Jacket potatoes

As far as weighing goes, I weigh all my meats and pastas BEFORE cooking. I've always read/heard that you weigh prior to cooking. I also measure my veggies and other ingredients pre-cooking, as veggies usually shrink, like meats.

I usually weigh raw or before cooking since you can have things like pasta etc measured before hand without waste.

If weighing after cooked, you don't know the calories in it until you have already cooked it.

I weigh everything raw with the exception of rice. I cook a bunch of brown rice, then freeze it in 1/2 cup serving sizes for ease in fixing a quick dinner.

Cooking a potato doesn't change it's nutritional value.

It changes its nutritional value per weight though.

^ exactly. I think i'm correct in saying that raw potatoes are heavier because they contain more water.

I always weigh ingredients raw, although i'm not sure my measuring cups are US size, so I try to avoid anything measured in cups.

(I also don't find it an accurate measurement with things like vegetables, if they're chopped finely more will fit in a cup surely?!)

Cooking a potato doesn't change it's nutritional value.

It changes its nutritional value per weight though.

It's only water evaporating off and if you choose the weight of a raw potato then there's no worry. Same with meat, weigh it raw to be accurate because cooking methods vary.

ok, i'm confused about this. wouldn't it be more accurate to weigh it after cooking *because* there's less water? because when you weigh it raw, there's no way to know how much of it is water. but once you cook the water out, wouldn't that give you a more accurate weight for the actual food itself?

That's where you have to read. If it says one raw potato then that's how you measure it, if it says 1/4 cup dry rice, that's how you measure it. It depends on where you are getting your calorie info. Generally foods in the raw state are about the same across the board but your method of cooking can greatly vary the weight of food after cooking which would skew the information.

EG: If I take 50g dry weight of pasta and know the calories I have an accurate measurement. If I give you that 50 g and you cook it very el dente it won't absorb as much water as if I cook it to mush. So how do you account for how much water is in the final weight?

I usually weigh potatoes raw, but with baked potatoes, it's easy enough to do either. If I was weighing it already baked I'd go for the USDA reference in the database: "Potato - Baked, flesh and skin, without salt" (the one without an asterisk) and use the drop-down menu to get it by weight in g. For raw, the database entry I use is "Potato - Flesh and skin, raw" (again, without an asterisk). Then, just add whatever you have with the potato.

This