To Brine or Not to Brine….That is the Question!
Around this time of year, the brining question pops up….”Does brining really make the turkey tastier and moister?” The simple answer is “Yes”. However, the brine you use can make or break your turkey.
With the wonderful world of www. , you can research until you are blue in the face, finding thousands of recipes and opinions, but until you try a recipe for yourself, you won’t know which is best. Can you imagine what it would be like to take your top 5 choices of recipes, buying 5 turkeys (and probably an extra 2 or 3 refrigerators to store them in), mixing gallons of different brining solutions, and finally roasting the 5 turkeys. It would be 1) time consuming; 2) EXPENSIVE; and most interesting, 3) what would you do with the leftovers?
No, I am afraid when it comes to brining a turkey for the first time, you have to put your top 5 choices in a hat, pull one out and hope for the best. That is, unless you have a dear friend or relative who has done all the research work for you! Hopefully, I am that friend.
I have indeed brined many turkeys and have used many different recipes or formulas. To be honest with you, I don’t even eat turkey (long boring story) but I do eat gravy! It turns out, brining helps add flavor and depth to your gravy. Just give me a plate of Grandmother Ogg’s Cornbread Dressing with at least a cup of gravy on top and I am one happy woman!
The first turkey I brined was with the help (?) of Arch, my late husband. Let me just say this….our marriage was much easier when we avoided being in the kitchen at the same time! That old saying “too many cooks spoils…..”, oh how true! Anyway, Arch wanted to try a brined turkey. This was probably 6 or 7 years ago, when brining your bird was “a new fad” kind of thing. Fixing a turkey has always brought out strange and new ways of preparation. Many years ago, “tenting” the turkey with foil was the thing to do. Then we had the brown paper bag idea. Next was frying the turkey, followed by “Turducken”, that strange idea of stuffing a de-boned turkey with a de-boned duck followed by a de-boned chicken. All of these methods are still popular and used today. Once you figure out a perfect way for YOU to fix a turkey, you will probably stick with that method for a few years. At least until the next “new fad” method comes along.
That said, back to our first brined turkey. In the beginning, the brines for turkeys were simple. The recipe called for a turkey, salt and water. Even a novice in the kitchen could pull that together! But when you have a chef and a one of the world’s greatest Man Cooks, in the same kitchen, the possibility of disaster is just around the corner! What is a Man Cook?....You know…a man who worships meat, eats lots of meat, reads hundreds of cookbooks about meats….a man with a grill! In Arch’s case, he truly was a wonderful cook. The way our marriage survived our kitchen encounters is simple….I cooked for 50 plus people, Arch cooked for 1 or 2 people. It worked.
The turkey was very good, not dry at all, and had a great flavor. But I thought the gravy was a bit salty, even though we rinsed the turkey well after removing it from the brine. We discussed our results over and over, never reaching any conclusion, other than next time we would try a different method. So the next turkey we cooked was like starting all over again. We read, we researched, we discussed..
No use going through the next 5 years of painful experimenting when I can jump to the end and share my great wealth of knowledge! These are my tips for brining.
1) You will need to decide on a large container that is nonreactive. I use a large, food safe sealable bag. Both Reynolds (Oven Roasting Bag for Turkeys) and Ziploc (XL Storage Bag) make very large food safe sealable bags that are great for brining. I prefer the Ziploc bags because they are stronger and less likely to be punctured. I place one of these bags in a large stock pot.
2)The next step is to put the turkey, still in its original wrapper, into the bag and then fill with water. Remove the turkey and then measure the water in the bag. Add 2 cups to that amount, you now know how many cups of water you need for the brine.
3) Cooking is kitchen chemistry…here it comes. You need 1 cup of table salt per gallon of water to get a proper brine. This works out to 1 tablespoon of salt per cup of water (16 cups in a gallon, 16 tablespoons in a cup). Make sure you are not using salt with iodine. Iodine will spoil the flavor.
4) One of the problems with our first brined turkey was there was no sugar in the brine. I find adding 1 cup of sugar to each gallon of water really makes a better turkey. Some people add maple syrup, which is pretty expensive, but I find regular sugar is fine.
5) At this point you can decide what other flavors you would like to use in your brine. I personally like to add fresh rosemary and thyme, but you can add your favorites instead. I buy a bag of fresh rosemary and one of fresh thyme and put all of it in the brine. (This was one of the points Arch and I disagreed on….he was a purist, thought it was almost un-American to add ”Italian” herbs to an American bird! I think they are great and I noticed he cleaned his plate like a good boy! Speaking of traditional American, using sage and black peppercorns is also a suggestion for additional flavor.
6) 3 days before you need to cook your turkey, in a large stock pot , bring the amount of water you determined your brine will need, to a boil, add the correct amount of salt and sugar to the water. Stir well to dissolve, remove from the heat, add the fresh herbs and set aside to return to room temperature. Once it is cooled, refrigerate. Your brine must be VERY COLD before you add your turkey! You do not want to add it to a warm brine or your turkey will be brought to a temperature where it will begin to spoil You want it COLD! Living in Kansas, the garage makes a wonderful large refrigerator in the winter! Keep the brine cold until the day before you will be roasting the turkey.
7) No more than 24 hours before you will be roasting your turkey, place the large Ziploc bag in a large container. Carefully pour the brine into the bag. Lower the turkey into the brine (I put neck down, maybe because it is easier to lower the bird by the legs…?) Make sure the bird is completely in brine by pressing out the air as you zip the bag.
8) Place in refrigerator if you have room. If not and it is cold in the garage (no more than 40 degrees) or in a cooler with ice packs all around. Brine the turkey for 1 hour per pound, but absolutely NOT for more than 24 hours!
9) Turkey Day is here! Remove the turkey from the brine. Place in kitchen sink and rinse extremely well, inside and out! When you think you have removed all of the salt, rinse it again! Now, at long last, you are ready to roast your turkey!
One thing to remember, do not salt the turkey or add salt to the stuffing! That is how I ruined my gravy!
So, to brine or not to brine?.......Happy Thanksgiving!
Around this time of year, the brining question pops up….”Does brining really make the turkey tastier and moister?” The simple answer is “Yes”. However, the brine you use can make or break your turkey.
With the wonderful world of www. , you can research until you are blue in the face, finding thousands of recipes and opinions, but until you try a recipe for yourself, you won’t know which is best. Can you imagine what it would be like to take your top 5 choices of recipes, buying 5 turkeys (and probably an extra 2 or 3 refrigerators to store them in), mixing gallons of different brining solutions, and finally roasting the 5 turkeys. It would be 1) time consuming; 2) EXPENSIVE; and most interesting, 3) what would you do with the leftovers?
No, I am afraid when it comes to brining a turkey for the first time, you have to put your top 5 choices in a hat, pull one out and hope for the best. That is, unless you have a dear friend or relative who has done all the research work for you! Hopefully, I am that friend.
I have indeed brined many turkeys and have used many different recipes or formulas. To be honest with you, I don’t even eat turkey (long boring story) but I do eat gravy! It turns out, brining helps add flavor and depth to your gravy. Just give me a plate of Grandmother Ogg’s Cornbread Dressing with at least a cup of gravy on top and I am one happy woman!
The first turkey I brined was with the help (?) of Arch, my late husband. Let me just say this….our marriage was much easier when we avoided being in the kitchen at the same time! That old saying “too many cooks spoils…..”, oh how true! Anyway, Arch wanted to try a brined turkey. This was probably 6 or 7 years ago, when brining your bird was “a new fad” kind of thing. Fixing a turkey has always brought out strange and new ways of preparation. Many years ago, “tenting” the turkey with foil was the thing to do. Then we had the brown paper bag idea. Next was frying the turkey, followed by “Turducken”, that strange idea of stuffing a de-boned turkey with a de-boned duck followed by a de-boned chicken. All of these methods are still popular and used today. Once you figure out a perfect way for YOU to fix a turkey, you will probably stick with that method for a few years. At least until the next “new fad” method comes along.
That said, back to our first brined turkey. In the beginning, the brines for turkeys were simple. The recipe called for a turkey, salt and water. Even a novice in the kitchen could pull that together! But when you have a chef and a one of the world’s greatest Man Cooks, in the same kitchen, the possibility of disaster is just around the corner! What is a Man Cook?....You know…a man who worships meat, eats lots of meat, reads hundreds of cookbooks about meats….a man with a grill! In Arch’s case, he truly was a wonderful cook. The way our marriage survived our kitchen encounters is simple….I cooked for 50 plus people, Arch cooked for 1 or 2 people. It worked.
The turkey was very good, not dry at all, and had a great flavor. But I thought the gravy was a bit salty, even though we rinsed the turkey well after removing it from the brine. We discussed our results over and over, never reaching any conclusion, other than next time we would try a different method. So the next turkey we cooked was like starting all over again. We read, we researched, we discussed..
No use going through the next 5 years of painful experimenting when I can jump to the end and share my great wealth of knowledge! These are my tips for brining.
1) You will need to decide on a large container that is nonreactive. I use a large, food safe sealable bag. Both Reynolds (Oven Roasting Bag for Turkeys) and Ziploc (XL Storage Bag) make very large food safe sealable bags that are great for brining. I prefer the Ziploc bags because they are stronger and less likely to be punctured. I place one of these bags in a large stock pot.
2)The next step is to put the turkey, still in its original wrapper, into the bag and then fill with water. Remove the turkey and then measure the water in the bag. Add 2 cups to that amount, you now know how many cups of water you need for the brine.
3) Cooking is kitchen chemistry…here it comes. You need 1 cup of table salt per gallon of water to get a proper brine. This works out to 1 tablespoon of salt per cup of water (16 cups in a gallon, 16 tablespoons in a cup). Make sure you are not using salt with iodine. Iodine will spoil the flavor.
4) One of the problems with our first brined turkey was there was no sugar in the brine. I find adding 1 cup of sugar to each gallon of water really makes a better turkey. Some people add maple syrup, which is pretty expensive, but I find regular sugar is fine.
5) At this point you can decide what other flavors you would like to use in your brine. I personally like to add fresh rosemary and thyme, but you can add your favorites instead. I buy a bag of fresh rosemary and one of fresh thyme and put all of it in the brine. (This was one of the points Arch and I disagreed on….he was a purist, thought it was almost un-American to add ”Italian” herbs to an American bird! I think they are great and I noticed he cleaned his plate like a good boy! Speaking of traditional American, using sage and black peppercorns is also a suggestion for additional flavor.
6) 3 days before you need to cook your turkey, in a large stock pot , bring the amount of water you determined your brine will need, to a boil, add the correct amount of salt and sugar to the water. Stir well to dissolve, remove from the heat, add the fresh herbs and set aside to return to room temperature. Once it is cooled, refrigerate. Your brine must be VERY COLD before you add your turkey! You do not want to add it to a warm brine or your turkey will be brought to a temperature where it will begin to spoil You want it COLD! Living in Kansas, the garage makes a wonderful large refrigerator in the winter! Keep the brine cold until the day before you will be roasting the turkey.
7) No more than 24 hours before you will be roasting your turkey, place the large Ziploc bag in a large container. Carefully pour the brine into the bag. Lower the turkey into the brine (I put neck down, maybe because it is easier to lower the bird by the legs…?) Make sure the bird is completely in brine by pressing out the air as you zip the bag.
8) Place in refrigerator if you have room. If not and it is cold in the garage (no more than 40 degrees) or in a cooler with ice packs all around. Brine the turkey for 1 hour per pound, but absolutely NOT for more than 24 hours!
9) Turkey Day is here! Remove the turkey from the brine. Place in kitchen sink and rinse extremely well, inside and out! When you think you have removed all of the salt, rinse it again! Now, at long last, you are ready to roast your turkey!
One thing to remember, do not salt the turkey or add salt to the stuffing! That is how I ruined my gravy!
So, to brine or not to brine?.......Happy Thanksgiving!
