Should I include the calories for this crockpot recipe?

awilli20
awilli20 Posts: 10 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have a pulled pork recipe that requires soaking a 2 lb pork tenderloin in 12 fl oz of root beer on low for 6-8 hours. Afterwards, the root beer is drained from the crockpot to shred the pork and pour BBQ sauce over. I figure little of the root beer is soaked in the tenderloin but I'm unsure how much since I have made it before and alot of what was poured into the crockpot is drained back out. The purpose of the root beer is to make it tender. I was wondering if I should bother including the rootbeer into the recipe count and if so, should I put a tiny amount into the calories?

Replies

  • caribear1984
    caribear1984 Posts: 203
    I think the most accurate way to count marinades is to weigh or measure the liquid before you pour it on, then when you remove the meat from the marinade, you weigh or measure the remaining liquid. You subtract the leftover liquid from the starting amount and count the difference. (I hope that makes sense) But it is all an educated guess.
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
    I would add in at least half of the amount of root beer to the calories that goes in the recipe. What you're draining is a combo of root beer and natural juices that have come out of the pork, so even if it seems like almost all of the root beer is being dumped out, it's absorbed a lot of the sugar from it and released a lot of it's own juices. So you may pour out 8 oz of liquid from the crockpot, but you have no idea how much of that is soda and how much is from the meat itself.

    What the root beer is mostly doing is absorbing the sugar into the tenderloin to break down the tissues and add some sweetness to the meat. So it's by doing it's job, it's naturally being added into the meat itself.
  • whitebalance
    whitebalance Posts: 1,654 Member
    Mmmmm... root beer as a pork tenderizer, what a lovely idea....
    I'd probably log the whole amount of root beer, but I do like to overestimate my intake.
  • awilli20
    awilli20 Posts: 10 Member
    I forgot about the meat releasing its own juices until I read what you post. It definitely makes since some of the soda will be absorbed into the meat. I will count the rootbeer into the calories content.
  • mtfr810
    mtfr810 Posts: 136 Member
    Think this is good. Worst case... It will be overkill. It will be fine. Sometimes it's best to enjoy the food and go for and extra walk to "earn" the calories. Enjoy! You're human!!!!
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,223 Member
    No, root beer is exempt.:bigsmile:

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