What Is Brining? How Salt Seasons Meat

Six kinds of brine

The word covers six different jobs, and the first thing to settle is what the salt percentage is a percentage of. A wet brine is salt to water. A dry brine is salt to meat. An equilibrium brine is salt to meat plus water. Get the basis wrong and a 5% figure is off by a factor of eight.

Brine	Salt basis	Typical salt	Time	Calculator
Wet brine	Percent of the water's weight	3.5 to 6%, 5% standard (47 g per quart, 189 g per gallon)	30 min for shrimp to 24 h for a whole turkey; never past 24 h	Salt water brine calculator
Dry brine	Percent of the meat's weight, no water	0.5 to 0.9%: 0.6% poultry and roasts, 0.9% steaks and chops (about 4 g per lb)	1 to 12 h steaks, 12 to 24 h whole chicken, 24 to 48 h turkey, up to 72 h brisket	Dry brine calculator
Equilibrium brine	Percent of meat plus water	1.5% default, 1 to 2.5% range	By thickness, capped at 48 h	Equilibrium brine calculator
Curing brine (bacon, ham)	Percent of the meat (plus water if wet), with Cure #1 at 0.25%	2.5% salt; Cure #1 for 156 ppm nitrite	7 to 21 days dry, 3 to 7 days wet	Bacon curing calculator
Pickling brine	Ferment: percent of the water. Vinegar pickle: 1:1 vinegar to water, plus salt	3.5 to 5% for a ferment; 18 g salt per quart of a 1:1 vinegar brine	Ferment 3 to 4 weeks at 70 to 75°F; refrigerator pickles ready in 24 h	Pickle brine calculator
Fermentation brine (sauerkraut, kimchi)	Percent of the vegetable's weight	2%, working band 2 to 2.5%	3 to 4 weeks at 72°F	Kimchi and sauerkraut calculator

Figures are the defaults on this site's calculators. The wet strengths bracket Morton's two rules (1 cup of Morton Coarse Kosher per gallon, 6.1%, for 4 to 5 hours; 1/2 cup, 3%, overnight) and America's Test Kitchen's 1 cup of table salt per 2 gallons (3.8%) for 6 to 12 hours. The dry percentages are Cook's Illustrated's 1 teaspoon of Diamond Crystal per pound at the label density of 2.8 g per teaspoon. The sauerkraut band is NCHFP's; the bacon figures follow 9 CFR 424.22. The brine ratio chart has every wet strength in grams and cups.

Size your brine

Both calculators work in grams first and then convert to spoons for the salt you own, because a cup of Diamond Crystal is 134 g, a cup of Morton kosher is 230 g, and a cup of table salt is 288 g.

Wet brine

Water in quarts, gallons, or liters; salt at 3.5, 5, or 6% with optional sugar; time by cut, capped at 24 hours.

Wet brine calculator

Dry brine

Meat weight and cut in; grams and teaspoons out at 0.5 to 0.9%, with hours in the fridge and a baking powder option for skin.

Dry brine calculator

All 26 tools are on the calculators page.

What salt does to muscle protein

Muscle is bundles of protein fibers that contract when heated and squeeze out the water held between them. Salt interferes with that squeeze in two stages.

Stage one: the salt moves in

Salt goes from where there is more of it to where there is less. In a wet brine that is from the water into the meat; in a dry brine the salt first pulls water out of the surface (osmosis, water moving toward the saltier side), dissolves in it, and that concentrated brine moves back in. That is why a salted steak looks wet after 30 minutes and dry again after two hours. Michael Chu's write-up at Cooking for Engineers points out that osmosis alone cannot explain why brined meat ends up holding more water than it started with; something has to change inside the cells.

Stage two: the salt loosens the protein

What changes is the protein. Harold McGee's finding, as quoted by Science of Cooking, is that "a 3 percent salt solution dissolves parts of the protein structure that supports the contracting filaments themselves," and that "the dissolved protein filaments can't coagulate into the normally dense aggregates, so the cooked meat seems more tender." America's Test Kitchen's Lan Lam puts the same thing in kitchen terms: salt in the brine "promotes a change in its protein structure, reducing its overall toughness and creating gaps that fill up with water and keep the meat juicy and flavorful." USDA FSIS's brining note says the salt "dissolves a bit of the protein in the muscle fibers, and allows the meat to absorb the brine and retain moisture during cooking."

So the meat starts the oven with more water and fibers that cannot clench as hard. In a wet brine it also takes on water: Science of Cooking reports a weight gain of 10% or more. America's Test Kitchen's technique guide puts it more carefully: "even though it will lose the same amount of moisture when it cooks as meat that hasn't been brined, you end up with more moisture."

Why 5%, and why not more

The same source, citing Xiong and colleagues (2000), notes that about 4.6 to 5.8% sodium chloride gives maximum water uptake, and that at higher concentrations "fiber volume decreased, the tissue lost its own water and proteins precipitated." That is why this site's wet brine defaults to 5% and offers no preset above 6%, and why a heavy hand with the salt dries meat out instead of keeping it juicy. Below about 3% the protein effect fades and the brine is mostly seasoning: fine overnight, but slow.

Wet brine vs dry brine

Same chemistry, different water. A wet brine is faster and adds water to the meat; a dry brine takes longer, adds nothing but salt, and leaves poultry skin dry enough to brown. America's Test Kitchen lists the trade as brining being "faster than salting" and able to give juicier turkey, against salting's convenience, fridge space, and crisp skin; Clemson Extension's guide says the same in its own words, with wet brining giving "slightly less brown skin due to more water" and dry brining "browner and crispier skin." For steaks, roasts, and anything with skin, dry; for lean cuts cooked hot and fast, or when you have hours rather than a day, wet. The wet brine vs dry brine comparison goes protein by protein.

Brining vs marinating

They are often used as if they were the same thing. They are not.

A brine works with salt. Salt is a small molecule that travels through muscle over hours, so the effect reaches the center of a roast and changes how the whole piece cooks.
A marinade works with acid and oil. Vinegar, citrus, wine, or yogurt plus oil and aromatics. Utah State University Extension describes the mechanism: the acid "works to soften and flavor the meat by denaturing it. When the proteins are denatured, they create pockets in the meat where flavor enters." That happens on the surface the acid touches, and the flavor stays in the outer few millimeters; leave it too long and the surface goes chalky, which is why the same guide warns that soaking too long "can result in toughness."
Most marinades are part brine. Soy sauce, fish sauce, and the salt in the recipe do the deep seasoning; the garlic and herbs do the surface. If a marinade tastes salty, treat its time limits like a brine's.
Timing. USU's marinating windows (seafood 15 to 60 minutes, chicken 2 to 24 hours, pork and steak 24 hours or longer) overlap with brining times, but a marinade past its time is mushy on the outside, and a brine past its time is ham-like all the way through.

What to brine and what not to

Brine

Lean poultry and pork: chicken breasts and whole chickens, turkey, pork chops and loin. These have little fat to cover for overcooking, and they gain the most.
Shrimp and lean fish, briefly: 30 to 60 minutes for shrimp, under an hour for fillets. The seafood brine calculator has the cut-by-cut times.
Anything you will smoke or grill hot, where the surface spends a long time above the temperature that dries it.

Salt instead (dry brine)

Steaks, chops, and well-marbled roasts. America's Test Kitchen's rule: "meats that are well-marbled even after cooking, like beef and lamb, are best salted rather than brined." Fat carries the juiciness; the salt is for seasoning and crust.
Skin-on poultry you want crisp, and anything that will not fit in a bucket.

Do not brine

Kosher and self-basting (enhanced) poultry and pork. Kosher birds are salted during koshering; enhanced meat has been injected with a salt solution and the label says so. America's Test Kitchen's instruction: "If you're roasting a kosher or self-basting turkey, do not brine it; it already contains a good amount of sodium." The same applies to salting.
Cured products. Bacon, ham, corned beef, and smoked sausage are already at cure-level salt (2 to 3% of the meat). Brining a cure is the bacon curing calculator's job, with the nitrite that job needs.
Frozen meat. Salt cannot move into ice. Thaw fully in the fridge, then brine; the turkey thawing time calculator gives the days per pound.
Fatty fish for long. Salmon takes salt in an hour; overnight makes gravlax, not dinner.

Safety

A brine is raw meat sitting in water for hours. The rules are the raw-meat rules, with one addition about the liquid.

40°F (4°C) or below, the whole time. University of Illinois Extension: brining "should be done in the refrigerator or in a cooler with 5 to 6 ice packs to keep the turkey and brine at 40 degrees or below during the entire brining process." Chill the brine before the meat goes in; hot brine on cold meat is a warm bucket for hours.
Wet brines stop at 24 hours here. USDA FSIS's outer limit is "do not brine any longer than two days and always keep the turkey and brine refrigerated (at 40°F or less)." This site's calculators stop at 24 hours because texture goes before safety does; the equilibrium calculator, where the salt cannot overshoot, is the one that runs to 48.
Pour the brine out. It has carried raw juices for hours. Clemson Extension's rule for marinades applies to brines word for word: "Discard the marinade after use because it contains raw juices, which may harbor bacteria." Do not reuse it for a second piece, and do not make gravy from it.
Food-grade container. FSIS lists "food-grade plastic, stainless steel or glass, or a brining bag." Not a garbage bag, not a galvanized bucket, not an aluminum pot (salt pits it).
Cook to temperature, not color. FoodSafety.gov's minimums: poultry 165°F (74°C); beef, pork, and lamb steaks, chops, and roasts 145°F (63°C) with a 3-minute rest; fish 145°F (63°C). Brined meat stays pinker near the bone, so trust the thermometer.
Two hours out of the fridge, total. The danger zone rule does not pause while the meat is brining.

What you'll need

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Gram scale. The single thing that makes brining repeatable. One that reads to 1 g is fine for a wet brine; 0.1 g for dry brining a steak.
Kosher salt, Diamond Crystal or Morton, and knowing which one is in the box. Table salt works by weight; it is just harder to spread.
Food-grade container or brining bag big enough that the meat stays under the surface with a plate on top.
Instant-read thermometer for the finish and for checking the fridge really holds 40°F.
Wire rack and sheet pan for the uncovered drying rest that gives brined poultry its skin back.

How this page is checked

This guide was written by Cedrick Reese for BrineCalculators.com. The protein explanation is taken from three sources that were opened and quoted directly: Harold McGee's account as reproduced by Science of Cooking, Lan Lam's article for America's Test Kitchen, and USDA FSIS's brining note as reproduced by University of Wisconsin Extension. The kosher and self-basting rule is America's Test Kitchen's; the marinade mechanism and times are Utah State University Extension's; the 40°F, two-day, container, and discard rules are Illinois Extension, FSIS, and Clemson Extension; the finish temperatures are FoodSafety.gov. Every percentage in the table is the default on the linked calculator, and those defaults trace to Morton's guide, Cook's Illustrated's per-pound rules, NCHFP, and 9 CFR 424.22.

When a calculator's default changes, this table changes with it, and the two are compared on every rebuild. If a figure here disagrees with the calculator it links to or with the source it names, that is a bug; use the contact page to report it.

Frequently asked questions

What is brining in simple terms?

Brining is salting meat ahead of time and giving the salt hours to move in. The classic form is a wet brine: the meat sits submerged in salt water, on this site 3.5 to 6% salt by weight of the water, for anywhere from 30 minutes (shrimp) to 24 hours (a whole turkey). A dry brine skips the water and rubs the salt straight on at about 0.6% of the meat's weight. Either way the salt seasons the meat below the surface and changes its proteins so it holds more juice when cooked.

How does brining work?

Two things happen. First, salt moves from the brine into the meat (diffusion) and, for the first hour or so, water moves out of the meat toward the salt (osmosis), which is why a salted steak looks wet. Then the salt dissolves part of the protein structure inside the muscle fibers. America's Test Kitchen describes it as a change in protein structure that creates gaps that fill with water; USDA FSIS says the salt dissolves a bit of the protein in the muscle fibers and lets the meat absorb the brine and retain moisture during cooking. Dissolved protein cannot tighten into a dense clump when heated, so the cooked meat is more tender and loses less liquid.

What does brining do to meat?

It seasons it all the way through rather than on the surface, it makes it juicier after cooking, and it makes it a little more tender. The seasoning is the salt itself. The juiciness comes from the changed proteins holding on to the meat's own water and, in a wet brine, from water the meat takes on: published figures run up to about 10% of the raw weight. The tenderness comes from the partly dissolved proteins, which cannot contract as hard when heated. Brining does not add fat and cannot rescue a cut that is overcooked by 30 degrees.

What is the difference between brining and marinating?

Salt versus acid. A brine is salt in water, and salt travels into the meat over hours, so the seasoning and the moisture effect reach the center. A marinade is built on acid (vinegar, citrus, wine, yogurt) plus oil and aromatics; the acid denatures proteins on the surface it touches, and the flavors mostly stay in the outer few millimeters. Utah State University Extension's guidance is that acid softens and flavors the meat by denaturing it, which is a surface effect. Many marinades contain salt or soy sauce and are, in that respect, weak brines; the salt is doing the deep work.

How much salt do you use to brine?

For a wet brine, 3.5 to 6% of the water's weight: 5% is the standard here, which is 47 g per quart or 189 g per gallon of water. Morton's own rule of 1 cup of Morton Coarse Kosher per gallon is 6.1% (a short 4 to 5 hour brine) and their overnight rule of 1/2 cup per gallon is 3%. For a dry brine, 0.5 to 0.9% of the meat's weight: 0.6% for poultry and roasts, 0.9% for steaks and chops, which is about 4 g per pound. Weigh the salt; a cup of Diamond Crystal is 134 g and a cup of Morton is 230 g, so the same spoon gives very different brines.

How long should you brine?

Wet brine, at 5%: shrimp 30 to 60 minutes, chicken pieces 1 to 2 hours, a whole chicken 4 to 6 hours, pork chops 2 to 4, pork loin or shoulder 8 to 14, a whole turkey 12 to 24 hours. Never past 24 hours in a wet brine on this site; the texture goes spongy and USDA's outer limit is two days. Dry brine: steaks 1 to 12 hours, chicken pieces 4 to 12, a whole chicken 12 to 24, a turkey 24 to 48, and a brisket up to 72. Thickness sets the time more than weight does.

Do you rinse meat after brining?

After a wet brine, a brief rinse under cold water takes the surface salt off, then pat the meat very dry and, for poultry you want crisp, leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. After a dry brine at 0.5 to 0.9%, do not rinse: the salt has dissolved and moved in, and rinsing wets the surface you spent a day drying. Just pat dry and cook, and skip the salt in the recipe either way.

Can you brine meat that is already salted or enhanced?

No. Kosher poultry has been salted as part of the koshering process, and a self-basting or enhanced bird or pork loin has been injected with a salt solution (the label says it contains a solution). America's Test Kitchen's instruction for both is not to brine or salt them because they already contain a good amount of sodium. Cured products such as bacon, ham, and corned beef are already at cure-level salt. Brine plain, unsalted meat only, and thaw frozen meat fully first because salt cannot move into ice.

References

Disclaimer

Educational and informational purposes only: the information on this page is general guidance drawn from the sources listed above. It is not a substitute for professional culinary or food safety training. You are responsible for safe handling, refrigeration, and cooking of all food, and for following USDA guidance and local regulations. BrineCalculators.com makes no warranties regarding the accuracy or suitability of this information and is not liable for any illness or loss arising from its use. See the full disclaimer.

What Is Brining? How It Works and What It Does to Meat