Cooking Yield Calculator
Find out how much food you'll have after cooking, trimming, or peeling — and how much to buy for your recipe.
Understanding Cooking Yield
Yield percentage tells you how much of an ingredient remains after cooking, trimming, peeling, or processing. A chicken breast that yields 75% means for every 1 lb raw, you get 0.75 lbs cooked (after moisture loss).
Meats lose water when cooked — higher heat generally means more loss. Ground beef loses more fat and water than a salmon fillet. Always buy more raw than your recipe calls for in cooked weight.
Vegetables lose volume from trimming and peeling. Spinach dramatically reduces when wilted (down to ~10%). Firmer vegetables like carrots and broccoli have minimal trim loss.
Grains expand when cooked as they absorb water. Rice roughly triples in volume from dry to cooked.