Glossary
Cost per serving
Cost per serving = (total ingredient cost + gas/water/oil used to cook) ÷ servings actually produced. It is the only home-cooking number that can be compared like-for-like against a delivery menu price.
The formula
Cost per serving = (ingredient cost + cooking utility cost) ÷ servings produced
Three inputs, and every one of them is a place people get it wrong.
1. Ingredient cost means *used*, not *bought*
If a recipe needs 60 g of pecorino and the smallest wedge in the shop is 200 g, the recipe cost is the price of 60 g — not the price of the wedge. The other 140 g is inventory, not expense. Charge it to the meals that actually eat it. The one exception is a perishable you will genuinely throw away, which belongs in the shrinkage and waste factor.
2. Utility cost is real and it is not zero
Boiling pasta for 18 minutes, baking for 45, deep-frying 1.5 L of oil you then discard — all of that has a price, and it changes by country. In our data set a 45-minute oven bake costs roughly $0.18 in the US, EUR 0.31 in Spain and 290 won in Korea in energy alone. It rarely changes a verdict on its own, but across a month of cooking it is a real line item.
3. Servings produced, not servings planned
A recipe that says "serves 4" and actually feeds 2 adults has a cost per serving twice what the card claims. Weigh the finished dish once and divide by the portion size you actually eat. This single correction moves most home cost-per-serving figures by 20-40%.
A worked example: carbonara for two
| Line | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Spaghetti | 200 g | $0.60 |
| Pancetta | 100 g | $1.50 |
| Eggs | 3 pieces | $1.05 |
| Pecorino | 60 g | $1.60 |
| Pepper, salt | — | $0.05 |
| Gas (boil, 18 min) | — | $0.05 |
| Water (3 L) | — | $0.01 |
| Total | $4.86 |
$4.86 divided by 2 servings = $2.43 per serving. A delivered carbonara in the same city runs $16-19 once fees and tip are counted, which is where the 80%+ gap that people quote actually comes from.
Why cost per serving beats "cost per recipe"
Recipe totals cannot be compared across dishes, because recipes yield different amounts. Per-serving cost normalises everything: a $22 pot of pho that yields 6 bowls ($3.67) is cheaper per meal than a $9 pan of pad thai that yields 2 ($4.50), even though the pho looked expensive at the till.
It is also the number you need for the two comparisons that matter:
- Versus delivery. Delivery is priced per portion, so per-serving cost is the only apples-to-apples answer.
- Versus your budget. A weekly food budget divided by meals eaten gives you a target per serving. Anything above it is the dish to fix.
Doing it here
Load any dish page, set servings to what you actually eat, pick your country and supermarket, and the result card shows cost per serving directly — with the delivery price for the same dish in the same country next to it.
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