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Poori is an Indian bread that puffs when it is hot. When measuring the kezayit olive size of bread that is the minimum to require Birkat Hamazon, does one include the volume of air in the food, or does one have to subtract this from the measurement?

(I'm using bread as an example. But my question would similarly apply to other "airy" foods like borekas, croissants, puffed wheat, etc.)

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    If I eat an olive without the pit, it's not a kezayis, so I suspect no.
    – ezra
    Commented Apr 23, 2018 at 22:03
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    Measuring a kezayis has everything to do with volume and not size.
    – ezra
    Commented Apr 23, 2018 at 22:04
  • @ezra Poori is relatively easy to measure the actual volume, since the air almost immediately escapes once you bite into it. (BTW, I highly recommend trying a poori, yourself!) But some of the other items I mentioned don't seem so simple.
    – DanF
    Commented Apr 23, 2018 at 22:07
  • I have never had poori, but the Mexican sopapilla is similar. :)
    – ezra
    Commented Apr 23, 2018 at 22:09
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    That's just like a matza
    – Double AA ♦
    Commented Apr 23, 2018 at 22:25

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From Halachipedia:

One needs to make sure that he does not count air in the food as part of the shiur of kezayis. If one has a food that is hollow, a kezayis of that food is considered when the food would be pressed.[Rema 486:1]

From israel.aish.com: (DOC download)

Shulchan Aruch (456:1)/ Mishnah Brurah 456:4, 210:1, 486:3)/ Rema (486:1): They all hold that the measurement of a kazayis is in volume (displacement) not in weight (grams). Based on this it is important to know that large visible/ or known air pockets inside of a cake or vegetable can’t be counted in the volume. The item must be mashed down until there are no large air pockets. (See Shoneh Halachos who adds that this doesn’t mean that you have to pound it and mash it until there is no air at all. It can’t mean that because the Mishnah Brurah himself says that you can count the volume of a sponge-cake as is). The Mishnah Brurah adds that a food that was a kazayis in volume at one point but then shriveled doesn’t require a beracho achronah because at the time you ate it there wasn’t a kazayis.

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  • I just had popcorn. I can see that figuring out a kezayit of that would be quite challenging!
    – DanF
    Commented Apr 23, 2018 at 22:35
  • @DanF I'm wondering if you can count the kezayit of popcorn by measuring the kernels before you make the popcorn
    – aBochur
    Commented Apr 23, 2018 at 23:02
  • Of course! That's the idea behind what you said in your answer. The problem is with popcorn you bought in the store, as I had.
    – DanF
    Commented Apr 24, 2018 at 2:04
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    @DanF re "That's the idea behind what you said in your answer.": No, it's not. See (from the answer) "you can count the volume of a sponge-cake as is" and (with emphasis added) "large visible/ or known air pockets inside of a cake or vegetable can’t be counted". This answer post is a little bit misleading in its lack of emphasis on this point.
    – msh210 ♦
    Commented Apr 24, 2018 at 6:12
  • @msh210 I think we are heading in two angles. If you had measured out a kezayit of popcorn kernels before they were popped, you would know that you were eating a kezayit of it after they were popped, no? Did I miss something in my response, there?
    – DanF
    Commented Apr 24, 2018 at 13:55

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