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Turkey Brine Calculator

Enter your turkey weight to size the brine.

Result

7.0 qt
1.75 cups
14 hr

How it is calculated

The weight is entered in pounds and the outputs are in US units. Water is half a quart per pound: water (qt) = lb × 0.5. Salt is one cup for every 4 quarts (1 US gallon) of water: salt (cups) = water ÷ 4. Brining time is one hour per pound: hours = lb × 1, rounded to a whole hour. Weights of zero or less give no result. The salt figure is a volume, so it assumes one cup of the type of salt the recipe means; coarse and fine salt weigh differently per cup. The time is not capped, so very large birds produce very long times.

Worked example

For a 14 lb turkey, the water is 14 × 0.5 = 7.0 qt, which is 1.75 US gallons. The salt is 7.0 ÷ 4 = 1.75 cups. The brine time is 14 × 1 = 14 hours. The result reads 7.0 qt of water, 1.75 cups of salt and 14 hr. That is the amount for a pot or cooler big enough to hold the bird fully submerged, so check that the container fits the 7 quarts of water plus the turkey itself.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Typing the weight in kilograms. The field is pounds, so a 6 kg bird must be entered as about 13.
  • Reading qt as litres. A US quart is a little under a litre, so 7 qt is about 6.6 litres.
  • Using the same cup count with a different salt type or a metric cup without checking the recipe. Cups of coarse kosher salt, fine table salt and a metric cup are not the same amount of salt.
  • Following the hour figure blindly for a large bird. The time is simply one hour per pound with no ceiling, so a 24 lb turkey shows 24 hr and a 30 lb one shows 30 hr; decide your own upper limit for food safety and saltiness.
  • Forgetting that the water amount is only the brine itself. The turkey must still fit and stay submerged in the container, which may need more or less liquid than this.

About this calculator

Brining — soaking meat in a salt-water solution before cooking — works through osmosis and diffusion: the salt water is drawn into the muscle fibers, seasoning the meat throughout and helping it retain more moisture during roasting, which is especially valuable for lean, easily-overcooked turkey breast. A standard wet brine ratio is roughly 1 cup of salt per gallon of water (about 1 lb per 4 gallons in bulk terms), with the turkey needing enough brine to be fully submerged.

Recommended brining time scales with the bird’s size, typically figured at around 1 hour per pound, and that is what this calculator returns, with no upper limit. For a very large bird, cap the soak at about 24 hours yourself, since over-brining eventually makes the meat unpleasantly salty and spongy. Home cooks and chefs use this math every Thanksgiving and holiday season to scale a brine recipe to whatever size turkey they’re cooking. Start from the bird's weight: the page scales the brine water and the salt to match, and suggests how long the turkey should soak.

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Comments (1)

  • Editorial team

    If your container needs more water than the tool shows to cover the bird, keep the same ratio and scale the salt: one cup per 4 quarts of water. You can check this by putting the turkey in the empty pot, covering it with water and measuring what you poured. The time is a plain hour per pound, so compare it with your recipe. Which salt do you brine with, and do you weigh it?

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