Food Measuring-Does my logic make sense?

c_tap77
c_tap77 Posts: 189 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Okay so I'm making spaghetti with meat sauce tonight for dinner. I'm not worrying about the pasta measurement--that I can handle.

Its the meat sauce that I'm trying to take a stab at.

I entered the ground turkey and the pasta sauce into a recipe.

The jar of sauce is 2 1/2 cups (so 20 oz) and the ground turkey is a 20 oz package.

So the total weight would be 40 oz..

If I'm wanting to eat 1/8 of the sauce made, could I measure out 5 oz of the combined sauce? Will this be a close enough estimate?

I'm new to using a food scale so I would appreciate any assistance!!!!

Replies

  • Bianca42
    Bianca42 Posts: 310 Member
    The ground turkey is 20 oz before being cooked. After you cook it, it will be a little less. Personally, I would just measure the 5oz and call it close enough. But, if you want to be totally accurate, you would need to either weigh the meat when it's done before adding it to the sauce or weight the total sauce/meat combo before dishing up your helping.
  • Defren
    Defren Posts: 216 Member
    I weigh in grams, if I am a little uncertain of an exact weight, I would rather go up a few grams just to be on the safe side.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    There's probably a different amount of sauce in the can too... Sorry to tell you that, lol. Weigh it first as well.
  • AmykinsCatfood
    AmykinsCatfood Posts: 599 Member
    Sounds about right.. I never quite figured that out either. I usually just end up keeping them separate until I eat them.. weigh them separate and just sprinkling the turkey on top of the sauce and mixing it together on my plate.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    The sauce is likely to be heavier than 20 oz. 8 fluid oz per cup is for water, which is less dense than sauce. When I enter sauce from a recipe I do as 1 serving = 1 cup sauce.
  • monjacq1964
    monjacq1964 Posts: 291 Member
    it does make sense. If in doubt, over estimate, rather than under.
  • vytamindi
    vytamindi Posts: 845 Member
    Use the recipe function and put all of your pre-cooked ingredients in there. When you're done cooking, portion out "serving sizes" and then enter that number in the recipe. Boom.
  • nadz6012
    nadz6012 Posts: 126 Member
    be careful not to mix up volumetric ounces with ounces weight. You're measuring the sauce by volume and the turkey by weight. 5 fluid ounces of sauce may not weigh 5 oz. That's why I weigh EVERYTHING. Most food packages will have the serving size in grams so that they can easily be weighed.
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
    Use the recipe function and put all of your pre-cooked ingredients in there. When you're done cooking, portion out "serving sizes" and then enter that number in the recipe. Boom.

    do this
  • c_tap77
    c_tap77 Posts: 189 Member
    I didn't think about 8oz in a cup being for water!

    I will definitely weigh the sauce before combining anything. Thanks everyone!

    If I'm off by a little I'm not going to get overly-anxious about it. I intentionally keep my calorie levels low on here so that if I accidentally under-estimate anything I'm still probably eating within the range I should be to still drop weight :wink:

    Like I said, I'm a bit new to the whole measuring thing (I just got a food scale as a wedding gift!!) so I really appreciate all the tips :happy:
  • laceylucas86
    laceylucas86 Posts: 120
    I usually use my 1 cup dry measuring cup and scoop out my hubbys, 3 scoops for him, 1 scoop for me, 1/2 scoop for our son then scoop out the leftovers as well, 8 scoops in total, I put 8 servings into the recipe, my scoop is one serving :) that's how I do it!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Sounds about right.. I never quite figured that out either. I usually just end up keeping them separate until I eat them.. weigh them separate and just sprinkling the turkey on top of the sauce and mixing it together on my plate.

    It's what I'd do, lol. I don't really use 'recipes' at this point, it's such a pain.
  • vytamindi
    vytamindi Posts: 845 Member
    I didn't think about 8oz in a cup being for water!

    I will definitely weigh the sauce before combining anything. Thanks everyone!

    If I'm off by a little I'm not going to get overly-anxious about it. I intentionally keep my calorie levels low on here so that if I accidentally under-estimate anything I'm still probably eating within the range I should be to still drop weight :wink:

    Like I said, I'm a bit new to the whole measuring thing (I just got a food scale as a wedding gift!!) so I really appreciate all the tips :happy:

    One thing that helped me was to look at the suggested serving size. If it says (g), then you'll weigh it. If you see (mL), you'll use your measuring cups. Measuring weight by ounces is not as accurate as measuring by grams, so try to measure with grams.

    Last week, my fiance was making pork roast that called for 5 oz. of bourbon so he weighed out 5 oz... on the scale. Needless to say, the pork roast was WAY too boozey at first, but it's all part of getting used to the scale and getting used to when you use it!

    To measure thick ingredients, or things that tend to stick to utensils, I place the jar on the scale (without the lid) and zero it out. I take out what I think I want, and the negative weight shows me how much I actually took out. This is great for peanut butter, mayonnaise, jalapenos, coconut oil, etc..

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