10 Tips for More Profitable Portion Control

Jun 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Bob Oros, CSP, CMC

Cooking your profits away
Overcooking meat is a good way to lose a considerable amount of money through shrinkage. Roast beef should be cooked for a longer period of time at a lower temperature. For example, if you use 150 lbs. of roast beef per week and extended that consumption for a year, usage would total 7,500 lbs.

7,500 lbs. of roast beef cooked at 425°F would shrink 35%, providing a net weight of 4,875 lbs. If you instead cooked the same 7,500 lbs. at 325°F, it would only shrink 25% and would have a net weight of 5,625 lbs., a gain of 750 lbs.!

If you are selling the meat for $2.50/lb., that represents $1,875 in lost revenue. (This is one reason “slow cook” ovens can often quickly pay for themselves in high volume operations).

In a conventional oven, the best way to tell when roast beef is done is to insert a thermometer into the roast's center; when it reaches the desired doneness, take the meat out of the oven. If you are cooking several pieces at a time, place the thermometer in the smallest piece, when that is done, pull it out of the oven and put the thermometer into the next largest piece.

Call in a “Belly Buster”
If the sign over your hot dog says “Quarter Pounder,” it has to be 4 ounces. But you have to really look closely to see the difference between 4-to-the-pound and 5-to-the-pound hot dogs. However, there are 10 more hot dogs in each 10 pound box of the latter. That considerably lowers your portion cost if you extend it to the amount used annually. If you switch from a 4-to-the-pound to a 5-to-the-pound frank, it's the same as buying 10 boxes and getting one free.