Cooking your own meals at home gives you the opportunity to eat a healthier diet than one that regularly includes prepackaged and fast foods. Recipes, however, don't always specify the size of a serving or the nutritional value of each serving. Learning how to calculate the serving sizes of a recipe will make it easier to keep track of your intake of calories, carbohydrates, fat and protein.
Volume
Step 1
Read the recipe to determine how many servings it should yield. Even when recipes don't tell you how large a single serving should be, they usually state the number of servings the recipe yields.
Step 2
Add up the total volume of all the ingredients in your recipe. For most recipes, it will probably be easiest to use cups as the unit of measurement. For example, a soup recipe that calls for 4 cups of stock, 2 cups of chopped vegetables and 1 cup of chopped meat has a total volume of 7 cups when all are added together.
Step 3
Divide the total volume by the number of servings. For example, a soup recipe that serves four people and has a total volume of 7 cups has a serving size of 1 3/4 cups. This is because 7 cups divided by the number of people to be served -- four -- equals 1.75.
Area
Step 1
Read the recipe for casserole, brownies or other foods that have a relatively solid end product to determine how many servings it should yield.
Step 2
Measure the length and/or width of the final product of your recipe.
Step 3
Divide the pan or loaf into equal slices or squares. For example, a pan of brownies that should yield 12 servings should have four even slices in one direction and three even slices in the other direction. If you used a 9-by-13-inch pan, the four slices should be made along the 13-inch side and should be 3.25 inches apart; three slices should be made along the 9-inch side and should be 3 inches apart. In other words, each brownie should be 3-inches by 3 1/4 inches. For recipes such as bread, simply divide the length of the food by the number of servings and make the corresponding number of evenly spaced, vertical slices.
Tips and Warnings
- The volume method works best for recipes without dissolving ingredients. When wet ingredients are combined with powdered or dissolving ingredients, they tend to yield a total that is less than the sum of their parts. In this case, you can simply measure the end result for a more accurate total.
Things You'll Need
- Measuring cups
- Measuring tape
- Calculator
References
- USDA and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Dietary Guidelines for Americans: 2010; December 2010
- "Modern Food Service Purchasing"; Robert Garlough; 2010
- "Understanding Food: Principles and Preparation; Amy Christine Brown; 2007
- "Food for Fifty"; Mary Molt; 2006
Member Comments