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Calories in homemade sauces???

AllegraSteenson
AllegraSteenson Posts: 7 Member
edited November 2024 in Food and Nutrition
Hello everyone! I was just wondering how you count calories in sauces when you’re just throwing a bit of this and that into a pan and going with it. For example: tonight I cooked some chicken in a pan and made a sauce from the drippings with chicken broth, lemon juice, some flour, and bunch of various spices. Obviously nothing in here is super calorie-heavy, but the only way I can think of to log it is to make a recipe on here and then use that? But that just seems like such a hassle, particularly when you throw nebulous amounts of things in to get the taste right. Unless it’s a cream sauce does it really matter?

Replies

  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    Well I wouldn't worry about spices. Just estimate an average batch using a couple tablespoons of drippings drippings {fat calories}, 0. 5 cup of whatever of broth, and a couple tablespoons of flour. I don't know the actual quantity you make, so that's just an example,
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,134 Member
    fat (drippings) + flour + broth = chicken gravy
    Just log it as commercial prepared chicken gravy
  • pebble4321
    pebble4321 Posts: 1,132 Member
    I have a few recipes (eg, mushroom sauce) in the recipe builder, so I use that as a generic entry.
  • tarun_yadavA
    tarun_yadavA Posts: 1,476 Member
    AllegraSteenson wrote: »
    Hello everyone! I was just wondering how you count calories in sauces when you’re just throwing a bit of this and that into a pan and going with it. For example: tonight I cooked some chicken in a pan and made a sauce from the drippings with chicken broth, lemon juice, some flour, and bunch of various spices. Obviously nothing in here is super calorie-heavy, but the only way I can think of to log it is to make a recipe on here and then use that? But that just seems like such a hassle, particularly when you throw nebulous amounts of things in to get the taste right. Unless it’s a cream sauce does it really matter?

    Guesstimate unless butter sauce or cheese sauce. Probably negligible for what you have described
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
    edited April 2018
    I wouldn't necessarily assume the gravy as negligible up front but it's easy enough to guesstimate what went into it and then to figure out how to handle...

    A tablespoon of fat? 100 calories.
    A couple of tablespoons of flour? 50 calories.
    Mount with a tablespoon of butter? 100 calories.

    so, that sauce is probably somewhere in the 200-300 calorie range in total. Assuming it's spread across 2 chicken breasts, then add 100-150 calories per serving (assuming that you use all of it up).
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