Uncooked Pasta to Cooked Pasta

LemonCitron
LemonCitron Posts: 116 Member
edited November 12 in Food and Nutrition
Okay I'm kind of reaching out here and hoping that someone will 'happen' to know the answer to this.

For whole wheat pasta the label on the box says 85 grams is 1 serving. Does anyone happen to know how much it weighs when it is cooked?

When I make dinner I make more than just 1 portion because my boyfriend needs to eat it too but I don't know how much it weighs after. I COULD just cook my portion separate but before I put in the effort I thought I'd ask. You guys are always awesome for stuff like this :)
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Replies

  • rmhand
    rmhand Posts: 1,067 Member
    not sure about the 85g, but a typical pasta portion is 2oz which usually cook up to about 1 cup.
    so is 85g is 2oz then your cooked portion is 1 cup.
  • DyannAlvarez
    DyannAlvarez Posts: 162 Member
    Bump...
  • SheilaSisco
    SheilaSisco Posts: 722 Member
    From what I hear and have experimented with, pasta about doubles in weight as it cooks.
  • maysflower
    maysflower Posts: 180
    What I did was I cooked my pasta portion separate the first time and wrote down how many cups it cooked up. That way I could cook my family pasta in one pot instead of 2!
  • mikeyml
    mikeyml Posts: 568 Member
    Yea from what I understand things like pasta and rice double in weight after cooking due to water absorption.

    So 1 serving would be 170 grams for you. That sounds a bit high though so I don't know. In the states 1 serving is 2 ounces (57 grams) of dry pasta or 1/8th of a 1 pound box. 1 ounce = 28.5 grams

    So 1 serving of cooked pasta in the US should weigh approx. 4 ounces or 114 grams.
  • Zuznana
    Zuznana Posts: 284 Member
    I always weigh it after it's cooked and eat that. So if it's says 85g, I will have that 85g cooked....I thought that's what they meant. Am I meant to weigh it uncooked? Whoops. :blushing:
  • keith0373
    keith0373 Posts: 2,154 Member
    The calories are for dry weight. The water adds nothing to the count. The good news is that if you are weighing it cooked, you are saving yourself a ton of calories :O)
  • Becca_007
    Becca_007 Posts: 596 Member
    a serving of pasta is 2 oz dry, or 1/4 cup dry which equals about 3/4 cup cooked (it does vary depending on variety of pasta).

    http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-whole-wheat-pasta-ft23750
  • daisy89
    daisy89 Posts: 151 Member
    The calories are for dry weight. The water adds nothing to the count. The good news is that if you are weighing it cooked, you are saving yourself a ton of calories :O)

    I believe this to be correct also. The pasta only doubles in size because it has absorbed water, and water is negligible in calories.
    The only way to add more calories would be to add salt or herbs to the water you're cooking with. I never do, so I just measure the pasta dry.
  • Zuznana
    Zuznana Posts: 284 Member
    Well, so ever since I've been logging food here I was under calories...well, it's kind of nice, especially on my "over" days, but it's also good to know that I'm a numpty, lol. Thank you for making that clear for me. :laugh:
  • keith0373
    keith0373 Posts: 2,154 Member
    You made me google numpty!
  • Crissena
    Crissena Posts: 13 Member
    2 ounces of dry pasta is 5 ounces of cooked pasta. I just found that on a pasta manufacturers website ;) i know I'm kinda late on the conversation ladies but I was needing to know this tonight at spaghetti night at our house :)
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
    If you make two dry-weighed out servings, just weigh the end product, divide by two and serve each serving. It doesn't matter if 85g becomes 170, 165 or 190 after its cooked. If the final weight of the two cooked portions equals 340g, then portion 170g into each bowl, if it equals 324, then you'd put 162 in each bowl.

    And if you make, say, two servings for the significant other, then divide the final weight by thirds, take one-third for yourself and the rest goes to him. You'll rarely get the exact same weight measurement of a cooked product since it all depends on just how much water I happened to absorb during that cooking time. Go two minutes longer one night and it'll be heavier than when it cooked less because it will have absorbed more water. But if you know how many servings it was initially, just divide whatever the final weight is by that and you're golden.

    I do this all the time for my hubby and I. As long as I weigh everything equally when I'm prepping the recipe I know to just take the grand total and divide it at the end.
  • snafu0542
    snafu0542 Posts: 1 Member
    thanks to every one who took the time to post your results' i am 70 yrs old and sometimes i get confused . but it looks like you young people do also ... hahahahah Tk's again .....snafu
  • chonji4ever
    chonji4ever Posts: 120 Member
    Now I have a question. Why are wanting to know the cooked weight, because the added weight is due to the water? Just weigh the whole dry portion to count the total calories in the batch and figure the rough percentage of the batch that you eat by volume measurment (all the pasta will swell uniform).
  • missindepndnt86
    missindepndnt86 Posts: 77 Member
    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:
  • skygram
    skygram Posts: 1
    1 cup of cooked spegetti isn't much but I know thats a servig
  • mdmcmillen
    mdmcmillen Posts: 97 Member
    bump.

    I'm going with 2oz dry = 5oz cooked. Seems to be the general consensus everywhere google has taken me.....
  • roland5599
    roland5599 Posts: 1
    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.
  • Koldnomore
    Koldnomore Posts: 1,613 Member
    If you plug this into the 'Recipes' portion you can at least estimate if you can determine how many servings ;)

    For pasta I weigh twice because the weight of a 'cooked' portion will always vary based on your cooking time. Someone who prefers well cooked pasta will have bigger noodles than if you cook it al'dente. I weigh it dry, then weigh it again cooked and use a ratio to convert it back to 'dry' for tracking based on how big my portion is - I'm anal I know :P
  • valleymum
    valleymum Posts: 33 Member
    i just weighed everything tonight as we were having spegetti for supper!! using Barilla speghettini. 85 g was one serving, its 215 grams after cooked, and one and a half cups :)
  • pjnsydsmoma
    pjnsydsmoma Posts: 10 Member
    I am fairly new to this weighing and measuring out my servings.. But this was exactly the question I asked myself tonight. I cook for my family and measure out my portions when i make my plate. I was thinking it would probably be about a cup cooked.. Thanks!
  • eweeks01
    eweeks01 Posts: 2
    My family loves pasta, so we eat it probably 3 to 4 days a week. I think the key is making your own. After I tried it, I was shocked at how easy it is. You can make it healthier than you can buy it. 3/4 cup of whole wheat flower, 3/4 cup of white flower, 2 eggs, 1 tbls extra virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon of salt = 4 servings @ 180 cal. per. Then make your own sauce (ours comes in at 50 cal per serving). End results is a good size serving of homemade pasta at 230 cal. The pasta machine is all you need to get started.
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,273 Member
    My family loves pasta, so we eat it probably 3 to 4 days a week. I think the key is making your own. After I tried it, I was shocked at how easy it is. You can make it healthier than you can buy it. 3/4 cup of whole wheat flower, 3/4 cup of white flower, 2 eggs, 1 tbls extra virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon of salt = 4 servings @ 180 cal. per. Then make your own sauce (ours comes in at 50 cal per serving). End results is a good size serving of homemade pasta at 230 cal. The pasta machine is all you need to get started.
    That's 600 mg. of sodium per 180 cal. serving, not even counting the eggs!! (1 tsp.=2400 mg. sodium)
    You may want to cut that back...or not.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,221 Member
    Okay I'm kind of reaching out here and hoping that someone will 'happen' to know the answer to this.

    For whole wheat pasta the label on the box says 85 grams is 1 serving. Does anyone happen to know how much it weighs when it is cooked?

    When I make dinner I make more than just 1 portion because my boyfriend needs to eat it too but I don't know how much it weighs after. I COULD just cook my portion separate but before I put in the effort I thought I'd ask. You guys are always awesome for stuff like this :)
    Water has no calories, it doesn't matter how much it ways later. Use the nutritional info for dry and your golden.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,221 Member
    My family loves pasta, so we eat it probably 3 to 4 days a week. I think the key is making your own. After I tried it, I was shocked at how easy it is. You can make it healthier than you can buy it. 3/4 cup of whole wheat flower, 3/4 cup of white flower, 2 eggs, 1 tbls extra virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon of salt = 4 servings @ 180 cal. per. Then make your own sauce (ours comes in at 50 cal per serving). End results is a good size serving of homemade pasta at 230 cal. The pasta machine is all you need to get started.
    That's 600 mg. of sodium per 180 cal. serving, not even counting the eggs!! (1 tsp.=2400 mg. sodium)
    You may want to cut that back...or not.
    Not a chance, the salt is needed.
  • SkinnyForMinnie
    SkinnyForMinnie Posts: 68 Member
    bump...and thanks! Great info! :smile:
  • labrennan
    labrennan Posts: 132 Member
    bump
  • sarahharmintx
    sarahharmintx Posts: 868 Member
    My experience - 2 ounces raw = 5 ounces cooked

    I double checked this and even counted the noodles.
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