Food Weights - cooked or uncooked

charleslhurst88

Hey all,

With some foods they have (cooked) in the title however they don't all have. So for example I've been putting in chicken as half the weight the packet states however when cooked it can reduce in weight by a third so unsure now what the correct weight to use is (cooked or uncooked)? Same with rice as that tends to double or more…

Thanks :-)

DaintyWhisper

For chicken and rice, the nutrition label usually states raw/dry. I find that it's much easier to weigh food according to its what it says on the label. That way I don't have to do any unnecessary conversions or make any guesses that might cause inaccuracy. If you cook 4 oz. of raw chicken at 120 calories and it cooks down to 2.8 oz. of cooked chicken, you're still eating 120 calories. The end weight doesn't change the calories in the starting weight. The same thing goes for rice. If you weigh out 45g of dry rice at 160 calories and it weighs 100g cooked, it's still 160 calories. : )

charleslhurst88

Thanks! I'll check the labels going forward to be able to fill in more accurately!

kimny72

Whenever possible, weigh food raw or dry. If you are in a situation where you have to weigh food cooked, make sure you pick an entry that specifically says "cooked".

Food can either lose or absorb moisture when cooked, so the weight will change based on how long you cook it. So it's more precise if you use the raw/dry weight whenever you can. Just make sure you pick the right entry in the database.

cwolfman13

If it doesn't stipulate "cooked" then it's raw/dry. That said, you can also select a cooked or raw entry in the database...so if you have to weigh your chicken cooked then you would select an entry from the database that also states "cooked"

Luna3386

I search USDA cooked or uncooked just depending. I am not making two pans of taco meat for example so I make it all and weigh out cooked.