Boshizzle
somebody shut me the fark up.
After a recent discussion here in Qtalk, I decided to do some trials to determine just exactly whether or not brining BBQ chicken makes a significant difference in the moisture of the resulting product.
Now, please keep in mind, the brine I used was a simple brine of water, salt, and sugar. It's not a professionally made brine like what might be sold by some of the brethren. The assessments of those brines will have to wait for another round of experiments. This is an assessment of a simple, home made brine, not the well made, professionally made brines that you can get from some of the brethren.
For this experiment, I made a simple brine of water, salt, and sugar. I used about 6 TBS of salt, 2 TBS of sugar with about 24 ounces of water. The brine was made by boiling the salt and sugar in about 1 cup of water, then adding another cup of water with some ice to cool it down.
I wanted to use 6 chicken thighs in the experiment. I ended up using 4 and one of those was lost (see below). I also removed the skin because brining can cause the skin to become tough. I cooked these competition style, so I didn't worry about crisping up the skin before serving.
I seasoned one thigh with rub only, brined two thighs, and soaked one thigh in plain water. This part of the process took 2 hours.
I put the thighs in my smoker running at 300* F indirect.
Here is a pic about 1/2 way through the cook -
I lost one of the thighs because I am clumsy. Fortunately, it was one of the brined thighs. I had two of those and only one of the dry and water soaked ones. So, I still had a brined thigh to assess.
Here are the three thighs. I used the exact same seasoning recipe and cook time on all three. The only difference was that one was brined, one was soaked in water only, and one was seasoned with rub only. All three had bite through skin, BTW.
Here are the results after one bite of each.
The non-brined thigh -
The water soaked thigh -
The brined thigh -
I weighed each thigh before cooking them. Here are the weights.
Dry rubbed only - 7.25 ounces.
Water soaked only - 7.125 ounces.
Brined (the one that wasn't lost) - 6.75 ounces.
After cooking them and before glazing them, the weight of each thigh was:
Dry rubbed - 4.875 ounces.
Water soaked - 4 ounces.
Brined - 5.125 ounces.
The dry rubbed thigh had a weight loss of 33%. The water soaked thigh had a weight loss of 44% and the brined thigh had a weight loss of 24%. The assumption is that the weight loss was due to water loss.
With all that said, the brined thigh lost the least amount of weight from moisture loss. What's interesting is the fact that the water soaked thigh lost the most water which may explain why crock pot pot roast can be so dry.
I had my CBJ wife score each of the thighs on a KCBS scale. This is how she scored each one on taste and tenderness.
Dry rubbed only - taste - 8 - tenderness - 9. It got an 8 for taste because I over seasoned it and it was slightly salty.
Water soaked - taste - 9 - tenderness - 9.
Brined - taste - 9 - tenderness - 8.
I agreed with her assessment. The difference was tenderness. The brined thigh was most certainly more "chewy" than the other two.
What this suggests to me is that brining does infuse water into the meat. But, that water also contributes to evaporative cooling which slows down the cooking process. Otherwise, all three would have reached the same level of tenderness.
From experience I know that the tenderness of chicken thighs varies greatly depending on cook time and temp. That's what makes me think that the water in the chicken from being brined really does act like a heat sink (evaporative cooling at work) unlike the dry rubbed only thigh. The water soaked thigh experiment will require a little experimentation to figure out what's going on. I suspect that it is some kind of wash out effect of water removing things like fat and other influences on flavor.
The next experiment calls for cooking the brined thigh until it reaches the same tenderness as the non-brined thigh and then I might get a better idea of what's going on.
What think ye, brethren?
Now, please keep in mind, the brine I used was a simple brine of water, salt, and sugar. It's not a professionally made brine like what might be sold by some of the brethren. The assessments of those brines will have to wait for another round of experiments. This is an assessment of a simple, home made brine, not the well made, professionally made brines that you can get from some of the brethren.
For this experiment, I made a simple brine of water, salt, and sugar. I used about 6 TBS of salt, 2 TBS of sugar with about 24 ounces of water. The brine was made by boiling the salt and sugar in about 1 cup of water, then adding another cup of water with some ice to cool it down.
I wanted to use 6 chicken thighs in the experiment. I ended up using 4 and one of those was lost (see below). I also removed the skin because brining can cause the skin to become tough. I cooked these competition style, so I didn't worry about crisping up the skin before serving.
I seasoned one thigh with rub only, brined two thighs, and soaked one thigh in plain water. This part of the process took 2 hours.
I put the thighs in my smoker running at 300* F indirect.
Here is a pic about 1/2 way through the cook -
I lost one of the thighs because I am clumsy. Fortunately, it was one of the brined thighs. I had two of those and only one of the dry and water soaked ones. So, I still had a brined thigh to assess.
Here are the three thighs. I used the exact same seasoning recipe and cook time on all three. The only difference was that one was brined, one was soaked in water only, and one was seasoned with rub only. All three had bite through skin, BTW.
Here are the results after one bite of each.
The non-brined thigh -
The water soaked thigh -
The brined thigh -
I weighed each thigh before cooking them. Here are the weights.
Dry rubbed only - 7.25 ounces.
Water soaked only - 7.125 ounces.
Brined (the one that wasn't lost) - 6.75 ounces.
After cooking them and before glazing them, the weight of each thigh was:
Dry rubbed - 4.875 ounces.
Water soaked - 4 ounces.
Brined - 5.125 ounces.
The dry rubbed thigh had a weight loss of 33%. The water soaked thigh had a weight loss of 44% and the brined thigh had a weight loss of 24%. The assumption is that the weight loss was due to water loss.
With all that said, the brined thigh lost the least amount of weight from moisture loss. What's interesting is the fact that the water soaked thigh lost the most water which may explain why crock pot pot roast can be so dry.
I had my CBJ wife score each of the thighs on a KCBS scale. This is how she scored each one on taste and tenderness.
Dry rubbed only - taste - 8 - tenderness - 9. It got an 8 for taste because I over seasoned it and it was slightly salty.
Water soaked - taste - 9 - tenderness - 9.
Brined - taste - 9 - tenderness - 8.
I agreed with her assessment. The difference was tenderness. The brined thigh was most certainly more "chewy" than the other two.
What this suggests to me is that brining does infuse water into the meat. But, that water also contributes to evaporative cooling which slows down the cooking process. Otherwise, all three would have reached the same level of tenderness.
From experience I know that the tenderness of chicken thighs varies greatly depending on cook time and temp. That's what makes me think that the water in the chicken from being brined really does act like a heat sink (evaporative cooling at work) unlike the dry rubbed only thigh. The water soaked thigh experiment will require a little experimentation to figure out what's going on. I suspect that it is some kind of wash out effect of water removing things like fat and other influences on flavor.
The next experiment calls for cooking the brined thigh until it reaches the same tenderness as the non-brined thigh and then I might get a better idea of what's going on.
What think ye, brethren?
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