Cost of Wings

[daisy]

There are no other issues as you state Mike.

As far as going out to drum up more business, we are doing great in sales, when I spoke of down time I was speaking before opening & after our lunch rush before the dinner rush. I do not understand where it came into play that we have other issues. And how did it go off topic of having other issues

The only issue I was asking for an opinion on, was jointed or not jointed wings.

It is hardly an issue to precook wings, null on cleaning issues except the pan they are precooked in, NOT A BIG DEAL…grease trap cleaning ??? I have never had an issue with, it gets cleaned every 8-10 months, because we have such a good procedure when it comes down to anything going into the sink for washing

I can not get fully cooked naked wings in my area, I have spoke to my supplier their is no such thing. The only fully cooked wings available are breaded & pre sauced.

Ok. I believe we (me & my business partner) will make the decision

 

[royster13]

Every so often our local meat market has utility grade chickens at a super price…The downside is they are almost always missing their wings…I guess sometimes there is such a demand for wings they get “clipped”…

 

[Penelope]

Daisy
using your procedure that you are cooking the wings right away, I think you should give it a try. Just remember once you defrost the bulk wings you will have to get them cooked within a couple of days.
Also, a suggestion to your procedure, before you put them in bags to freeze them, place the wings flat on a pan and freeze for an hour or two then package like you do.

$50.00 a month is $600.00 a year

 

[Penelope]

paul7979:

Looking at my suppliers online order guide, “disjointed” jumbo wings average 6-9 per pound while “whole” jumbo wings average 3-5 per pound. I don’t know exactly what “disjointed” or “whole” wings are but if disjointed wings are just whole wings butchered like described above, it would seem that 40 pounds of whole wings will only yield slightly over 20 pounds of disjointed wings. I would not have thought the waste would be so much but this needs to be factored into your decision every bit as much as the labor involved. My suggestion would be to buy a case and find out the amount of time needed to butcher them and the true cost per order. Sample them to your employees, family and friends to see if there is any problem with sharp bones ect and to make sure the flavor is as good as what you are serving now.

A whole wing contains 2 pieces of disjointed wings, (1piece whole wing = 2 piece disjointed).

 

[NicksPizza]

Penelope:

paul7979:

Looking at my suppliers online order guide, “disjointed” jumbo wings average 6-9 per pound while “whole” jumbo wings average 3-5 per pound. I don’t know exactly what “disjointed” or “whole” wings are but if disjointed wings are just whole wings butchered like described above, it would seem that 40 pounds of whole wings will only yield slightly over 20 pounds of disjointed wings. I would not have thought the waste would be so much but this needs to be factored into your decision every bit as much as the labor involved. My suggestion would be to buy a case and find out the amount of time needed to butcher them and the true cost per order. Sample them to your employees, family and friends to see if there is any problem with sharp bones ect and to make sure the flavor is as good as what you are serving now.

A whole wing contains 2 pieces of disjointed wings, (1piece whole wing = 2 piece disjointed).

1. whole will likely include the tips that are complete waste unless you have the uncommon customer who wants them fried . . . our they are awesome for making fresh stock.
2. Whole wings should probably yield closer to 90% or more useable product. So, 36 to 38 lbs. of 6-10 flats&drums. It is not a half waste prospect. 2 to 4 lbs or so of tips and skin/fat for stock or waste.

 

[paul7979]

I stand corrected. As I stated, I really didn’t know what “disjointed” and “whole” wings were.

 

[bodegahwy]

Daisy, you are correct… we digressed from your original question and some drew conclusions without basis.

That does not change the fact that there might be some good thought process in some of the comments people offered.

I am not a fan of complexity in my business unless that complexity pays off. What I like about pre-cooked wings is that they are good, they are simple and they add revenue in a reasonable proportion to the complexity they add.

I do not know where you are located and who your vendors are but I find it amazing that you do not have access to a plain cooked wing. We buy from Sysco and from US food and each of them has a list of choices of cooked wing products in various sizes etc. I would be willing to bet I have 20+ choices between them with as least a half dozen of those being without breading or sauce or other flavor.

Even when sales are going just fine, an hour a week spent concentrating on sales is still a better use of time than prepping a product for which you have no meaningful sales volume. In my business, the equivalent would be Mozzarella sticks. We sell a few hundred orders per year but all we do is take them from the freezer to the oven. We stock no additional condiments or containers and the storage space they take up is two cases in the freezer. If I had to do ANYTHING else to prep them I would drop them from the menu.

Wings can be a better business and still stay pretty simple. We go through 50-100 lbs per week when we are busy. We have to stay ahead of thawing them but prep is simply opening the bags and applying the sauces we serve. Years ago we cooked off raw wings. As I posted above, we learned that the combination of weight loss, labor and other costs made it a bad equation. One way of looking at it is to go to your ending portion cost rather than price per weight. That will wash out the various components of the cost and get things so they make sense. When I did that math with a basic assumption about labor time spent, the raw wings made no sense.

Grease Traps: When we were cooking off wings our grease trap cleanings went from once every 4-6 months to once every 2-3 months. It is not so much what you allow down the drain so much as the grease on the pans that makes the difference. But maybe your trap is larger than ours?

Best of luck on whatever you decide!