Glossary

Cottage food law

The US umbrella term for state rules permitting home-kitchen food sales, and what the equivalent is called elsewhere.

A named set of prices applied to a customer or group, so one product can sell at several prices without being duplicated.

The smallest amount a supplier will accept on an order, set from the fixed cost of serving one order rather than from a round number.

An agreement to supply now and be paid within a fixed number of days, where the date the clock starts matters more than the number.

The stock quantity that triggers a reorder, calculated from usage rate, supplier lead time and a safety buffer.

A physical count of everything held, valued at cost, used to work out what a period actually consumed.

Folding a fat layer into dough repeatedly so the baked product separates into hundreds of distinct alternating layers.

How much finished product a recipe actually produces after bake loss and trim, measured in the unit you sell in.

Chocolate with enough cocoa butter to be tempered, setting with a snap and a gloss that compound coatings cannot produce.

Baking a pastry case before its filling goes in, either part way or fully, so the base cooks through instead of going soggy.

Revenue minus cost of goods sold as a share of revenue, and the two things that quietly inflate it.

The same price expressed as a multiple of cost and as a share of price, with the arithmetic that shows why they differ.

Ingredient cost divided by selling price, and the gap between the theoretical figure and the counted one.

An emulsion of chocolate and hot cream, with the cream to chocolate ratio deciding whether it pours, pipes or holds a sharp edge.

The thin first layer of icing that traps loose crumbs against a cake so they do not show through the finish coat.

Driving supports through a cake tier so the tiers above rest on the supports rather than on the cake itself.