Brine Calculator
Enter a water weight and a target salinity to get the exact amount of salt for a wet brine in grams — measured by weight, so it comes out the same every time.
Salt by weight, every time
Enter the water weight and the salinity you want and the brine calculator returns the salt in grams: salt = water × salinity / 100.
Weigh, don't scoop
Crystal size varies between salts, so a spoonful is unreliable — weigh both the water and the salt in grams for a consistent brine.
What does the brine calculator do?
Salt amount for a wet brine
The brine calculator tells you how much salt to dissolve in water for a wet brine at the strength you choose. A wet brine is simply salt dissolved in water, and its strength is given as a salinity percentage of the water weight. Give the calculator the water weight in grams and the target salinity, and it returns the salt weight in grams. Working by weight rather than by volume is what makes a brine repeatable: a teaspoon of flaky salt and a teaspoon of fine table salt weigh very different amounts, but 50 grams is always 50 grams.
Enter the water weight in grams and the salinity you want — 5 % is a good all-purpose starting point — to get the salt in grams instantly.
The salt weight is the water weight multiplied by the salinity expressed as a fraction of one hundred.
salt = water × salinity / 100The salinity is a straight percentage of the water weight, so the relationship is linear: double the salinity and you double the salt, double the water and you double the salt again. Keep both quantities in grams and the answer comes back in grams.
Suppose you want a 5 % brine for 2000 g (2 litres) of water.
Turn the percentage into a fraction
5 % becomes 5 / 100 = 0.05 — the salinity as a fraction of the water weight.
Multiply by the water weight
2000 × 0.05 = 100 — the salt weight in grams.
Weigh out the salt
Dissolve 100 g of salt in the 2000 g of water and you have a 5 % brine ready to use.
The salt weight is what you measure out on the scale and dissolve into the water. The number you should think hardest about is the salinity itself, because that is what sets how the brine behaves. Most culinary wet brines live between 3 % and 6 %: a 3 % brine is gentle and forgiving, good for delicate fish or shorter soaks, while a 5–6 % brine works faster and suits poultry and pork. Because the formula is by weight, it does not matter which salt you reach for — table salt, kosher salt, or coarse sea salt all give the same result once weighed, which is exactly why weighing beats measuring by volume. If you only have a measuring spoon, expect noticeable inconsistency from batch to batch; a kitchen scale removes that guesswork entirely.
The arithmetic is exact, but a few practical points are worth keeping in mind.
Wet brine only — and salt is absorbed over time
This calculator covers wet brines, where salt is dissolved in water; it does not handle dry brining, which salts food directly with no water. The salt type and grain size change the volume but not the weight, so always weigh rather than scoop. Remember too that food sitting in a brine keeps absorbing salt over time, so the strength on the plate also depends on how long you brine and the size of the cut — the percentage sets the bath, not the final seasoning.