Logging something used as flavoring

belimawr

I tried searching for this, found no results.

How does one go about logging something used solely for flavoring?

I'll give an example: I was making a lentil soup, and went to the local market. There I found pig's feet, and not knowing much about pig's feet but knowing various bones get used for flavoring, figured maybe they'd be useful to impart a little flavor to the soup (end result: it did, slightly, but not too much).

Now, I enter my recipe here... and the amount used added over 100 calories to each serving. Not knowing better, I left it alone. I recently came across websites mentioning people eat pig's feet (even after having cooked in the soup, I can't find anything I'd consider edible on these things). I wonder now if I'm messing up my calorie counts.

While I'm perfectly happy to leave alone as even with a serving of the soup I'm under or near my calorie goal, overstating is just as bad as understating consumed calories, no?

How do others handle situations like this, where something is used for flavor, but not actually consumed? Just use the values as if it were consumed?

I guess this would be useful for when I make a stock as well.

Liftng4Lis

Try soup bones? Wouldn't they have the same effect? Alternately, do a quick add of 10 calories.

mbushnellWA

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

Try soup bones? Wouldn't they have the same effect? Alternately, do a quick add of 10 calories.

Without knowing for sure, 10 calories seems way too low. There's fat in the pigs feet and soup bones that will melt into the soup. Making consommé or clear broth you could skim off some of the fat, but not all. In lentil soup, that's not happening.

I've been pescatarian (nothing higher on the food chain than fish) for 5 years. My favorite lentil soup recipe from Deborah Madison calls for a tablespoon of red wine vinegar and a tablespoon of Dijon mustard added right at the end. Try it, it really pumps up the flavor of a bean soup, and then maybe you can leave out the pigs feet.

AlisonH729

I had this problem with homemade chicken stock. Most of the entries in the database, even for homemade, seem like they would have more calories than the entire pot of bones & vegetables- which get discarded! I found one for 'bone broth' that was the lowest and use that when I build my recipes.

For things like pigs feet, ham bones (and stock for that matter) it probably impacts the fat & sodium more significantly than the calories. Depends what you're focus is I suppose. I'd just quick add some miscellaneous calories and enjoy my soup.

belimawr

Thanks guys for the input. I'll just figure maybe halving those calories, should be good (being wrong by half better than by whole).

@AHainzi, yeah, I definitely enjoy my soups, certainly with the weather we've been getting here in the Mid-Atlantic.