What recipe costing software actually does
Strip away the marketing and it's a handful of jobs: hold a real cost per unit against every ingredient, work out the true cost of a recipe or dish built from those ingredients — including yield or trim loss, not just the raw weight going in — and keep that cost current the moment a supplier price changes, rather than a snapshot from the day you first typed it in. That price update is only as good as how the price gets in — see our invoice scanning software comparison for the other half of this.
Done properly, that cost should sit right next to your sell price so you can see live gross profit per dish, not just a number buried in a spreadsheet you update once a quarter if you remember.
"Menu costing" and "recipe costing" get used interchangeably, and in practice they're the same job at different scales — a recipe costed accurately is what a menu costed accurately is built from. If every dish on your menu rolls up from correctly-costed recipes, your menu cost and GP% are already right without a separate exercise.
What to actually check before you buy
The comparison
Kitchen Control and Jelly both treat live recipe costing as a core feature — the difference is what's bundled around it. FoodCore costs recipes too, built primarily for small producers packaging goods to sell rather than a live-service kitchen.
| Capability | Kitchen Control | Jelly | FoodCore |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live cost per recipe / dish | Yes | Yes — updates with every invoice | Yes |
| Automatic recost when a supplier price changes | Yes — scan the invoice, every recipe using it updates | Yes — automated invoice scanning, photo or forwarded email | Not confirmed — ingredient-level costing, recosting trigger not detailed publicly |
| Yield / trim-loss costing | Yes — dedicated yields, true cost after prep loss | Not detailed publicly | Not detailed publicly |
| Multi-supplier cheapest-price selection | Yes — automatically uses the cheapest cost per unit across suppliers | Not detailed publicly | Not detailed publicly |
| Live GP% against sell price | Yes | Implied by live dish costing, not detailed as a standalone figure | Not detailed publicly |
| Who it's actually built for | Independent kitchens serving live — cafes, pubs, restaurants, takeaways | Growing multi-site operators, £500k+ turnover, financial-ops focus | Small food producers packaging goods — bakeries, home bakers, market stalls |
| Monthly price | £12.99 flat, one plan | £129 per location | Tiered plans, roughly £19–£65 depending on plan |
| Free trial | 30 days (card required, not charged if you cancel) | Not stated publicly | 7 days, no card required |
| Bringing your existing data in yourself | Yes — self-serve spreadsheet import | Ask them directly | Not confirmed |
Who each one is actually for
Kitchen Control
A single-site independent kitchen that wants recipe costing, yield-accurate GP%, allergens and invoice scanning together, set up in an afternoon, without a sales call.
Jelly
A growing operator past £500k turnover who wants costing bundled with POS integration, stocktake and Xero push — and has the budget for £129 a location.
FoodCore
A small food producer selling packaged goods who needs costing alongside PPDS labels and a production workflow, more than live-service margin tracking.
What a spreadsheet still does fine
If you're a genuinely small, one-person operation on top of your own numbers, a costing spreadsheet costs nothing and works — right up until a supplier price changes on twelve ingredients at once and every recipe using them needs updating by hand. See our full spreadsheet comparison for where that line actually sits.
Costing is usually one part of a wider buying decision — see the full kitchen management software comparison if you're weighing it up alongside allergens, invoice scanning and labelling in one system.
Recipe costing software: common questions
What is recipe costing software?
Software that works out the true cost of a recipe or dish from the ingredients that go into it — usually by holding a cost per unit against each ingredient, then adding those up (accounting for yield and prep loss) whenever the recipe is built or a price changes. The result is a live cost per portion you can set against your sell price to see GP%, rather than a figure you calculate by hand and forget to update.
How do you calculate recipe cost?
Take the cost per unit of each ingredient (pack cost ÷ pack size), multiply by the quantity used in the recipe, and add it all up — then adjust for yield, since a kilo of raw vegetables rarely turns into a kilo once trimmed and cooked. Divide the total by the number of portions the recipe makes to get cost per portion.
How does Kitchen Control update ingredient prices?
Scan a supplier invoice and Kitchen Control reads the line items and prices automatically. Every recipe using an ingredient from that invoice recosts immediately — you don't go and find each recipe and update it by hand.
Can Kitchen Control calculate GP%?
Yes — set a sell price against a recipe or dish and Kitchen Control shows live gross profit percentage next to the cost, updating automatically whenever the underlying ingredient cost changes.
Can I import existing recipes?
Yes. Bring ingredients and recipes in yourself from a spreadsheet — matched automatically, nothing re-typed — or photograph a recipe from your existing book and let Kitchen Control read it in. See the switching guide for how that works.
Can I use Kitchen Control on my phone?
Yes — it works in the browser on a phone or tablet, which is how most of the day-to-day use happens: scanning invoices and labels, checking costs, and printing allergen sheets from the pass.
Is it suitable for small independent restaurants?
That's specifically who it's built for — single-site independent kitchens (restaurants, cafes, pubs, takeaways) who want accurate costing without per-location pricing or a sales demo. See who else it's built for.
Kitchen Control is £12.99/month, one plan, everything included — live costing, yields, allergens and invoice scanning, no separate add-ons and no demo required to see what it actually does.
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