Brining for Beginners: Salt, Water and Time

Brining means salting food before you cook it, either in salt water (a wet brine) or with salt applied directly to the surface (a dry brine). For a first brine, the calculator's default for 2 lb (0.91 kg) of chicken breast is 54 g of salt in 1 quart (0.95 L) of water, a 5.71% brine, for 30 minutes to 1 hour in the refrigerator.

The rest of this guide explains what brining does, how to measure the salt, and the steps for a first wet brine.

What brining does

America's Test Kitchen describes the two methods differently. In a wet brine, salt changes the structure of the muscle proteins, which helps the meat hold on to water and stay juicy during cooking. In a dry brine, salt draws juices to the surface, dissolves in them, and the meat reabsorbs the liquid. The same page says a dry brine adds no moisture to the outside, so skin can stay crisper, while a wet brine works faster and suits lean cuts.

For the longer explanation of the term, read what brining is.

What the calculator covers

The calculator handles three kinds of salting:

• Wet brine for poultry, pork and seafood. The percentage is the weight of salt compared with the weight of the water.
• Dry brine for chicken, turkey, duck, steak, prime rib and several pork cuts. The percentage is the weight of salt compared with the weight of the food.
• Vegetable ferments, where salt lets lactic acid fermentation happen over days or weeks. That is a separate process, covered in how to ferment vegetables.

Curing with nitrite or curing salt (ham, bacon, corned beef, pastrami), canning and vinegar pickling are different processes. The calculator does not cover them and gives no amounts for them.

Choose a brine strength

Chicken breast has two strengths in the calculator. Both show the same window, 30 minutes to 1 hour.

The Standard strength, 5.71%, matches what The Kitchn and Cook the Story give for table salt. The Lighter strength, 3.8%, comes from America's Test Kitchen only. Recipes differ, so the calculator picks the shorter time where sources disagree. Brine percentages explained shows how the percentage turns into grams.

Weigh the salt

Salt volume is not a reliable measure, because the crystals are different sizes. America's Test Kitchen's kosher salt taste test lists about 2.8 g per teaspoon for Diamond Crystal kosher salt, 4.8 g for Morton kosher salt and about 6 g for table salt. A teaspoon of table salt is therefore a much stronger measure than a teaspoon of Diamond Crystal.

The table below shows the same brine in all three salts for different weights of chicken.

Use a kitchen scale for the salt when you can. The kosher salt versus table salt guide explains how the salt types differ.

How to make a first wet brine

1. Check the label. Do not brine meat labeled basted, enhanced, marinated or kosher. Morton Salt advises against it.
2. Weigh the meat. Weigh it before brining, without any liquid.
3. Measure the water and the salt. The default is 0.5 quart of water per pound of food. What matters is the salt-to-water ratio. America's Test Kitchen's brine-to-chicken ratio test found that four and eight chicken breasts in the same 2 quarts of water with the same salt were equally seasoned, provided the meat stayed fully submerged.
4. Stir until the salt dissolves, then chill the brine. Keep it at 40°F (4°C) or below. USDA FSIS says the refrigerator should be at 40°F (4°C) or below. Amazing Ribs notes that visible unmelted ice means the brine is probably below 40°F (4°C).
5. Submerge the meat in a food-grade container and refrigerate it. The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service lists food-grade plastic, stainless steel or glass for brining poultry, and says the poultry must be fully submerged.
6. Set a timer. Chicken breast takes 30 minutes to 1 hour.
7. Remove the meat and dry it. Pat it dry. Amazing Ribs says patting dry is important because the surface might steam and not brown properly.
8. Cook it. Follow your recipe from here.

Pick a first food

Time depends on thickness more than weight, so thin or small pieces are the quickest to brine. In the calculator, chicken breast takes 30 minutes to 1 hour, pork chops take 1 hour at the lighter strength, shrimp takes 30 to 45 minutes and salmon takes 15 minutes. How long to brine meat lays out the strengths and times for poultry, pork and seafood side by side.

The step-by-step version of the process above, with notes for other foods, is in how to brine meat. A dedicated guide for this example is at brine chicken breast.

What happens if you leave it too long

The maximum times in the calculator come from the sources. For chicken and pork chops, The Kitchn's 5 Smart Tips page says the meat can start to become mushy after a couple of hours. For chicken breast it is also saltiness: Amazing Ribs reports a test by Greg Blonder in which a half-pound boneless chicken breast held about 1.5% salt inside after 8 hours in a 6% brine, and calls an internal level of 1.5% to 2% much too salty to eat. That test shows meat becomes too salty over hours; it does not set the calculator's maximum. The guide on whether you can over-brine meat covers what happens when a brine runs long.

Food safety basics

Brine in the refrigerator, keep the food submerged and discard the brine afterward. The brine food safety guide covers refrigeration, brine reuse and time limits in one place. Enter your own weight, strength and salt type in the calculator to get the salt, the water and the time for any food it covers.