Cooking loss

What it is and why it matters

Cooking always reduces weight: first liquids, juices and fats evaporate, and with long cooking almost everything but the minerals. That loss is cooking loss.

Cooking loss changes with the type, method and equipment (boiling, frying, convection oven, griddle, grill…) and with the degree of doneness. Measuring it lets you choose, within good culinary practice, the method that loses the least.

The formula

• Weight before cooking = clean weight + inseparable additions
• Loss = weight before cooking − cooked weight
• Cooking loss % = loss ÷ weight before cooking × 100

What each value means

Clean weight

The clean product, before cooking it.

Inseparable additions

Dressings, sauces, liquids, coatings or fillings that can't be separated afterwards.

Cooked weight

What the finished preparation weighs, ready to serve.

Step by step

1. Weigh the clean product.
2. Add the dressings, sauces, coatings or fillings that can't be separated.
3. Cook the preparation.
4. Weigh the cooked product.
5. Subtract the weights and work out the percentage on the weight before cooking.

Worked examples

Study notes

• Common mistake

  The percentage is worked out on the weight before cooking (including additions), not on the gross weight you bought.

• Tip

  Besides cooking loss there's thawing loss (slowly freezing and thawing products that contain water) and drip loss (portioning too far in advance).

• Tip

  To avoid thawing loss, use a blast chiller, or buying fresh products more often and keeping them refrigerated at 4 °C.