£PrepSheet

Cottage pie: what it costs to put on the plate

The pub-menu workhorse: beef mince braised with onion, carrot and celery under a cheddar-topped mash. Ten portions in a gastronorm, costed from wholesale case prices dated 7 September 2026.

Ingredients per portion£1.90
Batch of 10£18.99
Sell at 30% food cost£7.59 inc VAT (£6.33 ex)

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Ingredients and cost, 10 portions

IngredientPack pricePack sizeUsedCost
Beef mince£14.992000 g1500 g£11.24
Onions£6.9910000 g400 g£0.28
Carrots£6.9910000 g300 g£0.21
Celery (head)£13.9912 each1 each£1.17
Garlic£3.491000 g20 g£0.07
Tomato puree£7.493000 g60 g£0.15
Worcestershire sauce£3.35290 ml30 ml£0.35
Stock (bouillon powder)£10.991000 g30 g£0.33
Plain flour£12.4916000 g30 g£0.02
Frozen peas£5.292500 g300 g£0.63
Potatoes (chipping)£15.4925000 g2500 g£1.55
Unsalted butter£31.995000 g150 g£0.96
Whole milk£1.692000 ml150 ml£0.13
Mature cheddar£9.491000 g200 g£1.90
Batch total£18.99
Per portion (÷ 10)£1.90

Cost per line is pack price × (amount used ÷ pack size), the same sum the tool runs. Change one pack price and every line that uses it moves.

Method

  1. Sweat the diced onion, carrot and celery in a little of the butter until soft, then add the garlic.
  2. Brown the mince hard in batches so it colours rather than stews; drain excess fat.
  3. Stir in the flour and puree, cook out a minute, then add 1 litre of stock (30 g bouillon) and the Worcestershire sauce. Simmer 45 minutes until thick. Add the peas at the end; season.
  4. Boil the peeled potatoes, pass or mash with the rest of the butter and the warm milk; season.
  5. Layer the mince in a 1/1 gastronorm, fork the mash over, top with grated cheddar. Bake at 190 °C (375 °F) for 30-35 minutes until the top browns and the filling bubbles.

Costing notes

The mince is three-fifths of the plate cost, so the pack price on that one line moves the dish more than everything else together. The wholesale line found was 10% fat mince at £7.50 a kilo; a 20% fat retail pack was £6.50 a kilo the same day, so a leaner spec costs more, not less. Stock is costed as 30 g of bouillon powder per litre; if you make stock from bones, cost the bones and the gas instead.

Where the prices came from

JJ Foodservice collection prices as shown on its public search pages on 7 September 2026 (delivery prices run about £1-2 a case higher). The site does not label VAT on most lines: raw food is zero-rated in the UK, while oil, vanilla and alcohol carry standard-rate VAT. Where JJ had no line that day, a Tesco retail price is used and marked. Your supplier's price is the one that matters: open the recipe and type it in.

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