How to Weigh Meat – Cooked or Raw?

If you’ve ever counted macros, you know some foods present a bit of trouble.

Chobani, easy.

Mom’s manicotti, not so easy.

For many of these not-so-easy foods, the solution is a food scale.

Weighing food on a scale removes the error that accompanies measuring cups/spoons.

But, there is one food group that still confuses us carnivores: Meat.

SHOULD I WEIGH MEAT COOKED OR RAW?

The data on a nutrition label corresponds to one serving of raw meat.

So, you should weigh your meat raw if possible.

However, this might be inconvenient or impossible; maybe you didn’t cook it yourself or maybe you cooked a week’s worth of beef at once.

Later in this post, I will share a strategy for accurately weighing cooked meat.

For now, know that raw and cooked meat differ in weight because water and other juices in meat evaporate through the culinary process. Speaking of, check out me and my utilitarian kitchen skills as we weigh some protein.

.

BEEF

Raw

.

Cooked

Beef Stats

Raw: 499g



Cooked: 371g

.

CHICKEN

Raw

.

Cooked

Chicken Stats

Raw: 553g



Cooked: 368g

By the way, I TORCH my chicken. Like, I cook it really thoroughly. The thought of biting into fleshy pink undercooked chicken literally makes me ecoli vomit in my mouth.

.

SALMON

Raw

.

Cooked

Salmon Stats

Raw: 249g



Cooked: 199g

.

How To Weigh Cooked Meat

If you are in a situation where you must weigh your meat cooked, it’s okay. Breathe. I gotchu.

Now, if you cook your meat thoroughly, there will be less water (and weight) in the finished product. For instance, take two identical pieces of raw meat and cook one rare and the other well-done. The well-done piece will weigh less than the rare piece.

.

Weighing Well-Done Meat

Examples: Hockey-puck hamburger or Vacanti-dry chicken breast

When weighing (cooked) well-done meat, multiply the weight by 1.5 and use the meat’s raw nutrition facts

.

Weighing Rare Meat

Examples: Seared ahi tuna or Pittsburgh rare steak.

When weighing (cooked) rare meat, multiply the weight by 1.1 and use the meat’s raw nutrition facts.

.

Example

You heat up two chicken breasts that were left over from that weekend BBQ. They were cooked pretty thoroughly but not torched. So you decide on a 1.4x multiplier.

We know that 4 ounces (113g) of chicken breast contains 24g protein, 0g carbs and 1g fat.

Weigh the two cooked chicken breasts: 6.8 ounces. 6.8 x 1.4 = 9.52 ounces

We have 2.38 (4 ounce) servings, or 57g protein, 0g carbs, 2g fat.

That’s it; weigh your meat raw.

If you can’t weigh your meat raw, go ahead and multiply the weight of your cooked meat by a 1.1 – 1.5 as described above to appropriately apply the meat’s nutrition facts.

Your questions or comments are welcomed, as always.

.

Share