Sodium from brine: how much?

Published 5:00 am Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Q: As a dialysis patient, I have to be very careful with the amount of salt I use. I like to brine meats, but I’m unsure how much sodium the meat is actually absorbing.

A: It’s hard for a home cook to know how much sodium meat absorbs from a brine. The amount of salt in the brine, the time the meat soaks and the type of meat make a difference.

The Food and Drug Administration recommends that anyone in an at-risk category keep daily sodium intake to less than 1,500 milligrams, or slightly less than the sodium in a teaspoon of table salt, so even 1⁄8 of a teaspoon could be a fairly high amount. With so many variables to consider, a person on dialysis should be very careful.