Cooking Tools

Pasta Water Salt Ratio Calculator

Enter your pasta pot's water volume and a target salinity to calculate how much salt to add.

40 g salt

2.2 tablespoons (table salt)

A common guideline is around 1% salinity ("as salty as the sea" recipes often mean closer to 3%, but 1% is a widely used starting point for pasta water) — adjust to taste. Tablespoon conversion assumes ~18g per tablespoon of table salt.

How to use this tool

  1. 1Enter your water volume in liters.
  2. 2Enter a target salinity percentage.
  3. 3See the salt amount in grams and tablespoons.

Frequently asked questions

Why salt the pasta water at all?+

Salting the water seasons the pasta itself from the inside as it cooks, which plain salting after cooking can't replicate.