Carb Absorption from Marinades

[Andy M.]

SO is attempting the Atkins again so I have to re-acquaint myself with the rules. Rummaging through the book tells me a lot but I haven't found the answer to the following question.

If you use a high carb food item in a marinade, how much of its carbs do you count in the finished product.

For example, Hoot's grilled shrimp calls for a marinade which includes a cup of beer. It would seem to me that 99% of the beer and its resident carbs remains in the dish when you take the shrimp out of the marinade to grill them.

Does anyone know any different? Is there some magical carb absorption formula that involves the hypotenuse of the shrimp times the square root of the cosine of the beer bottle, or something?

 

[Steve Kroll]

Well...

How about this? Measure the marinade before and after adding the food. Take the difference and divide it among the number of servings in the recipe.

I don't know if it would work, but you have to admit it sounds logical.

 

[Andy M.]

Well...

How about this? Measure the marinade before and after adding the food. Take the difference and divide it among the number of servings in the recipe.

I don't know if it would work, but you have to admit it sounds logical.

That would be relatively easy if beer was the only liquid ingredient, but there is also oil and vinegar. What if they get absorbed at different rates? How much drips off on the grill? ...or gets burned off during cooking?

 

[no mayonnaise]

I don't think it'll absorb any carbs. To my knowledge, carbs don't filter in/out of cells via osmosis, and they don't otherwise bond to foods.
If it absorbs any carbs, it'll be such an insignificant amount that I can't imagine it even impacting someone on Atkins. You may get some excess marinade (and thus, carbs) that sticks to the food, but I'd guess most would drip off during cooking anyway, resulting in insignificant amounts. I doubt you'd get even an entire sip's worth of beer out of the entire meal. My guess is the beer's role is to function as an acid, similar to lemon or lime juice.

 

[Andy M.]

I don't think it'll absorb any carbs. To my knowledge, carbs don't filter in/out of cells via osmosis, and they don't otherwise bond to foods.
If it absorbs any carbs, it'll be such an insignificant amount that I can't imagine it even impacting someone on Atkins. You may get some excess marinade (and thus, carbs) that sticks to the food, but I'd guess most would drip off during cooking anyway, resulting in insignificant amounts. I doubt you'd get more an entire sip's worth of beer out of the entire meal. My guess is the beer's role is to function as an acid, similar to lemon or lime juice.

That's my opinion as well. I was hoping someone with more knowledge than I could provide confirmation. Thanks.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Simple carb, often added to marinades...sugar in some form. How much sweet do you taste when you eat the finished product?

Take 2 raw potato sticks. Put one in cold salt water, put the other in cold sugar water, use the same volumes of water and salt/sugar. After 15 minutes take them out...the salt water potato is still crisp, if not crisper than it was. The sugar water potato is almost limp...the sugar pulls water out of the potato.

 

[Chef Munky]

SO is attempting the Atkins again so I have to re-acquaint myself with the rules. Rummaging through the book tells me a lot but I haven't found the answer to the following question.

If you use a high carb food item in a marinade, how much of its carbs do you count in the finished product.

For example, Hoot's grilled shrimp calls for a marinade which includes a cup of beer. It would seem to me that 99% of the beer and its resident carbs remains in the dish when you take the shrimp out of the marinade to grill them.

Does anyone know any different? Is there some magical carb absorption formula that involves the hypotenuse of the shrimp times the square root of the cosine of the beer bottle, or something?

Andy,

My better half is on the Atkins diet again to. Does your SO have that little pocket booklet? Or any of the Atkins books, that's including the cookbook?

I'm thinking the carbs will be grilled off the shrimp enough that it wouldn't even matter. It's not like your using a whole gallon of the stuff. On the other hand the diet says no carbs. Doesn't beer have carbs, it's made from yeast isn't it? Look who doesn't drink beer. <-----

I would think to count the carbs for a dish, count them in as the total amount of each serving. That diet has me punching #'s to. Sorry I'm not that much help to you. Seems to me that whatever I might suggest as a veggie that's healthy with no carbs actually does have them. It's making it hard to figure out what's ok, what's not. Some days I don't even want to cook. They can't have anything. Kind of takes away the joy of cooking.

Munky.

 

[Andy M.]

...It's making it hard to figure out what's ok, what's not. Some days I don't even want to cook. They can't have anything. Kind of takes away the joy of cooking.

Munky.

You've got that right!

 

[acerbicacid]

Simple carb, often added to marinades...sugar in some form. How much sweet do you taste when you eat the finished product?

Take 2 raw potato sticks. Put one in cold salt water, put the other in cold sugar water, use the same volumes of water and salt/sugar. After 15 minutes take them out...the salt water potato is still crisp, if not crisper than it was. The sugar water potato is almost limp...the sugar pulls water out of the potato.

Good morning PrincessFiona, I don't quite understand that about the sugar and salt, if you want to degorge/remove the moisture from things like cucumber, egg plant and vegetables for pickling, you sprinkle them with salt. Is it because the water becomes a brine that the process doesn't work?

Brilliant the things you learn on here

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Good morning PrincessFiona, I don't quite understand that about the sugar and salt, if you want to degorge/remove the moisture from things like cucumber, egg plant and vegetables for pickling, you sprinkle them with salt. Is it because the water becomes a brine that the process doesn't work?

Brilliant the things you learn on here

Sugar is hygroscopic, it absorbs water, but does not try to give any of that water back. Salt on the other hand will take the water with it, in and out until it reaches a concentration of salt that is the same in the water and in the potato.

So putting the potato in sugar water (or any sweet marinade) the sugary (carb laden) is more likely to just coat the surface of the potato/food as it pulls moisture out of the food.

Using a salty marinade, the salt helps in pulling the marinade into the food.

In purging cucumbers for pickles and eggplant, you put salt straight onto the food, the salt works to draw the water out to balance the concentration of salt on the inside and outside.

I hope some of this makes sense.

 

[acerbicacid]

Thank you, it makes perfect sense, I thought it might be something like that. As I said it is brilliant the things you can learn on here.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Thank you, it makes perfect sense, I thought it might be something like that. As I said it is brilliant the things you can learn on here.

I remember the potato trick from when I was in eighth grade chemistry class...

 

[Hoot]

The Atkins diet scares me, as does most of these type of diets. I know a number of people who have tried it. Wasn't long before ALL of them were positively ashen...I mean gray!! They looked like death walking. For good or ill, I believe that the best "diet" is a balanced one in which proper nutrition is provided, and portions are managed with as much zeal as the carbs are managed in the Atkins diet. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[CWS4322]

The Atkins diet scares me, as does most of these type of diets. I know a number of people who have tried it. Wasn't long before ALL of them were positively ashen...I mean gray!! They looked like death walking. For good or ill, I believe that the best "diet" is a balanced one in which proper nutrition is provided, and portions are managed with as much zeal as the carbs are managed in the Atkins diet. Just my 2 cents worth.

+1

 

[Andy M.]

The Atkins diet scares me, as does most of these type of diets. I know a number of people who have tried it. Wasn't long before ALL of them were positively ashen...I mean gray!! They looked like death walking. For good or ill, I believe that the best "diet" is a balanced one in which proper nutrition is provided, and portions are managed with as much zeal as the carbs are managed in the Atkins diet. Just my 2 cents worth.

I agree. I prefer just eating a balanced diet in smaller quantities when I diet. Besides, there are too many delicious carbs out there I'm not willing to forgo.

However, SO believes she will be more successful doing Atkins. She never does it for long so I just have to cooperate for a while then she loses a few pounds and quits.

 

[CWS4322]

I agree. I prefer just eating a balanced diet in smaller quantities when I diet. Besides, there are too many delicious carbs out there I'm not willing to forgo.

However, SO believes she will be more successful doing Atkins. She never does it for long so I just have to cooperate for a while then she loses a few pounds and quits.

I thought the diet included life-long modifications re: how one

eats.Atkins diet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So if one adheres to it, one shouldn't have to go back on it--maybe I've misunderstood.

 

[Andy M.]

...So if one adheres to it...

This is the key.

 

[CWS4322]

Yeah--but it sounds as if your SO is not adhering to it? No offense intended.

 

[Andy M.]

Yeah--but it sounds as if your SO is not adhering to it? No offense intended.

No offense. That's exactly what happens. She'll do it for a while. But because she's impatient she wants immediate results.

 

[CWS4322]

But because she's impatient she wants immediate results.

Not gonna happen.