Brining a Turkey..

Discussion in 'Horn Depot' started by hookmom, Nov 7, 2004.

  1. hookmom

    hookmom 25+ Posts

    Anyone ever try this????? I heard abouit it for the first time the other day. I mentioned how I am not a fan of the traditional Thanksgiving Turkey because of the dryness. I was told to take the fresh turkey, place it in a cooler of cold water and a couple cups of kosher salt and let sit overnight, the next day the turkey will be extra juicy.

    Funny thing is, I watch the Food Network all the time and have never seen this at all--even on Good Eats--which is my all-time favorite TV show![​IMG]
     
  2. YChang

    YChang 500+ Posts

    Check the good eats web site on foodnetwork...Alton did a whole episode on brining a turkey.
     
  3. Parrothead

    Parrothead 25+ Posts

    Wolfgang did it this morning on his show. I've never tried it, but it looked darned good!

    mmm turrrkeyyy
     
  4. bevocious

    bevocious < 25 Posts

    Definately follow alton's advice on the brining, and another tip he gives is to soak up the juices with a new clean dish towel and put it over the breast after a few hours. this gives you a really crispy skin and also keeps the bird extremely moist. best turkey out of an oven ive ever had. on another note fried turkey still wins hands down. good luck
     
  5. RabidLonghorn

    RabidLonghorn 1,000+ Posts

    If you cook turkey slower and baste every half hour with butter, it is not dry.
     
  6. washparkhorn

    washparkhorn 2,500+ Posts

    I brined a bird two years ago - best turkey I've ever had.
     
  7. washparkhorn

    washparkhorn 2,500+ Posts

    The Science of Brining - From America's Test Kitchen:

     
  8. horn4life

    horn4life 500+ Posts

    hookmom - once you brine every other turkey you taste will fall short. Alton Brown on good Eats devoted an entire show to the process.

    the science is fascinating! What actually happens is that the salt content in the brine solution draws OUT all the juices, and then to reach equilibrium (do to saline) the turkey reabsorbs more liquid that was there to begin with. It will be on Good Eats again soon I promise.

    The basics are Kosher Salt and Honey where the courseness of the salt help beak up the honey. We add Cloves of Garlic, whole black pepper corns and fresh thyme. gourmet magazine recipie we liked best

    A thawed Bird is fine, but fresh lets you go to work immediately. The problem for MOST folks is how to refigerate something this large in a mass of liquid? What we do is mix the brine solution in a large container. ALSO we use 2/3 liquid and 1/3 ice to create the brine solution and insure it is COLD going onto the turkey.

    We take TWO white kitchen trash bags and double bag the turkey, and place it in a cooler in our garage, the we pour the brine solution itnot the bags and tie off both bags securely. IMPORTANT!!__ squeeze as much of the air out of the bags as possible, as this helps to cover the bird completely rather than having part of the bird sticking up out of the brine. ( unless you want to make 5 gallons of brining solution to do the same thing).After that we turn the bird a few times over the course of the next hours to insure even dispersal of the brine into the meat.

    The only other think we do it take some of the tarragon and toss it in the body cavity, and after patting the skin down with a towel rub some olive oil on the skin for a nice even browning and to seal the skin.

    Best damn turkey you will ever have, and you will NEVER not take the time and effort to brine the bid bird again. The only thing we had to do was use a seperate recipe for oven stuffing that utilized a bunch of chicken broth to get enough of the stuffing our family would normally expect.

    Good luck, but it's worth the effort!

    ONE FINAL HINT- to keep the cooler cold enough we froze some plastic milk cartons and after a few hours inserted those around the plastic bags when we rotated the bird to insure the temp[ stayed in the refrigerated range. Starting with a big cold bird you really don't need too many of these. You could just dump Ice around the bag but that makes mroe mess.

    Good luck let us know how it turns out.
     
  9. horn4life

    horn4life 500+ Posts

    Alton's recipie- The Link

    The show will air- Sunday Nov. 21 at 10:00 PM ET/PT.

    Gourmet, Cooks Illustrated and most other magazines have recipies as well.
     
  10. rksg1

    rksg1 100+ Posts

    Thanks for the suggestions on the "brining" of a turkey.
    I tried for the first time Thanksgiving.

    It was as good as advertised.
    I used Alton's recipe and the "use a cooler with a spicket" technique.

    It was easy.

    Thanks again.
     
  11. ajax

    ajax 100+ Posts

    My wife has been brining turkey ever since she hosted her first T-giving, right after we met. It's so much better than regular turkey. How she does it, I have no idea. It's like magic or something.
     
  12. suttree

    suttree 500+ Posts

    We did it this year. I stuck my fresh 11 pound bird in a kitchen bag, added about 2 gallons of water and 2 cups of kosher salt. Saw some brown sugar in the spice rack and added 1/2 a cup. Tied up the top of the bag and dropped it in a little cooler, which I stuck outside the night before. It was in the 30s in Boerne, so no problems on temperature.

    The breast meat was definately moister. I am not going to say people were having culinary orgasms, but it was a better bird.

    But, all in all, turkey is a mediocre meat, at best.
     
  13. horn1

    horn1 25+ Posts

    Followed Alton's brining method this year and the Turkey was ******* AWESOME!!! Also, used his cooking method as well.
     
  14. BLESSMEHORNS

    BLESSMEHORNS 250+ Posts

    Alton brines just about evry white meat
     
  15. SouthernGent

    SouthernGent 100+ Posts

    I also tried Alton's recipe this year and it was the best damn turkey ever.
     
  16. Boozehound

    Boozehound 250+ Posts

    I gave AB's honey-brine (from the all-star show) a shot this T-giving on one of our three birds. It was awesome (having it spend 5 hours in the smoker helped too), and was far superior to the oven roasted bird. The other turkey we did was fried (injected with jalapeno butter) and it was a close second to the smoked bird, IMO.

    I think monitoring bird temp is just as important (probably more so) to making sure that the turkey is moist - if you over do it on the temp, no amount of brining, basting (does nothing for keeping the meat moist), or cooking it breast side down (my aunt's particular method) will help it.
     
  17. Fanny McLonghorn

    Fanny McLonghorn 100+ Posts

    We've brined ours since I can remember, and unbrined turkeys always taste bland to me. If you don't have the time/space, you can buy them pre-brined at some places. I've gotten one at Central Market before and it was excellent.
     
  18. shorty

    shorty 250+ Posts

    I tried it this Thanksgiving and the turkey was just unbelieveable. I have a big stainless steel stock pot and was able to refrigerate the bird easily. The meat, especially the breast was moist and tender. I cooked it overnight at a lot temp covered with foil and bumped the temp up early that morning to brown. I used the juice to cook the giblets for giblet gravy. This gave the gravy outstanding flavor. This is a very easy addition to preping the turkey and I do recommend it.

    Has anyone smoked a brined turkey?
     
  19. Boozehound

    Boozehound 250+ Posts

    Yep. See above post. It rocked.
     
  20. UTME

    UTME 25+ Posts

    Want to really blow away your taste buds....

    Brine, inject, and fry. Sounds overpowering...but it isn't. It's fantastic.
     
  21. PhantomHorn

    PhantomHorn 1,000+ Posts

    Before I smoked mine I soaked it overnight in a cooler of water, apple juice, 2 cups salt and 1/2 cup whole pepper.

    Before I wraped the bird and put it on the smoker, I lathered it up with mayo (all mayo includes is egg, olive oil and vinigar). I keeps the skin from blackening too much and drying out.

    Perfect Turkey[​IMG]
     
  22. hullabelew

    hullabelew 1,000+ Posts

    I brined and smoked this years T-giving turkey and can't wait to do the Christmas one. The use of the plastic bag sounds like a good idea.
     

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