el Ducko wrote:Here's a thought-provoking question for all you brine-brained ham fanatics:
If you take a pound of salt and a pound of sugar and dissolve 'em both in the same gallon of water, what will your densitometer read?
(We're gonna have fun with this one!)
Believe it or not, this is important, because many brines contain both salt AND sugar. If you expect to check salt and sugar uptake, how can you measure it?
Okay, so the answer is...
Well, not so fast, Brine Breath. Let`s see. One gallon of water, one pound of salt, one pound of sugar... divide by 238, carry the thirteen...
We`d better do this more scientifically.
The Answer:
Okay- - no need to do a whole gallon/pound/pound. We can scale it down, because we`re talking compositions and specific gravities and whatnot.
Let`s state one small disclaimer up front, though. Depending on molecular properties, volumes are not exactly additive. In particular, molecules which attract or repel each other will show a slight difference from the expected volume. There`s a whole field, thermodynamic physical property prediction, whose participants make a living off finding out this stuff. For you and me, though, the differences are small enough that they can be ignored in daily life. For our purposes, we`ll ignore all the deviation mumbo-jumbo and assume that volumes are additive, just as weights are. Yeah, water and salt are both polar molecules and exhibit strong attraction, but it`s not strong enough to matter to us folks who must be content to use kitchen equipment.
We start by noting that
...1 gallon = 4 quarts = 8 pints = 16 cups,
so for our study, let`s base our mixture on 1/8 gallon or two cups.
We`ll make a salt mixture, double strength, out of one cup of water and 1/8 of a pound of salt,and a sugar solution, again double strength, in the other. We`ll take measurements, then we`ll pour the two together and, when the smoke clears (just kidding), take more measurements.
Salt/Water:
...1/8# salt = 2 oz = 51 gm.
...Also, 1 cup water = 1/16 gallon = 237 ml = 237 gm = 8.35 oz.
So (# salt)/(gallon water) = (1/8)/(1/16) = 2.0 which, if you look it up in the "Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages" book, "Sodium Chloride (Brine) Tables for Brine at 60 deg.F, Appendix A, page 619, under the column "Pounds of Salt per Gallon of Water." It falls part way between 73 and 74 salometer degrees. If you interpolate (we can discuss how to do this separately, if you want), you come up with 73.36 Salometer degrees or 19.364 percent salt.
Now, use the "Baume Scale" table on page 619 to convert "% salt by weight" to "specific gravity," which is what I can measure with my beer making equipment hydrometer. After some more interpolation, you get a specific gravity of 1.146, which is within "eyeball accuracy" of what I measured. (Whew!)
Hang on a minute, though. There`s more than a half-pint (1/16 of a gallon) of solution. How much...?
Well, if you multiply the weight of the solution, which is the weight of water plus the weight off salt, by the specific gravity, you get
(240 gm water + 57 gm salt) * (1.148 s.g.) = 341 ml solution.
We started out with 240 gm or 240 ml of water, so clearly the volume of solution is bigger than the volume of just the water, meaning that the salt took up an additional 101 ml of volume.
Just for fun, calculate the "bulk density" of salt, the weight divided by the volume, or
(57 gm salt) / (101 ml salt volume) = 0.56 s.g.
,,,which is lighter than water. If you could keep the salt from mixing in (say, with some type of surfactant), would it float? Well, only if you could retain the air between grains of salt. Rock salt has a density of around 2.164, according to Lange`s Handbook of Chemistry. That said, you can calculate the amount of table salt which is air:
...[(2.164 s.g. solid) -(0.56 s.g powder)] / (2.164 s.g. solid) = 74% air !
The next time you go to the grocery store, maybe you should take the store management to task for selling too much air in their salt. Would this be the basis for a (frivolous but profitable) lawsuit? I dunno. Maybe the Chuckwagon Legal Department could take up the issue. (Dude, you eloquent guy, you`d be a hero, on the off chance that you argued the case well and won. Then again, if you lost...)
Sugar/Water:
By similar devious means, add 2 oz. of table sugar to a cup of water.. Yada yada. Results: 1.080 specific gravity.
Let`s not draw this out like I did the case for salt. For conversions, you`ll need a similar table for sugar. (There is a short one at
http://lclane.net/text/sucrose.html ) You can use better tables for salt, too. (A good one is given by Alkar - Rapid Pak,
http://www.alkar.com/download/pdf/Sodiu ... %2060F.pdf)
Mixture:
Finally, let`s answer the original question: If you mix the two solutions, you get the answer to the gallon/pound/pound problem. Pouring the two together gives us a mixture which has the same properties as one gallon of water with one pound of salt and one pound of sugar dissolved in it.
The specific gravity I measured was 1.113.
Hey! Whataya know: averaging the two specific gravities gives (1.148+1.080)/2 or 1.114, pretty close. Hmmm...
Conclusions:
(1) A solution containing both sugar and salt will have a lighter density than a salt solution, for the same salt concentration. You can safely conclude that other things dissolved in the solution will give similar changes to the results. Therefore, always weigh everything when you make up a solution, and use the starting solution as your basis for further calculations.
(2) Adding a substance to a volume of solvent (like salt or sugar added to water) increases the total volume because every substance (even CW taking a bath, infrequent as that may be) takes up volume. Volumes of powders and solids can be deceptive, because there are voids in them (such as CW`s head. ...er, lungs. Yeah. That`s it.).
...so go by weight instead of volume, and always dissolve the solids in a portion of the liquid solvent, then make up the amount of liquid to the desired volume with additional liquid. That way, you get pounds per gallon or grams per liter of solid in solution, and not pounds or grams per gallon or liter of total mixture. Be sure that you understand this important difference!
Yes, the table in Stan`s book lists "Pounds of Salt per Gallon of Water," which is fine as long as you understand that it is NOT per gallon of solution. Got that? Great.
(Normally there would be a quiz, but we`ve bludgeoned this particular item enough. ...I hope.)
The Next Frontier:
We have talked in other threads about monitoring salt uptake. From what we just did with salt/sugar/water solutions above, you will note that this is difficult. ...but you can approximate.
First, see Stan, Adam, and Robert Marianski`s "Meat Smoking and Smokehouse Design" book, back in Appendix A on page 322. The topic title is "How to Calculate Cure #1 in Brined Products." By injecting a known amount of brine into the meat, you get a known concentration, assuming of course that the brine disperses uniformly throughout the meat.
Next, assume that injecting a piece of meat is the same as letting it sit in the brine for some sufficient amount of time. How long is "long enough?" Well, we`ll try to estimate that later. For now, though, assume that we`ll brine "long enough."
There`s a spreadsheet under development, based on CW`s (in)famous 7-Up Turkey Brining Recipe, but meanwhile you Excel geeks can try this method:
● When making up a brine solution, first weigh out the salt, sugar, and other items (such as cure) to be added. Pour all the solids together in the container that you will be using to mix the brine.
● If using more than one liquid (such as 7-Up or broth), measure the density of each liquid. Then add the liquids (in recipe proportions) to make up the desired volume. (This way, you know solution concentrations. You can back `em out, but as you saw above, it can get real ugly, real fast.)
● Using the measured specific gravity of 7-Up or broth or whatever, back out the amount of additional sugar or salt and add them to your other totals. (To do this with added broth may take some effort, such as collecting as much broth as possible, diluting with a known volume of water to make enough to float a hydrometer, then backing out the salt level.)
● The next step seems trivial until you forget to do it: Weigh the meat.
● Determine the amount of brine required to completely immerse the meat, filling all cavities. You`ll need to determine this experimentally. What I do is
**** put a ham or turkey into a suitable water-tight plastic bag. (I use a roasting bag, but any plastic bag will do.)
**** pour in water to fill to whatever it takes to submerge the beast part, then
**** pour off and measure the amount of water added.
● Calculate the amount of weight uptake expected, as well as the weight of free water and uptake water. For example, many turkeys have "up to 14% broth added," or hams can be expected to "gain up to 10% extra weight." Using this knowledge, calculate the concentration of each item (salt, sugar, sulfite, etc.) that you are interested in, in the brine and the ham, beginning with starting conditions (not yet immersed) and ending conditions (so-called "equilibrium" conditions). Use brine quantity plus added solution quantity as the overall solution, then calculate how much is retained by the meat. (This may be "uptake," or it may be "swapped out solution," or a combination.) Then, using the amounts retained in the meat, divide them by the weight of the brined meat to calculate salt, sulfite, sugar concentrations in the meat, plus those left over in the brine.
It is interesting to note that liquid uptake may not be useful, here. Suppose you have a turkey shot full of extra broth. You brine the poor guy for a day or so, yank it out and weigh it, and it has actually shrunk a percent or two. What`s the uptake? Well, you can`t tell by looking at a weight difference. It is better to (in the spreadsheet) add the extra 14% broth to the brine, calculate an average composition, then assume that that same amount of "stuff" is in the beast. ...only, this time, it`s made up of brine components too. Knowing the amount (which we`ll guess as the 14%, unless you have other information), use your calculated concentrations to figure up what is retained in the meat.
You have probably noted by here that, using this method in a spreadsheet, it is possible to tinker with the various amounts in order to reduce the amount of brine required. You should obviously make enough volume of brine to completely immerse the piece of meat. Determine the amount of brine required to completely immerse the meat, filling all cavities, as described above.
Your brine quantity MUST be at least this amount, or the meat won`t be completely immersed. Generally it will be more. How much more? Well, using the spreadsheet, increase the amount of brine to whatever volume you feel comfortable with (amount to be determined), then increase or decrease salt/sugar/sulfite amounts in the brine recipe to give the desired percentages in the meat. I did this with the 7-Up brine recipe, and it seemed to work pretty well. No animals or relatives were harmed in the making of this particular smoked turkey. In fact, it was delicious.
As it turns out, if you have sufficient excess brine (on the order of ten times the uptake or retention of liquid in the meat, typical in brining a turkey with a large internal cavity), only about 10% of the brine "goodies" migrate into the meat, so the volume and composition of the brine are both fairly "forgiving." That`s good news, especially for managing the amount of cure added.
As for the spreadsheet, try building one. I`ll release mine shortly, on a limited basis, once a couple of our forum`s gurus try it out. I must point out, at this point, that I need to check the above method versus the FDA methods and the literature. Until then... beware. ...and review the assumptions stated at the start of this section.
The Final Frontier:
With apologies to the Star Trek crowd, in a later adventure we`ll explore how fast the process of brining takes place. This will be a compilation of information rather than anything rigorous (I hear sighs of relief already), so we`ll probably do some graphing of data that you kind forum-member-folk and other friendly creatures provide.
As always, please feed back to your Friendly Local Duck. With your help and CW`s skill at using his editing privileges, we`ll get this right. There`s a spreadsheet in the offing, thank goodness. Send me a PM if you want to be involved. I`ll return a note (probably titled "Blame-Shouldering 101" or some such) and keep you updated with the latest spreadsheet as it develops.
Sin, Surly,
Duk
And now, here they are, boots covered with "fertilizer," reeking of coffee and campfire fumes, and tell me...
