House-Made Prep

    Syrups, infusions, shrubs, tinctures, and cocktail mixes produced in-house rather than purchased pre-made. House-made preps are a competitive differentiator and a significant source of costing complexity.

    Why House-Made Prep matters

    House-made preps are what separate a craft program from a speed-well operation. A house-made lavender honey syrup, a clarified citrus oleo saccharum, a house-aged negroni base — these create flavors that can't be bought and differentiate the menu from every competitor.

    But they're also invisible cost centers. A house simple syrup 'costs almost nothing' — until you account for the sugar (yield loss from dissolving), the water, the labor time, the energy to boil, and the shelf-life waste from batches that don't get used before expiry. Most bars dramatically underestimate house prep costs and consequently underprice every cocktail that contains them.

    Proper house prep costing requires building the prep as its own recipe — ingredients in, quantity out — and then using that prep's per-unit cost in every cocktail recipe that calls for it. When the sugar price goes up, every cocktail using that prep should reflect the new cost automatically. This only works with documented, costed prep recipes.

    How methodus helps

    methodus lets you cost house-made preps as nested recipes — build a prep spec, set the yield, and every cocktail using that prep automatically inherits the correct cost.

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