9 CFR 424.21 · 424.22 · grams to 0.01 · Cure #1 and Cure #2

Weigh the meat. Brinescale weighs the cure.

Bacon, ham, corned beef, pastrami, coppa or sausage: type what the meat weighs and how you cure it, and Brinescale works out the salt, the sugar and the curing salt in grams, from the label of your own packet. Every recipe is checked against the federal nitrite limits, with the arithmetic shown.

Open the Cure Calculator See the limits and sources

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Corned beef · equilibrium brine · worked example

Cure #1, 6.25 % nitrite9.98 g

Salt to add90.6 g

Sugar40.0 g

Brisket2000 g

Water2,000 g

Sodium nitrite156 ppm

0 ppmmaximum 200 ppm, 9 CFR 424.21(c)

Under the maximum

A real run of the calculator: 2 kg of brisket in 2 kg of water, salt 2.5 % and sugar 1 % of the meat and water together, 156 ppm sodium nitrite. Total salt 100 g, of which 9.36 g comes in the curing salt. Kept in the refrigerator, 40 °F (4 °C) or below, while it cures.

Three ways to cure, three different bases

The same 156 ppm is a different number of grams depending on what the cure spreads through. Brinescale divides by the right weight for each method, and says which.

Dry rub

Equilibrium brine

Injected brine

Divides by

Divides bythe meat's own green weight: all of the rub stays on it

Divides bythe meat plus the water, until salt and cure even out

Divides bythe meat's green weight, at the pump percentage you weigh

Bacon maximum

Bacon maximum200 ppm

Bacon maximum120 ppm

Other meat maximum

Other meat maximum625 ppm

Other meat maximum200 ppm

Often used for

Often used forbacon, country ham, coppa, lonza

Often used forcorned beef, Canadian bacon, pastrami

Often used forhams and thick cuts

Open it

Dry rub in the calculator

Brine in the calculator

Injection in the calculator

Making sausage? The cure is mixed into the meat block, and the maximum is 156.25 ppm (1/4 oz per 100 lb). Sausage in the calculator

The yardstick, on one scale

Inspected meat plants follow 9 CFR 424.21 and 424.22. Those rules do not govern a home kitchen, but they are the clearest public yardstick there is, so Brinescale refuses to print a recipe above them, and says so when a recipe falls below the 120 ppm that FSIS asks of refrigerated cured products.

120 ppmbacon in brine or injected (9 CFR 424.22(b)); also FSIS's minimum for refrigerated cured products
156.25 ppmsausage: 1/4 oz per 100 lb of meat block (424.21(c))
200 ppmdry-cured bacon (424.22(b)(3)); other meat in brine or injected (424.21(c))
625 ppmother whole muscle, dry rub: 1 oz per 100 lb (424.21(c))

Read every limit and its source

Weigh in. Watch it dry. Print the label.

The Batch Book keeps each batch with its recipe, its start date and every weigh-in. Brinescale shows how much weight it has lost against the target you set, draws the curve, and prints a label for the jar or the hook. No account and no email: your book opens with a private link.

Weight shows drying, not doneness or safety. See when to ask someone.

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50 batches in your Batch Book (free: 2)
120 weigh-ins per batch (free: 8)
Drying chart, printable batch label, CSV

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Coppa, drying example

1,500 g on day 0, 1,002 g on day 35: 33.2 % lost against a 33 % target the cook set. Brinescale does not set the target.