Is it possible for MasterCook to calculate the costs of my recipes and menus and meal plans?
Yes, it is! This has been a popular feature of the Windows product since the 1990's. The MasterCook Windows product can calculate the cost analysis of a recipe or menu or meal plan. It is able to do this using the data from an ingredient in the Ingredient List. You input the cost data for an ingredient. That cost is associated with that ingredient, so you input the cost one time only for an ingredient, and it will be able to use that data in any recipe or menu or meal plan that uses that ingredient.
See this video for an example and follow the instructions below.
FIRST STEP
The first step is to go to the Ingredient List and look up one of the ingredients in your recipe. If you open a recipe in the editor screen and select/highlight an ingredient row, and then select Ingredient List from the Tools menu, it will take you to that ingredient in the Ingredient List.
Make sure there is data in both the "Is equal to Weight" as well as the "Or equals Volume" fields. Data needs to be in both of those fields. If you do not have data in both of those fields, then costing cannot work properly.
SECOND STEP
Next, go to the More Info tab within the Ingredient list and input your cost for the ingredient there. Select any type of weight or volume measure in the Unit column. It does not matter.
THIRD STEP
Finally, press the SAVE button along the lower left of the screen. If you fail to press the SAVE button it won't save all of the correct data.
TEST YOUR DATA
Then create a new test recipe and input just that ingredient and use one of the measures (weight or volume) to make sure it is calculating correctly in the recipe:
- Select/highlight the ingredient row.
- Then select Ingredient Analysis from the Ingredient Menu:
Confirm the cost is calculating as expected:
Then adjust that ingredient to half the amount and save the recipe for that change.
Then see if the cost updates correctly to confirm the calculations are working as expected:
CHECK OTHER INGREDIENTS
You can click on one ingredient in a recipe and use the Ingredient Analysis command from the Ingredient menu as explained above to check each one of your ingredients in a recipe to find the one that is missing data or has incorrect data. Check each ingredient in a recipe to make sure each one of them is correct. All it takes is for one ingredient to not have the complete or correct data.
BACKUP YOUR INGREDIENT DATA
The changes you make to the Ingredient List within MasterCook are stored within the MC Ingredients.ing file within the MC Tools folder on your computer. Therefore, keep that MC Ingredients.ing file backed up on a regular basis. Copy it to another disk or drive using Windows when MasterCook is NOT running. See this article: Backing Up and Restoring Files.
MasterCook 2020 has an entirely new ingredient database, so if you have an older version of MasterCook and want to use your ingredients in version 2020, you will need to contact MasterCook Support for help. We can merge your ingredients into MasterCook 2020 for you and send you back a new .ing file to use going forward.
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