A raw-meat price per kilogram is not the cost per kilogram served. Cooking changes the weight, and some cooked meat may be discarded rather than sold. You need both quantities before assigning a meat cost to a kebab portion.
This guide provides an illustrative calculation and a calculator for your own inputs. It is not a supplier-price survey, a tested kitchen yield or a POSMENTOR customer result. The result covers the stated ingredients and packaging; it is not net profit.
Use one batch and define each weight
Choose a batch that you can follow from purchase to service. Record the raw meat weight and its actual purchase cost on a consistent tax basis. Record the cooked weight after cooking loss, then any additional cooked meat discarded before sale.
- Cooking yield
- Cooked meat weight divided by raw meat weight, expressed as a percentage. A 75% yield means 10 kg raw becomes 7.5 kg cooked in the illustrative example.
- Additional post-cook waste
- A separately measured share of that cooked weight which is not sold. The example’s 5% is applied after cooking yield; it is not another description of the same cooking loss.
- Cooked serving weight
- The meat actually assigned to one finished portion, before adding bread, salad or sauce. Small, large and mixed-meat portions need their own quantities.
If your measured yield already means “saleable meat after all loss”, do not deduct the same waste again. Either use a cooking-only yield and a separate later loss, or use a final saleable yield with no duplicate allowance. An unknown yield remains unknown; it is not automatically 100%.
Calculate meat cost, then the rest of the portion
| Input | Illustrative value |
|---|---|
| Raw meat batch cost | £60.00 |
| Raw meat batch weight | 10 kg |
| Cooking yield: cooked weight ÷ raw weight | 75 % |
| Additional post-cook loss, not already in yield | 5 % |
| Cooked meat served per kebab | 180 g |
| Bread per portion | £0.30 |
| Salad per portion | £0.18 |
| Sauce per portion | £0.12 |
| Packaging per portion | £0.22 |
10 kg × 75% × 95% = 7.125 kg usable cooked meat. A 180 g portion costs £60 × 180 ÷ 7,125 = £1.515789… before bread, salad, sauce and packaging. The 5% is an additional post-cook loss, separate from cooking yield.
| Component | Example cost |
|---|---|
| Cooked meat | £1.52 |
| Bread per portion | £0.30 |
| Salad per portion | £0.18 |
| Sauce per portion | £0.12 |
| Packaging per portion | £0.22 |
| Food and packaging total | £2.34 |
The total uses unrounded component costs; individual rows are rounded to the nearest penny. Labour, energy, rent, equipment, payment processing, marketplace charges and other unlisted costs are excluded. This is not net profit.
The example leaves 7.125 kg of usable cooked meat: about 39.58 portion-equivalents at 180 g each. That means 39 whole portions with 105 g left. The £2.34 portion cost allocates the batch cost across all the usable meat, including that remainder; it assumes the remainder is used, not discarded.
If you sell only 39 portions and discard the remaining 105 g, include that loss in the saleable-weight calculation or spread the batch cost over the 39 actual portions instead. Do not round down the portion count while keeping a cost that assumes all the meat is used.
A mixed kebab needs separate weights and costs for each meat. Do not apply a single purchase price or yield to both unless that is what your measured batch represents. Extra meat, a different bread or a larger portion also changes the calculation.
Calculate your portion cost
Start with your own measurements, or load the labelled illustrative example. Leave an unknown value blank. Enter 0 only when you have established that there is no cost or additional loss for that input.
Values stay in this page’s memory. This worksheet does not save to the POS, use browser storage or send your entries anywhere.
Portion cost unknown. Enable JavaScript to calculate your inputs; blanks are not zero.
Use invoice prices, verified pack weights and measured portions. Check the assumptions before comparing two results. A lower portion cost caused by reducing the serving weight is a different decision from a lower purchase price or an improved measured yield. Keep those changes visible in your review.
Match the costing method to the stock record
With POSMENTOR inventory and recipes enabled, check the ingredient’s base unit and purchase price, then the recipe attached to the menu product. Completed orders drive configured recipe-based stock consumption. That does not mean the POS measures your cooked yield or recognises a portion from its name.
If your stock item represents raw meat, 180 g of cooked meat is not necessarily 180 g of stock. The illustrative yield and waste assumptions imply about 252.63 g of purchased meat per served portion. Decide how your actual production, sub-recipes and separately recorded waste should be represented before setting recipe quantities.
Do not put the same loss into both a yield-adjusted recipe and a second waste allowance for those same units. If you track a prepared cooked ingredient separately, use its verified unit cost and the portion taken from that ingredient. Review how production and waste movements connect rather than assuming a conversion happens automatically.
Check bread, salad, sauce and packaging too. A pack price needs a verified pack quantity. A large kebab needs the appropriate portions, and an extra must have its own configured consumption where needed. A note such as “no onion” does not automatically reduce the recipe’s stock usage. Missing prices, missing recipe lines or unresolved units leave the complete cost unknown.
The kebab menu and modifiers guide helps keep those portion and extra definitions consistent with what staff select at the counter. Review the resulting recipe cost and stock behaviour in an agreed demonstration account; no stock movements or orders were created to write this guide.
Keep the recipe total separate from the full cost of a sale
The worked £2.34 includes the example’s stated ingredients, meat-loss assumptions and packaging. It excludes labour, rent, utilities, equipment and any other ingredients or consumables you have not entered.
Card processing, marketplace commission and other order-channel fees also need separate figures. An own-site collection order and a marketplace delivery can have different charges even when the food recipe is identical. Unknown fees must not be treated as free. See the takeaway order workflow when reviewing your service channels.
Keep the tax basis of purchase costs and selling prices consistent before making a margin comparison. Subtracting this ingredient-and-packaging estimate from a menu price does not establish net profit or tax treatment.
Bring one measured portion to your review
Bring the invoice, batch weights, additional waste record and the cooked portion you actually serve. Include a small, a large and a mixed kebab if they use different quantities. Review the menu selections, recipes and stock units together before relying on their cost figures.
Explore POSMENTOR for kebab shops or the stock and recipe tools.
Keep a reusable costing workspace
Save ingredients and prepared batches in the standalone Chrome calculator. Enter your measured cooked batch yield and the quantity used per kebab; do not deduct a cooking loss again if the yield already includes it.
Explore POSMENTOR Recipe Cost for Chrome. No POSMENTOR account required; data stays in your Chrome profile and is not automatically transferred to the POS.