Should you weigh pasta cooked or uncooked?

whmscll
whmscll Posts: 2,255 Member
edited December 20 in Food and Nutrition
1/2 cup of uncooked pasta is a decent serving while a 1/2 cup of cooked is dismal. Which is correct?

Replies

  • 91Ellen
    91Ellen Posts: 2 Member
    when you search for the food, you can type "raw pasta" and enter in the raw weight. Otherwise, on the packet - the serving size is normally dry weight. You can usually double check if the "servings per bag" and if the serving size = the correct amount when considering the bag's total weight. Hope that makes sense & helps :smile:
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Weigh pasta before cooking, but ideally use scales not cups
  • whmscll
    whmscll Posts: 2,255 Member
    Yeah, I get lazy when I’m in a hurry and use cups rather than the scale. Need to stop that habit. But yay that I get to eat more.
  • sytchequeen
    sytchequeen Posts: 526 Member
    weigh it dried for accuracy. When you cook it the water content will vary depending on how you like it done, obviously the longer it is cooked the heavier it will become with water weight
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    100 calories per dry ounce. 3 ounces is generous. 2 ounces work in most recipes that have significant other ingredients.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    Depending on the situation, both.

    I have never had occasion to cook a single serving of pasta, but if I did, weighing it dry would be all that is necessary. For batches, I weigh the dry pasta before I cook it and make sure I have the desired number of servings according to the (dry) weight listed on the box. Then after cooking, I weigh it again so I know how much constitutes the cooked serving size (typically, 3X the dry weight).

    Question... how would a person measure out dry spaghetti in a cup? ;)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,620 Member
    whmscll wrote: »
    Yeah, I get lazy when I’m in a hurry and use cups rather than the scale. Need to stop that habit. But yay that I get to eat more.

    I just pour/put dry pasta in the empty bowl I plan to eat it from, as the bowl sits on the zeroed/tared scale, until the scale reads the right number of grams. Even if I use a different bowl and have to rinse it after, as you presumably need to do with your cup, I don't see how it's faster or easier to use the cup.

    Unless you don't keep the scale sitting on the counter . . . which is an important strategy, in my world. ;)
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    The information on the nutrition label is for the dry weight unless it specifies otherwise. So weigh dry if you want to use that information. If you want/need to weigh it after cooking them just choose an appropriate and accurate entry in the database that specifies it's for the cooked weight.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    whmscll wrote: »
    Yeah, I get lazy when I’m in a hurry and use cups rather than the scale. Need to stop that habit. But yay that I get to eat more.

    I just pour/put dry pasta in the empty bowl I plan to eat it from, as the bowl sits on the zeroed/tared scale, until the scale reads the right number of grams. Even if I use a different bowl and have to rinse it after, as you presumably need to do with your cup, I don't see how it's faster or easier to use the cup.

    Unless you don't keep the scale sitting on the counter . . . which is an important strategy, in my world. ;)

    Same. I find measuring cups a huge hassle these days. Bowl on scale, tare, next ingredient, tare, next ingredient, tare, etc. Two minutes and fewer dishes to wash.
  • JustinAnimal
    JustinAnimal Posts: 1,335 Member
    try2again wrote: »
    Depending on the situation, both.

    I have never had occasion to cook a single serving of pasta, but if I did, weighing it dry would be all that is necessary. For batches, I weigh the dry pasta before I cook it and make sure I have the desired number of servings according to the (dry) weight listed on the box. Then after cooking, I weigh it again so I know how much constitutes the cooked serving size (typically, 3X the dry weight).

    Question... how would a person measure out dry spaghetti in a cup? ;)

    Not all pasta is spaghetti, although all spaghetti is pasta. Some pasta fits into a cup. Elbow macaroni, for example, would fit just fine. Or the small or medium shells.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    JustinAnimal wrote: »
    try2again wrote: »
    Depending on the situation, both.

    I have never had occasion to cook a single serving of pasta, but if I did, weighing it dry would be all that is necessary. For batches, I weigh the dry pasta before I cook it and make sure I have the desired number of servings according to the (dry) weight listed on the box. Then after cooking, I weigh it again so I know how much constitutes the cooked serving size (typically, 3X the dry weight).

    Question... how would a person measure out dry spaghetti in a cup? ;)

    Not all pasta is spaghetti, although all spaghetti is pasta. Some pasta fits into a cup. Elbow macaroni, for example, would fit just fine. Or the small or medium shells.

    I know that ;) It was a rhetorical question pointing out the weaknesses of cups as measuring tools.
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
    try2again wrote: »
    Depending on the situation, both.

    I have never had occasion to cook a single serving of pasta, but if I did, weighing it dry would be all that is necessary. For batches, I weigh the dry pasta before I cook it and make sure I have the desired number of servings according to the (dry) weight listed on the box. Then after cooking, I weigh it again so I know how much constitutes the cooked serving size (typically, 3X the dry weight).

    Question... how would a person measure out dry spaghetti in a cup? ;)

    Spaghetti measure. Each size corresponds to a certain weight.

    OP, I always cook pasta for multiple people, so one day I weighed out a dry portion, cooked it, then weighed the cooked portion. It's not going to be exact every time due to how much water is absorbed, etc, but it's a pretty good estimate to work from when cooking multiple portions.
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