Brines and cures
Dry cures and equilibrium brines by weight: Cure #1 or Cure #2 dosed to a nitrite target in ppm and never above the US limit for the product, salt and sugar by weight with the salt in the cure subtracted, presets for bacon, ham, corned beef, pastrami, sausage, dry-cured whole muscle and gravlax — plus plain brines by strength — with safety notes and sources.
Added
How to use it
How to use it
Everything is by weight. Read the safety note at the top first.
Cure — pick the product. It fills in the method, the curing salt, a nitrite target and typical salt and sugar percentages; the "time and method" note says how long and how.
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Dry cure (rub): the cure is a share of the meat’s green (raw, trimmed) weight.
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Equilibrium brine: the meat sits in water; salt, sugar and cure are a share of meat
water, so the meat ends at exactly that level however long it stays — it cannot be over-salted.
The curing salt amount is worked out from the nitrite target (ppm = grams of sodium nitrite per million grams) and the cure’s strength — 6.25 % sodium nitrite for Cure #1 and Cure #2; enter a different percentage from your packet’s label if it differs. Salt to add is the total salt minus the salt already in the curing salt. Grams of salt are also shown in tablespoons of Diamond Crystal, Morton kosher and table salt — which differ by a factor of two.
The nitrite target is capped at the US limit for the product and method: 156 ppm for comminuted (ground) products, 200 ppm for immersion-cured or pumped whole muscle, 625 ppm for dry-cured products, and for bacon 120 ppm (pumped or immersion-cured) or 200 ppm (dry-cured). Ask for more and the tool says so and uses the limit. Cure #1 at 156 ppm is 0.25 % of the weight: 2.5 g per kg, or about a level teaspoon per 5 lb, the familiar figure.
Brine — a wet brine by strength (salt ÷ salt + water by weight, with grams per litre and salinometer degrees), and an equilibrium brine without curing salt for poultry or pork.
Safety and sources — the rules that matter and where the numbers come from.
Safety
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Nitrite limits are regulatory (US FSIS here; other countries' limits differ). Never exceed them. Curing salt is poisonous in excess: weigh it to 0.1 g, never by the spoon.
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Cure #1 for anything cooked, smoked or eaten within weeks; Cure #2 (with nitrate) only for long dry cures. Nitrate is not allowed in bacon in the US.
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Cure in the fridge at 1–4 °C. Inject thick or bone-in pieces such as hams.
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Cured is not cooked: bacon, corned beef and wet-cured ham must be cooked.
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For gravlax and cold-smoked fish, freeze the fish first to kill parasites (FDA: −20 °C for 7 days, or −35 °C until solid then 15 h at −35 °C or 24 h at −20 °C).
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Dry-curing meat to eat raw needs a controlled chamber and a specialist guide.
Limits
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Times are typical ranges from the charcuterie literature, not guarantees; thickness, fat and temperature change them.
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The tool does not model pumping percentages or salt penetration rates; for injected hams it uses an equilibrium brine and tells you to inject the same brine.
Sources: USDA FSIS, Processing Inspectors' Calculations Handbook (FSIS Directive 7620.3) for the ingoing nitrite and nitrate limits; 9 CFR 424.22(b) for bacon; US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, chapter 5, for parasite freezing; Morton and Diamond Crystal package labels for salt by volume; Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, Charcuterie, and Stanley Marianski’s books for typical percentages and times.
Related: sous-vide and roasting (cooking the cured meat safely), kitchen conversions (salt by volume), recipe scaler.
Linking to an example
Weights in grams. Add the tab after #: cure, brine or safety.
| Parameter | Meaning | Example |
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Product: |
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Grams of meat and of water |
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Total salt %, sugar %, nitrite target (capped at the limit) |
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Brine tab: water grams and strength % |
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Equilibrium brine without cure: meat, water, final salt %, sugar % |
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One of the presets below |
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example= |
Shows |
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Dry-cured bacon: a 2 kg belly at 120 ppm — 3.8 g of Cure #1 (open) |
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Bacon in an equilibrium brine, 2 kg belly in 1 kg water (open) |
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Corned beef, 2.5 kg brisket in 2.5 kg water at 156 ppm (open) |
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Pastrami, 3 kg brisket (open) |
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A 5 kg ham in 3 kg water — and inject it (open) |
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Gravlax: 1 kg salmon, 5 % salt and 5 % sugar, no curing salt (open) |
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A 5 % brine with 6 kg of water (open) |
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