> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://guide.garde.app/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Recipes & menu costing > Recipes turn sales into theoretical usage — the foundation of variance and plate cost. **Who:** the chef (quantities) with the ops lead (mapping). **When:** onboarding, then whenever the menu or portioning changes. ## Build recipes **Inventory → Recipes** lists every recipe with cost, menu price, and food-cost % against your goal. Recipes with cost, price, and mapping status A recipe's detail: cost vs goal, ingredients with vendor mappings, and the unmapped-POS warning * Add ingredients in real kitchen units; Garde prices from live, invoice-backed item costs — one recipe at a time or the whole book at once. * Set a **Goal Food Cost %** per recipe so actual is always measured against intent — that's the red/green food-cost % on the list. * **Sub-recipes**: batch recipes (sauce, dough, broth) can be ingredients in other recipes. Build bottom-up — prep first, then menu items. * Give batch recipes a **yield** so [Prep & Batches](/operating-guide/daily-prep-batches) and costing can convert batches to units. ## Map recipes to your POS A recipe only depletes inventory when sales reach it. Link each recipe to its **POS item(s)** — Garde suggests likely matches, and a per-link **scale factor** handles half portions and doubles — then cover variations with **modifier rules**, not duplicate recipes: * Keep **one base recipe per POS item**. * Model sizes, temps, milks, toppings as **modifier mappings** that add or swap ingredients when the modifier sells (*oat milk → +4 oz oat, −4 oz whole*). Mapping a recipe to the POS items that deplete it Don't create "Latte — Iced — Large — Oat" as its own recipe. One "Latte" base plus modifier rules stays maintainable and keeps variance meaningful. ## PMIX Mapping **Recipes → PMIX Mapping** shows every POS menu item and whether it's linked. Unmapped items sell without depleting anything — they inflate "savings" variance and hide real waste. Work it to zero after every menu change. **Order of operations for trustworthy costing:** items → conversions → recipes → POS mapping → modifier rules. Skip a step and the numbers downstream will tell you — loudly.