How do you determine nutrition values of cooked foods?

PippiNe

I'm trying to determine the nutrition value of my porcupine meatballs so I can enter them in "my foods". I can easily determine the calorie/fat count per meatball based on raw ingredients, but how do I determine the values once cooked? They are cooked in an electric skillet and some of the sauce (which they are cooked in) is eaten with the meatballs. I know that ground beef "shrinks" as it is cooked, but is the fat simply transferred to the sauce or does some of it actually "disappear" in the 2-hour cooking process? Do any of the other nutrients (protein, sodium, cholesterol, potassium) change in the cooking process? Thank you for any insight.

AlongCame_Molly

Calories and macronutrients pretty much stay the same, regardless of whether or not heat is applied to them. Any change that does occur is negligible, and isn't worth trying to calculate.

Sunitagt

Calories and macronutrients pretty much stay the same, regardless of whether or not heat is applied to them. Any change that does occur is negligible, and isn't worth trying to calculate.

Agreed. I would just plug the raw ingredients into the recipe function on here and then divide by how many servings (unless you're only doing one serving, then just plug the raw ingredients into your diary).

ecdce

I'm trying to determine the nutrition value of my porcupine meatballs

Porcupine meatballs? I have terrifying images in my head right now.

HeidiCooksSupper

Unless you drain off the fat and discard it, it stays in the food along with its calories.

herblackwings39

I'm trying to determine the nutrition value of my porcupine meatballs

Porcupine meatballs? I have terrifying images in my head right now.

If they're what I'm thinking of they're just meatballs with rice in them that kinda sticks out like a porcupine.

Unknown

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PippiNe

LOL-I know they sound weird, but they are a seasoned meatball with rice cooked in tomato soup. Once the rice is cooked it does stick out of the meatballs like porcupine quills. One of my family's favorites. Not super healthy, but everything is do-able in proper portions )

Thanks for the nutrition advice, I'll just log the raw values. Love you guys!

Agate69

Calories wether fat or carbs or protein do not disappear during cooking. Food usually loses moisture during cookin. Divide your raw meatballs calorie total and divide by number of balls recipe made. Take sauce recipe total calories and divide by numer of tablespoon recipe makes. You should be able to measure amount of sauce eaten.