Brine Calculator

Enter your water amount and target salt strength to get the exact grams of salt (and optional sugar) for a wet brine.

Quick Facts

Method
Salt (g) = Water weight (g) × salt % ÷ 100
Water is taken at ~1 g per mL. A 5–6% brine suits most poultry and pork.

Your Results

Calculated
Salt needed
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Weigh this for accuracy
Sugar needed
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Optional, for flavor and browning
Water weight
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Basis for the percentages
Strength band
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How this brine reads

Ready

Enter your water amount and salt percentage, then calculate.

How the brine calculator works

A wet brine is simply salt dissolved in water, sometimes with sugar and aromatics added. The one number that governs how a brine behaves is its salt concentration — the weight of salt relative to the weight of the water. This calculator takes your water amount and a target salt percentage and returns the exact weight of salt to dissolve:

Salt (g) = Water weight (g) × salt % ÷ 100

Because 1 millilitre of water weighs almost exactly 1 gram at kitchen temperatures, the calculator treats each millilitre of water as one gram. If you enter cups or gallons, it first converts to grams (1 US cup of water ≈ 236.6 g, 1 US gallon ≈ 3785.4 g) and then applies the percentage. Any sugar you enter is calculated the same way, as a percentage of the water weight.

Why concentration, not "a handful of salt"

Salt moves into food by diffusion, and the driving force is the difference in salt concentration between the brine and the meat. That is why professional recipes specify a percentage rather than "add salt to taste." A fixed percentage gives the same result whether you brine one chicken thigh or a whole turkey — you just scale the water and the salt together. It also removes the biggest source of error in home brining: guessing.

Common brine strengths

  • 3–5% — light brine: gentle and forgiving, good for delicate fish, shrimp, or long overnight-to-multi-day soaks where a stronger brine would over-salt.
  • 5–6% — all-purpose: the workhorse range for chicken, turkey, and pork chops brined for a few hours up to overnight. A 6% brine on 2 litres of water needs 120 g of salt.
  • 8–10% — strong brine: cures faster and firms up texture; used for quick soaks, cured or smoked meats, and many vegetable pickles.
  • Above ~26%: the saturation point of salt in cold water — you physically cannot dissolve more, and undissolved salt just settles on the bottom.

A worked example

Say you want to brine a chicken in 3 litres of water at 6%. Three litres of water weigh about 3000 g, so you need 3000 × 6 ÷ 100 = 180 g of salt. If you also want a lightly sweet brine at 3% sugar, that is 3000 × 3 ÷ 100 = 90 g of sugar. Dissolve both fully before the chicken goes in.

Frequently Asked Questions

What salt percentage should I use?
For most poultry and pork, a 5–6% brine soaked from a couple of hours up to overnight is a reliable default. Use 3–5% for delicate seafood or very long soaks, and 8–10% for quick cures and pickles. Stronger brines work faster but leave a much smaller margin before the food turns too salty.
Does it matter whether I use table salt or kosher salt?
By weight, no — 100 g of salt is 100 g of salt regardless of crystal size, so a gram-based brine comes out the same. It matters enormously by volume: one cup of fine table salt weighs about 290 g, Morton kosher about 240 g, and Diamond Crystal kosher only about 145 g. That is why this calculator gives you grams, and why weighing salt is far safer than measuring cups or spoons.
How long should I brine?
Roughly, thicker cuts and weaker brines need more time. Chicken pieces do well in 1–4 hours at 5–6%, a whole chicken 4–12 hours, and a turkey 12–24 hours. Pork chops take 2–8 hours. Over-brining makes meat spongy and salty, so when in doubt use a weaker brine for longer rather than a strong brine you forget about. Always brine in the refrigerator.
Can I use warm water to dissolve the salt faster?
You can heat part of the water to dissolve salt and sugar, but cool the brine completely — back to refrigerator temperature — before adding raw meat. Putting food into warm brine keeps it in the bacterial danger zone (about 4–60°C / 40–140°F) too long. A quick way to cool a hot brine is to dissolve the salt in half the water hot, then top up with the other half as ice.

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