To make empanadas in bulk, write the dough and filling as one recipe by percentage, roll the dough on a sheeter and cut rounds of one size, scoop the filling by weight, and seal them with a press instead of crimping each by hand. Most bulk empanadas are frozen raw, so the customer bakes or fries them fresh. Done this way, an empanada maker that made 4 six-packs at a time makes about 190 in a day, and the cost of a six-pack falls from $10.65 to $4.70. Below is the recipe at three sizes, the steps, the trim loss, what a six-pack costs at each size, and a free scaling calculator.
The short version
- Write dough and filling as one recipe by percentage.
- Roll on a sheeter and cut rounds of one size.
- Scoop the filling by weight.
- Seal with a press; it cuts the folding time by more than half.
- Freeze raw on trays, then pack by six.
- Re-roll the trim once; weigh what's left.
- TaroStack keeps the recipe by weight, takes each batch's ingredients off stock and checks its yield. More below.
The recipe, by percentage
Palisades Empanada Co., the made-up empanada maker in Jersey City, New Jersey, I use in these examples, made spinach and cheese empanadas 4 six-packs at a time until a grocer ordered frozen packs every week. The recipe, weighed:
| Ingredient | % of the mix | Kitchen batch, 6 lb | One batch, 50 lb | The run, 300 lb | Cost a lb, bought in bulk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 30% | 1.80 lb | 15.0 lb | 90.0 lb | $0.40 |
| Spinach, frozen and squeezed | 18% | 1.08 lb | 9.00 lb | 54.0 lb | $1.40 |
| Mozzarella | 15% | 0.90 lb | 7.50 lb | 45.0 lb | $2.80 |
| Water | 10% | 0.60 lb | 5.00 lb | 30.0 lb | $0.00 |
| Ricotta | 8% | 0.48 lb | 4.00 lb | 24.0 lb | $2.20 |
| Butter | 7% | 0.42 lb | 3.50 lb | 21.0 lb | $3.20 |
| Onion | 5% | 0.30 lb | 2.50 lb | 15.0 lb | $0.50 |
| Eggs | 3% | 0.18 lb | 1.50 lb | 9.00 lb | $2.00 |
| Parmesan | 2% | 0.12 lb | 1.00 lb | 6.00 lb | $6.00 |
| Garlic | 1% | 0.06 lb | 0.50 lb | 3.00 lb | $2.80 |
| Salt | 0.8% | 0.05 lb | 0.40 lb | 2.40 lb | $0.40 |
| Black pepper | 0.2% | 0.01 lb | 0.10 lb | 0.60 lb | $10.00 |
| The whole mix | 100% | 6 lb | 50 lb | 300 lb |
The 300 pounds cost $434.46 in ingredients. The dough is half the weight and under a third of the cost; the cheeses are a quarter of the weight and half the cost. How percentages work for other recipes is in scaling recipes for production.
The steps, at 300 pounds
- Make the dough by the mix. Flour, butter, egg, water and salt, mixed and rested cold.
- Sheet and cut. Rolled on a sheeter to one thickness and cut into rounds; the trim re-rolled once.
- Mix the filling cold. Thawed spinach squeezed dry, then the cheeses, onion and garlic, by weight.
- Fill and press. Two ounces of filling a round by scoop, sealed in a press.
- Freeze raw on trays. One layer into the blast freezer.
- Pack by six. Into bags or boxes, checked by weight.
- Label with a lot code. Every pack carries the run's lot, the date and the baking instructions.
The run takes about 20 hours of labor, with two people at the press.
What a six-pack costs at each size
| Per six-pack | Kitchen batch, 6 lb | Bulk run, 300 lb |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients | $4.05 (grocery prices) | $2.24 (bought in bulk) |
| Packaging | $0.60 | $0.40 |
| Labor at $20 an hour | $6.00 (18 min a six-pack) | $2.06 (6.2 min a six-pack) |
| Cost of a six-pack | $10.65 | $4.70 |
Cheese by the 5-pound block and flour by the sack cut the ingredients nearly in half, and the press cuts the labor from 18 minutes a pack to about 6. The grocer pays $12 a six-pack, which leaves the bulk run room. The year is in empanada business plan.
Keeping it cold
A cheese and spinach filling is kept cold from mixing to freezing; trays go into the freezer as they fill, not when the run is done. The bags and boxes are in how to package frozen food for sale, and the license for frozen packs in license to sell frozen food.
Get the calculator
Download the empanada scaling calculator. Two sheets: scale the recipe, where you type each ingredient's percentage and cost a pound and the raw mix you want, and each ingredient's weight for the run fills in, with the sheet trays, freezer loads, what comes out after the trim loss, the six-packs it fills and the cost of each six-pack; and weigh the loss, where what went in and came out over a few batches gives your average trim loss. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Cheese, spinach, corn and guava, runs three days a week, cheese from two deliveries, and a freezer full of packs from different days. A sheet can say how much flour a run needs, but not which mozzarella went into which pack, or which packs are oldest.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps the recipe by weight, takes each batch's ingredients off stock and checks its yield.
The recipe in the units you use. A recipe holds each ingredient by weight, with flour bought by the 50-pound sack and used by the pound, and the cost of every six-pack comes from what you paid. "What could I make right now" says how many runs the flour, cheese and spinach on the shelf allow.
Each run a batch. A run takes its ingredients off stock, records the lots of cheese and spinach it used, and gets a lot of its own for the six-packs, with how much came out good, how much was rejected and the labor minutes.
Yield checked from history. From your own batch history, TaroStack says whether a recipe yields what it claims and which ingredient's quantity is off, so a trim loss that creeps up shows in the numbers. A block of ricotta past its date is an adjustment with its reason, spoiled, and shows in the waste report.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients for Thursday's run | Multiply, then check the shelf | What could I make right now |
| Which mozzarella went into a run | Not written down | Lots recorded on the batch |
| The real trim loss | Weighed now and then | Good and rejected on every batch |
| Ricotta past its date | Thrown out, forgotten | Adjustment with a reason |
Recipes, batches, lots and yield are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.