Every salt strength these documents publish, and what each is for

Every salt figure these documents publish is tied to a specific job: a crock of cabbage, a jar of cucumbers, a top-up pitcher, a water-filled bag, a vinegar fresh-pack. This page gathers them in one place and keeps them separate, because a strength written for one vegetable is not a strength for another. None of these numbers is interchangeable, and no source treats them that way.

Salt measured against the vegetable, for sauerkraut

Fermented cabbage is the one preparation in this corpus where salt is weighed against the vegetable itself, not dissolved in water. Four publications print the same recipe ratio: 3 tablespoons of salt per 5 pounds of shredded cabbage. The national guide, Oregon State's PNW 355, Penn State, and Clemson all publish that figure. The national guide and Clemson also print the full-crock version, ¾ cup of salt for 25 lbs of cabbage.

Penn State adds a jar-fermented, small-batch variant that runs saltier: 3½ tablespoons of canning salt per 5 lbs of cabbage. That is a different recipe from the crock ratio, and it should not be substituted for it.

Only one source converts the ratio into a percentage. Colorado State publishes 2 to 2.5% salt by weight, described as "approximately 3 Tbsp. of salt per 5 pounds of shredded cabbage." No other accepted publication prints a percentage for sauerkraut, so this is the only percentage in the corpus.

No brine percentage is published for fermented cucumbers

A reader looking for a brine strength expressed as a percentage for fermented cucumbers will not find one here. None of the accepted sources publishes a percentage, or an equivalent, for cucumber brine. What the sources publish instead is a complete recipe: ½ cup of salt plus ¼ cup of 5% vinegar plus 8 cups of water, per gallon container, packed with 4 lbs of cucumbers. That is the Fermented Dill Pickles formula printed by the national guide, Oregon State's PNW 355, Clemson, and Penn State.

Colorado State explains the mechanism behind this salt in general terms: it "causes the cabbage cells to release fermentable sugars and inhibits growth of undesirable yeasts, molds, and bacteria. The bacteria needed for safe fermentation tolerate higher concentrations of salt." The national guide says the same more broadly: "In fermented foods, salt favors the growth of desirable bacteria while inhibiting the growth of others."

The top-up brine and the brine in the weight bag

Two more salt figures exist inside the fermenting-cucumber process, and they serve different purposes from the covering brine. When the liquid level needs topping up, the brine to add is 1½ tablespoons of salt per quart of water, as published by Oregon State's PNW 355, the national guide, and Penn State.

The food-grade plastic bag used as a weight is filled with its own brine, so that if it leaks, what leaks is brine and not plain water. That bag brine is 4½ tablespoons of salt in 3 quarts of water, published by the national guide, Oregon State's PNW 355, and Penn State as "a very large clean, plastic bag filled with 3 quarts of water containing 4-1/2 tablespoons of salt." These two figures look related, but each source states them as separate instructions for separate containers.

The salt in a fresh-pack recipe is not a preservative

Quick, fresh-pack cucumber recipes also list salt, but not as a preservative. The published Quick Fresh-Pack Dill Pickles recipe dissolves 3/4 cup of salt in 2 gallons of water for a 12 hour presoak that is then drained, and puts 1/2 cup of salt in the pickling solution. In those recipes the preserving work is done by vinegar acidity and by the boiling-water process, not by salt concentration. The salt there is a seasoning and a texture ingredient, and it carries none of the microbiological load that fermentation brine carries. This is why the sources treat the two preparations as entirely different documents.

Why salt works, read from the federal growth-limit table

The clearest published explanation of why salt inhibits pathogens comes from a source outside home vegetable fermentation: the federal food code appendix, Table A-1, "Limiting conditions for pathogen growth," printed in a guide on fish and fishery products. It lists, for each pathogen, the highest water phase salt at which that organism can still grow, so that a level above it prevents growth. These are microbiological limits, not recipes.

Chapter 13 of the same federal publication states the control strategies that follow from this table, including: "Controlling the amount of salt in the product to 20% water phase salt (wps) or more, to prevent the growth of C. botulinum types A, B, E, and F and other pathogens that may be present in the product," and, for type E and non-proteolytic types B and F, controlling "the level of pH to 5 or below, salt to 5% wps or more, moisture (water activity) to 0.97 or below, or some combination of these barriers." The published conversion formula is: "(% NaCl X 100)/(% NaCl + % moisture) = % NaCl in water phase."

A caution on method: these figures describe the general microbiology of pathogens in fishery products. They are not domestic vegetable recipes. No reader should treat any number in that table as "the brine concentration to use" for a crock or a jar. No accepted source compares a home recipe to these figures, and no accepted source publishes a brine percentage for fermented cucumbers at all, so no comparison is made here.

Which salt to measure, since volume depends on it

Every volumetric figure above assumes canning or pickling salt. The national guide recommends it because "noncaking material added to other salts may make the brine cloudy," and Penn State describes it as "pure salt, no additives. This type of salt is the best choice for canning, pickling, and sauerkraut." Flake salt and kosher salt vary in density; the national guide states "flake salt varies in density and is not recommended for use," and Oregon State's PNW 355 says the same of both, adding "Do not use rock salt or sea salt, which have impurities." The sources do not fully agree on iodized salt: the national guide holds that "fermented and non-fermented pickles may be safely made using either iodized or non-iodized table salt," while Penn State finds it may cause vegetables to "darken, discolor, or be spotty," and the national guide's own troubleshooting page lists iodized salt among the causes of dark or discolored pickles. Both positions are given here without a ruling.

This page does not publish what it does not have. There is no brine percentage for fermented cucumbers, no percentage for sauerkraut outside Colorado State's single figure, and no salt figure at all for radish, turnip, ginger, or a dedicated garlic ferment, because none of the accepted sources prints one. The boiling-water processing times referenced for fresh-pack products are catalogued elsewhere; they are not repeated here, and no processing time should be inferred from anything on this page.

Sources of the figures on this page

• National Center for Home Food Preservation, University of Georgia, General Information on Fermenting, adapted from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, AIB 539, revised 2015. What the salt does in a ferment, and the prohibition on reducing it.
• Colorado State University Extension and FoodSmart Colorado, Understanding and Making Sauerkraut, reviewed October 2025. The only salt figure published as a percentage by weight, 2 to 2.5 percent, and a fermentation window of 68 to 72 F for 7 to 14 days.
• National Center for Home Food Preservation, University of Georgia, Sauerkraut, adapted from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, revised 2015. The 25 lb to three quarter cup ratio, the depth of the container, the fermentation temperatures and both processing schedules.
• National Center for Home Food Preservation, University of Georgia, Dill Pickles, in the fermenting recipes, adapted from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, AIB 539, revised 2015. Quantities, container, weight, fermentation temperature and duration, storage and the boiling water schedule for fermented cucumbers.
• National Center for Home Food Preservation, University of Georgia, Suitable Containers, Covers and Weights for Fermenting Food, extracted from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, AIB 539, revised 2009. One gallon of capacity per five pounds of vegetable, the plate and jar weight, the brine filled bag, and one to two inches under the brine.
• Oregon State University Extension Service, Pickling Vegetables, PNW 355, by Jeanne Brandt, revised July 2019, reviewed 2024. Equipment, water, salt and vinegar, the fermentation procedures and seventeen tested recipes.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, chapter 13 and appendix 4, fourth edition, June 2022. The limiting conditions for pathogen growth: minimum pH, minimum water activity, maximum water phase salt and minimum temperature, organism by organism.