To price a pound of smoked brisket you add up its full cost first: the packers, rub and wood by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the butcher paper and tray, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one pound costs you. Then set the price so that, after card and selling fees, it leaves the margin you want: price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate). For a pound of sliced brisket that costs $11.05 to make, a 55% margin after 3% fees means $26.31, rounded up to $26.50. Brisket loses about half its weight to trimming and twelve hours of smoke, so six 14-pound packers give about 40 pounds to sell, and that loss is the biggest thing in the price. Catering by the pound is a different price, set so it still covers the full cost with something left. In the example below, a Lubbock smokehouse prices brisket by the pound for its counter and catering.
The short version
- Full cost = brisket a pound sold + your time + paper and tray + overhead.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate).
- Count your time at a real hourly rate, even if you don't pay yourself yet.
- Price from the pounds you sell, not the pounds you buy.
- Weigh a few briskets before and after to know your real loss.
- Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
- TaroStack costs each pound of brisket from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.
What goes into a pound's cost
| Part | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Brisket, rub and wood | The batch's cost ÷ pounds a batch |
| Your time | Hands-on minutes for the batch ÷ pounds × your hourly rate |
| Paper and tray | Per pound |
| Overhead | Rent, power, tools, spread over the pounds you make |
| Fees | Card and market fees as a share of the price |
The restaurant's year is in bbq business plan, and catering in bbq catering business plan.
An example: a pound of brisket
Caprock Smokehouse, the made-up barbecue restaurant in Lubbock, Texas, I use in these examples, smokes six 14-pound packers at a time and sells about 40 pounds of sliced brisket from them, after trim, cook loss and the ends:
| Six packers | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Packer briskets, 14 lb each | 84 lb | $294.00 |
| Rub and post oak | $20.00 | |
| A batch | $314.00 |
| A pound | Cost |
|---|---|
| Brisket, rub and wood, $314.00 ÷ 40 | $7.85 |
| Time, 180 minutes for the batch at $20 an hour ÷ 40 | $1.50 |
| Paper and tray | $0.20 |
| Overhead | $1.50 |
| Full cost | $11.05 |
At a 55% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $11.05 ÷ 0.42 = $26.31, so $26.50. At $26.50 a pound, each leaves $14.66. The menu had said $26.00, which leaves $14.17, and moved up 50 cents when packers rose. Catering by the pound at $22.00 leaves $10.29: less, but cooked in the same pits on a weekday. The sauce on the side is in bbq sauce business plan.
Get the calculator
Download the brisket price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's briskets, amounts and costs, the pounds it makes, the hands-on minutes, the paper and overhead, your hourly rate, card fees and the margin you want; the full cost, the price for your margin rounded up, and what a wholesale price and a test price leave fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The calculator prices one yield. Packers that trim heavier, a smoker that runs hot and dries them out, and a slow Tuesday that leaves brisket unsold change what each pound sold really cost.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack costs each pound of brisket from its recipe and from what each batch used.
Recipes by weight. Each pound of brisket is a recipe, with unit conversion from the case or sack to the gram.
True cost from the batch. Each batch takes ingredients at their real cost, from the deliveries they came from, so a price rise shows up in the next batch.
Price creep. A price-creep report per supplier shows which ingredient is quietly costing more.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a pound of brisket costs this week | Last season's sheet | True cost from the batch |
| Brisket left at close | Not counted | Waste by reason |
| An ingredient creeping up | Noticed at tax time | A price-creep report |
| Whether wholesale still pays | A guess | Margins on real cost |
Recipes, batches and true cost 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.