Articles · Nov 1, 2026
Recipe Tech Card in 5 Steps: Worked Costing Examples with Plov and Lagman
A step-by-step tech card example built on two Uzbek dishes, from gross and net weight to yield and cost per portion in UZS. At the end you'll find a template with formulas that you can copy into Excel or Google Sheets.
You can build a recipe tech card in five steps. First, record the gross weight (what you bought) and the net weight (what is left after peeling and deboning). Next, calculate the yield after cooking, divide the kazan into portions, and multiply the gross weight by the price. Below are two worked examples, plov for 50 portions and lagman with a prepared sauce base, plus a template with formulas. All prices and percentages in the examples are for illustration only. Get your own numbers from test batches in your own kitchen.
What a tech card is and which columns it needs
A tech card records how much of each ingredient goes into a dish, how the dish is prepared and how much it yields. In CIS practice there are two types of document:
- TK (technological card) is written for a dish from a standard recipe collection or an established recipe, such as classic plov.
- TTK (technical and technological card) is written for a signature or new dish. The CIS reference standard is GOST 31987-2012: a TTK covers raw material requirements, the recipe, the cooking method, presentation, storage conditions and quality indicators. We have not confirmed whether Uzbekistan has adopted this standard nationally, so treat it as a model for structure.
For stock control and costing, six columns are enough: ingredient, gross weight, % prep loss, net weight, % cooking loss, yield. Add the price per kg and the line cost. Write the method (order of adding ingredients, timing, temperature) below the table in plain language, so a new cook can reproduce the dish without you.
The formula: gross → net → yield
The whole calculation rests on two formulas:
- Net = gross × (1 − % prep loss). This covers peeling, deboning and trimming sinew.
- Yield = net × (1 − % cooking loss). This covers shrinkage during frying, reduction during simmering and losses when reheating.
The reverse formula is useful for purchasing: gross = yield ÷ ((1 − % prep loss) × (1 − % cooking loss)). For rice and noodles the percentage is negative, because they absorb water during cooking and gain weight.
Here is a typical mistake: the card says "200 g potatoes", but after peeling only 140 g remain. That is a 30% loss, and your purchasing is understated. With bone-in lamb the gap is even bigger.
| Ingredient | Processing | Loss in sample TTKs and reference books |
|---|---|---|
| Bone-in lamb | Deboning | ≈55% (11 kg gross gives 5 kg net) |
| Boneless lamb | Braising in sauce / frying | 37–45% |
| Carrots | Peeling | ≈25% |
| Onions | Sautéing | ≈15% |
| Eggplant | Braising | ≈26% |
| Oil in plov | Stays in the dish | 0% |
| Noodles, vermicelli | Boiling | Gain: 1,850 g dry gives ≈4,995 g cooked (×2.7) |
These figures come from Russian TTKs, for example the TTK for Uzbek-style plov and the TTK for lagman sauce base. Use them as a guide only. In your kitchen, with different meat, a different supplier and a different kazan, the percentages will differ.
Example 1: plov tech card per kazan (50 portions)
Plov is costed per kazan, not per portion: you cook one batch and serve dozens of portions from it. The serving in this example is 50/300, meaning 50 g of meat and 300 g of rice. Prices are for illustration only.
| Ingredient | Gross, kg | Prep loss | Net, kg | Cooking loss | Yield, kg | Price, UZS/kg | Cost, UZS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bone-in lamb | 9.0 | 55% | 4.05 | 38% | 2.51 | 100,000 | 900,000 |
| Devzira rice | 4.0 | 0% | 4.0 | goes into the rice part, weighed | 25,000 | 100,000 | |
| Carrots | 4.0 | 25% | 3.0 | goes into the rice part | 6,000 | 24,000 | |
| Onions | 1.0 | 15% | 0.85 | goes into the rice part | 5,000 | 5,000 | |
| Oil | 1.5 | 0% | 1.5 | goes into the rice part | 24,000 | 36,000 | |
| Chickpeas, garlic, spices | one line, approximate | 35,000 | |||||
| Total per kazan | rice part by test weighing: 15.0 kg | 1,100,000 | |||||
That gives 15.0 kg ÷ 0.3 = 50 portions by rice and 2.51 kg ÷ 0.05 ≈ 50 portions by meat. Cost per portion: 1,100,000 ÷ 50 = 22,000 UZS (illustration).
Notice the trap here. If the card says "meat 50 g" and you multiply that by the price of bone-in meat, you get 5,000 UZS per portion. In reality each portion uses 180 g gross, which is 18,000 UZS. A 13,000 UZS gap on every plate quietly eats your margin. That is why you should always cost from gross weight: it's what you actually pay for.
Water is not included in the cost, but it should be listed on the card. Sources disagree on the ratio: some TTKs use rice and water 1:1, while Makhmudov (1979) uses twice as much water as rice. Don't copy someone else's number. Record the amount that gives you properly cooked rice.
Also keep batch size rules in mind. The Rules for the Production and Sale of Catering Products (Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 75 of 13.02.2003, as amended) require dishes to be cooked in batches that can be sold within the time limits set by sanitary rules. Leftover meat dishes and grains from the previous day may not be used. Check the current version before applying it. The practical takeaway for plov: keep two or three tech cards for different kazan sizes, for example 20, 50 and 100 portions, and cook the one that matches your sales.
Example 2: lagman, the sauce base as a prep item, and noodle weight gain
Lagman is easiest to split into two cards. The first covers the prep item: the meat and vegetable sauce made in advance. The second covers the portion: sauce plus noodles.
Card 1: sauce base per 1 kg of yield
| Ingredient | Gross, g | Net, g | Yield, g | Price, UZS/kg | Cost, UZS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boneless lamb | 380 | 356 | 224 (−37%) | 130,000 | 49,400 |
| Onions | 130 | 110 | 94 (−15%) | 5,000 | 650 |
| Eggplant | 55 | 50 | 37 (−26%) | 10,000 | 550 |
| Water | 1,200 | 1,200 | 390 (reduction) | — | 0 |
| Peppers, tomatoes, oil, garlic, spices | one line, approximate | 8,400 | |||
| Total per 1 kg of sauce base | 59,000 | ||||
Net weight and yield for the meat, onions, eggplant and water are taken from a sample TTK. Gross weights, prices and the remaining lines are for illustration.
Card 2: one portion
- Sauce, 300 g. Reheating and portioning lose another 6.25%, so you need to allocate 320 g of sauce base: 0.32 × 59,000 = 18,880 UZS.
- Noodles, 200 g cooked. With a factor of 2.7, that is ≈74 g dry: 0.074 × 20,000 = 1,480 UZS.
- Total per portion: ≈20,360 UZS (illustration).
If you ignore reheating losses and put 300 g of sauce on the card, the portion looks 1,180 UZS cheaper than it is. At 100 lagmans a day, that's 118,000 UZS of unrecorded cost every day, and by stocktake time you'll find an "unexplained" meat shortage.
Test batches: how to get your own percentages
- Weigh raw ingredients before processing: meat as a whole piece, vegetables unwashed. Record the gross weight.
- Weigh again after peeling and deboning, with bones and trimmings weighed separately. If you break down whole carcasses, keep a butchering log: it shows how much lean meat, bone and tail fat each supplier's carcass actually gives you.
- Cook as usual and weigh the finished product: meat separately, rice or sauce separately, without the kazan. Weigh your containers in advance.
- Repeat 3 times on different days and take the average. A single batch is too random.
- Review the percentages whenever you change supplier, rice variety, cook or season (young carrots and stored carrots peel differently). Update prices on the card with every delivery.
Tech card template for Excel and Google Sheets
Copy the table into Excel or Google Sheets starting at cell A1, and enter the formulas in columns D, F and H. Enter percentages as decimals: 25% becomes 0.25, and a 170% weight gain becomes −1.7. If your spreadsheet uses a comma as the decimal separator, type 0,25 instead.
| A: Ingredient | B: Gross, kg | C: Prep loss | D: Net, kg | E: Cooking loss | F: Yield, kg | G: Price, UZS/kg | H: Cost, UZS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bone-in lamb | 9 | 0.55 | =B2*(1-C2) | 0.38 | =D2*(1-E2) | 100000 | =B2*G2 |
| Carrots | 4 | 0.25 | =B3*(1-C3) | 0 | =D3*(1-E3) | 6000 | =B3*G3 |
| Dry noodles | 0.074 | 0 | =B4*(1-C4) | -1.7 | =D4*(1-E4) | 20000 | =B4*G4 |
| Total | Portions: yield ÷ portion weight | =SUM(H2:H4) | |||||
Below the table, add three rows: "Portions per batch", "Cost per portion = total ÷ portions" and "Food cost % = cost per portion ÷ menu price". We covered how to manage food cost as the seasons change in our article on seasonal menus.
How the tech card connects to your stock
Excel works fine when you need to calculate a price once. But a spreadsheet doesn't know how many portions of plov you sold. When you compare expected usage with the actual stock in your storeroom, you can see where your ingredients are going.
In AliPos, tech cards and recipes, inventory (deliveries and usage) and stocktakes are included in the Standard plan at $39 a month. Every portion sold deducts ingredients according to its tech card. A stocktake compares expected stock with actual stock and shows the difference as a number. To see how this works in a dining hall with topchans and kazans, visit our page on software for chaikhanas. If you're switching from another system, the AliPos team will transfer your menu and tech cards for you.
FAQ
Is a tech card mandatory for a café in Uzbekistan?
A tech card format is explicitly required for catering in educational institutions: SanQvaN No. 0017-21, Appendix 5. We did not find a general rule in the legislation requiring every commercial café to keep tech cards. Check the requirements with your accountant. Either way, you need tech cards to control food cost and stock.
What's the difference between a tech card and a costing card?
A tech card describes ingredients, weights and method. A costing card turns them into money: gross weight × price = cost. In practice it's easiest to keep both in one table, as in the template above.
What cooking loss should I use for lamb?
Reference books give 37–45% for meat. These are averages, and for plov in your kazan the figure may differ. Use the average from three test batches.
How often should tech cards be recalculated?
Update prices with every delivery. Review loss percentages when you change supplier, rice variety or cook, and at least once a season.
Taomning texnologik kartasini qanday tuzish kerak?
Brutto va nettoni torting, issiq ishlov berishdan keyingi chiqishni o'lchang, qozonni porsiyalarga bo'ling va bruttoni narxga ko'paytiring. Yuqoridagi jadvalni Excel shabloni sifatida ishlating.
Start with your best-selling dish, which is usually plov. Run three test batches, fill in the template and compare the cost per portion with your menu price. If you'd like stock deductions by tech card and stocktakes to run without manual spreadsheets, check out AliPos pricing or send us a request and we'll show you how it works.
