| Shrimp (shell-on) | ~60-65% | Shell and head removal |
| Broccoli (whole head) | ~60% | Stems and leaves removed |
| Onion (whole) | ~88% | Skin and root removed |
| Potatoes (whole) | ~80% | Peeled and trimmed |
| Spinach (fresh) | ~85% | Stems removed |
| Mango (whole) | ~65% | Skin and pit removed |
| Whole chicken | ~70% | Bones and carcass removed |
Step-by-Step: How to Measure Recipe Yield
Weigh ingredients before prep
Measure every ingredient in its raw, as-purchased state. Use a digital scale for accuracy. Record the raw weight.
Prep and cook as normal
Trim, peel, cut, or cook the ingredient exactly as you would for service. Do not change your technique — you want to measure your real process.
Weigh again after prep
Weigh the usable output after all prep and cooking. This is your yield weight.
Calculate yield percentage
Divide yield weight by raw weight and multiply by 100. A 700g yield from 1,000g raw = 70%.
Apply to your cost calculations
Divide your purchase price by the yield percentage to get the true cost per unit. Use this yield-adjusted cost in your recipe costing.
Yield vs. Portion Size
Yield is how much usable product you get from a raw ingredient. Portion size is how much of that usable product goes on one plate.
Example: Roast Beef
- Purchase: 5 kg whole roast at $18/kg = $90 total
- Yield: 70% → 3.5 kg usable beef → true cost = $90 / 3.5 = $25.71/kg
- Portion: 180g per plate → cost per portion = 0.18 x $25.71 = $4.63
- At 30% food cost: price at $4.63 / 0.30 = $15.43
Calculate recipe cost with yield factored in
Use MenuPricer to enter yield-adjusted ingredient costs and see your true cost per serving instantly.