How this instrument works
Bacon curing means drawing moisture out of pork belly with salt while Cure #1 (a blend of table salt and 6.25% sodium nitrite, sold as pink curing salt) protects the meat from Clostridium botulinum during the long, low-temperature cook or smoke that follows. Dry curing packs the salt mixture directly onto the belly's surface; wet brining dissolves the same ingredients in water and submerges the meat instead. Both methods need the same two dry ingredients — only the water changes.
This calculator uses the typical American home bacon-curing ratio: sea salt at roughly 2-2.75% of the meat's weight (2.5% by default), and Cure #1 fixed at exactly 0.25% of meat weight regardless of your salt choice, because nitrite dosing tracks the meat weight, not the salt weight. If you pick wet brine, it also sizes the brining water at 40% of the pork belly's weight — a workable starting ratio for full submersion in a container or bag.
These are recipe ratios, not a substitute for a food-safety reference: always weigh Cure #1 on a gram or fine-ounce scale rather than eyeballing it, keep it stored well away from ordinary salt in your kitchen, and follow a trusted curing guide's time and temperature schedule for your cut's thickness. Curing salt is dosed in tiny amounts for a reason — too little won't protect the meat through a long cure, and too much is genuinely harmful.
- Weigh your pork belly in pounds and enter it.
- Choose dry cure or wet brine as your method.
- Set your salt percentage, or keep the 2.5% default (a common range is roughly 2-2.75%).
- Read off the sea salt and Cure #1 amounts in ounces, then weigh both on a scale rather than measuring by volume.
- If you chose wet brine, use the water amount shown to fully submerge the belly before refrigerating.
Wet-brining a 5 lb pork belly
Say you've got a 5 lb pork belly and want to wet-brine it at the default 2.5% salt rate. Sea salt comes out to 5 lb x 16 oz/lb x 2.5% = 2.0 oz. Cure #1 is independent of your salt choice: 5 lb x 16 oz/lb x 0.25% = 0.2 oz — about a level teaspoon, small enough that it should be weighed rather than scooped.
Because wet brine is selected, the calculator also sizes the brining water: 5 lb x 40% = 2.0 lb of water (roughly 32 fl oz, close to 4 cups), enough to fully submerge the belly in a food-safe container or bag. Dissolve both the salt and Cure #1 into that water before adding the meat, then keep the whole setup refrigerated for the length of your recipe's brining schedule.
Questions
What's the difference between dry curing and wet brining bacon?
Dry curing means rubbing the salt and Cure #1 mixture directly onto the pork belly's surface, where it slowly draws out moisture and works its way into the meat over several days. Wet brining dissolves the same ingredients in water and submerges the belly instead, which cures more evenly on irregularly shaped cuts but spreads the salt through a larger volume of liquid. This calculator handles both — pick your method and it adjusts which outputs apply, including sizing the brine water only when wet brine is selected.
Why doesn't Cure #1 change when I adjust the salt percentage?
Cure #1's sodium nitrite is doing a specific safety job — inhibiting Clostridium botulinum growth during the extended low-temperature cure or smoke — and that job depends on the meat's weight, not on how salty you like your bacon. So this calculator always sizes Cure #1 at 0.25% of the pork belly's weight, independent of whatever salt percentage you dial in between 1% and 4%. Changing the salt percentage only changes cure flavor and moisture loss, not the nitrite dose.
Can I use regular table salt instead of Cure #1?
No. Table salt alone contains no sodium nitrite, so it can't provide the same protection against bacterial growth during a multi-day cure. Cure #1 (also sold as Prague powder #1 or pink curing salt #1) is specifically a 93.75%/6.25% blend of salt and sodium nitrite, and that's what this calculator's Cure #1 output assumes. Don't substitute a different curing-salt product without first checking its nitrite concentration, since ratios vary between brands.
Is 2.5% the right salt percentage for bacon?
2.5% of the meat's weight is a commonly used middle-of-the-road figure in home bacon recipes, sitting inside the roughly 2-2.75% range most guides recommend. Going much below 2% risks under-curing; going well above that range tends to produce noticeably salty bacon. This calculator lets you adjust the percentage between 1% and 4% so you can dial in your own taste, but treat anything well outside the 2-2.75% band as a deliberate choice rather than a safe default.
How much Cure #1 is safe to use on a pork belly?
This calculator's fixed 0.25% of meat weight matches the standard home-curing dose, which keeps sodium nitrite intake within the margins used in published home-curing guidance for that quantity of meat. Because the amounts involved are small — often a fraction of an ounce for a typical belly — weigh Cure #1 on a scale that reads in grams rather than measuring it by volume, and never use a larger dose thinking it cures faster or safer. If you're scaling a recipe up substantially, recompute the amount rather than estimating a multiple.