Sub-Recipes: The Clean Way to Cost Sauces, Doughs, Bases, and Prep
Why recipes should be able to contain other recipes, and how that changes costing accuracy.
Real kitchens do not build every product directly from raw ingredients. They build products from prep: sauces, stocks, doughs, creams, spice blends, cooked proteins, dressings, and bases.
Sub-recipes prevent duplicated costing
If aioli is used in five products, you should not cost garlic, oil, egg, lemon, and salt five separate times. Cost the aioli once, then let each product consume a quantity of that recipe.
This keeps updates clean. When oil changes price, the aioli changes, and every affected product updates through the chain.
They reveal hidden margin changes
A supplier change in a base recipe can quietly affect dozens of products. Without sub-recipes, the team may only notice the problem when monthly margin drops.
A recipe graph lets Karu explain which products are affected and why.
Versioning matters
When a prep recipe changes, staff need the current published version, and owners need historical cost accuracy. That is why Karu uses recipe versions instead of overwriting the past.
Editing should create a draft. Publishing should create the official version used by staff and costing.
Operator checklist
Create reusable recipes for common prep.
Record yield and unit for every sub-recipe.
Show affected products when a sub-recipe changes.
Publish stable versions for staff execution.