We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

4 oz of cooked hamburger meat??? how

BJC78
BJC78 Posts: 324 Member
edited December 2024 in Food and Nutrition
Making tacos/burritto but I don't have a food scale to measure 4oz :( any suggestions on eye balling it? Maybe 1/2 cup? 1/4 cup?
Please help :)

Replies

  • Nikstergirl
    Nikstergirl Posts: 1,549 Member
    I'd say 1/2 cup, since a cup is 8 oz, but that's a guess, I have a great scale! Best $20 I've spent for the kitchen in a long time!!!
  • 1/2 cup
  • Marcia_11
    Marcia_11 Posts: 143 Member
    Never measured it before, only weighed it but if I had to guess I'd say 1/2 cup.
  • gettingthere2011
    gettingthere2011 Posts: 17 Member
    1/2 cup for 4 oz. Since 8 oz is a measuring cup.
  • RobertaG
    RobertaG Posts: 205 Member
    3 oz cooked fish, poultry, or meat—size of a deck of cards, the palm of your hand, or a checkbook
    http://blog.zisboombah.com/2010/05/17/eyeballing-serving-sizes/
  • BJC78
    BJC78 Posts: 324 Member
    Thanx! Definitely need to invest in a scale :)
  • BigBoneSista
    BigBoneSista Posts: 2,389 Member
    1 cup packed. I had some cold in the fridge and measured it on my scale. Granted mine is cold so its not moist so don't fill yours completely to the top.
  • tracybarnes1
    tracybarnes1 Posts: 54 Member
    4oz of cooked drained beef is equal to 1 cup! hope this helps
  • mlemonroe2
    mlemonroe2 Posts: 603
    they say the size of your palm. i'm voting 1/2 cup, too!
  • legmotor
    legmotor Posts: 197 Member
    measuring cups for baking are for liquid measurement. 4 oz. of ground beef is meant to be weight. I'm betting that a 1/2 cup of ground beef is way more than 4 oz of beef. Remember that a quarter pound hamburger is 4 oz. of meat.
  • ANeWcRe8N
    ANeWcRe8N Posts: 1,180 Member
    You would think since a cup is 8oz that 4oz of meat is half that... I googled it once before and it said 4oz of ground meat is a cup...
  • spareparts79
    spareparts79 Posts: 36 Member
    Measuring cups are for liquid ounces(oz as in volume). You need 4oz of cooked hamburger (oz as in weight).

    1 oz of lean cooked drained hamburger is equal to 1/4 cup. So 4oz would be 1 cup.
  • koogabah
    koogabah Posts: 16 Member
    Purchase scale and profit.
  • musicgirl88
    musicgirl88 Posts: 504 Member
    Do not confuse the 8 fl. ounces to measuring actual weight!! This means 4 ounces of hamburger does NOT equal a half a cup! So many people confuse this and end up with either way too much or way too little. The last time I weighed it out on my food scale, it looked to be about a quarter cup, possibly a little more. So in this case people may be right that it could be close to a 1/2 cup, but that does not always happen! I suggest trying to find a food scale. Some of the cheaper ones actually work really really well. I am extremely poor LOL, but the food scale I bought was definitely worth the money, and it was on sale for $18.

    If you ever get up the energy to want to search it, there are a few articles out there about the difference between fl. ounces and "regular" ounces. fl. ounces are simply a measurement of volume, not a measurement of weight.

    Hopefully this helps!! :)
  • ghoztt
    ghoztt Posts: 69 Member
    4 oz of meat is a measure of mass. You can't put it into a cup that measures volume. If you buy the meat at the store it's usually weighed for you so if you bought a pound of beef just estimate into quarters if you don't have a scale. Or just quadruple the recipe and have leftovers!
  • BigBoneSista
    BigBoneSista Posts: 2,389 Member
    I took a measuring cup (1 cup) and put it on a digital scale, zero it out and pack it with cold, cooked, drained ground beef. It weighed 4 oz..
  • Cytherea
    Cytherea Posts: 515 Member
    Just so you know, most measurements of meat and things are raw. So when the serving size on the package says 4 oz., that is raw, uncooked meat... when it cooks down, it will look like a lot less.
  • Joann1560
    Joann1560 Posts: 1
    0ne of those small Dixie cups are 4oz.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    a measuring cup measures volume not weight........buy a food scale, they're not expensive
  • corgicake
    corgicake Posts: 846 Member
    Check the pound/servings on the packaging and eyeball it if you won't be ponying up for a scale anytime soon. There are figures for portions of both raw and cooked meat floating around for a reason. A pound weight is sixteen ounces, which means a one-pound chub is four four-ounce servings raw. Portioning a single pound into quarters will get the job done. Larger quantities will be split into more, which can make the job more difficult without a scale. Difficult, not impossible. I still don't own one and don't feel the need to.
  • jeprice333
    jeprice333 Posts: 1 Member
    Those that are saying 8 oz is a cup are mixing up fl. oz. with oz. So you can’t always assume that 8 oz is 8 fl. oz., it depends on the density of the thing you are measuring. A scale is hard to use since the calories given are for the weight of raw meat and that weight changes once it’s cooked. So you can’t simply use a scale to measure 4 oz of cooked meat after you’ve cooked an entire pound. That’s probably why this person asked this question. I put one pound of cooked ground beef in a large measuring cup (it was one pound pre-cooked). It was about 2 cups. So 1/4 of that would be 4 oz since a pound is 16 oz, so 1/4 of 2 cups is 1/2 cup. This may change with the fat content of the ground beef. Mine was 90/10.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    jeprice333 wrote: »
    Those that are saying 8 oz is a cup are mixing up fl. oz. with oz. So you can’t always assume that 8 oz is 8 fl. oz., it depends on the density of the thing you are measuring. A scale is hard to use since the calories given are for the weight of raw meat and that weight changes once it’s cooked. So you can’t simply use a scale to measure 4 oz of cooked meat after you’ve cooked an entire pound. That’s probably why this person asked this question. I put one pound of cooked ground beef in a large measuring cup (it was one pound pre-cooked). It was about 2 cups. So 1/4 of that would be 4 oz since a pound is 16 oz, so 1/4 of 2 cups is 1/2 cup. This may change with the fat content of the ground beef. Mine was 90/10.

    I’m guessing OP has a scale by now, since it’s been nine years since they asked.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    jeprice333 wrote: »
    Those that are saying 8 oz is a cup are mixing up fl. oz. with oz. So you can’t always assume that 8 oz is 8 fl. oz., it depends on the density of the thing you are measuring. A scale is hard to use since the calories given are for the weight of raw meat and that weight changes once it’s cooked. So you can’t simply use a scale to measure 4 oz of cooked meat after you’ve cooked an entire pound. That’s probably why this person asked this question. I put one pound of cooked ground beef in a large measuring cup (it was one pound pre-cooked). It was about 2 cups. So 1/4 of that would be 4 oz since a pound is 16 oz, so 1/4 of 2 cups is 1/2 cup. This may change with the fat content of the ground beef. Mine was 90/10.

    I’m guessing OP has a scale by now, since it’s been nine years since they asked.

    So what are you saying? TeeHee
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    Buy a scale $15 on Amazon.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,558 Member
    Well:
    --raw?
    --cooked?
    --frozen?
    --thawed?
    --70%, 75%. 80%, 85%, 90%, 93%, 95%, 97% lean meat?
    --crumbled, or packed?

    Isn't a food scale so much easier?!
  • This content has been removed.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,887 Member
    I'm giving OP a break, as I certainly never used a food scale for ground beef in 2011 either! ;-) It was a simpler time.
This discussion has been closed.