You bought 1 kg of lamb shoulder at $24/kg. After bone, sinew, silver skin, and shrinkage, you have 620 g of plate-ready meat. Your true cost per usable kilogram is not $24 — it's $38.70. The 60% gap is what yield percentage captures, and almost every kitchen costing system underestimates it. Here's how to measure, record, and apply yield % so your numbers stop lying to you.
Two ways to talk about ingredient quantity
The fundamental distinction is between As Purchased (AP) weight and Edible Portion (EP) weight. AP is what arrives at your back door — the whole lamb shoulder, the whole salmon side, the whole head of broccoli. EP is what ends up on a plate after trim, peel, bone removal, cooking shrinkage, and any other loss.
The relationship between them is captured by yield percentage:
Example: 1000 g lamb shoulder arrives. After bone-out and trim, 620 g of clean meat. Yield = (620 ÷ 1000) × 100 = 62%.
Your invoice charged you for 1000 g at $24/kg = $24. But only 620 g is usable. The true cost per usable gram is $24 ÷ 620 = $0.0387, or $38.70 per usable kilogram. This is the EP cost, and it's the number that should drive your recipe costing — not the AP cost on the invoice.
If you cost your braised lamb shoulder dish using the AP price ($24/kg), you'll understate plate cost by 60%. Across every protein, vegetable, and trimmed ingredient on your menu, this compounds into a food cost % gap that explains the bulk of the "theoretical vs actual" wedge most kitchens never close.
Typical yield percentages by ingredient class
The numbers below are working baselines from professional kitchens. USDA meat price spreads and butcher's industry yield references are the authoritative starting point for proteins; vegetable yields vary heavily by season and supplier quality, so the ranges are wider:
| Ingredient | Typical yield % | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lamb shoulder (bone-in → boneless) | 60-65% | Plus 15-20% cooking shrinkage if you cost cooked weight |
| Lamb leg (bone-in → boneless) | 70-75% | Less bone than shoulder |
| Beef tenderloin (PSMO → fully cleaned) | 65-72% | Side chain + silver skin removed |
| Chicken thigh (bone-in skin-on → boneless skinless) | 72-78% | Bone + skin loss |
| Chicken breast (bone-in → boneless skinless) | 55-65% | Bone + skin + sometimes tenderloin removed |
| Salmon (whole side → portioned skinless) | 85-90% | Pinbones + skin + bloodline |
| Salmon (whole fish → portioned skinless fillet) | 50-55% | Head, frame, skin, pinbones |
| Prawn (head-on whole → peeled tail-on) | 50-60% | Head + shell loss |
| Broccoli (whole head → florets) | 60-70% | Stem (some chefs use, some don't) |
| Cauliflower (whole head → florets) | 55-65% | Outer leaves + core |
| Onions (skin-on → peeled diced) | 88-92% | Skin + ends |
| Garlic (head → peeled cloves) | 85-90% | Skin loss |
| Tomato (whole → diced peeled deseeded) | 65-75% | Skin + core + seeds |
| Carrot (with greens → peeled trimmed) | 78-85% | Greens + skin + ends |
These ranges are starting points. Your own kitchen's yield will differ from the table — your supplier's lamb shoulder is fattier or leaner, your butcher trims aggressively or conservatively, your prep cook is fast or careful. The only reliable number is the one you measure yourself.
How to measure yield in your kitchen
The methodology is straightforward; the discipline of doing it consistently is the hard part.
- Pick one ingredient to test. Start with whichever protein or vegetable is your biggest food cost line. Lamb, beef tenderloin, salmon, chicken thigh — pick what costs you most monthly.
- Weigh AP. Whole product, exactly as delivered, on a clean kitchen scale. Record to the gram. Note the supplier, date, and lot.
- Trim/process normally. Use your standard prep — don't be extra careful for the test, you want a representative number. Bone-out, trim silver skin, peel skin, remove bloodline — whatever your standard prep includes.
- Weigh EP. Plate-ready product, on the same scale. Record to the gram.
- Calculate. EP ÷ AP × 100 = yield %.
- Repeat 4-5 times over different days/deliveries. Take the average. One measurement isn't reliable; five gives you a real working number.
The whole exercise takes 10 minutes per ingredient across a week. The number you get is then locked into your ingredient master and applies forever (or until you change supplier).
How yield % flows into recipe costing
Once you have a yield % on the ingredient master, recipe costing should automatically apply it. The math is simple but easy to get wrong:
Example: lamb shoulder at $24/kg AP, 62% yield → EP cost = $24 ÷ 0.62 = $38.71/kg.
If your recipe calls for 300 g of plate-ready lamb shoulder, the cost line is 0.3 kg × $38.71 = $11.61, not 0.3 × $24 = $7.20. The difference per portion is $4.41 — about 18% of a $24 menu price. That's the gap between a 30% theoretical food cost and a 48% actual.
Two ways to record yield: per-ingredient flag or sub-recipe
Operationally, there are two approaches to representing yield in your costing system:
Approach 1: Yield % flag on the ingredient
The ingredient record stores "lamb shoulder, $24/kg, 62% yield." Every recipe that uses lamb shoulder automatically applies the 62% adjustment. Simple, fast, transparent — the yield % is one field on the ingredient master.
Best for ingredients with stable, well-known yield: standard butchered cuts, standard vegetable prep.
Approach 2: Trim as a sub-recipe
Create a sub-recipe called "Lamb shoulder, trimmed" with yieldAmount 620 g from a 1 kg input. The cost of the trimmed sub-recipe is locked at the EP rate, and main recipes use the sub-recipe line. The trim work becomes visible in your prep list, and the cost is even more honest because you can also factor in prep labour.
Best for ingredients where the prep step is significant enough to warrant its own line in the kitchen workflow: hand-trimmed beef tenderloin, deboned chicken thigh in volume, hand-portioned salmon.
Either approach is fine. The mistake is to use neither and cost everything at AP price.
The shrinkage question (cooking loss)
So far we've covered prep yield (bone, skin, trim). There's a second yield question: cooking shrinkage. A 200 g raw lamb portion ends up as roughly 160 g cooked (20% shrinkage from moisture and fat rendering). Different products shrink differently:
- Beef steak (grilled): 18-25% shrinkage
- Lamb shoulder (slow-braised): 30-40% shrinkage
- Chicken breast (pan-seared): 25-30% shrinkage
- Salmon fillet (oven-roasted): 15-20% shrinkage
- Bacon (pan-fried): 60-70% shrinkage (yes, really)
If your menu specifies a cooked portion weight (e.g. "200 g plated"), you need to back-calculate the raw weight required and cost that. 200 g plated lamb shoulder × (1 ÷ 0.65 cooking yield) = 308 g raw input. Then apply the trim yield: 308 g raw EP × (1 ÷ 0.62 trim yield) = 497 g AP purchased. Cost: 0.497 × $24 = $11.93 per plated portion of "200 g lamb shoulder" — instead of the naïve $4.80 a 200g × $24/kg calculation would give.
This is the full chain of yield adjustments. AP → EP (trim yield) → plated weight (cooking yield). Skip either step and your recipe cost is wrong.
What this looks like in practice
In ProChefDesk
The Ingredient editor has a Yield % field on every ingredient — set it once per supplier and every recipe that uses the ingredient automatically applies the EP cost adjustment in live food cost calculations. For products where trim warrants its own prep, the Sub-Recipe pattern (Recipes tool) lets you build "Lamb shoulder, trimmed" as its own recipe with yieldAmount + yieldUnit, then reference it as a sub-recipe in your dishes — cost cascades through correctly. Both patterns appear in the food cost report so you can see exactly where the yield adjustment came in. Open the app to set yield % on your top 10 ingredients this week.
The point
Ingredient yield % is the second-most-common source of theoretical-vs-actual food cost gaps (after stale supplier prices). It's also the easiest to fix, because it requires no ongoing maintenance once measured — set the number once, recipe costs adjust automatically forever.
Pick your three highest-cost protein lines this week. Measure their yield. Update your ingredient master. The food cost report will jump several points overnight — toward honesty, not optimism. And from that point forward, the cost number on your screen will match the money leaving your bank account.
That alignment is what costing exists to deliver. Yield % is the lever that gets you there.