How Much Weight Does Meat Lose During Cooking?

There are two sources of weight loss. The first is water: as muscle fibers heat up, they contract and squeeze out the water between them. This contraction becomes noticeable around 60°C / 140°F and increases as the temperature rises. The second is fat; rendered internal and external fat runs off. For this reason, the same meat loses little when cooked rare and noticeably more when cooked well-done. This loss is not a defect; it is simply a factor to account for when shopping and calculating portions.

The cooking method makes a big difference. High-heat grilling and barbecuing are near the upper end of the range because water evaporates quickly from the surface. Long, low-temperature oven cooking causes less loss. In wet-cooked dishes such as boiled meat and stew, the meat still loses water, but that water stays in the pot and mixes into the cooking liquid, so the total loss from the meal is lower. Ground meat generally loses close to the upper end of the range because it has a much larger surface area. Previously frozen and thawed meat loses somewhat more because ice crystals have already damaged its muscle structure.

The rough calculation works like this: divide the desired cooked weight by 4 and add that amount to the desired cooked weight; in other words, take the raw weight to be roughly one-third more than the cooked weight. If you want 150 g of cooked meat per person, buy about 200 g of raw boneless meat. For bone-in meat, add a bone allowance on top of that calculation. If a recipe does not say whether its weight is raw or cooked, the general rule is that it refers to raw weight; check the recipe if in doubt.

The loss cannot be eliminated completely, but it can be reduced. First, remove the meat from the heat when it reaches the target temperature (at least 63°C / 145°F plus a 3-minute rest for whole cuts of red meat, 71°C / 160°F for ground meat, 74°C / 165°F for poultry) and avoid overcooking; the greatest loss occurs during extra cooking time. Second, brining or soaking in salt water can help, because salted meat releases its juices later. Third, let the meat rest: if you cut it before resting, its juices run onto the cutting board, and that liquid also counts as loss. Fourth, avoid very high heat, while balancing this against the desire for a browned crust. Weighing the meat before and after cooking teaches you the actual percentage for your own kitchen in one try.

Some of what appears to be lost can still be used. Do not discard the meat juices and rendered fat collected in the pan; scrape up the browned bits to make a sauce and pour it over the cooked meat, returning some of the loss to the plate. The weight on the label is always the raw weight and includes any water in the package, so account for the same allowance for packaged products. If you do not make this calculation, you may serve less meat than expected.