Brine Calculator
Work out how much salt to weigh for a brine of the strength you choose, as a percentage of the water or of the finished brine.
Result
Enter salt percentage to see the result.
https://calcgallery.com/recipe/brine-calculator/
Results are arithmetic on the figures you enter. Cooking times are estimates: ovens, cuts and starting temperatures vary, so check doneness with a thermometer. Safe temperatures are the USDA's; guidance differs by country, so check your own. Read the full disclaimer
How to use the Brine Calculator
- Enter the water you will use, by volume. The page weighs it for you at 1 gram per millilitre.
- Enter the salt percentage from your recipe, and say whether that percentage is of the water or of the finished brine.
- Weigh out the salt shown. The same brine’s strength on the other basis is shown too, so you can compare recipes written either way.
Two ways to state a percentage
A brine’s strength can be measured against the water alone or against the whole brine, water and salt together. The second is the mass fraction chemists use; the first is the way a baker states salt against flour. Each is a definition, so the page lets you pick the one your recipe uses:
of the water: salt = percentage × waterof the brine: salt = percentage ÷ (1 − percentage) × waterwater weight = water volume × 1 g per mLThe second formula comes from asking for salt ÷ (salt + water) to equal the percentage and solving for the salt. At 2% the two answers are almost the same; at 10% they differ by about a tenth.
Weigh, then dissolve
Dissolving salt changes the volume of the liquid a little, which is why the page works in weights throughout: a percentage by weight stays true whatever the volume does. Dissolve the salt in the full amount of water rather than topping up to a mark afterwards, or the strength will not be the one you calculated.
Food safety for brining, curing and fermenting depends on more than salt strength, including time, temperature and hygiene. Follow a tested recipe or official food safety guidance for those.
With your numbers
- 5% of the water: salt = 5% × water
- Salt = 3.3 oz for 66.8 oz of water
Quick reference
Weigh the salt. Salts differ in grain size, so a spoonful is not a fixed weight.
| Example | Salt to weigh |
|---|---|
| 1 L at 5% of the water | 50 g |
| 1 L at 5% of the brine | 52.6 g |
| 500 mL at 2% of the water | 10 g |
| 1 gallon at 3.5% of the brine | 4.8 oz |
| 2 quarts at 6% of the water | 4 oz |
| 4 cups at 3% of the water | 1 oz |
Where the numbers come from
The fixed figures this calculator relies on, and the published source each one was checked against. How the calculators are built and checked
1 source
NIST Chemistry WebBook, water at 4 °C and 0.101325 MPa: 999.9749 kg/m³ (IAPWS-95), https://webbook.nist.gov/cgi/fluid.cgi?ID=C7732185, rounded to the conventional 1000 kg/m³ of NIST SP 811 (2008) Appendix B, centimeter of water, conventional = 98.0665 Pa.
Used for
- The conventional density of water, 1000 kg/m³. Pure water at 4 °C, its densest, is 999.97 kg/m³.
Common questions about the Brine Calculator
- How do I make a 5% brine?
- It depends which 5% the recipe means. Five per cent of the water is 50 grams of salt in a litre of water. Five per cent of the finished brine is a little more, about 52.6 grams, because the salt itself becomes part of the total it is measured against.
- Which percentage do recipes use?
- Recipes use both, and not all of them say which. If a recipe gives its own amounts, divide its salt by its water: if that matches the percentage, it is measured against the water; if the salt divided by salt plus water matches, it is measured against the whole brine. At low strengths the two differ by very little.
- Can I measure the salt in spoons?
- Only as a rough guide. Salts differ in grain size and shape, so a spoonful of flaky salt and a spoonful of fine table salt hold different weights of salt. The page gives a weight and does not convert it to spoons.
- Does it matter what kind of salt I use?
- The arithmetic is for the weight of salt, whatever the kind. Recipes may call for a particular salt for other reasons, such as additives; follow the recipe on that.