To price tamales, cost a dozen: the masa harina, lard and broth, the meat or filling and its sauce, the husks, the bag and the steaming, then add the time it takes to make them, from cooking the filling to packing, and price for the margin you want after card fees. Tamales are cheap to fill and slow to make. In the example below, a dozen pork tamales in red chile use $9.65 of ingredients and husks and $6 of time, cost $15.65 and sell for $28. At $20 a dozen, the same tamales leave $3.75 after the wage and fees, so a low price only works if the time is free. Below is a dozen's cost, prices by filling, the time, frozen dozens, the rules, and a free calculator.
The short version
- Cost a dozen: masa, lard, broth, filling, sauce, husks, bag and steaming.
- Time a whole batch and divide by the tamales: 1.5 minutes each here.
- Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin − card fees), rounded up to a dollar.
- Fillings differ: price pork, chicken, cheese and sweet separately, or set one savory price.
- Price a half dozen at a little over half the dozen: the bag and the handling don't halve.
- Tamales with meat generally need a licensed kitchen, and selling to stores brings inspection.
- TaroStack costs every batch from what the pork and masa really cost. More below.
What a dozen costs
Paint Branch Tamale Co., a made-up tamale maker in Hyattsville, Maryland, I use in these examples, makes tamales in batches of 20 dozen:
| A dozen, pork in red chile | Cost |
|---|---|
| Masa harina, 1.5 lb at 90 cents | $1.35 |
| Lard, half a pound at $2 | $1.00 |
| Broth, baking powder and salt | $0.20 |
| Pork shoulder, 1.5 lb raw at $3 | $4.50 |
| Red chile sauce: dried chiles, garlic, spices | $0.80 |
| Corn husks, 15 at 6 cents, allowing for torn ones | $0.90 |
| Bag and label | $0.50 |
| Steaming energy | $0.40 |
| Time, 1.5 minutes a tamale at $20 an hour | $6.00 |
| Cost a dozen | $15.65 |
The time is the biggest single line. It covers the whole batch: cooking and shredding the pork, making the sauce, soaking the husks, beating the masa, spreading, filling and folding, steaming, cooling and bagging. Time your own batch from start to finish and divide by the tamales; a family making tamales together moves faster than one person, but every pair of hands is paid. How to put labor into a cost is in how to compute labor cost in baking.
Prices by filling
| A dozen | Filling | Cost | Price, 40% margin after 3% card fees | Left after fees | Left at $20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pork in red chile | $5.30 | $15.65 | $28 | $11.51 | $3.75 |
| Chicken in green chile | $4.45 | $14.80 | $26 | $10.42 | $4.60 |
| Rajas con queso | $4.50 | $14.85 | $27 | $11.34 | $4.55 |
| Sweet, pineapple and raisin | $1.20 | $11.55 | $21 | $8.82 | $7.85 |
Each price is the cost divided by (1 − 0.40 − 0.03), rounded up to a dollar; "left" is after the $20-an-hour wage and the card fee. The fillings differ by less than a dollar a dozen except the sweet ones, so one savory price of $28 is simpler at a stand and covers all three. The pork is the line that moves: if pork shoulder goes from $3 to $4 a pound, the dozen costs $1.50 more. How the cost of food fits a selling price is in what is a good food cost percentage.
Half dozens and frozen dozens
A half dozen uses half the ingredients and time but still needs a bag and its own handling at the stand, so price it at a little over half: $15 for pork when the dozen is $28. Frozen dozens are the way to sell all week from one batch day: cooled, bagged, labeled with the batch date and frozen, then sold at markets, online for pickup, or for holiday orders, which can be taken weeks ahead and made in one long batch. A catering order of 10 dozen is the same arithmetic with delivery as its own line; how catering is planned is in catering business plan.
The rules
Tamales with meat or cheese need to be kept hot or refrigerated, and cottage food laws generally cover only foods that don't, so tamales for sale are usually made in a licensed commercial kitchen under a retail food or catering permit; check with your county health department. Meat products sold to stores and other businesses generally have to be made under USDA or state inspection; a federal exemption covers operations of the kind retail stores and restaurants carry out, selling in normal retail quantities to their own customers (9 CFR 303.1). A maker who wants pork tamales in a grocer's freezer needs an inspected kitchen or a co-packer with one; how to find one is in how to find a co-packer. Cooked tamales shouldn't sit out of refrigeration more than 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90°F (USDA). This is general information, not legal advice.
Get the calculator
Download the tamale pricing calculator. Type what goes into a dozen, masa harina, lard, broth, the meat or main filling and its sauce, husks, the bag and steaming energy, then the minutes a tamale takes all in, your hourly rate, card fees, the margin you want and a price to test. It works out the cost of a dozen, the price rounded up to a dollar, and what both prices leave after your wage and fees. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Four fillings, pork and chicken bought at prices that change every week, frozen dozens dated by batch in two freezers, and a December rush of holiday orders taken weeks ahead. A sheet can't say how many dozen of each are in the freezer, how much pork to buy for the orders already taken, or what a dozen cost in the last batch.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack costs every batch from what the pork and masa really cost.
Batches at what they used. Each filling is a recipe, and the masa and red chile sauce are sub-recipes of their own, with units that convert: masa harina bought by the 50-pound bag, used by the pound. Recording a batch takes everything off stock from the lots used, at what you paid, and divides by the dozens that came out.
Frozen dozens by lot and date. Every batch goes into a lot with its date, picking takes the oldest dozens first, and one report walks a lot of pork to every batch and every customer who got tamales from it.
And the holiday orders. Orders are sales orders for their pickup day that show whether the dozens to fill them are in the freezer while you're still typing, so you know what's left to make and what pork to buy. Margins are reported by product and by customer.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Dozens of each filling in the freezer | Count the bags | Stock by lot and date |
| Pork for the orders already taken | Add up the order slips | Sales orders, checked against stock |
| What a dozen cost in the last batch | Last year's number | Each batch, at what it used |
| Which batch did this customer get? | Unknown | The lot, on the order |
Recipes, batches, lots, recalls and margins by product and customer 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.