Why yield matters more than purchase price in Indian restaurant kitchens

Most restaurant operators in India cost recipes using the purchase price per kg of raw ingredients. This is systematically wrong, and it leads to food cost being consistently understated. The purchase price is what you pay for raw, untrimmed ingredients — but only a fraction of that weight makes it to the plate.

Yield percentage is the proportion of a purchased ingredient that is actually usable after the normal kitchen preparation process — peeling, trimming, de-boning, de-shelling, removing damaged portions. For a head chef who cooks by feel, yield is intuitive. But for food cost management — for recipe costing, menu pricing, and purchase order quantities — yield must be measured and documented.

Yield benchmarks for common Indian restaurant ingredients

• Onion. Standard yield: 82–88%. The outer skin, dry layers, and root/stem trim account for 12–18% of the purchased weight. A kitchen using 50 kg of onion per day sees 6–9 kg go to trim. At ₹35/kg, that is ₹210–315 per day in purchase cost that goes to trim — and must be accounted for in the effective cost of every dish that uses onion.
• Potato. Standard yield: 75–82%. Varies significantly with the peeling method — hand peel retains more of the potato but is slower; machine peel is faster but often takes 5–8% more than hand peel. Pre-peeled potatoes from suppliers cost more per kg but may be net cheaper when effective cost is calculated.
• Chicken (whole, yielding boneless equivalent). Standard yield: 65–75%. A whole chicken at ₹200/kg with 70% yield has an effective boneless equivalent cost of ₹286/kg. Many kitchens receive bone-in portions and convert to boneless weight for dishes — the yield calculation must reflect the actual preparation method used in your kitchen.
• Prawn (shell-on to de-shelled, de-veined). Standard yield: 55–65%. Prawn is one of the highest-value ingredients in most restaurants, and yield has a large impact on food cost. A 10% swing in prawn yield (55% vs 65%) changes the effective cost by approximately 18% — at ₹450/kg raw, the difference is ₹818/kg effective (55% yield) vs ₹692/kg (65% yield). Yield variation by supplier is large — measure on every new lot.
• Fish (filleted yield from whole fish). Standard yield: 40–60% depending on species. Rohu and Catla — the most widely used freshwater fish in North and East Indian kitchens — yield approximately 50–60% fillet from whole fish. Marine fish with larger heads and bones (pomfret, surmai) yield 40–55%. Always measure by species and supplier.
• Leafy greens (spinach, methi, coriander). Standard yield: 60–75%. Leafy greens have high moisture content, and the stem and damaged leaf removal accounts for 25–40% of purchased weight. Post-washing, leafy greens lose additional weight through moisture drop. The effective cost of cleaned, usable palak is typically 30–50% higher than the purchase price per kg.

Where this fits

• Recipe cost card — use effective costs from this yield calculator in every recipe cost card for accurate food cost per portion
• Food cost calculator — accurate food cost % requires accurate ingredient costs, which requires yield-adjusted costs
• Wastage tracker — track daily trim waste quantities to identify when yield is dropping below standard
• Purchase order — when ordering quantities, divide the required usable quantity by the yield % to get the raw quantity to order
• Recipe scaling calculator — scale recipes using usable weights; use this tool to convert purchase quantities
• P6 — Unit economics pillar — complete guide to recipe costing, food cost control, and P&L analysis for Indian restaurants