To ask how many grams of meat you cater to each person?

[froggygroggy]

On the back of the thread about Hello Fresh/Gousto portion sizes I'd be interested to know when you buy meat in the shop and serve for dinner how many grams you work it out as per person.

I tend to buy 500-600g of meat (mince/chicken/gammon etc) for three people.

That works out 160-200 grams per person.
I'm now thinking I should downsize to the lower size pack to get to around 125g per person. I guess with mince it tends to be 250g or 500g so would probably need to stick with the 500 unless just catering for two.

Just made me think really.

I probably should care as I am overweight and eat too much ... a 400g pack of mince would make a chilli or spag Bol meal for DH and I ... plus a bit left over (maybe) for a small lunch.

You can keep the portions the same size by adding more veg or other protein (lentils, beans, eggs etc.) to fill you up.

I add things like cannelini beans to a chicken casserole, extra baked beans or kidney beans in a chilli, lentils in shepherds pie or spag bol. Tinned beans and pulses are about 50p and it means you can halve the amount of meat while still having a big filling dinner.

Body builders aside, it tends to be the unimaginative cooks that go for bigger meat portions. And often men man need meat mentality. So many men I know make bolognese just with fried mince (no onion or tinned tomatoes!) and feel hard done by to not be given a whole pack of mince to themselves.

An ex made a curry for 3 of us with 6 large chicken breasts, and another mate unexpectedly turned up. I offered him to stay for dinner and ex visibly panicked that there wouldn't be enough and grimaced at the idea of less meat and more rice.

Personally I like the variety of getting protein to stay full from multiple sources in one meal, less meat but lentils and cheese is less boring texturally than just meat.

I don't think most of normal eating people weight their food.
Us from diets former and present do/did.

So many men I know make bolognese just with fried mince (no onion or tinned tomatoes!)
Just dry mince and spagetti?? 🤢

We eat partly veggie now and focus on better quality meat tbh.

I rarely make a meat bolognese but if I did, I would allow max of 300g per person.
Chicken curry I made recently had about 400g of thigh meat and generously served four people.

Try adding extra veg - carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, lentil to a bolognese, green beans, mushrooms, chick peas to a curry.

One I know just boils it til it's grey and serves it with pasta

Or depends on what I'm making.

500g mince would usually make 4-6 portions, but might be as many as 8, for things like tacos or enchiladas, as there is so much else that goes alongside it.

100g for things like bolognese and curries. One quarter pounder burger or two sausages (the 400g/6 sausage packs)

Depends on what I'm making.

I do use Gousto for 4 meals a week so that controls some of them.

A chili I would use a 500g pack of mince, and tinned tomatoes, kidney beans, baked beans etc and that will serve 5 (including a teenager and a 10 year old with big appetites)

Generally I aim for a breast per person, unless it's a curry etc.

A beef casserole, 600g of diced beef....

None of us are overweight, well DH is I guess but now he's stopped the snacking it's falling off him.

Two adults and one teen with a small appetite:

250g mince, apart from when we’re having tacos/fajitas as the teen is fussy and doesn’t like lettuce or avocado so ends up having more meat. If she liked beans, I’d use 250g too but she just sits there picking them from the food so I make them separate.

2 chicken breasts, supermarket sized rather than Gousto sized, so more like 300-320g.

6 sausages - I have trialled cooking a pack and half so we could have 3 each but everyone thought it was too much, maybe we’re just use to it.

Food that comes in fillets like steaks or fish I tend to buy packs of four (and freeze the 4th), so not by weight.

Do 500g and then freeze one quarter.

If I do lasagna or cottage pie (the only things I tend to use mince for), I find a 460g pack makes 6 or 7 servings. However, I put a fair amount of vegetables in - carrots, onions, peas, sweetcorn for both plus mushrooms for the lasagna.

I also do a lot of potato on top of the cottage pie which stretches the servings even further.

It does depend on the meal here.

If making bolognese, cottage pie or chilli a kilo of mince bulked out with veg/pulses will do us (family of 4 with 2 primary aged kids) 5 meals which is 50g of meat pp.

If doing meatballs I used to do a kilo for 2 meals (125pp) but with massive rise in cost of mince, I now split over 3 meals (85g pp).

If cooking a meal with chicken (curry or casserole) I will use 200-300g meat for all of us with lots of vegetables (50 - 75g pp).

hahaha I meant 100g per person for a mince spag bol! lol not 300g

I get 400g for three, although there's usually leftovers as I put a lot of veg in. We did a spag bol the other day and it did five portions of the Bolognese itself and 200g of dried pasta for the three of us.

We are a family of three. I’d do a chicken breast each - not sure what weight that would be. 500g pack of mince would feed us all plus left overs, 400g mince would probably also be more than enough.

Depends what I'm making really.

Yesterday had 500g of steak between 2 people, but would also make 4-5 portions with 400g lamb mince. 2-4 chicken legs or 2-4 thighs per person depending on what else you're having.

We don't eat meat with every meal but tend to have quite a bit when we do have it

Surprised that no-one's mentioned shrinkage - of chicken breasts/thighs especially. A 125g raw chicken breast has been pumped with so much water, that it weighs 100g after it's been pan fried/oven cooked! So, is that 100g or 125g of chicken ?🤔
And PS I tried it with pricey butcher-bought chicken breasts too - exactly the same outcome.

Halal butchers are the trick 😉

Butcher shops doesn't automatically mean quality meats.

If you buy high quality meat, it will be fine.

I only eat beef mince and chicken mostly, but a 500g mince would be 3 generous portions for spag bol. Chicken, i have never weighed raw as i usually buy breasts, but when calorie counting i will weigh it cooked and typically its between 100-150g depending on the meal.

How do you even work this out, I can’t imagine working out how much people eat to this tiny degree.

I would usually cook 400g of mince if I'm making a chilli or spaghetti bolognaise for two adults, with possibly a bit left over for a snack lunch the next day. I don't think I've ever weighed chicken breasts, but would use one large one each, and probably 500g for two if I'm using diced chicken. I've tended to cut down on the amount of meat we eat slightly so that I can spend a bit more on better quality organic meat. I tried Gousto and Hello Fresh meals last year and was really disappointed by the tiny portion sizes and the horrible quality of many of the ingredients.

I’m married to a vegetarian, so we don’t buy meat. But 250gm between us was always enough before he went veggie all those years ago.