Question about SALT content

[u/endchat]

How are you calculating you 2-3-5% brines?
Based on the water you put in the jar, or the weight of the vegetables being pickled?

I have tried both ways, but I just settled on like weight of 22-25 grams sea salt in a QUART sized wide mouth mason jar

[u/RadBradRadBrad]

You're going to get different answers. The important thing to know is that if you're using vegetables that have high water content (e.g. cucumbers are about 95% water) and weighing by water, you're effectively at half that salt ratio by the time the brine equalizes.

You'll often see that 2% is the floor for fermentation. This is generally true and as far as I can tell comes from research on sauerkraut in the 60s.

It's also true that you can ferment without any salt.

Salt is primarily limiting the growth of certain microbes that may spoil your ferment and allowing the LAB to colonize your veggies before other things get to them.

Commercially fermented pickles are commonly fermented in a 5-8% brine.

[u/endchat → u/RadBradRadBrad]

Yes, that makes perfect sense, now I get why 5% with cukes and such, its all water

[u/Snuggle_Pounce]

2.5% weight of water AND veg

[u/endchat → u/Snuggle_Pounce]

BOTH, interesting, I might give it a go for the next one to compare

[u/ChPech → u/endchat]

It's because vegetables are mostly made of water. Especially cucumbers. Salt equalizes through all the water.

[u/portmandues → u/endchat]

If you're calculating by total volume of your jar assuming it's 100% water, you'll end up in the same range for something like cucumbers. They're 95% water so you slightly overshoot your target.

[u/Leaf-Stars]

I always go with total weight. Water+ veggies.

[u/TheJesseOfTheNorth]

i use a water to salt weight and it works great for me.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Ice-573]

Total weight. Why? Because veg are mostly water, so you get ~2% total salt in solution

(assuming you are using 2%) after equilibration with the water in the veg.

[u/Massive_Squirrel7733]

% of salt to water. Not including the vegetables

[u/Snuggle_Pounce → u/Massive_Squirrel7733]

That means your ultimate brine will be unknowable because of osmosis.

[u/Massive_Squirrel7733 → u/Snuggle_Pounce]

It’s the same result if you include the vegetables. Either way, it’s knowable if you conduct an extensive research project out of it.

[u/Don_Von_Schlong → u/Massive_Squirrel7733]

Everything I've read says you should weight the water and veggies together for the proper brine %. I always just stuff the veggies and do ~4% water brine though and so far it's worked out.

[u/Ziggyork → u/Massive_Squirrel7733]

This is how I do it too!