Pasta -- How much is enough? (serving)

[Greg Who Cooks]

Although I've never worked in a kitchen, I try to use techniques that I expect professional chefs and sous chefs use. Two of my important tools are my instant read thermometer and my digital scale.

I imagine many restaurants use pre-measured products, cryovac bagged stuff, etc., no need to measure just grab one out of the box or fridge.

I'm frugal so I like portion control so as to not waste food by cooking too much--whatever is too much I either eat anyway (gaining weight) or put in the fridge which often just gets tossed, or scrape it from plate to garbage can.

Getting to pasta, the basic question is how much is enough? The situation is a bit different in restaurants, because food is cheaper than labor and customer satisfaction is important. Restaurants don't want to serve too little or hungry customers won't come back.

At home I want to cook just exactly the right amount, enough for a full serving, but not too much that I over eat or have to throw it away.

Some years ago when I was younger the dry weight for a serving was 3 oz. Several years ago (I'm getting older and like everybody my metabolism is slowing) so I've reduced the serving size (dry) to 2 oz.

I've discovered that less than 2 oz. can sometimes be enough. My question to others, what are your feelings on how much spaghetti to cook? -- Remember this is the before cooking weight I'm asking about.


BTW I imagine Italian restaurants always have vats of spaghetti cooking and they probably measure the cooked weight, or even with experience just grab what looks right and throw that on the plate.

 

[Cheryl J]

This guide from Barilla's website has come in handy for me on several occasions.

https://www.barilla.com/en-us/help/measuring-pasta

 

[jennyema]

I use about 1/3 of a box for two people.

I would never bother to weigh it....

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

That's 2.5 oz per serving presuming the smallest (1#) size box!

That's about what I used to serve when I was younger and more active. It's probably pretty reasonable for anybody not on a diet. (Unlike me.)

I'm a retired engineer. You know we engineers are are nuts for accuracy. I even used to portion control my dog's food.

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Greg, I'm a simple home cook, but when I portion out dried pasta for my husband and I, I get out my trusty scale and weigh out 56 grams per person.
When I make fresh pasta, I weigh out 100 grams of flour and mix with 1 large egg, this is plenty of the two of us.


I ran the fresh pasta sheets through the Fettuccine cutter on my KA

DH's Plate with a Dolly Chicken Breast Parm

My plate, I prefer less red sauce

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Wow, that dry weight is exactly same as my current standard: 2 oz.!

I should get off my duff and try making fresh pasta. It's one of the things I've never done.

I think I may do a smidge less than 2 oz. tonight. Either that or change my name to Big Greg.

The parm chix looks delicious!

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

Greg, my scale isn't the fancy type at all.
If I have it set on ounces, there isn't a point whatever but simply 2oz.
So I've gone to grams, which is much more precise, don't you think?
While we were on our diet, I mean looking at food differently, we were allowed 56 grams of whole wheat pasta.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Yes, on your ordinary digital kitchen scale grams is definitely more accurate, and here's why:

1 ounce = 28.3 grams

Most digital scales weigh to an accuracy of 0.1 ounce or 1 gram.

0.1 ounce = 2.83 grams

0.1 ounces is about the same as 3 grams, so measuring in grams is 3x more accurate!

I'm not only an engineer, but a soapmaker too, and every soapmaker knows that when you weigh your fats/oils and weigh your lye, you have to be extremely accurate or your soap may be lye heavy. That's part of the reasons soapmakers always add what we call "superfat" which is just an excess of fats to ensure that all the lye is eaten up. (Typically 5-8% extra fat.) It has the additional quality that a small amount of oil in your soap replaces the skin oils lost when washing. (That's why commercial soap can be drying. Actually most commercial soap isn't soap at all, it's detergent. We soapmakers call them "det-bars.") And of course it's not an unusual practice to pour fragrant oils into your bath.

When I make very small soap batches, usually for recipe testing, 16 oz. of oils/fats, I sometimes set my scale to grams. That makes four 5 oz. bars. (The excess is retained water.)

I have a modest priced digital scale, cost maybe $25 on Amazon. I use it for both cooking and soapmaking.

My stomach wouldn't know the difference of that small quantity of 1 gm.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

Carbohydrates, 1/2 cup cooked. 2 ounces by weight.

vegetables, 1 cup cooked (peas and corn are not vegetables, they are carbohydrates).

protein, 4 to 5 ounces, cooked.

A salad can be as large as you desire, as long as you limit the dressing to 2 tablespoons. I once saw Graham Kerr dress a salad big enough for 4 people with 1 tablespoon of dressing. He used his salad spinner!

 

[dragnlaw]

For packaged pasta, I check what the calories are per serving which is always given.

Example with simple numbers... if package is 400 g and they say that there are so many calories per serving size of 100 g - you know that you have 4 servings in the package and I eye ball it from there. I don't go so far as to weigh it. Open package, grab handfuls or spread out and divide into 4 equal bundles.

I do the same thing when I cook a dish that serves 4. I know it is a bit labour intensive and more cleaning up to do - but when your weight is out of control - you do what you have to do! So....

I cook a meal for 4 - I pull out 4 plates - I dish out - I eat one and package up the other 3 and ... Bob's your Uncle and Tilly's your aunt... works for me!

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Hey Beef, you da man!!!

You got pretty good numbers! (Like same as mine!) The carbs are spot on by my reckoning. While I often eat maybe 1/2 cup of veggies, sometimes I do a cup. How could a cup of green peas or spinach hurt you?

Protein too. I recently made a comment elsewhere that the thing about a steak being the size of your palm, as much as I used to like big steaks I've converted to palm sized steaks and that's filling enough for me. Tonight my shrimp is 4.4 oz. (I just measured it.) I'm having some Alfredo sauce too so my recipe might be a bit imperfect.

And your salad? I challenge anybody to get fat eating lettuce! Of course the dressing is important as you said, and that's a good number too: 2 T. depending on fat content.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

For packaged pasta, I check what the calories are per serving which is always given.

Doh! Silly me, as much as I read nutrition labels, I didn't even think this time:

serving size: 2 oz.
calories: 200
carbs: 42 gm = 1.5 oz.
protein: 7 gm = 0.5 oz.

Youse PPL are pretty handy for good advice!


All those years I was eating 3 oz. or more pasta... Older doesn't necessarily mean smarter but it seems to be working for me. Also, as you get older your metabolism slows and you either get fat or learn to measure your food consumption. In youth you just burn it up doing more exercise.

Actually I've lost about 30 pounds in the last 6 months. Less food. Less wine. More exercise.

I do the same thing when I cook a dish that serves 4.

Forgot to add, I do that too when faced with multi-serving packages but I try to avoid such things by cooking from scratch. I hate those "serves 2" packages at the market. I try to avoid them, or sometimes just pick at it and toss almost half.

 

[Andy M.]

When I cook pasta such as spaghetti, I use ⅓ of a pound box for SO and me (151gr.-152gr./5⅓ oz.). SO gets less than half and I get more than half. That works for us.

 

[caseydog]

Although I've never worked in a kitchen, I try to use techniques that I expect professional chefs and sous chefs use. Two of my important tools are my instant read thermometer and my digital scale.

I imagine many restaurants use pre-measured products, cryovac bagged stuff, etc., no need to measure just grab one out of the box or fridge.

I'm frugal so I like portion control so as to not waste food by cooking too much--whatever is too much I either eat anyway (gaining weight) or put in the fridge which often just gets tossed, or scrape it from plate to garbage can.

Getting to pasta, the basic question is how much is enough? The situation is a bit different in restaurants, because food is cheaper than labor and customer satisfaction is important. Restaurants don't want to serve too little or hungry customers won't come back.

At home I want to cook just exactly the right amount, enough for a full serving, but not too much that I over eat or have to throw it away.

Some years ago when I was younger the dry weight for a serving was 3 oz. Several years ago (I'm getting older and like everybody my metabolism is slowing) so I've reduced the serving size (dry) to 2 oz.

I've discovered that less than 2 oz. can sometimes be enough. My question to others, what are your feelings on how much spaghetti to cook? -- Remember this is the before cooking weight I'm asking about.


BTW I imagine Italian restaurants always have vats of spaghetti cooking and they probably measure the cooked weight, or even with experience just grab what looks right and throw that on the plate.

My advice is to lighten up. When cooking for yourself, sure, go for the minimum. You know what to eat and how much is healthy.

When cooking for family and friends, making too much is the right amount.

Besides, leftover pasta is like leftover pizza -- great for breakfast the next morning.

Technically, 2 ounces of dry weight pasta is a regular serving. But, in my mind, a little too much is better than not enough.

When I am making a bowl of spaghetti for myself, I make 2 ounces. If I am cooking for a crowd, I go well above that serving size.

CD

 

[dragnlaw]

My advice is to lighten up. When cooking for yourself, sure, go for the minimum. You know what to eat and how much is healthy.
:
When cooking for family and friends, making too much is the right amount.

If I am cooking for a crowd, I go well above that serving size.

CD

hear hear!!

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Actually just for the luck of the throw it ended up 1.9 oz tonight and I didn't feel like putting any back in the package. I finished dinner--meaning I ate all the shrimp--and ended up with left over pasta, but not a lot. I feel comfortably well fed and there is still some small amount of pasta and a bit more sauce left on my plate.

I had garlic bread with it, so everything considered--particularly that there was some but not a lot of pasta left--the 2 oz. figure worked out well enough for me. Funny, just like the package says! Who'd a thunk?

I sometimes think we (consumers) read the nutritional information--and say "yeah yeah"--and then cook whatever quantity we want. Like the food producers are cheating, telling us "this is what the FDA says you need to limit your eating to, but wink, wink, we know you won't listen to the gummint, we know you'll eat twice the recommendation because we know you are all gluttonous pigs and that you think the gummint sucks, and you'll swill it down until you are sated."

But on a more serious note, you buy a candy bar and the nutritional information says "2 servings" and really, you are going to break that candy bar in half and put the second half away for the next day? That's why I don't eat ice cream. When I used to eat ice cream there were only two kinds of ice cream containers: unopened, and empty.

That, my friends, is why I never buy ice cream!

So I conclude that yes, Virginia, a good serving size for pasta is dry weight 2 oz. per person. Various factors including gluttonous guests and willingness to not finish your serving are significant factors to take into consideration, as is the possibility of saving uneaten portions for future meals.

 

[buckytom]

Thete's a scientifically calculated limit?

Mama mia, va fa Napoli.

Actually, we do as Andy does, except with a growing boy, we make the entire pound.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Tom, knowing you it wouldn't surprise me if you made a whole pound and would eat it yourself if you couldn't find any victims! LOLOL

 

[CraigC]

We have bacon and eggs on hand, but hardly ever make breakfast with them nor do we buy stuff specifically for lunch. So leftovers are the norm for breakfast and lunch. We most always make whole recipes when it comes to pasta or anything else. Seafood is usually the exception.

 

[tenspeed]

My pasta machine makes batches using 250 grams of flour. There's a bit of waste stuck in the machine, so calling it 8 oz. of finished pasta (flour weight) should be pretty close. That's good for 3 to 3-1/2 servings. Lunch is usually leftovers, so it isn't thrown away. We're both pretty active, so aren't averse to carbs.

The machine makes 250 gram or 500 gram batches, with a cup marked for the appropriate liquid volume. I have a finely graduated measuring cup on the way so I can make intermediate sized batches.