Dry Brine?

Part of the brining process is the salinity of the water forces liquid into the meat. If you pack something in salt, it will absorb liquid from the meat, and it may return it with a higher salt content. Sounds expensive when you can brine for just a few bucks. Just my opinion.

Hell I just went to the site and they tell you whats in it. I'd probably do a proof of concept with something, just a bunch of salt, few herbs and spices on maybe a pork tenderloin or something small.

Nothing is cheap at W&S, so that doesn't surprise me. If you'd ask me, any one calling something a dry brine is making a fool of himself. It's an oxymoron like military inteligence.

dmp

I used to dry brine salmon when i lived in Alaska and it worked great. I would alternate layers of filets and brine mix and let sit overnight. I don't think it would work with a turkey though

Paul

I've dry brined pork chops and chicken no longer than two day...and they both turned out really good....don't forget to add alittle brown sugar to your dry brine it makes a difference....

Dry-brining is simply coating the meat with a salty seasoning and allowing it to sit for a long period of time. Just as with wet-brining, the salt draws moisture out of the meat and it is later reabsorbed, taking the flavor with it. In short, you are brining the meat in its own juices.

I dry-brined a whole mess of chicken drumsticks (154, to be exact) last weekend for a local Jack fundraiser and, as always, it worked very well.



I used 1/8 cup rub and 1/8 cup Old Bay seasoning per 12 drumsticks.

John

Williams and Sonoma are horribly overpriced. I'd use the power of this forum and google and make your own, for probably 1/20th of the price.

PatioDaddio said:

Dry-brining is simply coating the meat with a salty seasoning and allowing it to sit for a long period of time.

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(At the risk of sounding like a know it all cooking snob...)

That sir is curing. By definition a brine includes NaCl and H2O. I know there are a lot of questions about what separates a brine from a pickling solution from a marinade from a wet cure. I've got definitions for both, but I think it's pretty well defined what a brine is not.

dmp

Forgot to add to my previous post. I have a honey/salt brine I use for turkeys that a few other people have had good results with. I posted about it here:
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=59514

Try this method using salt and whatever rub combo you feel like. Lots cheaper than WS. I used it last year and the crowd loved it.


http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/food/la-fo-turkeyrec19-2008nov19,0,5523651.story

It's sometimes referred to as a Micro brine. It's the way to go for large buts of dense meats. I love it.

dmprantz said:

(At the risk of sounding like a know it all cooking snob...)

That sir is curing. By definition a brine includes NaCl and H2O. I know there are a lot of questions about what separates a brine from a pickling solution from a marinade from a wet cure. I've got definitions for both, but I think it's pretty well defined what a brine is not.

dmp

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Bingo. I could have not said it better. And looking at the boxes of Buckboard dry cure I bought for early Christmas presents, they were $4 each and will cure 24 pounds of meat. (I was not shopping at Williams and Sonoma)

In addition to something like Buckboard bacon, an effective dry cure takes the meat, it's thickness, it's moisture, and time into consideration. Fish, chops, chicken pieces, sausage and even beef jerky can be dry cured at home with sucess. Often times the dry cure turns into a slurry or syrup over a few hours, but that is to be expected.

Dry curing something large like a ham or un-cooked meats in the form of salami or some of the special Italian ham products are things that are more advanced as the process can take many months.....

For a turkey, (or turkey breast or turkey legs) a wet brine (aka sweet pickle cure) or even an injection works well because it takes less time and is easier to control. The results are wonderful.

So what's the difference between a dry brine and a rub?

MrMike said:

So what's the difference between a dry brine and a rub?

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A dry cure will always contain a good amount of salt and in addition may contain nitrites and/or nitrates, and usually some seasonings. After some time, it is washed off and sometimes soaked out of the meat, then the meat is generally rested prior to smoking. The results can be a moister and more flavorful product, but generally will display a pronounced color which is usually pinker. Like a ham is pinker than a pork roast. Here is a good example of a cured loin. This is the large muscle you see in a center cut pork chop. Using a dry rub alone will not give you these kinds of changes.

Good answer Thirdeye. Just to throw some salt on the wound (get it?), to me a cure of any kind involves heavy amounts of "salt" where "salt" can mean table salt (sodium chloride), as well as other salts: Sodium Nitrite, Sodium Nitrate, Potassium Nitrite, and Potassium Nitrate are a few of the more common ones. A cure will also usually includea sugar. The key here is that the salts are used to inhibit bacterial growth, and thus applied for a long period of time (days to weeks to months).

A "rub," to me differs from a cure more than any other way in that it is not intended to inhibit bacterial growth. It may have salt and sugar, but usually not as much, and the meat does not spend as much time in it.

As an asside, consider Lox and other cured salmon products which are cured wtih just NaCl and sugar, no Nitrite/Nitrate in there.

Consider also a pickling solution which is intended to inhibit bacterial growth, but differently. While cures rely on the salts doing that, pickling solutions use an acid, usually acedic acid (vinegar) to do that work. It gets all the more complicated in that when it's all said and done, the nitrites in some cures break down into nitric acid, whereas the NaCl in Sauerkraut breaks down into lactic acid...no vinegar added. Consider also that a "salt" could include Sodium DiAcetate, which will break down into Acetic Acid (vinegar). Again, the differences between these things can be debated on several levels...but if there is not NaCl disolved in solution by HOH, it definitely is not a brine....

dmp

Saiko said:

Williams and Sonoma are horribly overpriced. I'd use the power of this forum and google and make your own, for probably 1/20th of the price.

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...as is Bristol Farms who also sells some horridly priced prepackaged brines that would wrought a drum.

MrMike said:

So what's the difference between a dry brine and a rub?

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My take is that the dry brine is simply mix that you add liquid to. I could be mistaken.

Great looking meat, Thirdeye.