Brine Turkey

[Guest Sores]

Anyone know anything about a "brine" turkey? My wife went out and bought one from Whole Foods. I am a little miffed...what's wrong with a good ole' Butterball? Some traditions you shouldn't mess with....

 

What's the story with a brine turkey?

[PEDRO]

I'm thinking she bought a turkey that Whole Foods has already "brined". It's a process where you infuse moisture and other items (including salt, sugar, spices, etc.) into the turkey. See Puddy's topic on how to best cook a turkey. You'll probably like it. All the turkey's I've brined in the past have turned out good.

[untateve]

from another topic on this forum I posted:

 

(Deacon Bill @ 11/19/05 12:22pm)

I've been hearing a lot about soaking/marinating your turkey in brine for 24 hrs. Can you explain that process and ingredients untateve? What's involved? Thanx.

 

 

First--the chemical reason that this works from my friend, Alton Brown:

 

 

Meat is made up of cells.  Cells are surrounded by membranes, which function like borders between countries:  they are discriminating.  Any substance that wants in or out of the cell must present papers and pass a rigid inspection.  the substance that moves across this border most often and most freely is water.

 

The micromilieu of meat is all about balance.  Inside the cell there are dissolved solids--salts, potassium, and the like--and outside there's...well, it depends.  Drop a pork chop in a bucket of distilled water and there's nothing but H2O outside the border.  In this case, the border officials are unhappy because there'a a lot more salt inside the cell than outside, thus no balance.  So the border temporaily opens, and the guards allow some water to move into the meat and some salt to move out into the water.  Eventually, the meat will lose a good bit of its native flavor to the water.

 

However, if there's salt in the water (even as little as a few hundred parts per million), the border guards, ever desirous of equilibrium--will throw open the borders and allow both salt and water to move across the membranes.  Now this is where things get really interesting:  after 8-24 hours there's more salt in the meat, and more water has to be retained to balance it--that's just the osmotic way.  So now you've got cells that are perfectly seasoned with salt and nicely plump with water, which if you think about it is something of a paradox:  salt pulls liquid out of meats, yet the right brine can pump water into meat.

 

But wait, there's more.  Like a molecular Trojan horse, the water can harbor other substances, specifically water-soluble flavors like brown sugar or various herbaceous elements whose flavors have been extracted via brewing.  This means you can sneak various and sundry flavors and seasonings into the meat.

 

And yet there's more.  When salt gets into meat cells it runs into certain water-soluble proteins.  {My book shows a pic of a meat cell slowing opening up} Notice that they've gone from tight little separate springy things to big loose coils that have managed to get all tangled up with each other.  During the cooking process, this tangled-up structure traps water almost like a gel, which means two things:

 

1.  Brined meats are jucier when cooked

2.  Since they hold more moisture, brined meats are more forgiving of overcooking

 

 

 

Now this year, I'm trying a different brine from my friend, Alton.

 

1 gallon hot water

1 pound kosher salt

2 qts vegetable broth

1 pound honey

1 7-lb bag of ice

Turkey (giblets removed)

(although it doesn't call for it, I'll be adding garlic--I love garlic)

 

Combine the hot water and the salt in a 54 qt cooler (I just use a 5 gallon bucket from home depot). Stir until the water dissolves. Stir in the vegetable broth and the honey (and the garlic). Add the ice and stir. Place the turkey in the brine, breast side up, and cover with the cooler lid (or place into the refrigerator if using my bucket method). Brine overnight, up to 12 hours.

 

 

Also from Alton:

 

Temperature matters:  meat proteins are more extractable around 34 degrees meaning that the tissues in question will hold on to more water if brined at refrigerator temperatures.

 

 

And that is the story of brining.

[Deacon Bill]

I took your advice untateve. Put my 21 lb. Butterball turkey in the brining solution at 7:30 p.m. last night, and it'll go in the oven at 325 degrees at 7:30 this a.m. Thanx for the advice, and Happy Thanksgiving!

[untateve]

happy to help. let me know how it turns out.

 

mine is still in the brine as we speak. I'll probably let it go another couple of hours whilst I prepare my Big Green Egg.

Edited November 24, 2005 by untateve

[aqualung]

There was one on one of the early shows this week. The base of it was apple cider. Check Regis and Kelly's website I think that was the show.

[Czarina]

I was tempted to do this but didn't. I went with a dry rub instead with a little butter smeared under the breast skin.

 

Why do people buy frozen turkeys? This is something I don't understand. Is it the cost factor? I went with the fresh Butterball.

 

Is Bell's Seasoning a regional thing or can you get it everywhere? Thats stuff just says "Thanksgiving" to me.

[untateve]

Here's where I got my turkeys:

 

http://bellandevans.com/product_details.cfm?prd_id=52

[Chief Dick]

from another topic on this forum I posted:

First--the chemical reason that this works from my friend, Alton Brown:

Now this year, I'm trying a different brine from my friend, Alton.

 

1 gallon hot water

1 pound kosher salt

2 qts vegetable broth

1 pound honey

1 7-lb bag of ice

Turkey (giblets removed)

(although it doesn't call for it, I'll be adding garlic--I love garlic)

 

Combine the hot water and the salt in a 54 qt cooler (I just use a 5 gallon bucket from home depot). Stir until the water dissolves. Stir in the vegetable broth and the honey (and the garlic). Add the ice and stir. Place the turkey in the brine, breast side up, and cover with the cooler lid (or place into the refrigerator if using my bucket method). Brine overnight, up to 12 hours.

Also from Alton:

And that is the story of brining.

 

1171047[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

The 5 gallon bucket idea is a good one. I'm always looking for big containers to soak my meat in ( ), and never thought of that.

[Deacon Bill]

happy to help.  let me know how it turns out.

 

mine is still in the brine as we speak.  I'll probably let it go another couple of hours whilst I prepare my Big Green Egg.

 

1171185[/snapback]

 

 

 

It was the moistest (is that a word?) turkey we ever had. And I was worried that the brine solution might alter the turkey taste. It didn't affect it at all. Thanx for the advice and making our Thanksgiving feast that much better.

[untateve]

It was the moistest (is that a word?) turkey we ever had. And I was worried that the brine solution might alter the turkey taste. It didn't affect it at all. Thanx for the advice and making our Thanksgiving feast that much better.

 

1172376[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

Life is good.

[Guest Sores]

We did not like our brined turkey. Moist, yes. Ham like? Yes. We'll be going back to the standard Butterball next year.

[Cunning Linguist]

I brined a 16lber last nite and roasted today. The absolute best tasting turky ive ever had. The flavor of your "brine" is infused in the meat, and keeps it nice and moist.

 

I used a combination of Alton Browns and Wolfgang Pucks Brine recipe with a few of my own additions.

 

basically it had the following:

vegetable stock

water

honey

ginger

cinammon

chicken stock

 

bay leaves

allspice

peppercorns

kosher salt

brown sugar

 

it "soaked" for 15 hrs, roasted at 500 degrees for 1/2 hr, then covered with foil, at 350 for another 2 hrs with apple, onion and cinimmon inside the cavity.

 

I also made turkey stock with the neck/giblets and used it to combine with the drippings, made a redwine reduction and made the best gravy ive ever had.

 

I will never, ever make another Turkey again without brining. Its the bomb

[untateve]

We did not like our brined turkey.  Moist, yes.  Ham like?  Yes.  We'll be going back to the standard Butterball next year.

 

1172452[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

 

I'd recommend buying your butterball and then brining it yourself. I didn't even know you could buy a "pre-brined" turkey.

[Jimmy Neutron]

Here's where I got my turkeys:

 

http://bellandevans.com/product_details.cfm?prd_id=52

 

1171620[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

Sounds like the local farm I get turkeys from - only way to go, IMO.

[Pope Flick]

Are these deep-fryable?

[twiley]

Are these deep-fryable?

1173031[/snapback]

I don't see why not.