This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, Gerzsi earns from qualifying purchases. Read our disclosure. Tamás is a real head chef with 25 years in professional kitchens who trains apprentices; Gerzsi is his beaver apprentice. The scale rankings come from America’s Test Kitchen, not from us.
From the kitchen: Chef Tamás teaches every apprentice how to calculate a 5% brine. They usually think they know better. Gerzsi said “a beaver-full of salt,” which is not a unit. Tamás handed him a calculator.
The short answer
A 5% brine is 50 grams of salt for every 1,000 grams (1 liter) of water. In US kitchen units that’s about 189 g of salt per gallon of water. Weigh it. Don’t scoop it.
Why weigh? A cup of one kosher salt can weigh far less than a cup of another, and table salt is heavier still. The same “1 cup” can make a gentle brine or a salty one. Grams are grams.
The tool: any accurate digital kitchen scale. America’s Test Kitchen’s winner is the OXO Good Grips 11 lb Food Scale with Pull Out Display, which lets you read the number with a big bowl on top.
The 5% brine chart
| Cold water | Salt for a 5% brine |
|---|---|
| 1 quart (0.95 L) | 47 g |
| 1 liter | 50 g |
| 1 gallon (3.79 L) | 189 g |
| 2 gallons | 379 g |
| 3 gallons | 568 g |
| 4 gallons | 757 g |
| 10 liters | 500 g |
The math, the way Tamás teaches it
Apprentices don’t love this part. They usually think they know better. Then they taste the turkey.
- Weigh the water. Put the container on the scale, tare it, pour. Or use the rule: 1 liter = 1,000 g.
- Multiply by 0.05. 4,000 g of water × 0.05 = 200 g of salt. That’s it. That’s the whole secret.
- Want it weaker or stronger? Change the number. 0.03 for 3%, 0.06 for 6%. The method doesn’t change.
Why does salt water make meat juicier? Salt loosens the muscle proteins, so they hold on to more water while they cook instead of squeezing it out. Less juice in the pan, more in the slice. That’s the chemistry Tamás explains on the line, usually while someone is complaining about the calculator.
How long to brine a turkey
- Time: The Splendid Table’s overnight method keeps the bird in the brine in the refrigerator for 8 to 12 hours.
- Cold the whole time: fridge temperature, not the garage “because it’s November.” If the fridge is full, a cooler with ice packs works, and a thermometer in the water tells you if it’s really cold.
- After: rinse the bird, pat it dry inside and out, then roast. Dry skin browns. Wet skin steams.
- Check the label first: a turkey sold as “kosher,” “enhanced” or “self-basting” already has salt in it. Brining it again can make it too salty.
Roasting times don’t change after brining. They’re in our turkey cooking time chart, and the finish line is still 165°F.
🦫 gerzsi.com hack: the scale does the pouring, too. Put the empty brining bucket on the scale and tare it. Pour water until the display hits the number you want. Now you know the exact water weight without a single measuring cup, and the salt math takes ten seconds. Same trick works for pasta water, pickles and bread dough.
Kitchen scales the testers trust
| Scale | ATK rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| OXO Good Grips 11 lb Food Scale with Pull Out Display · See on Amazon | Winner | Accurate to a couple of grams, removable platform, display pulls out almost 4 inches |
| Ozeri Pronto Digital Multifunction Scale · See on Amazon | Best Buy | Accurate, easy, bright display; platform doesn’t come off and it feels lighter |
| Escali Primo Digital Food Scale (P115) · See on Amazon | Recommended | Simple and durable; small display, harder to clean |
| KitchenAid 11 lb Glass Top Scale (KQ908) · See on Amazon | Recommended | Accurate, glass wipes clean; display hard to read under a big bowl |
Brine FAQ
How much salt per gallon for a turkey brine?
For a 5% brine, 189 g per US gallon. Older recipes give cups instead; The Splendid Table, for example, uses ½ cup of table salt per gallon. Cups depend on the salt brand, so if you have a scale, use grams.
Does the salt percentage include the salt’s own weight?
In this chart, no: salt is 5% of the water’s weight. That’s the simple kitchen version Tamás teaches. Some cooks calculate on water plus salt; the difference is a couple of grams per liter and won’t change your turkey.
Can I add sugar, herbs and spices?
Yes. They change the flavor, not the math. Keep the salt at the weight in the chart and add the rest on top. If you heat the brine to dissolve things, cool it completely before the turkey goes in.
Water × 0.05. Then let the fridge do the work.
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