Question about weighing bone-in meat

davepearson86
davepearson86 Posts: 158 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Here's the question.

I have chicken drumsticks w/skin and the package has nutritional information per 100g.

Do I weigh the raw chicken with bones to figure out the 100g serving or does the meat/skin need to come off the bones to be weighed? I know I need to weigh raw but the meat comes off better once it's cooked.

Help?

Replies

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Beats me. I cook them, remove the meat, weigh that, and use the 'chicken dark meat cooked' entry.
  • JUDDDing
    JUDDDing Posts: 1,367 Member
    I weigh the raw chicken and log that before I eat.

    Then if I need extra calories after my meal - I subtract out the weight of the bits I don't eat. :)

    Meat is reasonably low calorie (especially chicken) - I save worrying about high precision for the things that are higher in calories.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    This is such a pain in the *kitten*. I have the same problem with chicken thighs, which I love. Bone-in database entries are all over the map, so now I strip the meat from the bone and weight it raw before cooking.
  • oc1timoco
    oc1timoco Posts: 272 Member
    I don't know how the specific mass of bone changes after cooking. If I were that concerned Dave I would do a sample test. Remove the bone raw from one piece and compare to one that is cooked. Then keep that as a reference %
  • kiramaniac
    kiramaniac Posts: 800 Member
    I'd just use a default "chicken drumstick with skin" in the database, and not worry about the package info. Unless these are special drumsticks that wouldn't be consistent with the standard nutritional data.
  • chezjuan
    chezjuan Posts: 747 Member
    I weigh the raw chicken and log that before I eat.

    Then if I need extra calories after my meal - I subtract out the weight of the bits I don't eat. :)

    Meat is reasonably low calorie (especially chicken) - I save worrying about high precision for the things that are higher in calories.

    I do this for things like drumsticks, T-bone steaks, and other things that I cook with the bones in.
  • davepearson86
    davepearson86 Posts: 158 Member
    Okay so the chicken manufacturer says that the 100g serving does not include bones so to weigh 100g with bone removed raw will provide the nutritional stuff listed on the package.

    ARGH

    The chicken is already in the oven and was a total of 2423 grams bone-in. FF FFFF FFFFFFFF
  • xoemmytee
    xoemmytee Posts: 162 Member
    dude, calm down. Just do it next time.
  • davepearson86
    davepearson86 Posts: 158 Member
    I don't know how the specific mass of bone changes after cooking. If I were that concerned Dave I would do a sample test. Remove the bone raw from one piece and compare to one that is cooked. Then keep that as a reference %

    This makes the most sense bone weight cooked vs bone weight uncooked for a % then weigh the bones post-cooking and do the math. No wonder everyone who tracks macros diligently eats boneless chicken!
  • JustYandy
    JustYandy Posts: 221 Member
    I cooked mine and then took the chicken off the bone it was about 1oz of meat per drum stick
  • davepearson86
    davepearson86 Posts: 158 Member
    dude, calm down. Just do it next time.

    I can't I've already consumed 5 cups of coffee this morning and now my macros will be GUESSTIMATED!!!!

    I might as well just eat an entire tub of ice cream and a whole apple pie!
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    Since it's already cooking, once it's done, take the meat off the bones and then weigh the bones. Subtract that from your initial weight.

    Might not be 100% accurate, but might still be worth it to do.

    Don't stress out too much about it though :)
  • Byemyfatself
    Byemyfatself Posts: 92 Member
    Weigh the meat w/bone before eating it, then weigh the bone after eating and there you have it... how much you ate. :bigsmile:
  • davepearson86
    davepearson86 Posts: 158 Member
    Weigh the meat w/bone before eating it, then weigh the bone after eating and there you have it... how much you ate. :bigsmile:

    Okay so here's the chicken math going on now!

    Raw Weight / Cooked Weight = Reduction Factor

    Cooked Bone Weight x Reduction Factor = Raw Bone Weight

    Cooked Weight / Reduction Factor - Raw Bone Weight = SOLUTION
  • davepearson86
    davepearson86 Posts: 158 Member
    Raw Weight - Raw Weight / Cooked Weight * Cooked Bone Weight = Uncooked Meat Only Weight
  • davepearson86
    davepearson86 Posts: 158 Member
    Here's the stats in case anyone cares.

    This gives a good average over 20 chicken drumsticks

    Raw Weight Bone-In 2423g
    Cooked Weight Bone-In 1673g
    Cooked Weight Bone Removed 1163g
    Calculated Raw Weight Bone Removed 1684g

    Life can be easy from now on.

    Weight With Bone Cooked * 1.44829647 (cooked to uncooked ratio) * 0.6951584 (bone to meat ratio) = Raw Weight.

    *facepalm*

    example 100g * 1.44829647 * 0.6951584 = 100.68

    Cooked bone in weight = Raw Boneless weight
  • oc1timoco
    oc1timoco Posts: 272 Member
    This was a major hurdle to get past. Now we solve all the rest of the worlds problems.
  • baldnavywife
    baldnavywife Posts: 36 Member
    *Face palm* I still don't understand
  • 970Mikaela1
    970Mikaela1 Posts: 2,013 Member
    The more you know:)
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    Beats me. I cook them, remove the meat, weigh that, and use the 'chicken dark meat cooked' entry.

    This.

    Chicken should not be that different. Use the good entry without an asterisk (which comes from USDA information) for cooked chicken. It should read like: "chicken-leg, meat and skin, cooked, roasted." (You can change up all those details and find a good entry for chicken based on the specifics of the cut and how cooked.)

    I like chicken cooked on the bone better than otherwise, so I weigh chicken after cooking all the time, and it works fine. I believe the differences between packaged chicken has more to do with how much water they add (which cooks out anyway) so the cooked chicken shouldn't differ too much unless you over or under cook it. There's some variation, but that's always the case.
  • alereck
    alereck Posts: 343 Member
    The difference is very small, keep things simple or this will get old very soon.
  • chouflour
    chouflour Posts: 193 Member
    edited January 2015
    davepearson86 wrote: »
    Here's the question.

    I have chicken drumsticks w/skin and the package has nutritional information per 100g.

    Do I weigh the raw chicken with bones to figure out the 100g serving or does the meat/skin need to come off the bones to be weighed? I know I need to weigh raw but the meat comes off better once it's cooked.

    Help?

    The USDA database says that chicken drumsticks are 68% refuse* So 168g of raw bone-in drumstick should yield 100g of raw meat+skin weight.

    *that's 34% bone/cartilage and 34% bone/connective tissue in the entry for meat and skin from chicken drumsticks. The entry for meat only has 43% refuse - 34% bone/cartilage and 9% separable fat and skin. Which is more accurate for you depends on how much you consider inedible in a chicken drumstick.
  • Marianna93637
    Marianna93637 Posts: 230 Member
    cook the chicken. Before you put it on your plate, weigh it, write down the weight. When you're done eating, weigh the bone, subtract it from the total weight, and you got the meat only weight. :)
  • Electra_H
    Electra_H Posts: 1 Member
    edited June 2021
    davepearson86 wrote: »
    Weigh the meat w/bone before eating it, then weigh the bone after eating and there you have it... how much you ate. :bigsmile:

    Okay so here's the chicken math going on now!

    Raw Weight / Cooked Weight = Reduction Factor

    Cooked Bone Weight x Reduction Factor = Raw Bone Weight

    Cooked Weight / Reduction Factor - Raw Bone Weight = SOLUTION

    man, BIG BIG thanks for this! logged in on my laptop just to thank you. helping a newbie out :smiley:
  • vanmep
    vanmep Posts: 410 Member
    I’m such a lazy butt. Bones, peels and cores are just 25% of the food and I’m done with it.

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