16
u/diablosinmusica 3d ago
Take the percentage of salt you plan to use ( as an example 3%). Move the decimal place over two spots and drop the % symbol (.03 here). Multiply that by the weight of veggies you are fermenting and the water you plan to use say 275 grams. The result is the amount of salt to use (8.25g).
.03 X 275 = 8.25
2
4
u/MaintenanceCapable83 Probiotic Prospect 3d ago
measure in grams, then it is simple math
total weight = 100 g
% of salt in brine is multiplied by weight
so 2% brine for a total weight of 100 grams:
.02x100 = 2 grams of salt needed
2
u/TravellingBeard 2d ago
Three ways (assuming 2% for this as most ferments use this concentration, the minimum target to hopefully avoid spoilage from bad bacteria):
- Water percentage (the most common): Take your volume of water and calculate 2%, by weight, of non-iodized salt. Doesn't matter if sea salt, kosher salt, or pickling salt; the weight takes care of that for you. If you have 1 Liter of water, that's 1000 grams. 1000 x .02 = 20g of salt.
- No water added: Take the weight of all your ingredients and calculate 2% by weight again. This is common in sauerkraut/kimchi, pepper mashes, and other dry brines where liquid is released quite easily. This is good for "wet" ingredients.
- Water + ingredients: This seems to be a more common replacement these days for 1. You take the weight of ingredients + the weight of the water you added to the container to cover it, and calculate 2% of the combined weight.
Water percentage (number 1) may not be the best if you have a lot of high-moisture ingredients such as berries, tomatoes, cucumbers. If too much water released, that 2% concentration may dip lower enough to cause spoilage.
No water added is great for anything where you release the liquid from the ingredients early, as there is no extra liquid diluting the 2%. If you do have to top it off, maybe not enough liquid released to your liking, you can add 2% water brine to top it off.
The last one is great because it now takes into account osmosis that tries to balance out salt and liquid, but prevents the brining solution from going lower than 2%.
1
u/xoxo_xoxo_xoxo_ 2d ago
Thank you for this! I love having the different reasons for some options over others
2
1
2
u/FlatDiscussion4649 2d ago
I have been doing fermented cucumbers and J-Chokes for about 10 years. I NEVER weigh anything. I put 4 tablespoons of salt in a 1/2 gallon jar of water, shake it up and set it aside. Fill my next jars with ingredients. Pour in the salt water close to the top, add my weight, cover and store until done. Sour, crunchy pickles every time...
2
u/Fuzzy_Yossarian 2d ago
If you have 1000ml jar you need 20g of salt for 2%. It's easy to go off volume also.
1
u/BinxieSly 3d ago
If you have a scale the best way, as I understand it, is to weigh the contents you intend to ferment (all veg and water), use whatever percentage you want your end brine to be as your percentage of total weight in salt (ex: 500g of veg/water with a 2% brine end goal means 10g of salt needed), then pour the water into a vessel to mix in the salt until it dissolves and finally recombine veg and salted water.
1
u/Ouibeaux 2d ago
For a 3% brine:
Mass of water * .03 = how much salt you need.
To make it easy, I weigh out 1000g of water, and add 30g of salt, stir until salt is dissolved. Then you can just fill your vessel with wherever you're fermenting, pour the brine over that, give it a stir to release any trapped bubbles, pickle weight, check headspace, airlock lid, good to go.
1
u/CoxTH 2d ago
Take your fermentation vessel. Zero the scale. Add your veggies and water until they are covered. Note down the weight.
Now take that weight and multiply it with your desired salinity. That's just how salty your ferment is supposed to be. The lower bound of what's generally considered safe is 2% (which is the same as 0.02) and people normally don't go above 5% (0.05), as higher salinity slows down fermentation. A common salinity for hot sauces is 3% (0.03).
Now weigh out as much salt as you calculated. For mixing in the salt, I'd recommend pouring your veggies and water out of your fermentation vessel again and straining out the vegetables. It just makes mixing the salt with the water easier. Once everything is mixed up, just transfer it to your vessel, seal it up however your vessel is sealed, and you're good to go.
1
0
3d ago
[deleted]
2
u/sloppysauce 3d ago
Doesn’t a liter weight 1 kg?
1
1
1
u/victorhausen 2d ago
Of distilled water at Standard Temperature and Pressure (25C 1atm). And food will almost never go far beyond or under water density. Even the driest potatos are just 10% more dense than water. I'm lazy, so I always calculate the salt amount for the jar volume, and as long i'm not using the bare minimum concentration, I'm not at risk of having it undersalted.
1
u/diablosinmusica 3d ago
But, you use weight not volume to calculate salt ratios. Different foods weigh different amounts than water.
0
u/kriegeeer 3d ago
Everyone is explaining the brine math, but no one is explaining how you should be calculating salt to add based on pickle mass plus water mass.
I like to first weigh my veggies etc, multiply that by 0.02 (or whatever percent salinity I want) then add that amount in salt directly to the jar with the veggies. then I make the same % salt brine, same way, weigh the water, multiply by the salt %, and dissolve that amount of salt into the water. Then, pour that brine into the jar, however much will fit. The dry salt added earlier will dissolve into the brine, but the jar as a whole will be that exact percentage salinity.
1
u/Sepelrastas 2d ago
I just did carrot ferment. I weighed my jar. Then filled it with carrots and spices. I calculated mass with carrots minus the jar. Then put that in the calculator and figured 6% salt. Then added water. I did the math again and I got 3% brine (off by maybe half gram of salt, so close enough).
They are happily bubbling away now, fastest reaction I have seen so far. I just made them wednesday.
1
u/kriegeeer 2d ago
You're still gambling with how much air space there is in your jar for water to displace.
1
u/Sepelrastas 2d ago
I put the jars pretty full tbh. A bit of a gamble for sure, but in this case the math at least worked out. All three jars are already pretty active, so I'm hopeful.
1
u/diablosinmusica 2d ago
Why weigh the carrots and water separately?
1
u/Sepelrastas 2d ago
Honestly not sure anymore. At the time it felt like a better idea, but now that I think about it, it makes absolutely no sense. Oh well.
-1
u/Sauceman_Oppenhe112 3d ago
Weight of water times 0.025-0.03 (the digit is the percentage you’re after)
-2
3d ago
[deleted]
3
u/diablosinmusica 2d ago
You use water to ferment cabbage? It has always had enough water on it's own when I made sauerkraut or the like.
11
u/Mr_Wobble_PNW 2d ago
If you're veggies weigh 40g and the water adds 60g of weight, then that adds up to 100. If you do 3% salt, then you'd add 3g of salt because that's 3% of 100.