To Brine Poultry Or Not. Interesting Read!!!
 

http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/11/t...m_medium=email


Thoughts?

He sure took a lot of the guesswork out of the process. Great find, Mike - thanks!

Nothing new, and nothing at all I haven't posted in many threads.
To the sound of crickets, usually :heh:
but maybe because it is a blog it may get some people experimenting.:noidea:
Problem is I think, the average Joe brines and eats and takes their experience of it being waterlogged as a great improvement over their screwed up dried out effort and so will forevermore brine instead of perfecting their skill at getting the timing and temps right and ending up with a juicy chicken flavored chicken.
:popcorn:

He says it all at the beginning.

Let me start this off by saying I don't brine my meat. Ever. Not for Thanksgiving, not for my Sunday supper, and certainly not for a quick weeknight meal. This post is about the reasons why.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and the redirects from here will help his blog status, I am sure.

TIM

Hmmmm, enter resting, doctoor.

I am not a scientist, but I do like to brine. But, regardless whether it adds moisture or tenderness (which I think it does), I load up my brine with fresh herbs from my garden, and there is NO doubt that I taste those herbs in my rotisserie cooked chicken. There is also no doubt that my chickens are moist and tender.

The moist and tender part could possibly be a fluke, but I know what my fresh herbs taste like, and I taste them in my chickens. So, something good is happening in that overnight brine.

CD

Yeah nothing new in this blog that I have not read on this site before. I do appreciate the link though. It is a good refresher. I like to brine and inject. The brine adds moisture the injection adds the flavor that I want. I do want to find a way to keep the turkey moist without using a lot of salt. I want to cook a turkey for my family this year and my dad being on dialysis he cant eat much salt. Does putting butter under the skin achieve this?

I like wet brines and dry brines. IMHO, if your wet brined chicken is watery, you are not putting enough seasonings in your brine. My standard is water, salt, soy sauce, garlic powder, onion powder. Dry brine is salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder.

My first smoked turkey was injected with a garlic infused olive oil, and it was farking awesome. That was it, no salt or other seasonings. I had a hard time carving the turkey, as it wanted to fall off the bone.

So, you do not have to brine. I prefer to do that, but I have gotten great results without brining.

CD

I agree with CD.

You don't HAVE to brine to get good results.
Even as the blogger said, if you closely watch your turkey, you can make it perfectly cooked and flavorful without brining or injecting.

BUT.....

I've TWICE done side-by-side cooks with 2 chickens, one brined and one not and BOTH times the brined bird was more moist and more flavorful.

I've also put different flavors in my brines and can taste those flavors in the meat.

I have 2 extra refrigerators in my garage and have a BIG stainless steel pot that will house 2 gallons of brine and a nice sized turkey with plenty of room to spare.




So, I'll keep brining.


I will also, however, try the salted technique and see what that's about.

Absolutely. I load up my brine with fresh chopped oregano & thyme from my garden. It also helps when you re-heat the leftovers. :wink:

I have actually abandoned brines in general as well. I like to rub the meat heavily and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Then I let it sit for a few hours to overnight. I have found this gives me a better product.

I have become more aware of the nature of colloids and their ability to flavor, or not flavor meats. I also have abandoned the idea that salting/rubbing results in dry ribs. Almost all of my cooks use a rub that is applied 4 to 12 hours prior to cooking and are wrapped in plastic wrap. If I have a vacuum packer, I use that. There is no hammy taste, as I do not use cure and use much less salt than most in my rubs now.

This is too much science for me. Hell, I learned to cook a turkey from the folks right off the Mayflower and haven't had a complaint since. KISS

Our turkey will be brined again this year. Then it will be smoked. Regardless of this interesting article. Just suits our tastes.

I recently tried brining a couple of Turkey breast, very moist. However, I thought it was a bit to salty.