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  #1   ^
Old Mon, Jul-03-17, 09:16
labougie labougie is offline
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Plan: Meat + water
Stats: 187/183/160 Male 67 in
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Default The Incredible Disappearing Burger!

Hi -

Hope this isn't a silly question but:

A fresh raw Sainsbury's beef burger comes out of the packaging at 113.5g but after grilling, it's down to 77g. Although I haven't done the measurements, skinless chicken breast baked in foil does the same.

It would seem by the state of my grill pan (and the liquid I pour out of the foil the chicken's been baked in) that fat is being lost. Is it just fat, or are the carb/protein/calorie quantities affected by grilling or baking?

Thanks in advance.
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  #2   ^
Old Wed, Jul-05-17, 07:43
Calianna's Avatar
Calianna Calianna is offline
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Plan: Atkins-ish (hypoglycemia)
Stats: 000/000/000 Female 63
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As far as the burgers are concerned, what is cooking out of it depends on the fat content of the burgers - a whole lot more fat will cook out of a 75% lean burger than a 92% lean burger.

A skinless chicken breast is nearly fat free, so there is very little fat available to be cooked out of it.

All fresh meat also has moisture (water) content. I don't know whether they prepare chicken breasts for sale this way in the UK, but a lot of chicken breasts sold in the US are water chilled, which results in the meat retaining water from the chilling process, in some cases as much as 15% of the weight comes from the chilling process, during which the chicken is soaked in a saltwater solution in order to quickly chill it to a safe storage temperature.

At any rate, since all meat also has a naturally occurring moisture content, the cooking process will remove some of that too. How much of the moisture ends up removed in the cooking process depends on how thoroughly you cook it. If you cook it until it just barely reaches a safe internal temperature, then you won't lose nearly as much moisture as you would if you continue cooking it until the meat is overcooked and dry.

Since neither hamburger nor chicken breasts should have any carb content at all, the amount of liquid lost will not affect carb count. Higher fat hamburger will lose fat and calories during the cooking process, but the thing about hamburger is that if you opt for higher fat burger meat to save money, and you're using a cooking method which allows all removed fat to drain away, the total fat/cal content of the cooked meat isn't all that much different between 75%, 80%, and 85%.

If you're pan frying, and intentionally leave the cooked burgers in the pan to soak up some of the fat that cooked out of them, you can retain more of the fat and calorie content, and your burgers will be more moist from the retained fat.
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  #3   ^
Old Thu, Jul-06-17, 02:14
labougie labougie is offline
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Plan: Meat + water
Stats: 187/183/160 Male 67 in
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A very comprehensive answer - many thanks.
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  #4   ^
Old Thu, Jul-06-17, 03:35
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Calianna Calianna is offline
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Plan: Atkins-ish (hypoglycemia)
Stats: 000/000/000 Female 63
BF:
Progress: 50%
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You're welcome.

I hate how much meat shrinks up when it's cooked... A four pound beef roast will shrink down so much that I look at it and think "How many servings did I think I was going to get from this??!! No way."

The trade-off is that you can save all the broth from your meats (be sure to scrape up all the browned bits from the cooking pan too - that's where all the flavor is), and make a great sauce from it. I often make xanthan thickened gravy to use over mashed cauliflower. Not a true substitute for potatoes and gravy, but it's still a very nice combo.
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