Recipe Analyzer question

Does the recipe analyzer take into effect any calorie changes caused by the way something is cooked or prepared?  For example, when one makes bread, does the final product (bread)  really have the calorie content of all the individual ingredients added together?   Wouldn't the yeast be "burning" some of the calories of the sugar or other fuel used during fermentation?  

No calories are lost in cooking, only water, so the calorie count is still the same.  Yeast does not eat calories, they are all still there.

I'm trying to analyze a recipe that used 2 cans of soup...details here not important. However I could not find a way to add them so that the rcipe analyzer would recognize it. I even copy/pasted the item from the food search and entered amounts as cans, and as oz...any ideas!!!???

armywife,

I just tried it and you would need to put Oz only (ex. 16oz chicken stock). Question is what type of soup was it and how many Oz??

It was Campbell's Select Harvest light Italian-Style vegetable. I even copy/pasted it (again) from the foods list here, including the amount/measurment a 38oz, but no luck!

I think I found the problem the soup is not listed in the foodlog. This is what I found in CC try typing the soup that maybe is close.

1. B-  (Campbell's) Healthy Request Italian Style Wedding Soup - Select Harvest Healthy Request Microwavable Bowls
2. B   (Campbell's) Healthy Request Mexican Style Chicken Tortilla Soup - Select Harvest Healthy Request Microwavable Bowls
3. B-  (Campbell's) Healthy Request Chicken with Egg Noodles - Select Harvest Healthy Request Soups
4. B-  (Campbell's) Healthy Request Italian Style Wedding Soup - Select Harvest Healthy Request Soups
5. B-  (Campbell's) Healthy Request Mexican Style Chicken Tortilla Soup - Select Harvest Healthy Request Soups
6. B-  (Campbell's) Healthy Request Savory Chicken and Long Grain Rice Soup - Select Harvest Healthy Request Soups

I know we are going off the OP, but to answer armywife, try using the item's ID # instead.  

When you look up an item, check out your address bar. It should look something like this:  http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-milk-l owfat-fluid-1-percent-i1082

The ID # is those last numbers.  Usually 4 or 5 numbers long.  Do not use the i.  On your recipe you have to put the # in these [ ] kind of brackets.  Here's your item: http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-campbe lls-light-italian-style-vegetable-i136281   It looks like the serving size is in grams, but you can easily get that off the can the total # of grams in the can and double it.

So on your recipe you can type

999 grams Italian Soup [36281]

and the analyzer should get it right for you.

thmheh~ thanks that worked! now I have the recipe saved and all!

Original Post by armywife22:

I'm trying to analyze a recipe that used 2 cans of soup...details here not important. However I could not find a way to add them so that the rcipe analyzer would recognize it. I even copy/pasted the item from the food search and entered amounts as cans, and as oz...any ideas!!!???

 If the item in the data base has a unit of measure of "serving" then the Analyzer can't covert it into a standard unit of measure.  Canned soups, because of their popularity as ingredients, are the biggest problem. 

Amen, Claire!

Another question on the Analyzer.

I've entered a new recipe, for example 'my home-baked sourdough bread'. I'd like to create another new recipe using 'my home-baked sourdough bread' as an ingredient but haven't been able to make it work.

Any ideas?

@ d_Thomas,

the only way I have found of doing this is to tag a portion of the recipe, along with whatever else I'm using it with.  So for a portion of your homemade bread used to make a sandwich you would tag the quantity of the bread, along with the other sandwich ingredients.  You can then add them altogether into your food log. 

I hope this helps,

Ax

Ok, I have an anyalyzer question.  How do you determine what portions are.  I mean I made a whole wheat past recipe last night.  Box of whole wheat rotini, can of kidney beans, and 1lb (before cooking) of ground chicken.  I added in salsa and seasoning.  So how do I figure out what the servings should be?

Thanks

I too added up my recipe for chili, the recipe analyzer found all the ingrediants no problem, but I'm not sure what a "serving" should be or how many calories in a serving . 

Hi - perhaps I'm not understanding the question...it seems a bit obvious to me.

A serving is a number of portions that you divide your food into.  For example if you make a lasagne and it feeds 4, then that is 4 servings.

So in the very first box of the recipe analyser, where it asks for number of servings, you will enter 4 (it defaults to 1 if you don't change it).  The calories and nutritional information that the analyser will give you will be for 1 of those 4 servings.  If you calculate your recipe on the basis of 4 servings and then find that it only serves 3, then you can edit your recipe (click in the small E button), to recalculate it for 3 servings.  It does assume equal sized portions. If the total weight of all your ingredient adds up to 1000g, the analyser will assume that each portion is 250g.

If you find that you have a small bit left over or you want a bigger serving, you can log specific amounts of your recipe.  Start to enter it into your food log as normal, then click 'values per 100g', and then enter the new weight of the serving, and values for that weight of your recipe will be entered into your log.

Original Post by demerara:

Hi - perhaps I'm not understanding the question...it seems a bit obvious to me.

A serving is a number of portions that you divide your food into.  For example if you make a lasagne and it feeds 4, then that is 4 servings.

So in the very first box of the recipe analyser, where it asks for number of servings, you will enter 4 (it defaults to 1 if you don't change it).  The calories and nutritional information that the analyser will give you will be for 1 of those 4 servings.  If you calculate your recipe on the basis of 4 servings and then find that it only serves 3, then you can edit your recipe (click in the small E button), to recalculate it for 3 servings.  It does assume equal sized portions. If the total weight of all your ingredient adds up to 1000g, the analyser will assume that each portion is 250g.

If you find that you have a small bit left over or you want a bigger serving, you can log specific amounts of your recipe.  Start to enter it into your food log as normal, then click 'values per 100g', and then enter the new weight of the serving, and values for that weight of your recipe will be entered into your log.

 

 I understand how it works.  I'm just confused on how to determine how many servings are in a recipes (like one I make up myself).  I really dont want to take a whole recipes and measure out how many cups are in the recipes to determine how many 1 cups servings there are.  I guess the easiet way would be to just analyze it with one serving and then weigh your own serving and log that way?

I am exactly with you!!! I'm NOT stupid I understand what a serving is, but I too do not always know how many serving are in a recipe that I make.  And I like to know how many calories I am preparing to eat, before I eat them!!!

I start out for the whole amount I make to see the total. then I decide how many calories I want to eat and divide it accordingly. 

Or I will look at how much is in the pan and decide how many I think it will serve put that number in.

either way after it will tell you how many grams a serving is and I weight it out.

There's 2 easy ways.  one by allowancesand one by hunger size. 

*** I only do size when I have a lot of calories to spare or it's a all veggie dish.***

"but I'm not sure what a "serving" should be or how many calories in a serving"

patchesnpockets - this is EXACTLY the question you asked......

If you are making up a recipe, and you don't know how many servings you are going to end up with, I would estimate how many I think I will have.  If I then wasn't happy with the nutritional information that gave me, I would adjust the number of servings up or down accordingly.  Alternatively, you could enter it as 1 serving and then enter the specific weight of the portion you are having into your food log as I described above.

Original Post by demerara:

Alternatively, you could enter it as 1 serving and then enter the specific weight of the portion you are having into your food log as I described above.

 I thinks this is what i will go with. Thanks!

That's the way I do it.  I eat what I want, so long as weight is determined, and then adjust my recipe's serving size closest to the grams I ate--and I am talking about fractional servings.  You will see many of my recipes where servings is something like 3.5, for instance, because it brings up the number of grams I ate, and then I "add one serving to log."

Alternately, you could copy and paste your recipe into New Recipe, so the suggested servings of the orignal remain intact, futz around with the serving size decimal until it it close to grams eaten, and then add it to the log as a one-time entry.