Brining question.......getting to a 6% Salt to 1 leiter of water

northGAcock · February 2016

I need some help here with making my brine. I get that there is a relationship between salt to water.....but how does one measure the salt to equate to the 6%?

nolaegghead · February 2016

The convention is to ignore the final volume. So add 60 grams of salt to 1000 mL water. That's not really 6% but it's close. Adding 60 grams and bringing up to a volume of 1000 mL gives you a true 6% weight-volume mix but it's a PITA and making it easy and reproducible is more important than being off by a percent.

Anyway, that's how I do it when I'm not at the lab.

northGAcock · February 2016

nolaegghead said:

The convention is to ignore the final volume. So add 60 grams of salt to 1000 mL water. That's not really 6% but it's close. Adding 60 grams and bringing up to a volume of 1000 mL gives you a true 6% weight-volume mix but it's a PITA and making it easy and reproducible is more important than being off by a percent.

Anyway, that's how I do it when I'm not at the lab.

Thanks @nolaegghead So the salt (grams) are by weight and the water by volume correct? Any chance you could translate that into non-metric?.....give or take a few percentages? Maybe xx amount of salt to a quart of water?

RiverRatSkier · February 2016

I am fairly positive that you would want 60 grams of salt for 1 liter of water to make a 6% brine.

bgebrent · February 2016

Robin, 60g table salt is equivalent to about 3.25 tablespoons according to this conversion website. Good luck

http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_volume_cooking.htm

Thatgrimguy · February 2016

Buy a kitchen scale. It will change your cooking life if you use it properly. Especially if you bake.

nolaegghead · February 2016

Always use weight for the salt. If you want to use imperial units, 128 fluid ounces of water and 7.7 (weight not volume) ounces of salt. You need to know the density of the salt if you're going to measure it by volume.

jtcBoynton · February 2016

@northGAcock Actually you should be using mass for both. But for practical purposes, 1000 mL of water (1.00 L of water) has a mass of 1000 g, so they can be interchanged.

As for using English units: water weighs in at 8.3 lb/gal. Best not to worry about it, just weigh your water and then calculate what 6% would be and add that much salt.

nolaegghead · February 2016

I actually do weigh my water when making bread because I can measure out very precise amounts of water with any old container. And in the case of bread, I start with an amount of flour. Usually I use 1200 grams of flour. Measure out 70% of that - 840g water. Easy on a scale. And most importantly, very reproducible so you can consistently cook great bread, or at least make the dough.

RedSkip · February 2016

1/2 lb salt to gal water... Close enough

northGAcock · February 2016

bgebrent said:

Robin, 60g table salt is equivalent to about 3.25 tablespoons according to this conversion website. Good luck

http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_volume_cooking.htm

Thanks Brent....book marked that rascal.

Thatgrimguy Thanks....guess that will go on the list behind the Rotisserie. Now I know why I have not brined in the past. Requires that new math.

HeavyG · February 2016

bgebrent said:

Robin, 60g table salt is equivalent to about 3.25 tablespoons according to this conversion website. Good luck

http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_volume_cooking.htm

Weigh, weigh, weigh. Grams, grams, grams. Easy peasy.

Measuring salt by volume to arrive at a brine solution is not a good idea. Various salts have widely varying grain sizes.

The weight of a tablespoon of my Maldon salt will be different from a tablespoon of kosher salt which will be different from a tablespoon of Morton table salt, which will be different from coarse Himalayan salt, etc., etc.

bgebrent · February 2016

HeavyG said:

bgebrent said:

Robin, 60g table salt is equivalent to about 3.25 tablespoons according to this conversion website. Good luck

http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_volume_cooking.htm

Weigh, weigh, weigh. Grams, grams, grams. Easy peasy.

Measuring salt by volume to arrive at a brine solution is not a good idea. Various salts have widely varying grain sizes.

The weight of a tablespoon of my Maldon salt will be different from a tablespoon of kosher salt which will be different from a tablespoon of Morton table salt, which will be different from coarse Himalayan salt, etc., etc.

Couldn't agree more! I weigh and get it. For a brine, close enough works fine. Specified table salt.

chadpsualum · February 2016

If you're looking to get really technical or precise you can use a hydrometer, refractometer or conductivity meter to measure salinity of a liquid. However, if you're like most people, using the method(s) above are 'close enough'.

Brining question.......getting to a 6% Salt to 1 leiter of water

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