Sizu Riatto
Kitchen Numbers · Chapter 16

Recipe Cost per Serving

Each ingredient costs its share of the package: amount used ÷ amount in the package, in the same unit, × the price. Add the lines; divide by the servings.

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Opens on Chapter 16’s example: Dami’s Sunday chili, 12 lunches, at Larkspur Market prices.

One ingredient a line: name | package | price | used | grams per cup (only when a cup meets a weight)
Enter your numbers, then press Work it out.

How it works

Put both amounts in the same unit first: cups against a bag sold by the pound needs the ingredient’s grams per cup (red lentils about 194 g, from 2 1/3 cups a pound; long-grain rice 185 g; Dami’s cumin weighs 2 g a level teaspoon, 96 g a cup). Keep the full figures while adding and dividing, and round only what you write down. Anything thrown away is paid for by what you eat: with a third wasted, each portion eaten carries half as much again.

From the book, Chapter 16. Dami’s chili: lentils $1.15, chickpeas $2.38, tomatoes $4.58, onions $2.33, oil $0.80 (26.6¢ a tablespoon), cumin $0.84 (14.1¢ a teaspoon), rice $1.22: $13.30 for the pot, $1.11 a lunch; tomatoes are the biggest line, 34%. Spinach at 39.9¢ an ounce costs 59.9¢ an ounce eaten when a third wilts. Every chapter and its calculator →

Amounts can be typed as 3, 0.75, 3/4, 1 1/2 or 1½. They’re worked as exact fractions and written as a cook measures them: cups in quarters or thirds, then tablespoons, then teaspoons to the nearest eighth. Everything stays in your browser: no sign-up, nothing stored or sent.