How do you (or do you at all) count the calories in a marinade? We had a pork loin roast last night and it soaked in a homemade marinade before cooking. Obviously not all of it was used as some was still left in the dish and some cooked off on the grill.

Do you total of the marinade calories and count them all? Count a %? Count none?

If it matters, the marinade had olive oil, honey, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, salt, pepper, and some Traeger seasoning.

You know how many times I've googled this only to find that there are 1098593 different ways that people account for the calories in a marinade?

Short answer: It depends on the marinade.

If your marinade is pretty low cal then it probably adds very little calories. If it's higher cal then obviously it will add more.

Some people suggest weighing the marinade before you use it, then weigh it again after you remove whatever it is your marinating and see how much is left. Problem is if you're marinating meat this will underestimate how much was absorbed because you get meat juices mixed in with the marinade.

Others weigh before and just account for 25-50% of the marinade's calories.

My marinade is low cal and I don't weigh anything so I just estimate slightly higher than I would if it wasn't marinaded. I couldn't see going crazy over it, especially since I could never get a straight answer in all the places I looked @_@

I've had a really hard time with this topic as well. I did a lot of searching and found an answer that made sense to me. I’m not sure if this is accurate, but it’s what I go by:

"A nutritionist friend of mine advised me years ago that for a paste type marinade (eg pesto) assume 1 tbsp of the marinade sticks to each 85 grams (3 oz) meat.

For a oil based liquid marinade, assume 0.5 tbsp of the marinade sticks to each 85 grams (3 oz) meat.

For a non-oil liquid based marinade (eg juices or wine etc) assume 1/3 tbsp sticks to each 85 grams (3 oz) of meat."

Source – CalorieCount.About.com Forums

I hope that's helpful!

I count the whole thing just to be on the safe side.

Thank you all! Hubby got a new smoker, so we've been marinading a lot of our protein lately