Brine calculator

How do I calculate a brine by weight?

Weigh the water and multiply by the percentage: a 5% brine for 1,000 g of water takes 1,000 × 0.05 = 50 g of salt. That is the “percent of water” method most brining and fermenting recipes use.

Percent of water or percent of the whole brine?

Some recipes mean salt ÷ (water + salt). Then salt = water × p ÷ (100 − p): for 5% and 1,000 g of water, 52.6 g. The two methods differ little for weak brines and more for strong ones — the calculator shows both.

Why does the kosher salt brand matter?

The crystals pack differently. By the labels, ¼ teaspoon weighs 1.5 g for Morton table salt, 1.2 g for Morton Coarse Kosher Salt and 0.7 g for Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt — so a cup of Diamond Crystal holds far less salt. Morton’s own chart swaps 1¼ cups of its kosher salt for 1 cup of table salt.

Example

One gallon of water weighs about 3,785 g (1 kg per liter, USGS). A 5% brine by water weight needs 189 g of salt — about ⅞ cup Morton kosher, 1⅜ cups Diamond Crystal or ⅔ cup table salt.

How do I check how salty my brine is?

Switch to “How salty is my brine” and enter the water and the salt you used. One cup of Morton kosher salt (about 230 g) in a gallon of water is 6.1% of the water weight, or 5.7% of the whole brine.

How many grams of salt per liter is a 5% brine?

Because a liter of water weighs about 1 kg, a 5% brine by weight of water is about 50 grams of salt per liter of water. Multiply the percentage by 10 for grams per liter; 3% is 30 g, 6% is 60 g.

How much does a teaspoon of salt weigh?

From the label portions of ¼ teaspoon: about 6 g per teaspoon for Morton table salt, 4.8 g for Morton Coarse Kosher Salt and 2.8 g for Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt. A recipe that says "1 tablespoon salt" can vary by a factor of two depending on the brand.

Does the calculator say whether a brine is safe for curing or canning?

No. It only does the arithmetic of salt and water. Curing, canning and fermenting have their own tested requirements, so follow a tested recipe from a source such as a university extension service for those.

How the calculation works

A brine's strength is a percentage by weight. With the "percent of water" method, salt = water weight × percent ÷ 100. With the "percent of the whole brine" method, the salt is part of the total, so salt = water × p ÷ (100 − p). The calculator also reports the strength in both ways for a given amount of salt and water. For volume measures it uses the weight of a quarter teaspoon of each salt printed on the label and multiplies by 48 teaspoons per US cup. A liter of water is taken as 1 kg.

Worked example

You want a 6% brine for 2,000 g of water (2 liters). By the percent-of-water method, the salt is 2,000 × 6 ÷ 100 = 120 g. By the percent-of-brine method it is 2,000 × 6 ÷ 94 = 127.7 g, about 7.7 g more. Checking the first batch the other way, 120 g in 2,000 g of water is 6% of the water but 5.7% of the whole brine. In cups, 120 g is 0.89 cup of Diamond Crystal kosher salt, 0.52 cup of Morton Coarse Kosher Salt or 0.42 cup of table salt.

Common mistakes

• Swapping salts by volume. A cup of one brand can hold about twice the salt of another. Weigh the salt, or use the cup figures for the exact brand.
• Not knowing which percent a recipe means. Percent of water and percent of the whole brine give different amounts, and the gap grows with strength. At 6% it is 7.7 g per 2 liters.
• Counting the added ingredients as water. If you add ice, juice or other liquids, the weight of water changes and so does the salt needed.

Sources and related calculators

Salt weights per portion: the nutrition labels of Morton Iodized Table Salt, Morton Coarse Kosher Salt and Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, and Morton's salt conversion chart; water density: USGS. Related: chicken cooking time calculator, cooking measurement converter and recipe scaler.