ChefSums: Recipe Costing & GP

Roast pork with crackling: how much it costs to make, per portion

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Roast pork with crackling costs £1.15 a portion in ingredients (£9.18 for a batch of 8), from UK pack prices dated 25 October 2026. To reach 68% GP, the UK food benchmark, it needs to sell for at least £4.30 including 20% VAT (£3.59 without).

The Sunday roast pork plate's meat, crackling and sauces: boneless rind-on pork loin roasted for crackling, home-made apple sauce and gravy. Eight portions, costed from JJ Foodservice prices read on 25 October 2026; vegetables and potatoes are costed on their own pages.

Ingredients per portion£1.15
Batch of 8£9.18
Lowest price · 68% GP£4.30 inc VAT (£3.59 ex)
Premium · 75% GP£5.51 inc VAT (£4.59 ex)

The lowest price is the one that just reaches 68% GP, the UK food GP benchmark (UKHospitality × Christie & Co, 2022: 65.9–69% food GP across every segment). It covers the ingredients at a normal margin, not staff, rent or energy, and most cafés, pubs and takeaways charge more for simple dishes. Check what places near you charge. GP is worked out on the ex-VAT price.

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Ingredients and cost, 8 portions

IngredientPack pricePack sizeUsedCost
Pork loin, boneless, rind on£3.991000 g2000 g£7.98
Table salt£8.9912500 g20 g£0.01
Rapeseed oil£9.495000 ml20 ml£0.04
Apples (for apple sauce)£16.9912000 g400 g£0.57
Granulated sugar£15.7910000 g40 g£0.06
Salted butter£29.995000 g20 g£0.12
Gravy granules£24.995000 g80 g£0.40
Batch total£9.18
Per portion (÷ 8)£1.15

Cost per line is pack price × (amount used ÷ pack size), the same sum the tool runs. Change one pack price and every line that uses it moves.

What it really costs: waste and staff time

Ingredients£1.15
Waste allowance, 5% (trim, ends, the odd one binned)£0.06
Staff time: 25 min hands-on for the batch of 8 at £12.71/hr + 25% on-cost£0.83
Food, waste and staff per portion£2.04

At the lowest price (£3.59 ex VAT) that is 57% of the price, before rent, energy and everything else. Many UK sites aim to keep food plus staff (prime cost) at or under 60–65% of sales. The staff line counts hands-on prep only, not unattended cooking, and uses the April 2026 National Living Wage; put your own rate, minutes and waste in the calculator's real cost section or the prime cost calculator. Every dish side by side: the UK dish cost index.

Method

  1. Score the rind, dry it well and rub with oil and plenty of salt.
  2. Roast at 220 °C for 25 minutes, then at 180 °C until the centre reaches 70 °C, about 1¼ hours.
  3. Peel, core and chop the apples and cook with the sugar, butter and a splash of water until soft.
  4. Rest the pork for 20 minutes, carve into eight portions and serve with apple sauce and gravy.

Costing notes

Cooked weight. USDA figures for pork loin roasted to 77 °C give about 81% of the raw weight (pork loin yield), so 2 kg raw carves to about 1.6 kg including crackling, 200 g a portion.

Where the prices came from

JJ Foodservice collection prices (single-unit price, no multi-buy tiers), read on 25 October 2026. Prices are as listed; JJ does not label VAT on most lines, and most raw food is zero-rated in the UK while alcohol and some ingredients carry standard-rate VAT. Your supplier's price is the one that matters: open the recipe and type it in.

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