The real cost of meat is the price you pay per kilo divided by what is left to serve. If you buy brisket at $14 a kilo and only 800 g of every kilo survives trimming, your trimmed kilo costs $17.50. If you then smoke it and it keeps 60% of that weight, your cooked kilo costs more than $29. That is the number that belongs in your recipe, not the one on the invoice.
Three weights: purchased, trimmed and cooked
- As-purchased weight: what the butcher charges you for. It includes the fat cap, silverskin, sinew and any bone.
- Trimmed weight: what is ready to season and cook.
- Cooked weight: what is left after the heat. Meat gives off water and fat, so it always weighs less.
That gives you two yields:
- Trim yield = trimmed weight ÷ as-purchased weight
- Cooking yield = cooked weight ÷ trimmed weight
And two cost calculations:
cost per trimmed kg = price per kg ÷ trim yield
cost per cooked kg = cost per trimmed kg ÷ cooking yield
It is the same formula as in the guide to yield percentage, applied twice.
How to measure your yield
- Weigh the whole piece when it arrives. Note the price per kilo and the supplier.
- Trim it the way you always do.
- Weigh the trimmed meat. Weigh separately any trim you will use elsewhere.
- For cooking loss, weigh a raw batch, cook it exactly as in service and weigh it as soon as it comes off the heat (or after resting, if you always rest it before slicing).
- Repeat with three different purchases and use the average.
Measure with your knife, your oven and your butcher. The yield of the same cut changes between suppliers, between weeks and between the people doing the trimming. No figure in a book is more useful than yours.
Worked example: brisket sandwiches
You sell smoked brisket sandwiches. These numbers are an example to show the arithmetic; yours will come from your own scale.
The purchase. A 5 kg brisket at $14.00 per kg: 5 × 14.00 = $70.00.
The trim. You take off excess fat and the hard bits and are left with 4.00 kg.
- Trim yield: 4.00 ÷ 5.00 = 80%
- Cost per trimmed kg: 70.00 ÷ 4.00 = $17.50
The cook. After smoking and resting, the 4.00 kg comes out at 2.40 kg.
- Cooking yield: 2.40 ÷ 4.00 = 60%
- Cost per cooked kg: 17.50 ÷ 0.60 = $29.17
- Overall yield, purchase to plate: 2.40 ÷ 5.00 = 48%
The portion. Each sandwich gets 150 g of sliced brisket.
| How you cost it | Arithmetic | Meat cost per sandwich |
|---|---|---|
| Cooked weight, real cost | 0.15 × 29.17 | $4.38 |
| Invoice price (the mistake) | 0.15 × 14.00 | $2.10 |
Costing at the invoice price leaves you 4.38 − 2.10 = $2.28 short on every sandwich. At 300 sandwiches a month, that is 300 × 2.28 = $684 a month you think you are making and are not.
Less than half of the brisket you paid for ends up in the bread. Price the sandwich as if all of it did, and the menu price cannot work.
Trim you actually use
Not everything that comes off is waste. Trim from a brisket or a chuck roll can go into burger mince, a chilli or a staff meal. If you use it, it has value.
Continue the example. Of the 1.00 kg that came off, 0.40 kg is lean trim you grind into burger mix. If you had to buy that mince separately at $9.00 per kg, it is worth 0.40 × 9.00 = $3.60.
- Cost per cooked kg of brisket with the trim credited: (70.00 − 3.60) ÷ 2.40 = $27.67
Only credit what you really use. If the trim sits in the freezer until it gets thrown out, credit nothing.
Bone-in cuts
For bone-in cuts such as short ribs, pork shoulder or lamb shanks, the bone is part of what you paid for. There are two ways to measure:
- If you serve it on the bone: only the cooking yield matters. Weigh raw and cooked, and portion by piece or by bone-in weight.
- If you serve the meat off the bone (pulled pork, shredded beef for tacos): weigh the meat left after cooking and pulling off the bone, and divide it by the as-purchased weight. That overall yield already includes bone, fat and cooking loss.
A bone-in cut that is cheap per kilo can be expensive per kilo served. Always compare cuts per usable kilo.
Mince and burger patties
Mince has no trim, but it loses weight on the griddle, and more the fattier it is. A cheaper, fattier mince can give you a smaller cooked patty. Weigh a raw patty, weigh it cooked and cost from that. The full cost of a burger, with bun, sauces, fries and wrapper, is in the guide to what a burger costs to make.
Buying trimmed or trimming yourself
Some butchers sell cuts already trimmed, at a higher price per kilo. To compare:
- Cost per trimmed kg if you trim: price ÷ your trim yield.
- Add your time: if trimming the 5 kg brisket takes 15 minutes and you value your hour at $20, that is $5.00, or 5.00 ÷ 4.00 = $1.25 per trimmed kg.
- Compare that total with the trimmed price.
In the example: 17.50 + 1.25 = $18.75 per kg. If your butcher sells it trimmed for less than that, with the same result in the smoker, buy it trimmed.
Meat is the ingredient family where a mistake costs most. The overview of ingredient costs by type shows how the protein can take most of a dish's cost.
Do it with the calculator
The yield calculator gives you the real cost per usable kg once you enter the price, the trimmed weight and the cooking loss. Then take that cost into the food cost calculator with the rest of your recipe to get the full cost of the dish.
Frequently asked questions
Should I portion meat raw or cooked?
However you do it in the kitchen. If you weigh raw steaks or patties before cooking, use the cost per trimmed kilo. If you weigh sliced or pulled meat after cooking, use the cost per cooked kilo.
How much weight does meat lose when cooked?
It depends on the cut, the heat and the time, so measure it yourself: weigh a raw batch, cook it the way you always do and weigh it again. A fast sear and a twelve-hour smoke lose very different amounts.
What do I do with the fat and trim?
If you throw it away, nothing: its cost is already inside the trimmed kilo. If part of it goes into burgers, stock or a staff meal, subtract its value from the cost of the trimmed cut, at what that meat would cost you to buy separately.
Is it worth buying meat already trimmed?
Compare per usable kilo, not per kilo bought. Divide the untrimmed price by your yield and add the cost of your trimming time. If the trimmed meat costs less than that, buy it trimmed.