Cooking Yield Calculator
Estimate how much your food will weigh after cooking. Enter a raw weight and either an expected yield percentage or a measured cooked weight, and get the cooked weight, yield, and raw amount to buy for any target.
How Much Will Your Food Weigh After Cooking?
Cooking Yield Formula
Where:
- \(W_c\) — cooked weight of the food
- \(W_r\) — raw weight of the food
- \(Y\) — cooking yield, i.e. cooked weight as a percentage of raw weight
- \(W_t\) — target cooked weight you want to end up with
The first formula predicts the cooked weight from a known yield, the second calculates the actual yield from two measured weights, and the third tells you how much raw food to buy to reach a target cooked amount.
Cooking Yield – Calculation Example
Example: you buy a 500 g raw chicken breast and expect a cooking yield of 70%. You want to serve 300 g of cooked chicken.
\[ W_c = 500 \times \frac{70}{100} = 350 \text{ g} \]
\[ W_r = \frac{300}{70} \times 100 \approx 429 \text{ g} \]
Result: the chicken will weigh about 350 g cooked (a 30% weight loss, mostly water and rendered fat), and to end up with 300 g cooked you should buy roughly 429 g raw — round up to about 450–470 g to cover trimming losses.
How to Use the Calculator
- In the "I know the" dropdown, choose Expected yield percentage if you are planning ahead, or Raw and cooked weights if you have already cooked and weighed the food.
- Enter the Raw weight of your ingredient and pick the unit (g, kg, lb, or oz).
- If you chose the yield mode, enter the Expected cooking yield in percent. If you chose the weights mode, enter the Cooked weight (measured) with its unit instead.
- Under Shopping Target, enter the Target cooked weight — the amount of cooked food you want to end up with.
- Read your results: the Estimated cooked weight, the Cooking yield in percent, and the Raw amount to buy for your target.
What Is Cooking Yield?
Cooking yield is the ratio of a food's cooked weight to its raw weight, expressed as a percentage. Almost nothing you cook keeps its original weight: heat drives off water, melts fat, and breaks down connective tissue. A yield of 70% means that 100 g of raw food becomes 70 g on the plate — the missing 30% evaporates or renders out during cooking.
Yields below 100% are typical for meat, poultry, and fish. Chicken breast usually yields 65–70%, beef and pork roasts 70–75%, and delicate fish fillets 75–80%. The longer and hotter you cook, the more moisture escapes, so a slow-braised piece of meat can lose more weight than the same cut quickly seared.
Yields above 100% happen when food absorbs water: white rice typically ends up at 250–300% of its dry weight, dried pasta at 220–250%, and beans can more than double. This is why recipes measure rice and pasta dry — the raw weight is far smaller than what you serve.
Understanding yield matters in two everyday situations. First, when a recipe calls for a cooked quantity, you need to convert it back to a raw weight to know what to buy. Second, when tracking nutrition, cooked and raw weights are not interchangeable — a "100 g serving" of chicken means very different amounts of protein depending on whether it was weighed raw or cooked.
Assumptions, Limitations and Practical Tips
- The yield is an estimate. Actual results depend on cooking method, temperature, time, cut thickness, and fat content. Grilling and roasting lose more weight than steaming or poaching.
- Weigh before and after the same way. For a measured yield, weigh the food raw, cook it, let it rest briefly, and weigh it again — bone-in and skin-on weights will distort the ratio if you remove them partway through.
- Round up when shopping. The "raw amount to buy" is a mathematical minimum. Add 5–10% for trimming, uneven pieces, and pieces that stick to the pan.
- Units are converted automatically. The calculator works in grams internally and displays results in a readable metric and imperial combination.
- Yield is capped at 300% in planning mode — enough even for rice and pasta, which absorb the most water of any common ingredient.
If you are planning a full meal, you may also find the Cake Frosting Calculator and the Ingredient Substitution Calculator useful, and for timing the rest of the kitchen work, try the Egg Boiling Time Calculator or the Turkey Thawing Time Calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I calculate cooking yield by hand?
Weigh the food raw, cook it, then weigh it again after a short rest. Divide the cooked weight by the raw weight and multiply by 100: \( Y = \frac{W_c}{W_r} \times 100 \). For example, 200 g of ground beef that weighs 140 g after cooking has a yield of \( \frac{140}{200} \times 100 = 70\% \). Keep the same unit for both weights, and weigh the food before and after under the same conditions — with or without skin, bones, or trimming.
What is a good or normal cooking yield for meat, rice, and pasta?
Most meats yield 65–80%: chicken breast around 65–70%, beef and pork roasts 70–75%, ground meats about 70%, and delicate fish 75–80%. Foods that absorb water can exceed 100% — white rice typically reaches 250–300% of its dry weight, dried pasta 220–250%, and dried beans can more than double. Yields below about 60% for meat usually mean it was overcooked or cooked very hot and long.
Why can the yield be over 100%?
A yield above 100% simply means the food gained weight by absorbing water during cooking. Rice, pasta, beans, lentils, and cereals do this because they soak up many times their dry weight in liquid. There is nothing wrong with the calculation — it just works in the opposite direction from meat: you need less raw than your target cooked amount, so the shopping figure will be smaller than the serving size.
Should I track nutrition based on raw or cooked weight?
It matters a lot, because the calorie and protein content per 100 g changes when water is lost or absorbed. 100 g of cooked chicken contains roughly 40% more protein than 100 g raw, since moisture evaporated and concentrated the meat. Pick one convention and stick to it: either weigh everything raw and use raw nutrition data, or weigh cooked and use cooked values. Mixing the two is one of the most common meal-tracking mistakes.
What are common mistakes when measuring cooking yield?
The biggest ones: weighing raw and cooked under different conditions (e.g., raw with skin, cooked without), not letting meat rest so steam keeps escaping while weighing, forgetting juices left in the pan, and comparing weights in different units. Also, don't weigh food straight from the oven at boiling temperature — residual evaporation and convection currents can distort the scale reading slightly. Drain pasta and rice consistently before weighing.
How do I convert between grams, pounds, and ounces for the weights?
The conversions are 1 kg = 1000 g, 1 lb ≈ 453.6 g, and 1 oz ≈ 28.35 g. Since yield is a ratio, the units cancel as long as raw and cooked weights use the same unit — 70% yield means the same thing in grams or pounds. The calculator handles conversions internally if you enter different units for different fields, and results are shown in both metric and imperial figures.
How much extra raw food should I buy for a dinner party?
Start with the mathematical minimum the calculator gives you, then add a buffer of 10–15% for larger groups. This covers trimming waste, pieces sticking to the pan, uneven portioning, and second helpings. For example, if the calculator says 430 g raw chicken for 300 g cooked, buy around 480–500 g. Also account for bone weight if buying bone-in cuts — the yield applies to the edible portion, not the bone.