[Sca-cooks] Intro and Newbie question - estimating meat portions

Dragon dragon at crimson-dragon.com
Wed Mar 12 13:59:13 PDT 2008


On Wed, March 12, 2008 13:45, Antonia Calvo wrote:
> S CLEMENGER wrote:
>
>>It'd be handy to know if you guys are thinking, for the meat, in terms of
>> *raw* ounces or *cooked* ounces...
>>I made that mistake a few times myself when first working on feasts...
>>
>>
>
> I only ever talk about uncooked weights. You buy it uncooked, and that's
> the last time you really know what the weight is :-)
>

Ever notice how restaurants always have the disclaimer "weight before
cooking" when they talk about a burger or steak or some such by weight?

But yeah, weight before cooking is how I do it too. I typically serve
three or four meat dishes with a typical 3 to 4 ounce portion per person.

When buying your met, you also have to estimate yield.

Lean boneless meats you can get nearly 100% yield (I generally count on
90% with these). Most processed meats like sausages and ground meats are
essentially 100% yield.

Fattier boneless cuts can have upwards of 20% trim (sometimes more) so I
estimate an 80% yield on these usually.

Bone-in cuts vary widely and can have yields as low as 50% depending on
exactly what you are using. I generally estimate I am going to get a
usable yield of about 70% on these unless it is something like duck which
I know will be much lower (duck runs about 50% usually, goose about
55-60%).

Typical 3-pound whole chickens I get at my local restaurant supply I count
on using two per table of eight people.



-- 
Dragon
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Venimus, Saltavimus, Bibimus (et naribus canium capti sumus)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list