How To Weigh Food: Techniques For Before And After Cooking

Weighing food correctly is essential in the kitchen as it ensures precision when making recipes and allows for greater control over each diner’s portions. It is important to understand that there is a significant difference between weighing food before and after cooking, as the cooking process can alter its weight and volume.

Our recommendation is very simple: always have a good kitchen scale on hand, either a traditional one or a digital scale that allows you to weigh food accurately. If you don’t have a scale, there’s no need to panic. We’ll give you some tips so you can see how to weigh food without a scale.

What is weighing food and what is it for?

Weighing food is the process of calculating the exact amount of an ingredient (either raw or cooked) using a kitchen scale. It is essential for several reasons:

Be precise in recipes and get perfect results

Weighing ingredients is essential for any cooking recipe to turn out well. In fact, it is a great way to ensure that the correct amounts of each ingredient are used so that recipes turn out just as expected. In professional kitchens, this precision is key to the regularity, consistency and quality of dishes.

Control the content of diet portions (weight loss, athletes, diabetes)

To control portions and ensure that they are suitable for each diner, weighing food is essential. This also prevents excessive consumption of nutrients that are usually rejected, such as calories, by those who seek to lose weight or maintain their ideal weight or by those who need a specific intake of certain nutrients for various reasons.

Control nutrient intake

Weighing ingredients allows for accurate tracking of nutrient intake such as protein, fat, and carbohydrates. This is critical for maintaining a balanced diet, as well as for people with specific medical conditions that require a customized diet.

Avoid food waste

By weighing food, you can adjust the necessary quantities of each ingredient per diner, which in turn will reduce excess food and result in less food waste.

Why is it important to weigh food?

Weighing food is important for important reasons such as obtaining an accurate portion measurement or adjusting food intake according to each person’s needs. In addition, by weighing food in your kitchen you will ensure key aspects such as the correct consistency and texture of a recipe, reducing food waste and saving on your shopping basket.

How to weigh food correctly

All of these questions are essential to knowing how to weigh food correctly. But how do you do it? There are several ways to do it: either with a food scale or with other very simple kitchen utensils if you don’t have a scale at hand.

With kitchen scale

There are two types of kitchen scales: digital and mechanical. Digital scales are much more precise and easy to use as they have a digital display and show the exact weight of the food. Mechanical scales do not require a battery as they have a needle to indicate the weight, which is why they are somewhat less precise.

To weigh raw food, place the scale on a flat, stable surface. After turning it on (in the case of digital scales), make sure it is set to zero. You can then select the most suitable container for the food you need to weigh. Set the scale back to zero and add the food to the container to see the exact weight of the ingredient.

When weighing cooked food, you’ll need to place the scale on a flat, stable surface, select and place the container on the scale, and calibrate the scale to zero. Then add the cooked food to the container and check its weight. By weighing a food raw and then re-weighing it once it’s cooked, you’ll be able to clearly see whether the food has lost or gained weight during cooking.

Without food scale

Although it will obviously never be a very precise method, it is possible to weigh ingredients without the need for a food scale. In fact, it is very simple using common objects that you surely have on hand in the kitchen. You can use something as basic as a teaspoon, a tablespoon, or a cup to measure foods such as salt, flour, rice, legumes…

To give you an idea, for uncooked or raw foods, a teaspoon of salt or sugar is equal to about 5 grams, a cup of flour is equal to 120 grams, and for liquids, a standard cup is equal to about 250 milliliters. To calculate the weight of fruits and vegetables, the easiest way is to use portions: a portion is equal to a medium piece of fruit or a cup of chopped vegetables. For foods like pasta or rice, you can use your own hands knowing that a handful is equal to one serving.

To know the weight of food once cooked, you should keep in mind that a portion of meat or fish should be the size of the palm of your hand and the thickness of your little finger.

When to weigh food: before or after cooking?

Cooking affects the volume and weight of food due to water absorption or dehydration. It is almost always the norm to weigh food before cooking since nutritional labels are based on raw weight.

Weigh food before cooking

This method of weighing food is the most common and ideal for ingredients such as pasta, rice or meat, as they change significantly in weight during cooking. The purpose of weighing food before cooking is to ensure that you use the exact quantities so that you get the expected result in terms of flavour and texture as well as the intended portions.

Weighing cooked food

Weighing cooked ingredients can be an option in certain diets where maximum precision is sought in the quantities of food we eat. It can be an option if we want to lose weight, as it allows us to calculate more accurately the amount of food that has absorbed or lost water. It is also useful for carrying out an exhaustive control of nutrients if we are applying different cooking techniques that have different effects on food. In addition, it can be a resource to ensure that a recipe always turns out the same way without exception, something important in baking, for example. Sometimes, we can simply find recipes that indicate the weights of their already-cooked ingredients.

Which foods are weighed before and after cooking

To decide when to weigh your food, you’ll need to consider which foods gain or lose weight when cooked.

Foods that gain weight when cooked include pasta, rice, and dried legumes, so it is advisable to weigh them before cooking.

Foods that help you lose weight include meat and fish, as well as certain vegetables such as spinach, mushrooms, zucchini or eggplant. It would therefore be more logical to weigh them after they have been cooked. It is preferable to weigh cooked foods when it comes to soups and creams, stews, and other dishes prepared in large portions that you will then have to divide into individual portions.

In the case of fresh fruits and vegetables, you can weigh them either before or after cooking, depending on how they are prepared. For salads, for example, we recommend that you weigh them beforehand, whereas if you are preparing a soup or stew, it is best to weigh them after they have been cooked.