yield test

1. Standard Portion Cost: Butcher Test
Test designed to determine standard portion costs
for those items portioned before cooking
Goal : Determine Serving price (SPC) versus Purchase price.
Concept: What you serve can cost more than what you bought it for.
- Applies to wholesale cuts, not portion cut
- wholesale cuts usually ‘render’ more than what you bought it for
- Focus is on “primary part” of the wholesale cut
Process: Usually involves a team: chef/manager/cost controller/butcher
1. One member does the recording
2. As piece is “broken down”, various cuts/parts are separated
3. Total weight of cuts/parts almost never = original weight
- difference is a DERIVED number based on weight difference

2. Standard Portion Cost: Butcher Test (con’t)
Loss in cutting = A Derived number
add weights of all know cuts/parts
and subtract from purchased weight

3. Standard Portion Cost: Butcher Test (con’t)
Also called “yield factor or %”
Use to compare vendors & value
Use to compare different cuts

4. Standard Portion Cost: Butcher Test (con’t)
Want values/lb for all parts Except the principal part - why
the cut was purchased to begin with.
Get these current prices from your regular purveyor(s)
These prices should represent a reasonable market value

5. Standard Portion Cost: Butcher Test (con’t)
Total Value for these secondary cuts/parts:
Total Value for the primary cut (usable meat):
A DERIVED #

6. Standard Portion Cost: Butcher Test (con’t)

7. Standard Portion Cost: Butcher Test (con’t)
Portion Size: a pre-established number found in the menu item’s
standard recipe

8. Standard Portion Cost: Butcher Test (con’t)
Cost Factors
Market prices are not stable, causing usable pound/SPC costs to change.
Cost factors allow:
- simple way to (re)calculate usable pound costs and portion costs
- eliminates need for new/frequent butcher test(s)
- Yield Factor or % remains Constant

9. Standard Portion Cost: Butcher Test (con’t)
Cost per usable lb.
Purchase price per lb.
= Cost Factor per lb.
$12.4988
$6.11
= 2.0456
Portion Cost
Purchase price per lb.
= Cost Factor per Portion
$4.6871
$6.11
= .7671
Helps tell you the
impact of the $0.26/lb increase

10. Standard Portion Cost: Butcher Test (con’t)
Example: Price/lb of tenderloin increasing from $6.11 to $6.37.
You need to know the new SPC
Using Cost Factors, no new Butcher Test is required
2.0456 x $6.37 = $13.0305 = $13.03 /usable pound
Rewrite the Cost Factor forumla
Cost factor per lb. x New Purveyor price per lb.
Will give Cost of a usable lb. at new price
Cost factor per portion x New Purveyor price per lb.
0.7671 x $6.37 = $4.8864 = $4.89/standard portion
Rewrite the Cost Factor forumla
Will give Standard Portion Cost (SPC) at new price
The 26¢ /purchase lb increase leads to a 53¢ /usable lb increase and
a 20¢ /portion increase.

11. Standard Portion Cost: Butcher Test (con’t)
Shortcoming: B/C it is based on a Butcher test,the factors can only
be used on the identical size portion. You could, however, start at
useable price / lb and recalculate (Universal Formula Below)
Cost factor per lb. x Portion size (in oz.) x New Price per lb
6 oz Portion (SPC) Cost at New specified Purveyor Price
2.0456 x 6 x $6.37 = $4.8864 = $4.89/standard portion
16 oz
16
Cost factor per lb. x Portion size (in oz.) x New Price per lb
7oz Portion (SPC) Cost at New specified Purveyor Price
2.0456 x 7 x $6.37 = $5.7008 = $5.70/standard portion
16 oz
16

12. Standard Portion Cost: Butcher Test (con’t)
Conclusion:
• Formulas provide operators with tools to quickly recalculate costs
• Analyze margins and when menu prices may have to increase
• For Accuracy, Butcher tests should be done 3-4 times/year
• and on more than 1 sample per butcher test to get ‘averages’
• Once again a cost/benefit trade-off decision
• Benefits of Butcher testing are:
• can compare suppliers if testing identical pieces (value)
• allows for monitoring of how the Standard Specifications are
being adhered to by purveyor/purchasing/receiving
• with exact costs know, menu planning is greatly improved
• Compare to preportioned item pricing if using

13. Standard Portion Cost: Using Yield Factor or %
Ratio of the weight of part of a product to the
weight of that product as purchased
Goal : Determine Serving price (SPC) versus Purchase price.
Concept: What is left to sell after in-house butchering/processing
portionable weight / original purchased weight
• included in the Butcher and Cooking Loss tests
• Ratio to Total Weight & Saleable Weight respectively
Once determined, Yield % is has many uses

14. Standard Portion Cost: Using Yield Factor or % (con’t)
# Portions = Quantity xYield %
Portion Size (as a pound decimal)
Portion size = Quantity xYield %
# Portions
Yield % = # Portionsx Portion Size
Quantity
Variations of Basic Fromula

15. Standard Portion Cost: Using Yield Factor or % (con’t)
Example of Yield % Use
Problem: Need to Purchase Correct amount of Pork Loin to
serve 5 ounce portions of Loin of Pork a Maison to 32 guests.
Quantity = 32 x .3125 (5 oz. as a decimal)
.6667 Yield % (from Cooking Loss example)
Quantity = 14.9999 lbs = 15 lbs or 2 each 7.5 lb. pork loins
All else being equal & IF future pork loins have same yield