Brine Calculator
Work out the salt for a wet brine by water volume or a dry brine by meat weight, in grams and in cups for your brand of salt.
What you need
454g
Salt needed — Weigh this if you can — it is the same number whatever salt you use.
- Salt in ounces
- 16.02 oz
- Salt in cups
- 3.39 cups
- Salt in tablespoons
- 54.2 tbsp
For the salt selected above only. Swapping brands by volume changes the strength.
Guide figures. Ingredient weights, pan sizes and cooking times all vary — see the assumptions below for the ones used.
Shop this project
Salt by weight, a container that fits the fridge, and a way to check the result. Quantities come straight from your calculation above — check them against your supplier's pack sizes before ordering.
Your shopping list
- Kosher salt
- 454 g
Materials
Kosher salt
Note the brand — a cup of Diamond Crystal weighs 134 g and a cup of Morton 230 g.
Prep & extras
Brining bag
Holds a whole bird in far less brine than a bucket, and fits a fridge shelf.
Tools & equipment
Digital kitchen scale
Weighing removes the cup-packing variable entirely, which is the single biggest accuracy win in baking.
Instant-read thermometer
The only way to know a bird is done. Every roasting time on this site is an estimate; this is the measurement.
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How to use the brine calculator
Brining is a ratio, not a recipe: a percentage of salt to the weight of the water for a wet brine, or to the weight of the meat for a dry one. Working in percentages is what makes it scale to any size bird and any container. Because salt brands differ enormously by volume, this gives you a weight first and the cup measure for your specific salt second.
Why percentages beat recipes
A recipe that says one cup of salt per gallon only works if you own the same salt as its author and need exactly that much brine. A percentage works at any scale and with any salt, because it fixes the thing that actually matters: the ratio of salt to what it is seasoning.
It also makes the strength legible. Once you know you are making a 6% brine you can compare it to the last one you made, adjust deliberately, and repeat a result. Cups of an unspecified salt tell you nothing you can reuse.
Salt brands are not interchangeable by volume
Kosher salt flakes are large and irregular, so a cup of them is mostly air. Diamond Crystal is flakier than Morton, and the difference is not marginal: a cup of Diamond Crystal weighs about 134 g against Morton's 230 g. Table salt is finer still at around 288 g.
That means following a recipe calling for a cup of kosher salt with the wrong brand can nearly double your salt. It is the single most common reason a brine comes out too salty, and the reason every figure on this page leads with weight.
What this calculator assumes
Every estimate depends on figures that vary by supplier and conditions. These are the ones used here, so you can sanity-check the result against your own quote.
- Water is taken as 1 kilogram per litre, so a US gallon of water weighs about 3.79 kg. Salt percentages are by weight of that water, which is how brine strength is defined.
- Cup measures use published weights per US cup: Diamond Crystal kosher 134 g, Morton kosher 230 g, table and fine sea salt 288 g. Substituting one for another by volume changes the brine strength by up to a factor of two.
- A 5 to 6% wet brine suits poultry for 8 to 18 hours. Weaker brines of 3 to 4% are for longer soaks; stronger ones work faster but are easy to overshoot, leaving the meat tasting cured rather than seasoned.
- Dry brining at 0.75 to 1% of the meat's weight is a seasoning rate, not a preserving one. Apply it, leave the meat uncovered in the fridge for 12 to 48 hours, and do not rinse it off.
- Do not brine a turkey that is already labelled kosher, self-basting, enhanced, or as containing a salt solution. It has been brined at the factory and will come out inedibly salty.
- Brine must be fully cooled before the meat goes in, and the whole thing kept below 40 °F (4 °C) throughout. If you heated the water to dissolve the salt, chill it completely first.
Frequently asked questions
How much salt per gallon of brine?
For a standard 6% brine, about 227 g of salt per US gallon of water — which is roughly 1.7 cups of Diamond Crystal kosher, 1 cup of Morton kosher, or three quarters of a cup of table salt. The weight is the same in every case; only the volume differs.
Wet brine or dry brine?
Dry brining is easier and gives crisper skin, because you are not adding water to the surface. It needs no bucket, no fridge space for a vat of liquid, and no cooling step. Wet brining adds moisture as well as seasoning, which helps with lean birds, but it dilutes pan drippings and makes skin harder to crisp. Most cooks who try both settle on dry.
How long should I brine a turkey?
In a 5 to 6% wet brine, 8 to 18 hours for a whole bird — overnight is ideal and much beyond a day starts to change the texture toward ham. For a dry brine, 12 to 48 hours uncovered in the fridge, with 24 hours being the usual choice.
Do I rinse the meat after brining?
After a wet brine, pat it thoroughly dry but rinsing is optional and mostly spreads raw juices around your sink. After a dry brine, do not rinse at all — the salt has already been absorbed, and washing it off removes seasoning and rewets the skin you spent a day drying.
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