Marinade calorie impact

Most accurate way would be to weigh the marinade beforehand and weigh it again after you take the meat out. The difference would be what got absorbed into your meat.

Yes and no. Some of the meat's juice will combine with the marinade. If the marinade is chunky, different ingredients in it will be absorbed at different levels. If it's thick more of it will stick to the meat than if it's thin. I recently read a whole bunch of former threads on this topic and there is no really good answer. The last time I used a marinade, I decided to include 1/10th of its calories in my log but that could be right or wrong, over or under. If I were to cook something in the marinade and eat it as a sauce, then I would include all of it. Make your best guess.

Same problem arises for vegetables in a brine or marinade -- like sliced cucumbers in an asian vinegar brine. You don't drink all that vinegar? So, just make a best guess.

HeidiCooksSupper wrote: »

Yes and no. Some of the meat's juice will combine with the marinade. If the marinade is chunky, different ingredients in it will be absorbed at different levels. If it's thick more of it will stick to the meat than if it's thin. I recently read a whole bunch of former threads on this topic and there is no really good answer. The last time I used a marinade, I decided to include 1/10th of its calories in my log but that could be right or wrong, over or under. If I were to cook something in the marinade and eat it as a sauce, then I would include all of it. Make your best guess.

Same problem arises for vegetables in a brine or marinade -- like sliced cucumbers in an asian vinegar brine. You don't drink all that vinegar? So, just make a best guess.

Yes. And not all marinades are vinegar/citrus/etc. based - I marinade in buttermilk, yogurt and other "thick" liquids as well. I grew up in the slide rule age, not calculator, so I'm very comfortable with the thought that we can't push the accuracy of our measurements beyond what we can reasonably justify. As long as my scale continues moving in the correct direction (35+lbs this year), I don't fret over the fringe data. I make reasoned approximations as best I can.