Dealing with a recipe with gravy

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Anonycatgirl
Anonycatgirl Posts: 502 Member
in Recipes
Tomorrow I plan to make a pot roast in the crockpot. (Oh, yum! Pot roast!) It's not a recipe that's already in the food database, so I'd enter the recipe.

But here's the issue. I know this recipe makes a lot of gravy, more than we ever eat. Just dividing the recipe by the number of servings is doing to give a falsely high calorie count,especially since I'm guessing the gravy is relatively calorie-dense. I'd love to get a figure for "here's the calories for the meat and veggies and here's the calories for a reasonable portion of gravy."

Has anyone come up with a good trick to deal with recipes like this one? Do it as two separate recipes and figure the calories added to the roast and veggies by simmering in the beef stock that later ends up in the gravy would be minimal, since stock doesn't have that many calories?

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  • Keto_T
    Keto_T Posts: 673 Member
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    I weigh recipes and say 1 serving = 1 ounce. Nothing says you have to eat all servings.
  • LeahFerri
    LeahFerri Posts: 186 Member
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    I've wondered this myself. I've also wondered how to account for skimming the fat. I know the fat came out of the meat, and there's a substantial layer of it on top of the liquid once it cools. I usually break off the majority of the fat layer and get rid of it--I don't need to be eating that. But I've never really figured out how to adjust the calorie count for that.
  • jbwent
    jbwent Posts: 27
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    If the gravy is made from reducing the stock of the recipe then no further calories should be added. If you use a roux to thicken it then remove the meat and veg then thicken and get the volume of the gravy. You can also use a slurry (cold water and flour) to thicken without adding the extra calories of butter in the roux.
  • jbwent
    jbwent Posts: 27
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    LeahFerri
    Weight the fat and look up the calories for lard then subtract it
  • jbwent
    jbwent Posts: 27
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    I've wondered this myself. I've also wondered how to account for skimming the fat. I know the fat came out of the meat, and there's a substantial layer of it on top of the liquid once it cools. I usually break off the majority of the fat layer and get rid of it--I don't need to be eating that. But I've never really figured out how to adjust the calorie count for that.

    Weight the fat and look up the calories for lard then subtract it
  • Anonycatgirl
    Anonycatgirl Posts: 502 Member
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    If the gravy is made from reducing the stock of the recipe then no further calories should be added. If you use a roux to thicken it then remove the meat and veg then thicken and get the volume of the gravy. You can also use a slurry (cold water and flour) to thicken without adding the extra calories of butter in the roux.
    I'd figured out that part. The awkward way "servings" are handled in the recipe feature on here is my issue. This recipe makes 8 servings, let's say, of meat and veggies and far more than 8 reasonable servings of gravy--but the meat cooks in the majority of the gravy ingredients, which are then thickened with a water-wine slurry. See my problem?

    I'll probably calculate the meat/veg and the gravy separately and figure it's close enough. We're losing weight here, not building an artificial heart or a spaceship where precision's required!
  • Anonycatgirl
    Anonycatgirl Posts: 502 Member
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    I've wondered this myself. I've also wondered how to account for skimming the fat. I know the fat came out of the meat, and there's a substantial layer of it on top of the liquid once it cools. I usually break off the majority of the fat layer and get rid of it--I don't need to be eating that. But I've never really figured out how to adjust the calorie count for that.

    I've never bothered adjusting for that. I figure it's a little leeway for imprecision in the other direction, which is also going to happen. (Unless I'm making stock, in which case I'll use a calorie counter for lower fat stock.)
  • Briargrey
    Briargrey Posts: 498 Member
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    I just do 2 separate recipes - I keep my roux/gravy separate.
  • F00LofaT00K
    F00LofaT00K Posts: 688 Member
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    Have you considered cooking it in some broth instead and just pouring a bit of measured gravy on top after the fact? I know it wouldn't taste the same, but if it's that much of a concern for you, I think it could be one solution.
  • Anonycatgirl
    Anonycatgirl Posts: 502 Member
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    Thanks, all! Gravy and roast separately sounds like the wisest choice. Maybe not scientifically precise, but close enough.
  • Anonycatgirl
    Anonycatgirl Posts: 502 Member
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    Have you considered cooking it in some broth instead and just pouring a bit of measured gravy on top after the fact? I know it wouldn't taste the same, but if it's that much of a concern for you, I think it could be one solution.

    If I wanted to do that, I'd have made a different recipe (maybe aCooking Light one where someone else already did the math) in the first place. I'm going to all this trouble with MFP because this is possibly the best pot roast ever. :wink:
  • knra_grl
    knra_grl Posts: 1,568 Member
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    Thanks, all! Gravy and roast separately sounds like the wisest choice. Maybe not scientifically precise, but close enough.

    Thats how I do it - then I measure how many cups and make a serving half a cup - that is plenty of gravy (I usually only use 1/4 cup)

    edit - also if you are entering all the foods raw then the calories for the broth or drippings are basically accounted for right? So then you just have to account for the thickening agent you use - so with a pot roast I just remove all the meat and veg and make the gravy from the drippings/broth and if I add anything else for flavor.
  • 130annie
    130annie Posts: 339 Member
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    Hi you can eat your meal "naked" meaning no gravy....Or allow yourself about a 1/4 cup....Put it through the tracker...Or take out the meat juices, let cool, take off the fat, which should rise to the top, skim of the fat and eat the meat stock only....sorry getting long...
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,280 Member
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    Have you considered cooking it in some broth instead and just pouring a bit of measured gravy on top after the fact? I know it wouldn't taste the same, but if it's that much of a concern for you, I think it could be one solution.

    If I wanted to do that, I'd have made a different recipe (maybe aCooking Light one where someone else already did the math) in the first place. I'm going to all this trouble with MFP because this is possibly the best pot roast ever. :wink:

    There are some recipes you just don't mess with.

    When I make pot roast, I make my mom's recipe. I don't change a thing just because I am counting calories. I don't skim the fat. I keep the gravy. Why? Because it is MY recipe from MY childhood. Why change it when you don't have to?
  • F00LofaT00K
    F00LofaT00K Posts: 688 Member
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    Have you considered cooking it in some broth instead and just pouring a bit of measured gravy on top after the fact? I know it wouldn't taste the same, but if it's that much of a concern for you, I think it could be one solution.

    If I wanted to do that, I'd have made a different recipe (maybe aCooking Light one where someone else already did the math) in the first place. I'm going to all this trouble with MFP because this is possibly the best pot roast ever. :wink:

    There are some recipes you just don't mess with.

    When I make pot roast, I make my mom's recipe. I don't change a thing just because I am counting calories. I don't skim the fat. I keep the gravy. Why? Because it is MY recipe from MY childhood. Why change it when you don't have to?

    I don't think I understand the question OP was getting at then.
  • rogerhartford
    rogerhartford Posts: 21
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    I've never had luck thickening up gravy in a crock pot but I find recently that if you put in a sprinkle of instant potato flakes, it does thicken up a bit. Just measure out a quarter cup of flakes and add them to your hot broth at the end of cooking.
  • MaggieTor3
    MaggieTor3 Posts: 49 Member
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    Can you reduce the amount of liquid you cook the meat in so that you end up with 8 servings of meat and gravy?
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,280 Member
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    Have you considered cooking it in some broth instead and just pouring a bit of measured gravy on top after the fact? I know it wouldn't taste the same, but if it's that much of a concern for you, I think it could be one solution.

    If I wanted to do that, I'd have made a different recipe (maybe aCooking Light one where someone else already did the math) in the first place. I'm going to all this trouble with MFP because this is possibly the best pot roast ever. :wink:

    There are some recipes you just don't mess with.

    When I make pot roast, I make my mom's recipe. I don't change a thing just because I am counting calories. I don't skim the fat. I keep the gravy. Why? Because it is MY recipe from MY childhood. Why change it when you don't have to?

    I don't think I understand the question OP was getting at then.

    When you make pot roast (at least how I do it) is you end up cooking the meat and vegetables in one "pot" (I used a dutch oven, mom used a cast iron one) with liquid. You use quite a bit of liquid (so that everything stays covered).

    After it is cooked, then you use said liquid to make a gravy. The issue the OP has is that it makes a LOT of gravy. Way more gravy servings then meat/vegetable servings. The OP wanted to know HOW to take this into account. You need the liquid to cook it in, but don't need all the gravy at the end (my gravy is just the cooking liquid plus a slurry of water and flour).

    Thus, when you use MFP recipe creator, you end up with an issue with how it divides the servings if you only use ONE recipe for the whole thing. Because it has you eating ALL the gravy, which you won't do.

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