I'm not on IP, but I have a lot of experience comparing and estimating the raw to cooked weights and cooked to raw weights of meat.
One of the easiest ways calculate the raw weight from the cooked weight is to weigh the whole big piece before AND after cooking. Then you know how much that particular meat shrinks, and you can apply that number in reverse (divide it from the cooked weight to determine the raw weight) to determine the raw weight from a portion.
For example, say I cook a 60 ounce (3.75 lb) roast. and end up with a 40 ounce cooked roast by dividing the 40 by 60 I get the amount of shrinkage (.667 or approximately 2/3).
You take the raw weight (4) and divide it by the amount of shrinkage (.67).
Likewise next time you cook that same kind of roast you can estimate how much cooked meat you'll end up with (by multiplying the raw weight by .67).
Multiply by the shinkage factor to calculate the cooked weight from the raw weight
Divide by the shrinkage factor to calculate the raw weight from the cooked weight
Both calculations come in handy.
For example my mother always used to say that fior boneless pork, beef, chicken or turkey, when you had guests you always bought at least half a pound per person (which usually yeilds a serving size of about 5 to 6 ounces).
For dieting the reverse calculation comes in handy and after you've weighed the larger piece of meat before and after cooking, you can calculate the reverse easily enough.
Last edited by kaplods; 09-12-2012 at 10:32 PM.
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