My Grandma Nellie pounded into my brain that if a recipe is too rich – savory or sweet – I should never consider cooking or baking it.This has always stuck with me, or rather haunted me in a way. I picture a 2 inch version of Granny standing on my shoulder with her hands on her hips while I’m reading recipes. “Don’t you dare bake that!”
My favorite TV chef by far is Ina Garten. She sometimes uses more cream and mayo than I’d ever consider using, but her basic cooking philosophy is marvelous. I’d love to have her over for dinner for great conversation and to show her that I am just as good a cook as she. Both she and her husband seem like interesting people. Some years ago Ina had a recipe for Pecan Squares, which must be the ultimate tasting food, because they are so rich, sweet and fattening. I have that cookbook and recently saw a repeat of that old episode. So I decided to please my late Grandma by trying to figure out just how many calories are indeed in that recipe. Here’s what I came up with:
These are approximate for the entire recipe (20 servings)….
- Butter (9 sticks!!!) = 7,290 Calories = 520 grams saturated fat
- Honey = 1030 Calories
- Brown Sugar = 2,485 Calories
- White Sugar = 258 Calories
- Eggs = 240 Calories = 4.5 grams saturated fat
- Pecans = 6,575 Calories = 66 grams saturated fat
- Cream = 210 Calories = 15 grams saturated fat
- Flour = 1,800 Calories
- Total Calories = 19,880
The recipe suggests these are cut into 20 bars, so that is about 1,000 calories for each bar and over 30 grams of saturated fat. (1 Pecan bar is equal to the calories of 5 Hershey Chocolate Bars.) Each Pecan Square has 3.6 Tbsp of butter alone. I don’t want to figure out the cholesterol. It would be too upsetting.
What if you cannot resist and you eat 2 of these? Do we want our kids to get used to tasting and loving foods as rich as these? Do you want to consume that many calories and grams of fat and not even get full eating it? Do you want to know how many hours of running it would take to burn all that off? I say no to all the above.
Okay my curiosity got me, and I looked it up. A 120 lb. woman would have to run for 2 hours and 15 minutes at 5mph to burn off one Pecan Bar!!! OMG!!!!
There’s nothing wrong with occasional indulgence, but my Grandma Nellie was right. Sometimes too much is just too much.
Sorry Ina. I still love your show.
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7 comments
Johnnie on September 18, 2009 at 9:21 pm
So that would mean she would have to run over 11 miles in just over 2 hours to burn off that one little pecan square? And if you ate the whole pan, you’d have to run 220 miles in 40 hours.
admin on September 18, 2009 at 9:34 pm
I feel like I need to go to the pharmacy for Pepto Bismol and then to the gym to work off the fat, just thinking about that!
Ronna Mandel on September 18, 2009 at 9:36 pm
OMG!!! Is so spot on. I will never look at Pecan Squares the same again. Costco’s Pecan Pie can not be much less fattening. Aw shucks!
Virginia Becker on September 19, 2009 at 7:41 am
All recipes should be published with that information! I’d save the calories and effort and eat Godiva–just one.
Tyler Tichelaar on September 19, 2009 at 10:21 am
That really puts things in perspective, but I’d probably still eat one. I am cursed with the family’s sweet tooth. Still I agree recipes should include calories in them.
I didn’t know you had a Grandma Nellie–that explains about Lilly P. Badilly’s grandmother.
Daphne Christensen on September 20, 2009 at 10:34 am
I think I would skip the pecan bar and go right for the 5 Hershey’s bars.
Shelley Rosen on September 21, 2009 at 10:02 am
It is scary!. It’s what you eat and what you do. There are no bad foods, only bad diets and lifestyles. If we ate carrots all day we would turn orange and die. I spent five years on this topic with leading nutritionists trying to explain nutrition to the mainstream. A McDonald’s Big Mac in the US is 560 calories. But a Chipotle chicken burrito, the “favorite brand of the male youth” is 1,156 calories. People think it is better for you but it is perceived health. In the end, people eat foods that taste good to them. I just hope they eat smaller portions and get up and walk more. Nell was right but she ate a dessert every day of her life – in small portions. I know she was my grandma too. LOL