Uncooked Pasta to Cooked Pasta

MissJay75

I needed to know this because I cooked a big batch of a pasta dish and did not think to weigh the finished product before i served it up for the first time. So now I have quite a bit less but I'm not sure exactly how much less. I need to back into the problem. Here is what I cooked:

Beef - 20 oz total weight
cal: 1200 total
Rontini Wheat rotini pasta - 13.75 oz (1 box) uncooked
cal: 1260 total
Sauce - 24 oz (1 jar)
cal: 350 total

The whole recipe therefore has 1200 + 1260 + 350 = 2810 calories and an uncooked weight of 57.75 oz which means 2810 / 57.75 = 48.66 calories per uncooked ounce. So the question is, how many calories per COOKED ounce?? In my estimation, there are two unknown factors that need to be identified: how much weight did the pasta gain during cooking and how much weight did the beef LOSE during cooking?

In my initial stab at this, I assumed a 1.75x increase in weight in pasta and ignored the weight lost by the beef since this would err on the side of higher calories. The result of this was that the weight per cooked ounce of the meal was 42 calories. This seems to make sense since the pasta is second highest food in calorie density (beef being #1 by a lot) so that as the pasta increases in weight (but the calories remain the same) the total amount of calories per 1 ounce now decrease: from 48.66 to 42.

A simple way to do this is to decide how many servings are in the whole batch. Since you used 20 ounces of meat, I am going to estimate 5 servings total. (You can even portion them out into 5 individual servings and weigh them to make sure they are the same size, but I usually just eyeball it.) The total calories (2810) divided by 5 servings = 562 calories per serving. If not everyone in your family eats the same size serving, you can still estimate. Example dad eats 1.5 serving, mom eats 1 serving, child eats half serving. If those serving sizes are too big, change the total servings in the recipe to 7 or 8. Make sense?

BetesBitch

I have weighed out 85g dry then weighed the pasta again when cooked,, several times now to be sure. My final result is always about 210g for al dente, slightly firm pasta. I hope that helps

Thank you thank you. Omg no wonder my blood sugars were going low!!! I am so happy i found this out!!! When on insulin, 85g of cooked pasta carbs is WAY different than the 85g of DRY pasta carbs. omg omg omg!!!! Break through!!!

melfitnesspal13

2oz of uncooked pasta is the normal serving. I have Big Loser kitchen scale ($15 Bed Bath Beyond) and simply weigh it, equals about 56 gms (not 114 as someone else mentioned, that is a BIG portion). It measures in oz and gms, very easy to use and even tares (zeros out the weight of your container). It is worth investing a little bit for the scale, saves alot of calculations and time in the end. I keep it right by the fridge.

:flowerforyou:

LisaDski521

I tried it, too. 2 oz. of dry spaghetti equals 5 oz. cooked!

ljr0851

Go to the following link on the Barilla site...I think this simply says it all:

http://www.barilla.com/faq?p=measuring

yanick356

Just cooked Trader Joe's Brown Rice pasta. 2 oz dry is a serving; 4 oz dry yielded 7 oz cooked. Are you guys getting 5 oz yields from 2 oz of regular pastas? I am not sure this pasta is worth it at 400 calories for less than a cup.

Iceman1591

I did too, lol

Vickilyn1

Okay. What am I doing wrong. I weigh out 2oz of dry spaghetti on my scale. When it is done cooking I get 2 cups. That seems way more than you all are getting. Even though I only eat 1 cup and save the other for another meal.

mcintoshmc

Okay, I've read the thread and I am a little confused. 56 grams of De Cecco Penne Rigate Pasta is 200 calories. I ate 1 cup of cooked pasta, so is the calorie intake half that (100 calories)?

jfenow

Water has no calories, it doesn't matter how much it ways later. Use the nutritional info for dry and your golden.

You're misunderstanding the problem. The cooked pasta will weigh more than twice as much. It's not the water we're worried about, it's the overall weight when cooked to get your full serving. If you weigh the cooked pasta at 85 g, you will will not be getting a full portion. If you're making a huge pot of pasta, you want to know how much to take out for one serving when it's cooked. Measuring it dry doesn't help at all, and once cooked it will not weigh 85 g.

I did a test with spaghetti. Cooked al dente, 85 g ended up 210 g and it fit into 1 measuring cup. For rigatoni, it was 27 pieces (easier to count 27 rigatoni noodles than about 200 spaghetti strands!).

jfenow

Not a chance, the salt is needed.

Not if you're on a salt restricted diet! I actually use My Fitness Pal to keep track of my daily sodium. I would make your recipe. Without the salt!

jfenow

mikeyml wrote: »

Yea from what I understand things like pasta and rice double in weight after cooking due to water absorption.

Actually the general rule is that pasta doubles and rice triples (1/4 cup of dry rice, the usual service size, is 3/4 cup cooked). But it is only an approximation. I've always found pasta to grow by 2.5 in weight. So the 170g is actually low. It's closer to 210g when cooked.

mkakids

Here is what i do to ensure accuracy and only dirty one pot......

I have a small metal strainer that sits onto of my pasta pot. I dump the majority of the box in the pan of boiling water, lay the small strainer ontop, and put my pre weighed portion in the strainer to cook.

rbartschcal

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/assets/pdf/guides/pastameasuringchart.pdf

I just came across this. This should help. It should help me, that's for sure. I'm barely ever the one tossing the pasta into the pot, but I'm always the guy weighing it for next day's lunch.

snowflake954

missindepndnt86 wrote: »

I've gotta put my two cents in... why in the world are these measured dry, anyway? Who the heck eats dry pasta?! Makes it very hard for a family like mine where there's 4 of us... 1 adult counting calories, 1 adult who loves to eat, eat, eat, 1 child who's a juvenile diabetic so we're counting carbs, and 1 child who just eats whatever.... Ugh. :grumble:

I live in Italy and make pasta for my family almost everyday. It is weighed dry because that is the accurate measurement. We eat our pasta "al dente" which means just soft enough to eat (my family will not eat overcooked pasta) if you cook it longer it absorbs more--water, sauce, oil, etc and weighs more.