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Part of Which distribution choices actually reveal an independent food brand's future
6 ways to serve independent food brands without wasting a single jar
Five ways to serve: a strong jar goes further than people expect, and the difference between a good plate and a wasted one is usually the size of the first serving.
What to take away
- A serving and a portion are different things, and the gap explains most over-serving of independent food brands.
- Give a strong product a supporting role rather than the center of the plate.
- Serve less and refill. It reads as generous and wastes nothing.
- One assertive item per plate. Two compete and neither is tasted properly.
- A 6-ounce jar of Fly By Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp holds roughly 30 teaspoons, and a heaped tablespoon is three of them.
Way one: know what a serving actually is
Penn State's guidance on portion sizes draws the distinction that most of this rests on. A food serving is a standard amount listed on the Nutrition Facts panel, defined by the FDA or USDA. A portion is what you actually put on the plate.
Fly By Jing sells its Sichuan Chili Crisp in a 6-ounce jar for typically about $15. The jar holds roughly 30 teaspoons. A heaped tablespoon, which is what a spoon resting in the jar usually delivers, is three of those servings gone in one pass.
Serving vs portion
Serving
- Defined by
- FDA or USDA
- Listed on
- Nutrition Facts panel
- Condiment size
- Often a teaspoon
- Where jars go
- Measured
Portion
- Defined by
- What you plate
- Listed on
- Nowhere
- Condiment size
- A spoonful
- Where jars go
- The gap
Specialty products are where those two diverge most, because the packaging is small and the flavor is strong.
Diaspora Co.'s Pragati turmeric comes in a tin of about 3 ounces for typically $16 to $20, and a pot of beans takes a quarter teaspoon. That gap is where most of a good jar goes, along with the one being saved for an occasion that never arrives.
Way two: measure once, then stop measuring
Georgia extension's guidance on portion control is aimed at nutrition rather than tasting, and the practical technique transfers. Measure a few things once so that you know what the amounts look like, and after that you can serve by eye.
Measure once, then serve by eye
- Pick your three or four most-used specialty items
- Measure a few things once
- Learn what the amounts look like
- Serve by eye from then on
- Stop finishing jars in a fortnight
Start with the three or four specialty items you use most. A 4-ounce tin of Jacobsen Salt Co. flake salt, typically about $14, holds hundreds of three-finger pinches, since a pinch runs about a sixteenth of a teaspoon.
A 12.7-ounce bottle of Brightland AWAKE olive oil, typically about $37, is a finishing oil. One teaspoon over a finished plate is the dose it was pressed for, and the bottle prints its harvest date so you can see how old it is.
After one session you will never need the spoon again, and you will stop finishing jars in two weeks. Most people are surprised by how much less a measured serving looks than what they had been spooning out by habit.
Way three: give the strong item a job
An intense product works better as a component than as a centerpiece. A spoonful of chili crisp through a bowl of plain rice, a scrape of a strong preserve under something mild, a slice of cured meat in a dish rather than a plate of it. The product gets tasted, and it lasts.
Burlap & Barrel's Wild Mountain Cumin, sold in tins from typically $9 to $14, does more bloomed in oil for a pot of beans than it does on a plate of its own.
Omsom starter packets, three to a pack for typically around $15, are built for a pound of protein or a pack of noodles. Fishwife tinned salmon, typically $8 to $10 a tin, works as a garnish for toast or folded through pasta.
This is also how most of these foods were eaten where they came from. Concentrated, expensive or laborious ingredients were used sparingly and made ordinary food better, rather than being served in quantity on their own. The people who made them treated a jar as a seasoning. That is the intended use.
Way four: serve small and refill
Serve small and refill
| Habit | Result |
|---|---|
| Small first serving, offered twice | Nothing left on plates |
| Everything out at once | Warm food, tired palates, waste |
| One strong item per course | Each one actually gets noticed |
| Plain carrier always available | People self-adjust the intensity |
| Chili crisp served by the teaspoon | A 6-ounce Fly By Jing jar covers about 30 plates |
One at a time is the rule for judging as well, where a long flight hands a tired palate to whatever comes last.
Way five: keep one plain thing on the table
Bread, rice, a plain cheese, an unsalted cracker. The plain item does two jobs at once. It lets a guest dilute something they find too strong without saying so, and it gives you a control sample, which is the same idea used in pairing ideas that make specialty foods easier to try.
A bowl of plain rice or a log of fresh goat cheese costs less than the jar it stretches, and both carry a strong spoonful to the whole mouth.
Way six: decide what the last spoonful becomes
A jar with a plan gets used up. Pick the ending before you open it, so the final serving lands in a dish instead of a bin.
Decide what the last spoonful becomes
- A vinaigrette takes the last teaspoon of chili crispthree tablespoons olive oil, one tablespoon vinegar, one teaspoon crisp, shaken.
- The last of a spice tin goes into a whole pot of rice, beans or braise, where a bigger quantity suits food that feeds six.
- A nearly empty tin of smoked salmon becomes a pasta sauce with cream or tomato.
- The tail of a finishing oil becomes a dressing, because a Brightland bottle fades a few months after opening.
- Omsom's starter pouches are sold as a whole-meal base, so one pack is meant to be emptied into a single dinner.
The reason this matters beyond the plate
Over-serving is where most specialty food is lost, and it is lost after it was bought, which makes it the most expensive kind of waste.
A $15 jar spooned out at a tablespoon a plate covers ten servings. Served at a teaspoon a plate it covers thirty. The arithmetic behind the purchase is in how price changes what you get.
