Weighing food in pot

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jmredinger
jmredinger Posts: 23 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone! I’m trying to find a solution to weighing cooked food in a pot. For instance, some of the meals I make for my boyfriend and I are one pot wonders where every ingredient is thrown into a pot and cooked. Obviously, it’s not ideal weighing cooked food, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I weigh all the food before it goes in, then weigh the entire pot after it’s cooked which becomes the recipe serving size in grams. I then take my portion out of the pot and place it in my bowl, which I then weigh and count as my personal serving size. The problem is, I’m having trouble weighing the hot pots accurately? I always put a light towel on top of my scale so it doesn’t get burned but it messes with the weigh depending on how heavy the food is. How do you over come this?

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  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
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    Before I put anything in the pot, I weigh it on the scale with a potholder. Then I subtract that from the final weight.
  • jmredinger
    jmredinger Posts: 23 Member
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    @serindipte , I do weigh the pot separately and then subtract that at the end. I’m just having trouble weighing the cooked food in the pot all together because I’m afraid it will burn my scale? I usually place a towel underneath the pot but I’ve tested this and was given very different weight amounts maybe because of the softness of the towel?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,943 Member
    edited February 2020
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    You can Tare the scale with the towel, then add the pot and the weight will be for the pot (and food.)

    Tare returns the scale to zero.

    Turn on the scale, put the towel on, click Tare, put the pot with food on. Or put the towel on and then turn on the scale and it will boot up at zero.
  • jmredinger
    jmredinger Posts: 23 Member
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    Even if I tare the towel, it seems I get more than a 100g different result if I weigh it without the towel. Is the towel doing something weird with the weight of the pot on top of it?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,943 Member
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    jmredinger wrote: »
    Even if I tare the towel, it seems I get more than a 100g different result if I weigh it without the towel. Is the towel doing something weird with the weight of the pot on top of it?

    I don't understand...

    Because, no.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,943 Member
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    I use a plate under my hot pots, not a towel or anything soft that may affect balance on the scale.
  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
    edited February 2020
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    jmredinger wrote: »
    @serindipte , I do weigh the pot separately and then subtract that at the end. I’m just having trouble weighing the cooked food in the pot all together because I’m afraid it will burn my scale? I usually place a towel underneath the pot but I’ve tested this and was given very different weight amounts maybe because of the softness of the towel?

    When I'm doing my empty weight, I set the pot on the same potholder that I'll be using at the end. If your towel drapes and touches the counter, then its weight isn't going to be accurate.

    ETA:
    The last I cooked (happen to have the note paper still beside my computer):
    Empty pot on potholder: 1062g
    Full pot with meal cooked: 2350g
    Weight of meal: 1288g (So that's how many servings I entered in the recipe builder)

    ETAA:
    Out of curiosity, I went back and altered my servings by 100 (for the 100g difference you said you're getting) and it only changed my serving (292g) by 18 calories.
  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
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    I use a pot holder and have never noticed anything weird about the weight. Most of my meals in our big pot weigh over 2500 g, so even 100 g difference wouldn’t be that much of a big deal.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    most scales are heavy duty and a hot pot isn't going to hurt it - i routinely use my crockpot while still hot on my scale with no issues (its 5 years old and still going strong)
  • scarlett_k
    scarlett_k Posts: 812 Member
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    jmredinger wrote: »
    @serindipte , I do weigh the pot separately and then subtract that at the end. I’m just having trouble weighing the cooked food in the pot all together because I’m afraid it will burn my scale? I usually place a towel underneath the pot but I’ve tested this and was given very different weight amounts maybe because of the softness of the towel?

    Silicone trivets are great for this; I have a set of four square ones from Amazon.

    What I normally do though is just decant the food into a tupperware container on the tared scale to weigh it and work out the serving size. I write the serving size in grams on the label. Since the leftovers are destined for the fridge anyways this works out well for me.
  • aries68mc
    aries68mc Posts: 173 Member
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    I've never weighed an entire pot like that before, but I would think a plate or something more stable than a towel or potholder would be the best idea.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
    edited February 2020
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    deannalfisher wrote: »
    most scales are heavy duty and a hot pot isn't going to hurt it - i routinely use my crockpot while still hot on my scale with no issues (its 5 years old and still going strong)

    Yes, I put hot pans on my XOX scale all the time. (It's metal.)
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    I use a small upside down bowl so I can read it easier, and keeps heat of the glass top too.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,984 Member
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    if you only have a small kitchen scale you could do this weigh the pot before and after thing on your own personal (for weighing humans) scale

    Ive done that before.

    you could put it on a metal tray or similar (and tare it before adding pot) if you are worried about putting hot pot directly on the scale.
  • BelleRequin
    BelleRequin Posts: 15 Member
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    One of two ways: I pour it into my kitchen aid mixer bowl which is narrow at the bottom for ease on my scale, or into a bowl w volume measurements and do my portion by volume. (Eg- 4 cups of soup, then make it 4 servings if I’m going to have a cup)
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
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    The ingredients have to be separately weighed as they go in. Because everything has a different calories count per gram. This becomes a "Recipe" in MFP lingo. You now have total calories for the pot. After cooking, you estimate the volume of the cooked product in fluid oz (US) and that becomes the total number of servings in the pot. Then you measure the volume of your portion which becomes the numerator of a fraction where the denominator is the total oz per the pot and multiply that times the total number of calories in the pot. Your portion, in calories.

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