YIELD TESTING

In larder kitchen, yield can be defined as any particular weight, count or portioning of a product.

Yield in culinary terms refers to how much you will have of a finished or processed product. Professional recipes should always state a yield; for example, a tomato soup recipe may yield 15 L, and a muffin recipe may yield 24 muffins. Yield can also refer to the amount of usable product after it has been processed (peeled, cooked, butchered, etc.)

For example, you may be preparing a recipe for carrot soup. The recipe requires 1 kg of carrots, which you purchase. However, once you have peeled them and removed the tops and tips, you may only have 800 grams of carrots left to use.

In order to do accurate costing, yield testing must be carried out on all ingredients and recipes. When looking at yields, you must always consider the losses and waste involved in preparation and cooking. There is always a dollar value that is attached to vegetable peel, meat and fish trim, and packaging like brine and syrups. Any waste or loss has been paid for and is still money that has been spent. This cost must always be included in the menu price.

Yield is basically means forecasting. There are two terms used for yield testing:

• AP : As Purchased/ original weight of the product
• EP : Edible Portion / remaining weight of the product

AS PURCHASED

The weight of products which are purchased from the market in raw forms to prepare a dish is known as AS PURCHASED. Most of the food service products are delivered in the As purchased state.

EDIBLE PORTION

This term refers to the weight of the product after it has been cleaned, trimmed, cooked and portioned. Edible portion can also be defined as the final product which serves to the customer to satisfy his/her needs.

WHAT IS YIELD PERCENTAGE?

It is the difference in price of products in their As Purchased and Edible Portion weights. Yield % is important to determine the actual recipe cost. It may sometimes be necessary to conduct a yield test to determine actual Edible portion ingredient’s costs.

Formula:

Total yield % = Edible portion weight/As purchased weight X 100

WHAT IS YIELD TEST?

It is a procedure used for computing the actual cost of a product after the loss of weight or count of during preparation.

WHAT IS WEIGHT PERCENTAGE?

It is the percentage of product lost due to cooking, trimming, portioning or cleaning.

This helps to determine the Edible portion weight by deducting the total lost weight from the As Purchased weight.

Note: Sometimes, this “waste” can be used as a by-product. Bones from meat and fish can be turned into stocks. Trimmings from vegetables can be added to those stocks or, if there is enough, made into soup.

Example 12: The procedure for testing yields

1. Record the original weight/volume of your item. This is your raw weight or as purchased (AP) weight.
   1. Whole tenderloin – 2.5 kg
   2. Whole sockeye salmon – 7.75 kg
   3. Canned tuna flakes in brine – 750 mL
2. Process your product accordingly, measure and record the waste or trim weight.
   1. Tenderloin fat, sinew, chain, etc. – 750 g tenderloin trim
   2. Salmon head, bones, skin, etc. – 2.75 kg salmon trim
   3. Brine – 300 mL canned tuna waste
3. Subtract the amount of trim weight from the AP weight and you will have what is referred to as your processed or edible product (EP) weight. The formula is: AP weight – waste = EP weight.
   1. 2500 g − 750 g = 1750 g processed tenderloin
   2. 7750 g − 2750 g = 5000 g processed salmon
   3. 750 mL − 300 mL = 400 mL processed canned tuna
4. Get your yield percentage by converting the edible product weight into a percentage. The formula is EP weight ÷ AP weight × 100 = yield %.
   1. (1750 ÷ 2500) × 100 = 70% for the tenderloin
   2. (5000 ÷ 7750) × 100 = 64.51% for the salmon
   3. (400 ÷ 750) × 100 = 53.33% for the canned tuna

All products must be measured and yield tested before costing a menu. Ideally, every item on a menu should be yield tested before being processed. Most big establishments will have this information on file, and there are many books that can also be used as reference for yields, such as The Book of Yields: Accuracy in Food Costing and Purchasing.

For more information visit to the link: https://opentextbc.ca/basickitchenandfoodservicemanagement/chapter/yield-testing/#:~:text=In%20order%20to%20do%20accurate%20costing%2C%20yield%20testing,fish%20trim%2C%20and%20packaging%20like%20brines%20and%20syrups.

FIGURE 12: MEAT CUTTING YIELD TEST

Item: Pork Loin – Grade A-1

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