To price a frozen six-pack of empanadas you add up its full cost first: the dough and filling by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the freezer bag and label, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one six-pack 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 six-pack of spinach and cheese empanadas that costs $10.65 to make, a 40% margin after 3% fees means $18.68, rounded up to $19.00. Folding is two minutes an empanada, so labor costs more than the filling; the shared kitchen's hours and freezer shelf are the overhead. A grocer pays less and marks it up on the shelf. In the example below, a Jersey City empanada maker checks its freezer price and a grocer's.
The short version
- Full cost = dough and filling a six-pack + your time + bag and label + overhead.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate).
- Count your time at a real hourly rate, even if you don't pay yourself yet.
- Time the folding: it's the biggest cost in an empanada.
- Count the kitchen's freezer shelf in the overhead.
- Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
- TaroStack costs each six-pack from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.
What goes into a six-pack's cost
| Part | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Dough and filling | The batch's cost ÷ six-packs a batch |
| Your time | Hands-on minutes for the batch ÷ six-packs × your hourly rate |
| Bag and label | Per six-pack |
| Overhead | Rent, power, tools, spread over the six-packs you make |
| Fees | Card and market fees as a share of the price |
The year at markets and grocers is in empanada business plan, and how long they keep frozen in empanadas shelf life.
An example: a six-pack of empanadas
Palisades Empanada Co., the made-up empanada maker in Jersey City, New Jersey, I use in these examples, folds 300 spinach and cheese empanadas a session, bakes and freezes them, and bags them in sixes:
| 300 empanadas, 50 six-packs | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Flour, butter and eggs for the dough | $35.00 | |
| Frozen spinach | 15 lb | $30.00 |
| Mozzarella and queso fresco | 30 lb | $120.00 |
| Onions, garlic and spices | $15.00 | |
| Egg wash | $10.00 | |
| A batch | $210.00 |
| A six-pack | Cost |
|---|---|
| Dough and filling, $210.00 ÷ 50 | $4.20 |
| Time, 660 minutes for the batch at $20 an hour ÷ 50 | $4.40 |
| Bag and label | $0.45 |
| Overhead | $1.60 |
| Full cost | $10.65 |
At a 40% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $10.65 ÷ 0.57 = $18.68, so $19.00. At $19.00 a six-pack, each leaves $7.78. The freezer case at the market had said $18.00 since the first season, which leaves $6.81, so the price moves up with the next labels. The grocer's $12.00 leaves $0.99: little, which is why the business keeps grocers for when it moves to a co-packer. What the six-pack costs at a co-packer's volume is in how to make empanadas in bulk.
Get the calculator
Download the empanada price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's ingredients, amounts and costs, the six-packs it makes, the hands-on minutes, the bag 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 session. Cheese prices move, a new helper folds slower, and the empanadas that tear in the oven change what each six-pack really cost.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack costs each six-pack from its recipe and from what each batch used.
Recipes by weight. Each six-pack 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 six-pack costs this week | Last season's sheet | True cost from the batch |
| Six-packs by freeze date | Marker on the bag | Lots with dates, oldest first |
| 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.