Brine and Salt Ratios

Percent salinity is grams of salt per 100 g of water or flour — this page converts those percents into grams, litres and teaspoons for pickling, baking and curing.

The unit that matters is percent by weight. Because 1 litre of water weighs 1,000 g, each percent of salinity is 10 g of salt per litre: a 3% brine is 30 g per litre, and the pickling range of 2–5% works out to 20–50 g per litre.

Teaspoons are a fine-salt instrument. A level teaspoon of fine salt weighs about 5–6 g, so one teaspoon in a litre of water makes a 0.5–0.6% brine — useful for blanching, far short of pickling strength. Coarse and flake salts pack unpredictably into spoons, so convert them by weight using the grades on the Salt Crystal Size Chart page.

Bread dough runs on flour weight, not water: 1.8–2.2% salt against the flour. On 500 g of flour that is 9–11 g of fine salt, weighed rather than spooned for repeatability.

Dry cures skip the water entirely: 25–30 g of salt per kilogram of meat or fish, a 2.5–3% application spread directly over the surface. Coarse 1–3 mm crystals distribute most evenly for this job.

Every ratio sits under one ceiling: at 20 °C water holds 36 g of salt per 100 ml, a 26.5% saturated solution. No kitchen brine approaches it, so undissolved crystals always mean stir longer, never that the water is full. For which grade suits each ratio, see Sea Salt vs Table Salt.

• Step 1 — choose the percent: 2–5% pickling, 1.8–2.2% of flour for dough, 2.5–3% for a dry cure
• Step 2 — convert: grams of salt = litres of water × percent × 10, or flour grams × percent ÷ 100
• Step 3 — weigh the salt; use fine salt if you must measure by teaspoon (5–6 g)
• Step 4 — stir 1–2 minutes for fine salt, up to 5 for coarse; rest 10 minutes and check for crystals
• Step 5 — cool heated brine before it touches food, then begin the pickle or cure

Further reading

• Sea Salt vs Table Salt
• Salt Crystal Size Chart