"Reg" > schreef in bericht
.. .
> A. Kesteloo wrote:
>
>> I used to measure the amount of salt in a brine with an raw egg (first
>> check if the egg is fresh)
>>
>> When the egg floats, the brine is good. (brine for 4 to 5 days)
>>
>> I now measuring with an egg is not exact, so I bought a brine tester
>> (scale 0 To 100%) (http://www.alliedkenco.com ) when checking, an egg
>> floats at about 40 %.
>>
>> I have two questions:
>>
>> Does 40% sound ok to you?
>
> There is no single brine strength or brine time that works for every type
> of food, although I've seen a few very old recipes that imply there is.
> There's wide variation based on everything including individual
> preference.
> The floating egg method refers to the amount needed to achieve a certain
> degree of *preservation*, which is usually not why people use brines these
> days. They're instead used to improve quality.
>
>>
>> Does anyone know how to convert this scale to the baumé scale?
>
> Not to be contentious, by why would you want to do this? The baume
> scale is a rather strange animal with two separate modalities, one for
> liquids lighter than water and one for liquids heavier than water.
> It's basically an obsolete measurement scale.
>
> --
> Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com
>

Thank's for your quick response.



For some reason, the Dutch recipes I got use the baumé scale. I would like
to convert them so I can use them.

Most of the time I smoke loin, turkey breast, parts of the pig belly and
parts of ham (about 1.5 kg) Not to eat when it is holt, but cold on a
sandwich. So preservation is what I'm looking for. The egg and 4 to 5 days
brining is a recipe I learned from my Polish father in law. I think he is
cheating, 5 days is probably not enough. I think he converted his original
recipe when he got a freezer (now using the salt for taste)



Adriaan