How do you calculate volume of pasta from its weight after cooking down?
I am hoping to make two 3 quart casserole dishes worth of macaroni and cheese. The recipe I have calls for using two pounds of pasta, but doesn't indicate the volume of food that it will yield after cooking down, or after combining with sauce.
Assuming I will use either small shells or fusilli (haven't bought the pasta yet because I don't know how much I will need), how do i translate poundage of pasta to volume?
Best Answer
Because of the different shapes, different pastas will occupy different volumes of space both before and after cooking.
There are two answers that readily occur to me, one simple one more complex.
The simple solution, of course, is just to make too much. Cook your pasta, put in the casseroles with sauce or adding the sauce after, depending on your recipe, and if you have too much (you should, you planned for it) let it cool, add mayo, mustard, onion, some pickle relish and make pasta salad. Or throw in soup. Or ....
Option two is to measure your pasta by volume when dry, assuming that it approximately doubles in size. So you'll need to fill one of your casseroles with dry pasta, and that should give you enough to make two casseroles worth, once you have cooked the pasta.
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How does pasta weight change when cooked?
100g of dry, uncooked pasta won't 'gain' any calories as it's cooked, but it will increase in weight (pasta generally doubles in weight when cooked). This means that 100g of dry pasta is not the same as 100g of cooked pasta. But 100g of cooked pasta WAS 50g of dry pasta.How much does 100g pasta weigh when cooked?
100g dry pasta turns into 100g*75/31 = 242g of cooked pasta.How much does 75g pasta weigh when cooked?
75g of uncooked pasta weighs approximately 170g when cooked.How much does pasta increase volume when cooked?
Depending on the shape, pasta will approximately double in size when cooked, so the amount of cooked pasta can vary. For smaller shapes like penne, elbows, rotini, and bowties, approximately \xbd cup of dry pasta is two ounces, so that's a good rule of thumb. A 12 ounce box of these shapes will have six servings.Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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