How do I use sub-recipes in KitchenNmbrs to calculate...

What are sub-recipes and why are they crucial?

A sub-recipe is a dish component you prepare separately and reuse across multiple menu items. Common examples include:

• Signature sauces (hollandaise, jus, house pesto)
• Marinades and custom dressings
• Specialty sides (compound butters, garnish mixes)
• Foundation preparations (stocks, tapenade, reductions)

The costly oversight: restaurants often guesstimate these costs or ignore them entirely. Your food cost calculations become dangerously inaccurate.

How sub-recipes work in your cost calculations

The system automatically integrates sub-recipe costs into your main dishes. Here's the process:

Step 1: Build your sub-recipe foundation
Navigate to 'Recipes' → 'New recipe' and input every ingredient for your sub-recipe. Take hollandaise sauce:

• Egg yolks: 3 pieces
• Unsalted butter: 125g
• Fresh lemon juice: 15ml
• White pepper and kosher salt

Step 2: Link sub-recipes to main dishes
For your main course (like asparagus benedict), add 'Hollandaise sauce' under ingredients and select your created sub-recipe. Specify the exact portion size you'll use.

Critical sub-recipe mistakes to avoid

Based on real restaurant P&L data, these errors consistently inflate food costs:

Mistake 1: Incorrect portion calculations
You batch 1 liter of peppercorn sauce for 10 servings but calculate using the entire liter cost per plate. Always verify: what's the actual ml/gram usage per serving?

Mistake 2: Ingredient double-counting
Adding butter to both your main dish and your herb butter sub-recipe means you're counting butter twice. Choose one method: either the sub-recipe or individual ingredients.

Sub-recipe advantages for cost control

Universal reusability
Build your hollandaise once and deploy it across asparagus dishes, eggs benedict, and fish preparations. Price updates happen once and cascade automatically to all linked dishes.

Precision costing
End the guesswork around sauce costs. You'll see exactly how each component impacts your overall food cost percentage.

Operational efficiency
No more re-entering sauce ingredients for every dish. Select the sub-recipe and you're finished.

Sub-recipe implementation strategy

Deploy sub-recipes for:

• Signature sauces: Hollandaise, béarnaise, house pesto, specialty aioli
• Protein marinades: For meats or seafood appearing in multiple preparations
• Complex accompaniments: Compound butters, artisanal tapenades, seasonal chutneys
• Foundation elements: House stocks, reductions, demi-glace

Skip sub-recipes for:

• Basic seasonings (salt, pepper, standard oils)
• One-off preparations you won't repeat
• Items you purchase pre-made

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Sources consulted

• EU Verordening 852/2004 — Levensmiddelenhygiëne (2004) — Official source
• EU Verordening 853/2004 — Hygiënevoorschriften voor levensmiddelen van dierlijke oorsprong (2004) — Official source
• EU Verordening 1169/2011 — Voedselinformatie aan consumenten (2011) — Official source
• NVWA — Hygiënecode voor de horeca (2024) — Official source
• NVWA — Allergenen in voedsel (2024) — Official source
• Codex Alimentarius — International Food Standards (2024) — Official source
• FSA — Safer food, better business (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
• BVL — Lebensmittelhygiene (HACCP) (2024) — Official source

Develop recipes with instant cost calculation

Every new recipe has a cost price. KitchenNmbrs calculates it while you build the recipe — so you know if it's profitable before it hits the menu. Try it free.