Salmon - Using a Salinometer For The Cure.

[Divey]

Does anyone here that cold smokes Salmon use a Salinometer to determine the concentration of the brine before curing and smoking their Salmon???

[piratey]

This guy usually talks a lot about salt.  See his post at:

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=33157.msg387368#msg387368

[Habanero Smoker]

There are plenty of conversion tables on line, that you don't need to purchase a Salinometer. Below I posted a link to a very reliable chart.

Making Brine/Brine Tables

[Divey]

It's just the I do own a Salinometer and using one makes thing a little easier if you know what readings people have tried and tested.

[pmmpete]

It's just the I do own a Salinometer and using one makes thing a little easier if you know what readings people have tried and tested.

Brine recipes have a wide range of salt concentrations.  But when using a salinometer, keep in mind that it doesn't just measure the amount of salt in a recipe.  Other dissolved ingredients such as sugar or molasses will also produce a higher reading, and some brine ingredients such as soy or teriyaki sauce contain salt as part of their ingredients.  When using a salinometer, you may get a more accurate measure of the amount of salt in a brine recipe if you test only the water and salt portions of a recipe before adding the other ingredients.  You may be able to determine the amount of salt in a cup of soy sauce or teriyaki sauce by using the nutrition chart on the bottle.

A disadvantage of using a salinometer is that it is a time-consuming trial-and-error process.  Let's say you want to prepare three cups of a brine with a concentration of 40 degrees Sal.   You add a bunch of salt to the water, stir it until it dissolves, which may take quite a while, and measure the salinity.  Then you have to add more salt and go through the process again until you get close to the desired salinity.  It's faster to dissolve a lot of salt in the water to produce a brine which is more concentrated than you're going to want, and then add water until the concentration comes down to the level you want.

If you want to produce a brine with a specific concentration, or you want to determine the salt concentration in a recipe, it's a lot easier, faster, and more accurate to use a brine table.  All it takes is a little math and measurement conversion (how many cups are there in a gallon?  How many ounces or grams in a cup of a specific kind of salt?).

Another issue when using a salinometer is that the brine needs to be deep enough to float the salinometer.  If you're making two gallons of brine, that won't be a problem.  But if you're making four cups of brine, you may need to mix it in a high narrow container so the salinometer will be able to float.

[Divey]

Thanks for that pmmpete, very informative.  :)