When it comes to measuring food...

[trhonda2000]

Hello everyone!

Quick question, when it comes to measuring food such as meat or grain, is the correct time to weigh it before or after its cooked? The reason I asked is I have some ready to cook rice and I'm not sure if the grams shown as a serving or before or after its prepared. Also, say I have a chicken breast, do I measure the thawed breast to get my serviing or do I wait until its cooked. I'm assuming for the meat it has to be uncooked because once I cook it, it weighs less.

TIA!

[Bytsi]

I would assume uncooked on most foods (including rice, pasta, chicken) unless your source specifies cooked or prepared.

[LisaS]

for meats & veggies, the only rule is to make sure that what you are measuring matches the source you are using to look it up - e.g. if you measure raw chicken weight, make sure you use a source that lists raw chicken and not "cooked" or "roasted" and vice versa. Same if you are looking at broccoli - whether you measure 1/2 C cooked or 100g cooked - make sure the source you are using to lookup the values is not for 100g raw.

For things in packages, the label is usually clear about if the values are for a cooked or a raw portion. If you are looking in a table or other source for something like rice, again, it is clear if you are looking up a raw value or a cooked value.

For me, for foods that are eaten separately (e.g. not a casserole or stir-fry), I generally measure cooked & use cooked values.
But that is mostly because I cook more than 1 at a time and don't want to keep track of which breast on the grill is the 4 oz vs. the 5 oz portion, or for leftovers the next day.

For things like a casserole or stir-fry, I measure raw & calc for the whole recipe and then take a fraction of that as a serving.

[trhonda2000]

Thanks!