Comments on: Brine Calculator – Brine Salt to Water Ratio

By: Freyda Black

Freyda Black — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 19:10:44 +0000

I found a recipe for brine pickled purslane that gives salt in volume form. Unfortunately, my research on weight of salt equivalents gives various values for the weight of even plain table salt, which crystal size I assume is the same as canning salt. One source says 12 g / Tbsp while another gives 18 g! that is a huge difference. Since you do not have purslane, or some other unusual vegetables listed in your excellent reference here, I have two requests:
1. could you tell me what % brine is best for purslane STEMS
2. could you give your opinion on what weight to use per Tbsp in recipes giving volume measurements of salt. Thank you! With all the work required to prepare such veggies (2 hours to strip almost 200g of purslane stems), it would be disappointing to use the wrong brine %age.)

By: Gigi Mitts

Gigi Mitts — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 21:38:51 +0000

In reply to Joanne. Thanks Joanne for stopping by:-) I would not recommend reusing the brine due to acidity level changes once it's been absorbed by pickles and especially if the brine is cloudy.

By: Gigi Mitts

Gigi Mitts — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 21:36:38 +0000

In reply to Joanne. Thanks Joanne for stopping by:-) I would not recommend reusing the brine due to acidity level changes once it's been absorbed by pickles and especially if the brine is cloudy.

By: Gigi Mitts

Gigi Mitts — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 23:52:23 +0000

In reply to Bradley. Hi BC, your calculations are correct - 1 gallon of water and 567.76 grams of salt will make brine ratio of 15%.

By: Gigi Mitts

Gigi Mitts — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 20:53:11 +0000

In reply to Donald Imbrogno. I'd recommend 5% brine ratio.

By: Gigi Mitts

Gigi Mitts — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 20:08:05 +0000

In reply to Joseph L Caruso. Correct, the brine ratio still stays the same at 5%.

By: Freyda Black

Freyda Black — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 23:28:36 +0000

I always keep coming back to this page for figuring brine percentages for various vegetable ferments. Thank you so much for this valuable resource!

I have a bumper crop of sunchokes and was going to try fermenting them. What percentage brine would you suggest?

Also, I had seen a recipe for a sunchoke ferment using both salt and soy sauce. I don’t want to try that recipe since they are specifying dark and light soy, commercial products. Do you know if there is a way to determine how much salt soy sauce would add to a brine? Would a few tablespoons per quart be sufficient to affect the salinity significantly?

Thank you again for your help.

By: Joseph L Caruso

Joseph L Caruso — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 16:26:13 +0000

If I mix 100 grams of pickling salt to 2L of water for a 5% brine but only use 1L of the brine, does the ratio stay the same at 5%?

By: Freyda Black

Freyda Black — Sun, 29 Aug 2021 01:30:36 +0000

I would like to ferment baby bok choi. What percentage brine should I use?

By: Bradley

Bradley — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 11:23:24 +0000

Hi there GiGi
Can i assume that a 15 % brining rate would have a salt concentration of 567.76 g’s to a gallon of H2O? I need to run tests on brining Napa cabbage from 15-20%. I used your chart and doubled the 7.5 % to hit 15 %.
will that work?
your feedback is appreciated very much.
thanks!