Marinated Meats
 

I wanted to know how do you count the calories with marinated meats. I am currently adding up all the ingredients of the marinade. But it doesn't make sense since I don't eat the juice. I don't know how much is absorbed in the meat. Any suggestions?

What does the marinade contain?

I generally don't count my marinades unless I put oil in them, because the things I marinade in don't tend to contain a lot of calories anyway (herbs, spices, citrus zests and sometimes juices, vinegars, etc). But if a marinade has oil, some of it DOES stick to the meat, so I add about a tsp worth of oil to my portion.

Most marinades use oil as a base and there is a certain amount of oil that stays in the meat (not much, I don't think). Have you tried a dry rub instead? Or how about marinating in fat free Italian salad dressing? neither of those would add fat or discernible calories.

It's a sweet kind of meat. Korean BBQ with flank steaks. We use a little bit of sesame oil.

1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup green onion, cut into pieces
2 tablespoon splenda
1 1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon black pepper

So add the sesame oil and don't add the other ingredients?

Cooking Light Magazine when it does calorie counts for its recipes estimates 1/2 the total marinade as "absorbed". They feel this will be erring on the side of overestimating calories. This is the method I go with as I use some very caloric marinades.

(Some suggest to try and do the measure remaining marinade method, but the truth is oils and sugars are more likely to cling to the meat while chicken juices drain out of the chicken. )

The sesame oil and the olive oil are the only ingredients you'd have to count. Though I'm surprised at the amount of sesame oil. Sesame oil is VERY strongly flavored, so

oops hit enter instead of space. I just meant that with sesame oil, if you use the darker or stronger brands you can usually use up to 2/3 less.

Thanks everyone, I will adjust my nutrition count accordingly.