A new salt brining calculator. Discusses why we salt brine, which levels are appropriate for which purposes, and the difference between equilibrium and gradient brining. Before unleashing on the world outside the Pit, interested in your comments and suggestions.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Salt Brining calculator
Collapse
This is a sticky topic.
X
X
-
Founding Member
- Jul 2014
- 5148
- Stockholm, Sweden
-
Author of the book Barbecue, fire and smoke
Grills
PK 300
My custom built offset smoker
My custom built hot box
Thermometers
Thermapen
Fireboard
Accessories
Slow n' Sear
All my recipes, photos and information can be found at
https://hankstruebbq.com
YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/c/Hankstruebbq
Thanks for supporting both metric and imperial units, awesome! As for salt levels in the first paragraph: I would argue that 5% isn't that salty, or rather, quite palatable. I know, everyone has different taste buds, but I usually (wet) brine eye of round in a 10% solution and then cook it, and it is quite nice. Salty, yes, but good flavor. But perhaps I'm not reading it right. Do you mean the brine itself?
Minor spelling error: in the third paragraph it says "...The meat is then remove from". There should be a 'd' added to 'remove'.
Some UX feedback: why not make the "dry brine" a radio button (with the "cups", "quarts", et.c.) in step 4? That way you will save yourself a lot of 'how do I' questions :-) even though it is stated explicitly in the first paragraphs.
Great calculator, thanks for making it!
Comment
-
Founding Member
- Jul 2014
- 5148
- Stockholm, Sweden
-
Author of the book Barbecue, fire and smoke
Grills
PK 300
My custom built offset smoker
My custom built hot box
Thermometers
Thermapen
Fireboard
Accessories
Slow n' Sear
All my recipes, photos and information can be found at
https://hankstruebbq.com
YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/c/Hankstruebbq
Thanks, just wanted to provide some helpful feedback. As for the brine level, I realize now you must have meant the salt level in the final product. If so, I agree with you. When I brine in 10% I usually leave it for 2-4 hours, as it becomes plenty salty. I then slice (the eye of round) to use for sandwiches. Think of salami slices.
Another thing I came to think of now that I tried the calculator again: would it make sense to have pre-populated values? As in: I don't have to click each and everyone to get to 'the end' and see how much salt to use. Yes, it won't match everybody's preferences, typically, some folks prefer imperial, other metric, but at least I only need to click the ones I want to change, as opposed to all of them.
Thanks again for a cool calculator!
Comment
-
We debated pre-populating, but as you point out, not only do some readers prefer metric over imperial, but people often mix units. They weigh out the salt in ozs but use a liter container to measure the water, because they have a liter soda bottle. So we started with a blank slate.
Also chose to ignore Imperial unit buttons. We are assuming most of the EU and BE likely prefer metric, while imperial is a hold-over. For our nitrite calculator, accidentally hitting a metric gallon vs US is a 20% error, and might not be noticed if there were too many choices. Not as big an issue here, but trying to keep things simple.
Comment
-
I'm trying to follow the recipe for curing bacon. I need to convert from Morton's Kosher Salt (which I don't have) to Trader Joe's SeaSalt (which I have a lot of), but that is not on the conversion list. Can anyone tell me the density of Morton's Kosher Salt, and then I can just do the conversion by weight? I have a good scale... Thanks.
Comment
-
Welcome aboard! We'd love to get an intro from you over in the Introduce Yourself channel when you get a minute. https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...troductions-aa Thanks!
-
Got it! 1.01 g/cc for Morton's Kosher salt, to convert the amounts on AmazingRibs to mass. Its even a conveniently round number... Thanks for the tip DocBlonder. fuzzydaddy, I'll get around to the intro one of these days.
-
Question on the Archimedes method: I assume this must be done quickly, before much salt dissolves? Or does even the dissolved salt displace at a 1:1 ratio?
Comment
-
Thanks!, docblonder I ain't even coming close to measuring that precisely! My question was based on simple syrup (hummingbirds, margaritas, and whiskey sours!) where 1 + 1 doesn't even begin to equal two. Bigger molecules. I suspect?Last edited by Willy; February 3, 2017, 06:14 PM.
Comment
-
Thanks, docblonder , I'm beginning to get with the program. I have always assumed that SOME of the reduction in volume when mixing water and salt or was due to the "fact" that the water molecules and Na and Cl ions "packed" together "better" (made use of some interstitial space), like adding a bucket of tennis balls to a bucket of grapefruit would not yield two full buckets of the mixture. I assumed (I know, when one assumes...) that if a solid block of salt was added to a volume of water, that the volume would drop over time as the salt dissolved. I think you are basically saying that salt and water mixing is essentially like mixing all tennis balls, so the volume change between the solid block and the dissolved salt is negligible. Is this correct?.
Comment
-
Founding Member
- Jul 2014
- 5715
- Maple Valley, WA
-
Grill/Smoke/Roast = SnS Grills Kettle + SnS Deluxe Insert & Drip n' Griddle
Grill/Smoke/Roast = Hasty-Bake Gourmet Dual Finish with HB rotisserie and Grill Grates
Smoke = Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5"
Pizza = Blackstone Propane Pizza Oven (Stacy's, but she let's me use it sometimes)
Indoor Cooking = LG Studio 30" gas range
Camp Cooking = Coleman 2 burner white gas stove
Thermometer = FireBoard FBX2 with 2 ambient and 6 meat probes
Thermapen Mk IV = Light blue
Thermapen Mk IV = Black
PID Controller = Fireboard Drive + Auber 20 CFM Fan (FB gen 1 fan)
PID Controller = Fireboard Drive + Fireboard 20 CFM Fan (FB gen 2 fan)
Knives
Wusthof Classic Ikon set: 9" carving knive, 2X 8" Chef's Knife, 7" Santoku and three utility knives
Kamikoto Kuro set: 7" Santoku, 6.5" Nakiri, 5" Utility
Amazing Ribs Brazilian Steak knife set
Favorite wine = whatever is currently in the wine rack
Favorite beer = Sam Adams Boston Lager or Shiner Bock
Favorite whisky = Lagavulin Distiller's Edition 16 year old single malt
Best Cookbooks - Meathead's "The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling", Chris Lilly's "Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book", Aaron Franklin's "Franklin BBQ"
Cookbooks to check out - Raichlen's "Brisket Chronicles" and anything by Adam Perry Lang.
Current fanboy cookbook - "Chasing Smoke: Cooking Over Fire Around the Levant"
Some Posts in Pitmaster to check out:
Eric's Brisket Method
Eric's Method for Drunken Texas Beans
Stacy's Bouef Bourguignon
Eric's Smoked Texas Chili
Rancho Gordo Beans and Bean Club
Troutman's Ribs - Step By Step Primer
Grilled Pork Chops: Harissa Marinade
Light My (Hasty Bake) Fire
Eric
Well docblonder I got to use this calculator today. I'm doing a batch of bacon and had half a pork belly handy. That, of course, is not exactly 3 lbs like Meathead's bacon recipes call for. So, threw it on the kitchen scale and then ran it through your calculator. Much more precise than doing rough estimate calculations of numbers of half teaspoons of prague powder, etc. Thank you .... now I can experiment with my bacon recipes without worrying about my brine being dangerous! you are the man.
Comment
-
Founding Member
- Jul 2014
- 1250
- Madison, WI
-
Weber Q320 grill
Camp Chef Smoke Vault 24 Propane Smoker
Maverick and thermo Pen thermometers
docblonder general curing question: is it perfectly safe to cure the meat in just water and Prague powder, and then later applying all the other ingredients as more of a dry rub?
Comment
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Comment