Brine too Salty, I have to dilute it

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webmanoffesto

Newbie
Original poster
Jan 3, 2018
22
6
I'm using a spreadsheet to calculate amount of salt to add to brine. This takes into account
I set target salt solution, usually to 3%
I enter the weight of the meat in pounds (this gets converged to grams)
I enter the amount of water I will add.
I like to use a wet brine because it makes so much sense to me that
(water ml + meat grams) * .03 = meat with a 3% salt cure content
But since my brine (and the meat) come out too salty I'm wondering if maybe that is because
(water ml + meat grams) * 0.03
is not the same as
(water ml + water content of meat) * 0.03
I have a vague memory that many meats are about 70% water.
 
The DaveOMak tab is the one to look at, but if you scroll down in the above spreadsheet you'll find it also has a Diluting.too.Salty.Solution tab.
 
Try adding 1.75% salt to the weight of the water and meat... + 0.25% cure#1... gets you to 2% salt... Over that and the salt level is something lots of folks don't care for....
For the water amount, 25-50% by weight works best... Probably have to use a zip bag for a container and flip every couple days... Needs to be in the refer for about 2 weeks for meat 3" thick or less....
If the meat is thicker... Inject your brine ...
1000 grams meat + 500 grams water = 1500 grams.. 2% salt = 30 grams...
30 grams per 500 grams water = 0.06 grams per ml...
1000 grams meat at 2% salt = 20 grams salt needed... 20 / 0.06 = 333 mls need to be injected...
That's a lot to inject....

May I suggest adding 20 grams of (17.5 g salt and 2.5 g cure#1) to 100 g of water and injecting the whole thing into the meat, a 10% injection.... I would inject 5 mls and 20 injections.... spacing the injections for thorough coverage inside the meat... Zip bag for 6 days, turning every couple days and your are ready to go....
 
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