Meatloaf Plate Cost Calculator
Beef and pork meatloaf with ketchup glaze, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans. Foodservice ingredient cost per plate against a typical diner price. Prefilled with US average ingredient costs. Edit any quantity or price to match what you actually pay, and the math updates as you type.
How much does it cost to make Meatloaf Plate?
About $3.38 of ingredients for a meatloaf plate with mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans at foodservice prices, against a typical $15 diner price, a 22.5% food cost. The beef and pork are $2.04; the breadcrumbs, onion, and egg that stretch them, 19 cents.
Where the money goes
| Ground beef (80/20) | 47.3% · $1.60 | |
|---|---|---|
| Ground pork | 13.0% · $0.44 | |
| Mashed potatoes | 10.7% · $0.36 | |
| Green beans | 10.7% · $0.36 | |
| Gravy | 5.9% · $0.20 | |
| Butter + milk (mash) | 4.4% · $0.15 | |
| Breadcrumbs | 2.4% · $0.08 | |
| Ketchup glaze | 2.4% · $0.08 | |
| Onion | 1.8% · $0.06 | |
| Egg | 1.5% · $0.05 |
What 30 of them return at different prices
| Your price | Food cost % | Over ingredients, each | Over ingredients, 30 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $11.25 | 30.0% | $7.87 | $236.10 |
| $15.00 US average | 22.5% | $11.62 | $348.60 |
| $18.75 | 18.0% | $15.37 | $461.10 |
Ingredients only. Labor, packaging, fuel, and stall or platform fees come out of these figures.
Meatloaf was built to stretch meat, and it still does. Seven ounces of beef and pork cost $2.04, 60% of the plate; breadcrumbs, onion, and egg add bulk and moisture for 19 cents. Every ounce of breadcrumb filler that replaces an ounce of beef saves most of the beef's 32 cents, which is why meatloaf recipes run from almost all meat to a third filler, and why the cheapest meatloaves are the ones that taste most of bread.
The sides are the other half of the plate, and they cost $1.07: mashed potatoes with their butter and milk 51 cents, green beans 36 cents, gravy 20 cents. A diner puts two sides and gravy beside the slices because they make a $15 plate look full for a fraction of the meat's cost per ounce. Per ounce the green beans cost twice what the potatoes do, so a second scoop of mash in place of the vegetable is the quiet way kitchens shave a plate.
Meatloaf's other strength is that it holds. It is baked in loaves well ahead of service, slices cleanly once rested, and reheats by the slice, so a loaf that does not sell at dinner becomes tomorrow's lunch special or meatloaf sandwich. That keeps waste low and the real food cost close to the 22.5% on the recipe, which many cooked-to-order plates cannot say.