Recipes with Marinades

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allisonks85
allisonks85 Posts: 3 Member
in Recipes
Does anyone have any thoughts on how to determine nutritional value for recipes with marinades? A marinade usually contains a lot of oil, but you dont' actually end up consuming all of it. So a chicken recipe involving a marinade using 1/4 cup of olive oil will come out with a much higher calorie count and fat content. It's skewing my macronutrient ratios and I'm not sure how to fix it.

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  • Nicole6
    Nicole6 Posts: 9 Member
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    What if you computed the marinade calories by itself and then weighed the marinade before you put the meat in and then again after you took the meat out to figure out how much of the marinade stays with the meat. Not perfectly exact, but better than counting it all.
  • eileen0515
    eileen0515 Posts: 408 Member
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    I've read on, I believe it was cooking light. One serving will absorb 2tsp. of marinade. Not sure of the accuracy, but this is how I track it. Going to be some math involved, if your marinade is home made. easy breeze if it's from a labeled bottle.
  • DudeistPriest
    DudeistPriest Posts: 665 Member
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    How serendipitous. I was just coming on to post that exact same question!
  • allisonks85
    allisonks85 Posts: 3 Member
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    Thanks for the feedback.

    Nicole6 - I'll try to use that approach next time I cook since I think it would be the most accurate.

    eileen0515 - I was wondering if there was a general rule out there since I've made the recipe already. I'll use that to estimate.

    DudeistPriest - How lucky! It's a good question...
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    Thanks for the feedback.

    Nicole6 - I'll try to use that approach next time I cook since I think it would be the most accurate.

    eileen0515 - I was wondering if there was a general rule out there since I've made the recipe already. I'll use that to estimate.

    DudeistPriest - How lucky! It's a good question...

    Another approach.....put all the marinade ingredients in a measuring cup.....measure before.....then measure after (all that is poured off).

    The 2 tsp. approach sounds a lot easier.
  • allisonks85
    allisonks85 Posts: 3 Member
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    I was doing some more digging and found this on a mfp thread from a couple years ago:

    You are way overthinking this! The amount of calories the marinade would add that would not be cooked of is like 5. Think about it. Let's say you are marinating flank steak to grill. The acids in the marinade are what is most critical to tenderize the steak. There is a little fat, maybe a tablespoon about 190 calories, spread over the entire amount. The other flavorings have little calories if it's just things like worcestershire or herbs and spices. Then you leave most of the marinade in the bowl or bag you were using. Most of the calories were in the fat. So of the original 190, you have maybe 30% left, again pread over the entire steak. You put it on the grill and the fat get's melted off or renders. So now you have about a tenth of the original calories left or 19. There are about 6 portions to the steak. That gives you 3 left from the marinade! Worth worrying about? Only if your OCD! lol

    PS: I am a professional chef.

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