Logging using recipes

What I do for this is use the number of grams as the number of servings. So, I might create a sauce recipe and say it is 2853 servings, then when I have 500 grams of sauce I log 500 servings.

ETA: Also, if I make the recipe again and this time it yields 3003 grams of sauce, I just edit the recipe to change the number of servings. I’ll use the entry like that until the sauce is gone, then edit it again next time I make the sauce.

ShrinkingDucky wrote: »

I would like to add a recipe for the pasta sauce I make.

The problem is, once I've added the recipe, I cannot then log how many grams of the sauce I have used, only the number of servings.

This is really not what I want - there isn't a set number of servings as some days I may want more and other days less. Is there a way to add the number of grams of a recipe I've created.

I'd have to weigh it anyway to get an arbitrary 'serving' so why can't I just log the grams.

MFP has no way to calculate the total grams of your finished recipe accurately, so it can't do this for you. Think about it: Sure, you might enter all your ingredients in grams, and theoretically MFP could add that up, if you did.

But then you heat/cook it, right? The steam that rises off the top is water evaporating, making the finished (cooked) recipe lighter than the sum of the ingredients' weight. The difference in weight can be a surprising lot! The evaporated water is zero calorie, so the finished food is more calorie-dense than the sum of the ingredients: All the calories are retained, some of the weight evaporates. MFP can't possibly know how much evaporation.

As others have said, a good solution is to weigh the finished product, and use the number of grams as the number of servings. (You'll get a warning message about whether you really want that huge number of servings, but if you go on with adding the recipe, MFP will use that big number for the servings.)

This is easy: Weigh the pot before you put anything in it, then weigh the whole pot of spaghetti sauce or whatever when it's done cooking, and subtract the pot weight. (There may be a small amount of additional evaporation as it cools, but the majority happens during the cooking process.) Some people weigh their most frequently used pots/baking dishes, tape a list inside a cupboard door or something.

I always weigh the final product in grams. And use that # as my # of servings. So if my chili weighs 3528g, then I have a recipe of 3528 servings of 1g each.