Curing Salt Calculator
Weigh the cure #1 (pink curing salt) for a batch of meat in grams, capped at the USDA’s nitrite limits for ground, dry-cured and brine-cured meat.
Result
Cure to weigh: 5.66 g
Rounded down to 0.01 g, so rounding never takes it over your target.Weigh cure on a scale that reads to 0.01 g. The answer is rounded down so it never exceeds your target.
- Sodium nitrite in that cure
- 0.354 g
- Most this method allows, ppm
- 156
- 9 CFR 424.21(c), as FSIS converts it to parts per million.
https://calcgallery.com/recipe/curing-salt-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 Curing Salt Calculator
- Choose how the meat is cured. Bacon is not covered.
- Enter the weight of the meat before curing.
- Enter the nitrite level your recipe gives in parts per million (ppm). The field starts at the most the US regulation allows for that method and will not accept more.
- For a brine, enter the water and the weight of any sugar or other ingredients.
- Optionally enter a total salt percentage, for an equilibrium cure.
- Weigh out the cure shown, in grams, on a scale that reads to 0.01 g.
The arithmetic
Nitrite limits are stated in parts per million: grams of sodium nitrite per million grams of meat, weighed green, before curing. The page works backwards from the level you choose to the weight of cure that carries that much nitrite:
ground or dry cure: cure = meat × ppm ÷ 1,000,000 ÷ nitrite share of the curebrine (immersion): cure × nitrite share = ppm ÷ 1,000,000 × (meat + water + other + salt + cure)The first line is the calculation in the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service’s Processing Inspectors’ Calculations Handbook for comminuted products and cure mixes. The second is its Method Two for immersion curing, which counts the cover brine because the meat and brine even out over time. The page solves it exactly, including the weight of the salt and cure dissolved in the brine.
The limits, and what they are not
The caps come from 9 CFR 424.21(c), the table of approved curing agents for meat and poultry, as FSIS converts them to parts per million: 156 ppm for ground or chopped products (¼ oz per 100 lb), 625 ppm for dry-cured products (1 oz per 100 lb) and 200 ppm for immersion-cured products. They are the most the regulation allows in commercial processing, not recommended amounts, and meeting them does not by itself make a product safe. Bacon has lower, separate limits, and the page does not cover it. Rules in other countries differ.
Food safety
This page does the weighing arithmetic and nothing else. It does not tell you whether a recipe, curing time, temperature, drying method or storage is safe, and it cannot. Curing safely depends on all of them together.
- Follow a tested recipe from a reliable source, such as a university extension service or a published curing reference, and use the page only to scale its cure to your batch.
- Weigh the cure on a scale that reads to 0.01 g, and mix it evenly through the meat or dissolve it fully in the brine.
- Check the label of your cure for its sodium nitrite percentage, and enter it under more options if it is not 6.25%.
- Keep cure apart from table salt and labelled, so it is never used in its place.
With your numbers
- Cure = 2,268 g × 156 ppm ÷ 6.25% = 5.66 g, rounded down
Quick reference
Weigh cure on a scale that reads to 0.01 g. The answer is rounded down so it never exceeds your target.
| Example | Cure to weigh |
|---|---|
| 5 lb sausage at 156 ppm | 5.66 g |
| 10 lb sausage at 156 ppm | 11.32 g |
| 1 kg sausage at 156 ppm, 2% salt | 2.49 g |
| 2 kg dry cure at 625 ppm | 20 g |
| 2 kg dry cure at 625 ppm, 2.5% salt | 20 g |
| 2 kg meat in 2 L brine at 200 ppm | 12.84 g |
| 10 lb meat in 1 gal brine at 150 ppm | 20.01 g |
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
5 sources
9 CFR 424.21(c), curing agents, sodium or potassium nitrite: "1/4 oz to 100 lb chopped meat, meat byproduct or poultry product", https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/9/424.21; converted in USDA FSIS, Processing Inspectors’ Calculations Handbook (Directive 7620.3, revised 1995), Table I, p. 7 ("0.0156 × 1,000,000 = 156 ppm") and Table II, p. 12, "Comminuted ... Sodium Nitrite ... 156".
Used for
- Most ingoing sodium nitrite allowed in comminuted (ground or chopped) cured meat: 156 ppm of the green weight of the meat block, which is ¼ oz per 100 lb.
9 CFR 424.21(c): "1 oz to 100 lb meat or poultry product (dry cure)", https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/9/424.21; USDA FSIS, Processing Inspectors’ Calculations Handbook (Directive 7620.3, revised 1995), Table I, p. 7 ("0.0625 × 1,000,000 = 625 ppm") and Table II, p. 12, "Dry Cured ... Sodium Nitrite ... 625".
Used for
- Most ingoing sodium nitrite allowed in dry-cured meat: 625 ppm, which is 1 oz per 100 lb.
USDA FSIS, Processing Inspectors’ Calculations Handbook (Directive 7620.3, revised 1995), Table II, p. 12, "Maximum ingoing nitrite and nitrate limits (in ppm)": "Immersion Cured ... Sodium Nitrite 200" and "Massaged or Pumped ... 200"; p. 11: immersion curing of products other than bacon is not specifically addressed in the regulations; p. 22, Method Two: lb nitrite × 1,000,000 ÷ (green weight (lb) meat block + lb pickle). Regulatory basis: 9 CFR 424.21(c), "2 lb to 100 gal pickle at 10 percent pump level" (200 ppm by the handbook’s Table I, p. 7), and the separate cap, "not ... more than 200 ppm of nitrite, calculated as sodium nitrite in finished product", https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/9/424.21
Used for
- Most ingoing sodium nitrite allowed in immersion-cured, pumped or massaged meat: 200 ppm. Bacon has lower limits of its own.
USDA FSIS, Processing Inspectors’ Calculations Handbook (FSIS Directive 7620.3, revised 1995), p. 16, the worked example "Cure Mix (6.25% sodium nitrite w/salt carrier)", and p. 17, "the percentage of sodium nitrite in the cure mix (6.25%)"; p. 15, a cure mix "must have the percentage of nitrite and/or nitrate indicated on the container". Read from the Internet Archive copy of https://www.fsis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media_file/2020-07/7620.3.pdf because the live file refuses automated access.
Used for
- Sodium nitrite in a common cure mix, the strength cure #1 and pink curing salt are usually sold at, the rest being salt. FSIS uses it as its worked example and requires the container to state the percentage, so check the label.
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 Curing Salt Calculator
- How much cure
- It depends on the nitrite level and the curing method. For ground meat such as sausage, the page divides the meat’s weight times the target ppm by the share of sodium nitrite in the cure, 6.25% for cure #1. Enter your batch to get the grams; the page rounds down to the nearest 0.01 g.
- What are the ppm limits?
- The US regulation for cured meat, 9 CFR 424.21, sets the amounts. The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service converts them to ingoing parts per million of sodium nitrite: 156 ppm for comminuted (ground or chopped) products, 200 ppm for immersion-cured, pumped or massaged products, and 625 ppm for dry-cured products. Bacon has separate, lower limits. The page will not calculate above the limit for the method you choose.
- Why does the brine method count the brine’s weight?
- For meat submerged in a cover brine, FSIS’s handbook treats the meat and brine as one system that evens out over time, so the ppm is calculated on the meat plus the brine. The page solves for the cure including the cure’s own weight in the brine.
- Why grams only?
- Cure is used in small amounts, and a teaspoon of it does not weigh the same from one brand or one scoop to the next. A weight is repeatable; a spoon measure is not. The page rounds down so the rounding never pushes the amount past your target.
- Does the salt in the cure count towards my salt?
- Yes. Cure #1 is sodium nitrite in a salt carrier, so most of its weight is salt. If you enter a salt percentage, the page counts the cure’s salt towards it and gives the salt to add on top.
- Can I use this for cure
- No. Cure #2 contains sodium nitrate as well as nitrite, and nitrate has its own limits. The page covers nitrite-only cures.