Raw to Cooked Weight Converter — Pasta, Rice, Legumes, Meat and Fish
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Raw to Cooked Weight Converter
How much a food weighed raw weighs once cooked, and vice versa, using the weight changes measured by CREA for pasta, rice, legumes, meat, fish and vegetables
Data source: CREA Centro di ricerca Alimenti e Nutrizione (Research Centre for Food and Nutrition), Tabelle di composizione degli alimenti (Food Composition Tables), Table C «Variazioni in peso degli alimenti con alcune cotture» (Weight changes of foods with some cooking methods) (cooked weight of 100 g of raw food, edible portion); web pages www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione and www.alimentinutrizione.it. These are average values: the actual weight changes with cooking time, the amount of water or oil and the way the food is drained.
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Raw to cooked weight converter: how it works
When you follow a diet or a meal plan, portions are almost always given raw, but you often end up weighing food that is already cooked (or the other way round). This free converter turns raw weight into cooked weight and cooked weight into raw weight for 72 combinations of food and cooking method: pasta, rice, grains, legumes, meat, fish and vegetables. Choose the food, say whether the weight you have is raw or cooked and enter the grams; you can write them Italian style, even with a dot for thousands and a comma for decimals (for example 1.250,5). The calculation takes place in your browser.
The data come from Table C of the CREA Tabelle di composizione degli alimenti (Food Composition Tables) (Centro di ricerca Alimenti e Nutrizione, the Research Centre for Food and Nutrition), which reports how much 100 g of raw food, edible portion, weighs after some cooking methods: boiling, pan-frying with oil, roasting and microwaving.
The formula
The ratio between cooked weight and raw weight is called the yield factor:
- cooked weight = raw weight × yield factor
- raw weight = cooked weight ÷ yield factor
The factor is the cooked weight of 100 g raw divided by 100: for short durum wheat pasta CREA gives 188 g, so the factor is 1.88. The CREA table also gives the factor rounded to one decimal place (1.9 for short pasta); the converter uses the weight in grams, which is more precise.
Pasta, rice and dried legumes absorb water and gain weight (factor greater than 1); meat, fish and many vegetables lose water and fat and shrink (factor less than 1). CREA specifies that the change is mainly due to the loss or gain of water and fat, and that it depends on the food, personal habits, the type and duration of cooking and the utensils used.
Calculation example
| Food | Weight entered | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polished rice, boiled | 50 g raw | 50 × 2.6 | 130 g cooked |
| Short durum wheat pasta, boiled | 80 g raw | 80 × 1.88 | 150.4 g cooked |
| Short durum wheat pasta, boiled | 200 g cooked | 200 ÷ 1.88 | 106.4 g raw |
| Chicken, breast, grilled | 150 g raw | 150 × 0.89 | 133.5 g cooked |
| Basmati rice, boiled | 1,000 g raw | 1,000 × 3 | 3,000 g cooked |
The last example shows the case of a large portion, such as one for a family or a canteen: typing «1.000» with the thousands dot gives one thousand grams, not one.
Raw to cooked table of the main foods
| Food (cooking method) | Cooked weight of 100 g raw |
|---|---|
| Short durum wheat pasta (boiled) | 188 g |
| Long durum wheat pasta (boiled) | 210 g |
| Dried egg pasta (boiled) | 299 g |
| Polished rice (boiled) | 260 g |
| Basmati rice (boiled) | 300 g |
| Pearled spelt (boiled) | 228 g |
| Dried chickpeas (boiled) | 290 g |
| Dried beans (boiled) | 230 g |
| Dried lentils (boiled) | 247 g |
| Chicken, breast (grilled) | 89 g |
| Young beef, lean meat (oven-roasted) | 54 g |
| Cod (grilled) | 68 g |
| Peeled potatoes (boiled) | 87 g |
| Spinach (boiled) | 84 g |
Source: CREA Centro di ricerca Alimenti e Nutrizione, Tabelle di composizione degli alimenti, Table C «Variazioni in peso degli alimenti con alcune cotture» (last updated December 2019); web pages www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione and www.alimentinutrizione.it.
Why the result is an estimate
CREA values are averages. The actual weight of your dish may differ: it changes with cooking time, the amount of water or oil and the way the food is drained. For a precise meal plan it is best to always weigh in the same state (raw or cooked) and follow your nutritionist's advice. The converter only covers the foods and cooking methods in the CREA table: for a food you cannot find in the list, do not use the factor of a similar one without knowing it, because even similar foods can have different yields (dried egg pasta, for example, goes from 100 to 299 g, short durum wheat pasta to 188 g).
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate cooked weight from raw weight?
Multiply the raw weight by the yield factor, that is the cooked weight of 100 g raw divided by 100. For short durum wheat pasta CREA gives 188 g, so 80 g of raw pasta becomes 80 × 1.88 = 150.4 g of cooked pasta.
How much raw pasta corresponds to 100 g of cooked pasta?
Divide the cooked weight by the yield factor: 100 ÷ 1.88 = 53.2 g of raw short durum wheat pasta, or 100 ÷ 2.1 = 47.6 g if it is long durum wheat pasta. These are average values: longer or shorter cooking changes the result slightly.
Why do meat, fish and vegetables weigh less after cooking?
Because during cooking they lose mainly water and partly fat. According to the CREA table, 100 g of raw chicken breast becomes 89 g when grilled and 100 g of spinach becomes 84 g after boiling. Pasta, rice and dried legumes, on the other hand, absorb water and gain weight.
Where do the converter's values come from?
From Table C «Variazioni in peso degli alimenti con alcune cotture» of the Tabelle di composizione degli alimenti by CREA, Centro di ricerca Alimenti e Nutrizione, published on www.alimentinutrizione.it. The table gives the cooked weight of 100 g of raw food, edible portion, for boiling, pan-frying with oil, roasting and microwaving.
Related tools: the calorie calculator, the protein calculator and the carbohydrate calculator to estimate your daily requirements.
