Brine Calculators

Brine Recipe Card Generator: Print, Copy, or Email a One-Page Card

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14 lb turkey, 5% wet brine: 284 g Diamond Crystal (about 2 cups) in 1.5 gal water, 11 to 14 hours, roast to 165°F.

Fill in the form and the brine recipe card updates as you type, ready to print, copy, or email.

Your recipe

Wet brines on this site never run past 24 hours; ferments run for weeks on the counter.

Write the salt in grams and name the salt; a cup of Diamond Crystal is 134 g, Morton kosher 230 g, table salt 288 g.

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Card preview

Wet-Brined Roast Turkey (14 lb, 5%)

A 5% brine (salt to water by weight) for a 12 to 14 lb bird, figured on the turkey brine calculator. The salt is by weight; the cups are for the salt named.

Prep
20 min
Brine
14 hours
Cook
3 h 30 min
Serves
14

Ingredients

  • 14 lb whole turkey, not labeled enhanced or self-basting, giblets removed
  • 284 g Diamond Crystal kosher salt (about 2 cups), or 1 1/4 cups Morton kosher, or 1 cup table salt
  • 1.5 gal (5.7 L) cold water
  • 2 bay leaves, 1 tbsp black peppercorns, 4 garlic cloves, crushed (optional)
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened, for roasting

Method

  1. Dissolve the salt in 2 quarts of the water, hot, with the aromatics. Add the remaining water cold and chill the brine to 40°F (4°C) or below.
  2. Set the turkey in a brining bag inside a roasting pan, pour in the brine, press the air out, and seal.
  3. Refrigerate 11 to 14 hours (about 1 hour per pound; never more than 24).
  4. Lift the bird out, discard the brine, and pat it dry. For drier skin, leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge for 8 to 12 hours.
  5. Rub with butter and roast at 325°F (163°C) until the thickest part of the thigh and the breast both read 165°F (74°C), about 3 to 3 3/4 hours.
  6. Rest 20 minutes before carving. Taste the drippings before salting any gravy.

Notes

Brined meat is already seasoned; skip salt in rubs and gravy until you taste. A bird over 20 lb needs 2 gallons of water and 379 g of Diamond Crystal at 5%; use the turkey brine calculator for any other size.

Food safety: Keep it at 40°F (4°C) or below the whole time it brines and discard the brine after use (USDA FSIS). Cook poultry to 165°F (74°C); pork, beef, and lamb to 145°F (63°C) with a 3 minute rest; ground meat to 160°F (71°C); fish to 145°F (63°C) (foodsafety.gov).

brinecalculators.com

14 lb turkey, 5% wet brine

14 lb turkey, 5% wet brine: 284 g Diamond Crystal (about 2 cups) in 1.5 gal water, 11 to 14 hours, roast to 165°F.

4 lb chicken, 5% wet brine

4 lb whole chicken, 5% wet brine: 189 g Diamond Crystal (about 1 1/2 cups) in 1 gal water, 4 to 8 hours, roast to 165°F.

2 lb pork chops, 5% wet brine

2 lb pork chops, 5% wet brine: 94.6 g Diamond Crystal (about 11 1/2 tbsp) in 2 qt water, 30 minutes to 4 hours, cook to 145°F.

Quart refrigerator pickles, 1:1

Quart jar refrigerator pickles, 1:1: 1 cup 5% vinegar, 1 cup water, 18 g pickling salt (1 tbsp), 12.3 g sugar (1 tbsp), ready in 24 hours, keep refrigerated.

1 kg sauerkraut, 2% salt

1 kg cabbage, sauerkraut at 2%: 20 g pickling salt (about 3 1/4 tsp), 3 to 4 weeks at 70 to 75°F, then refrigerate.

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What goes on a good brine card

This brine recipe card generator: fill the form and the card on the right updates as you type. Print it (the print dialog also saves a PDF), copy it as text, or email it. Nothing is uploaded; the card lives on this page until you print or copy it, or until you choose to save it in this browser. The five templates are complete recipes with the salt in grams from this site's calculators, so you can start from one and change what you like. For the numbers themselves, start with the brine calculator.

The card template carries no ratios of its own; the numbers come from the calculators, and the card is where you write them down so the next batch is the same batch. Four things make a brine card worth keeping.

Salt by weight, salt by name

"1 cup kosher salt" per gallon is 6.1% with Morton and 3.5% with Diamond Crystal, by the makers' labels. Write the grams and the salt they were measured with; the templates do.

Water, weight, and hours

The percentage on this site is salt divided by water, so the water goes on the card too, along with the weight of the food and the hours it sat, never more than 24 for a wet brine.

Numbered steps

One action per line: dissolve, chill, submerge, refrigerate, pat dry, cook to temperature, rest. Say whether the brine is chilled before the food goes in.

The safety footer

The checkbox prints the fridge limit and the finish temperatures below the method: Keep it at 40°F (4°C) or below the whole time it brines and discard the brine after use (USDA FSIS). Cook poultry to 165°F (74°C); pork, beef, and lamb to 145°F (63°C) with a 3 minute rest; ground meat to 160°F (71°C); fish to 145°F (63°C) (foodsafety.gov).

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The template figures

TemplateSaltWaterTimeWorked on
14 lb turkey, 5%284 g (5% of 5,678 g)1.5 gal11 to 14 hturkey brine calculator
4 lb chicken, 5%189 g (5% of 3,785 g)1 gal4 to 8 hmeat brine calculator
2 lb pork chops, 5%94.6 g (5% of 1,893 g)2 qt30 min to 4 hmeat brine calculator
Quart refrigerator pickles18 g (3.8 g per 100 ml)1 cup + 1 cup vinegar24 hpickle brine calculator
1 kg sauerkraut, 2%20 g (2% of 1,000 g)none, dry salt3 to 4 weekskimchi and sauerkraut calculator

Cups come from the shared salt table: Diamond Crystal 134 g, Morton kosher 230 g, table and pickling salt 288 g per cup, each from the maker's label. The salt conversion calculator swaps one for another by weight.

What you'll need

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  • Kitchen scale in grams, so the number on the card is the number in the pot.
  • Instant-read thermometer for the finish temperatures on the safety footer.
  • Card stock or a recipe binder with letter or A4 sleeves; the print stylesheet is sized for both.
  • Fridge thermometer, because the 40°F on the card assumes the fridge is actually there.

How this page is checked

Cedrick Reese built this generator for BrineCalculators.com. The card template carries no ratios of its own; every gram, cup, and hour in the five templates is taken from the site's calculators (turkey, meat, pickle, and kimchi and sauerkraut), which cite their sources on their own pages, and the cups are read from the shared salt table. The safety footer's figures are checked against foodsafety.gov's safe minimum internal temperatures chart and USDA FSIS's brining and cold storage guidance, and the text is quoted here rather than paraphrased so it can be compared.

When a calculator's figure changes, the template that uses it changes with it and the tile text is regenerated from the same source. If a template here disagrees with the calculator it names, that is an error; report it through the contact page. The page stores nothing on its own and sends nothing anywhere; the only storage is the one card you choose to save in your own browser.

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Frequently asked questions

How do I print my recipe card?

Click "Print or save as PDF". It opens your browser's print dialog with a print stylesheet that shows only the card, so the form, the header, and the rest of the page do not print. The same dialog has a "Save as PDF" destination on every current browser, which is how you get a PDF; the page does not build one itself. Portrait letter or A4 fits a card of this length on one page; a very long method may run to two.

Can I save my recipe for later editing?

The card exists on this page until you print, copy, or email it; a reload clears the form. If you want it back later, "Save in this browser" keeps one card in this browser's storage on this device, and "Load saved" brings it back. Nothing is uploaded and the site never sees it. Some browsers (private windows, blocked site data) refuse storage, and the page tells you when that happens; copying the text into a note is the sure way to keep it.

What information should I include in a brining recipe?

The salt in grams and the salt it was measured with (a cup of Diamond Crystal is 134 g, Morton kosher 230 g, table salt 288 g, so a recipe that says "1 cup kosher salt" can be off by almost double), the water by volume, the percentage if you know it, the weight of the meat or vegetables, the hours, and the finish temperature. Note whether the brine is chilled before the food goes in and whether to pat dry or rinse. The templates on this page show the pattern.

How long can I safely store brined foods?

Raw meat waits in the brine only for the recipe's window, and never more than 24 hours for a wet brine on this site; USDA FSIS keeps brined poultry in the refrigerator no more than 2 days. Cook it as soon as it comes out. Cooked leftovers keep 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator or 2 to 6 months frozen (foodsafety.gov cold storage chart). Refrigerator pickles stay in the fridge and are not shelf stable; finished sauerkraut keeps for months refrigerated.

What's the difference between wet brining and dry brining?

A wet brine submerges the food in salt water (3.5 to 6% salt to water on this site) and adds a little water along with the seasoning; it is faster and suits lean cuts. A dry brine rubs salt on the surface (about 1 teaspoon of Diamond Crystal per pound for a roast) and rests uncovered in the fridge for 6 to 48 hours; the salt pulls juice out, dissolves, and goes back in, and the skin browns better. The dry brine calculator and the wet brine vs dry brine guide cover both.

Can I brine frozen meat or vegetables?

No. Thaw first, in the refrigerator, about 24 hours for every 4 to 5 pounds (USDA FSIS). A frozen piece thaws from the outside in, so the outside soaks up salt for hours before the center can, and the water it sheds thins the brine to an unknown strength. The turkey thawing calculator does the arithmetic for a bird.

Do I need to rinse food after brining?

Not at 5% or under: lift it out, pat it dry, and cook. USDA FSIS advises against rinsing raw poultry because the splash spreads bacteria around the sink. A 6% brine or one that ran long can take a quick rinse. Dry-brined food is never rinsed. Either way, dry the surface well or it steams instead of browning; say which on the card.

Why is my brined food too salty?

Three usual causes: the salt was measured by the cup with a heavier salt than the recipe meant (a cup of table salt holds 2.15 times the salt of a cup of Diamond Crystal), the food stayed in past its window, or it was salted again while cooking. Write the grams and the salt's name on the card, keep to the hours, and season at the table. A batch that is already too salty can soak in cold fresh water for 30 to 60 minutes.

Can I reuse brine for multiple batches?

Not for meat, poultry, or seafood: once raw food has been in it the brine carries that food's bacteria and its salt has moved into the meat, so it is neither safe nor the strength you started with. Discard it (USDA FSIS) and mix fresh; the salt costs pennies. A vinegar brine that has already held vegetables is of unknown acidity, so NCHFP says not to use it for another batch; leftover brine that never touched vegetables can dress a refrigerator vegetable eaten within a few days.

How do I share recipe cards with friends and family?

"Email card" opens your mail app with the card as plain text in the body; if nothing opens, or the card is long enough that your mail app cuts it off, "Copy as text" puts the same text on the clipboard to paste anywhere. "Print or save as PDF" gives you a paper copy or a PDF file to attach. The card carries the site name so the recipient can find the calculators the numbers came from.

References

Disclaimer

Educational purpose only: this generator formats a recipe you write; it does not check it. The template figures are taken from this site's calculators and the safety footer from foodsafety.gov and USDA FSIS, but you are responsible for the recipe on the card and for safe handling in your own kitchen: refrigeration at 40°F (4°C) or below, a fresh brine for every batch, and a thermometer for the finish. BrineCalculators.com makes no warranty about any card produced here. See the full disclaimer.