For educators, consultants and kitchen teams
From the case to the plate
A free lesson in as-purchased (AP) and edible-portion (EP) costing. Start with a supplier pack, calculate usable quantity, then cost a served portion. The worksheet and answer key work without an account.
Both sheets support browser Print / Save PDF. No email required.
The practice case
A synthetic ingredient case costs $48 and contains twelve 1 lb packs. It yields 80% usable food after the stated preparation. The recipe serves 6 usable ounces of that ingredient. Other plate ingredients total $1.125, and the selling price is $12. All values are exercise assumptions.
- Case price
- $48.00
- Pack configuration
- 12 packs × 1 lb each
- Usable yield after the stated preparation
- 80%
- Usable portion
- 6 weight ounces
- Other ingredients per plate
- $1.125
- Selling price
- $12.00
- Allocated fees and credits
- $0.00
The result is $4 per purchased pound and $5 per usable pound. A 6 oz usable portion costs $1.875; the complete plate costs $3, giving 25% ingredient food cost and $9 contribution before other expenses. The answer key shows every calculation and the leftover portion quantity.
The calculator opens with this exercise filled in. Change the first ingredient’s pack price from $48 to $54, keeping the pack size, yield and portion unchanged. Compare the new plate cost with $3. These remain sample inputs. To cost your own dish, choose Clear recipe and enter every ingredient from your own sources.
A suggested 25-minute lesson
- 5 minutes: identify purchase units, preparation state and the distinction between mass and volume. Explain why a weight ounce and a fluid ounce cannot be interchanged.
- 10 minutes: complete the eight worksheet calculations with units shown. Keep unrounded values until the displayed result.
- 5 minutes: compare the answer key and explain why yield is applied once. Discuss what to do when an input is unknown.
- 5 minutes: replace one input, such as case price or yield, and predict the direction of the change before using a calculator.
Timing is a suggested facilitation plan, not a measured completion-time claim.
Use the live calculations
Check purchase and usable costs in the yield calculator. Build the entire dish in the recipe cost calculator, or keep your own source and review notes in the free recipe costing spreadsheet.
For an online class or resource page, the embed directory supplies the supported calculator snippets and terms. Link students to this lesson for its worksheet and answer key. The recipe calculator itself is not offered as an embeddable dynamic worksheet.
Method and reuse
The USDA Food Buying Guide appendix explains converting purchased quantities to prepared edible quantities. Our lesson uses invented prices and yield to make the arithmetic reproducible; it is not a USDA lesson, endorsement or nutrition-crediting calculation. Measure a matching yield before using the method for a real recipe.
You may print and share this Marji worksheet and answer key for classroom, consulting and kitchen training. Retain the sample-data labels when reusing the lesson. A Marji source link is welcome and optional; no particular anchor text or followed link is required. Any third-party material remains subject to its own terms. An educator can use the lesson independently of a product trial.
For operating examples, read purchase-to-portion recipe costing, supplier quote comparison or bakery batch yield and unsold portions.