To price a frozen dozen potato and cheese pierogi 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 dozen 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 dozen potato and cheese pierogi that costs $5.48 to make, a 55% margin after 3% fees means $13.06, rounded up to $14.00. Filling and pinching with a mold takes about 40 seconds a pierogi, eight minutes a dozen, so labor costs more than the dough and filling together. A grocer pays less and marks it up in its freezer. In the example below, a Chicago pierogi maker prices its frozen dozens for the market and a grocer.
The short version
- Full cost = dough and filling a dozen + 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 pinching: labor is the biggest cost.
- Round to whole dollars at the market table.
- Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
- TaroStack costs each dozen pierogi from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.
What goes into a dozen's cost
| Part | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Dough and filling | The batch's cost ÷ dozens a batch |
| Your time | Hands-on minutes for the batch ÷ dozens × your hourly rate |
| Bag and label | Per dozen |
| Overhead | Rent, power, tools, spread over the dozens you make |
| Fees | Card and market fees as a share of the price |
The business's year is in pierogi business plan, and when a co-packer takes over in frozen food co-packer.
An example: a dozen pierogi
Avondale Pierogi Co., the made-up pierogi maker in Chicago, Illinois, I use in these examples, makes 720 potato and farmer's cheese pierogi in a session with a mold, and freezes them by the dozen:
| 720 pierogi, 60 dozens | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Flour, eggs and sour cream for the dough | $36.00 | |
| Potatoes, farmer's cheese and onion | $54.00 | |
| A batch | $90.00 |
| A dozen | Cost |
|---|---|
| Dough and filling, $90.00 ÷ 60 | $1.50 |
| Time, 510 minutes for the batch at $20 an hour ÷ 60 | $2.83 |
| Bag and label | $0.45 |
| Overhead | $0.70 |
| Full cost | $5.48 |
At a 55% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $5.48 ÷ 0.42 = $13.06, so $14.00. At $14.00 a dozen, each leaves $8.10. The market table had said $12.00, which leaves $6.16. The grocers' $9.00 leaves $3.25 a dozen; at a thousand dozens a month, that's when a co-packer starts to look better than more hands. Bags and labels for frozen food are in how to package frozen food for sale.
Get the calculator
Download the pierogi price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's ingredients, amounts and costs, the dozens 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 filling. Sauerkraut, meat and sweet cheese fillings cost differently, a holiday rush brings in slower hands, and pierogi that crack in the freezer change what each dozen really cost.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack costs each dozen pierogi from its recipe and from what each batch used.
Recipes by weight. Each dozen pierogi 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 dozen pierogi costs this week | Last season's sheet | True cost from the batch |
| Dozens 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.