Dry Brine Calculator

Read the basis before you trust any number

A dry brine is salt against the weight of the meat. A wet brine is salt against the meat and the water together. The same “1.5%” means two different dinners depending on which the author meant — and most of them never say. On this page it is always the meat.

Dry or wet?

A wet brine adds water. The bird comes out heavier and juicier, the flavour a little diluted, and the skin — having sat in liquid for a day — fights you at roasting time. A dry brine pulls moisture out, dissolves the salt in it, and draws it back in seasoned. The surface dries. The skin crisps.

For a roast bird, uncovered on a rack, a dry brine is usually the better dinner. It also needs no container, no gallon of water and no space in the fridge for either. Most people search for the wet one out of habit. The wet brine calculator is here if that is what you came for.

Starting points by cut

Percentage of the meat's own weight.

Cut	Range	Working point
Whole turkey	1.0–1.5%	1.2%
Whole chicken, chicken pieces	1.0–1.5%	1.2%
Steak, chops — before frying	0.8–1.2%	1.0%
Pork shoulder, loin	1.5–2.0%	1.75%

Practice, not a published standard.

Time by thickness

Thickness at the thickest point	Dry brine
Up to 25 mm / 1 in	8–12 h
25–50 mm / 1–2 in	12–24 h
Whole bird	24–48 h

A dry brine runs slower than a wet one — less salt in play, and no water to carry it. Uncovered on a rack is not a detail: it is the whole reason to do it this way.

What is actually regulated

The three rules below have a published source. Everything else on this page — how salty, how much sugar, how long for flavour — is a cook's choice, which is exactly why the numbers differ everywhere you look.

Rule	Figure	Source
Meat and brine, the whole time	4.4 °C / 40 °F or below	USDA, brining guidance
Cold holding of food needing temperature control	5 °C / 41 °F or below	FDA Food Code §3-501.16
Longest safe cure without curing salt	2 days	USDA — salting does not extend the life of fresh poultry

Three more rules from the same guidance, with no number attached

Cool a brine that was heated before the meat goes in. Do not rinse poultry — splashing spreads contamination around the kitchen. Never salt at room temperature; if the fridge is full, put ice in the container rather than the meat on the counter.

Do not wash the bird

Not before salting and not after. Rinsing raw poultry sprays contamination around the kitchen. Wipe excess salt off with a paper towel instead.

When salt alone is not enough

Everything here assumes one thing: you salt the meat and then you cook it — within two days, at or below 4 °C, finished at a temperature that actually cooks. That covers turkey, chicken, pork, brisket before hot smoking, and fish before hot smoking or baking.

Curing salt is required, not optional, for any of these

Cold smoking, where the smoke runs below about 32 °C / 90 °F and nothing ever gets hot enough to make the food safe. Air-dried whole muscle — pancetta, coppa, bresaola. Fermented or air-dried sausage. And any cure running longer than two days. Use the curing calculator for those.

Sources

USDA — brining and handling poultry: 40 °F or below throughout, two days at most, cool the brine first, do not rinse the bird.
FDA Food Code §3-501.16 — cold holding at 41 °F / 5 °C or below.
FDA guidance for smoked fishery products — finished water-phase salt of 3.5% or more, salting step at 40 °F or less.
9 CFR 424.21(c) and 424.22(b) — nitrite limits, used on the curing calculator.

Published US rules are written for inspected plants and do not regulate home kitchens. We cite them because the alternative, in a calculation that can make somebody ill, is a forum post. This page describes published guidance and certifies nothing you make.