Injection Marinade Calculator

Even distribution matters more than strict proportionality on a small roast or turkey breast -- fewer than 4 sites tends to leave visibly under-seasoned pockets between injection points, regardless of how little total marinade the meat needs. The calculator floors Injection Sites at 4 for exactly that reason, then scales upward roughly one site per 2 oz of raw meat weight once the cut is large enough to need more.

Injection Volume (oz) is the amount that ends up inside the meat, but a real injector and needle never transfer marinade with zero loss -- some stays in the injector's barrel and internal channels, some weeps back out of the needle holes as you withdraw, and some is lost to handling and spills. Prep Volume adds a flat 25% on top of Injection Volume (oz) so you mix enough marinade to actually finish injecting the whole cut without running out partway through.

Injection Volume (oz) scales directly with Raw Meat Weight at a fixed Injection Percentage, so doubling the meat weight doubles the marinade volume, the number of injection sites (down to the 4-site floor), and the prep volume together. A 24 lb brisket at the same 10% injection percentage needs twice the marinade of a 12 lb brisket, not the same amount stretched further.

The base changes how much of the injected weight is realistic to hold in the meat and how it converts to volume, not just the percentage -- butter-based marinades are less dense than water so the oz-to-mL conversion this calculator uses runs a little high for them, while brine and phosphate solutions are close enough to water density that the conversion is accurate. Use Injection Percentage to match your actual recipe (roughly 10% butter, 12% brine, 8% phosphate as typical starting points) rather than treating the three bases as interchangeable at the same percentage.