Dry brining for the 1st time

[Frank Mahovlich]

Gonna try dry brining a turkey for the first time this weekend. Coupla questions come to mind:

1) Would it be ill-advised to brine an enhanced turkey?

2) Can I salt it before it is fully thawed?

Thanks,
FM

[MeatyOakerSmoker]

1) yes in my opinion
2) I would imagine the salt will help the melting

[Burnt at Both Endz]

Originally Posted by IbrahimSS

2) I would imagine the salt will help the melting

Salt just makes the meat colder, think of making ice cream.

[MeatyOakerSmoker]

Originally Posted by Burnt at Both Endz

Salt just makes the meat colder, think of making ice cream.

No no it lowers the freezing point so it remains a liquid.

[slackdogbbq]

I would not brine an enhanced Turkey it already has enough sodium and liquid. Any other spices to your liking are ok. This is just my my thought after 6 shots of Tequila but none the less still a coherent thought.

[SirPorkaLot]

1. If you brine an enhanced turkey you do run the risk of making it a bit too salty. A dry brine will protect the meat from over salting better than a wet brine, but it is still a risk.
2. You absolutely can dry brine a frozen turkey!

[Frank Mahovlich]

Okay, bird says it's enhanced with a 9.5% solution. Yikes! Wondering if that may be a bit much on the salt...

[BGWolf]

I wouldn't add any salt to that bird

[SirPorkaLot]

Originally Posted by Frank Mahovlich

Okay, bird says it's enhanced with a 9.5% solution. Yikes! Wondering if that may be a bit much on the salt...

If you still want to try a dry brine with that bird, I would suggest using sea salt at a ratio of 1/2 tsp per pound, with one caveat....

Since you have an enhanced turkey, the main motivation to use a dry brine would be to add flavors into your meat. In other words, using just sea salt to brine with won't accomplish much with an enhanced turkey (it will still help with encouraging the skin to be crispy though)

I recommend adding in other spices with the salt to flavor the bird during the brine. Sage is a good one (we use sage in our dry brine called "Harvest Brine"), I also suggest including something that will add a little sweetness (turbinado sugar or something similar).

Let us know how if turns out if you decide to dry brine it!

[SteveKing]

You can wet brine without worry. The bird and the brine will reach equilibrium, so depending on how much salt your turkey has (and how salty your brine is) you could be pulling salt from the bird or adding salt to it. You are not just adding more and more salt when you wet brine

[SirPorkaLot]

Originally Posted by SteveKing

You can wet brine without worry. The bird and the brine will reach equilibrium, so depending on how much salt your turkey has (and how salty your brine is) you could be pulling salt from the bird or adding salt to it. You are not just adding more and more salt when you wet brine

That's not really correct with commercially enhanced meat.
They use a method called "plumping" which injects not just salt, but also water into the meat.
The additional water added will evaporate somewhat during packaging, shipping and retail, leaving a deficit of water. (Think of the cells in the meat as balloons, if you fill one with air and then let the air out, it will deflate, but not all the way back to it's original shape and size)
Therefore when you wet brine, it will not reach "equilibrium" as it would with out the plumping, it will in fact pull more water (and salt) into the meat than you would expect otherwise (in non-enhanced bird)

Whereas with a dry brine, there is not any additional water to pull in during the brine, so the salt uses the moisture in the meat to do the work and reach equilibrium.

[jmcool03]

+1 what SteveKing said

[Frank Mahovlich]

Thanks for all the input. If I salt it right now, is 24 hours enough time before cooking it?

[IamMadMan]

Originally Posted by SirPorkaLot

That's not really correct with commercially enhanced meat.
They use a method called "plumping" which injects not just salt, but also water into the meat.
The additional water added will evaporate somewhat during packaging, shipping and retail, leaving a deficit of water. (Think of the cells in the meat as balloons, if you fill one with air and then let the air out, it will deflate, but not all the way back to it's original shape and size)
Therefore when you wet brine, it will not reach "equilibrium" as it would with out the plumping, it will in fact pull more water (and salt) into the meat than you would expect otherwise (in non-enhanced bird)

Whereas with a dry brine, there is not any additional water to pull in during the brine, so the salt uses the moisture in the meat to do the work and reach equilibrium.

I agree with you John..... and also, they inject more than just a salt water solution into the bird, they also add phosphates and other ingredients as well to make the bird as what they perceive to be ultimate in tenderness and moisture.

Personally I don't care for the texture (rather the lack of) in commercially enhanced birds. Don't get me wrong, I think they're great if your going to make soup with them, that soft fall apart meat is great. But in the end, we all use what we like.

[Frank Mahovlich]

Okay. Bird has been salted. 20 lb bird. 10 tsp of kosher salt fit about perfectly into a 1 oz seasoning shaker. Used a little more than half of the 10 tsp. Some might call that about 6 tsp. Threw a little garlic salt in for good measure. Will let the bird sit overnight. Pull it from the fridge early tomorrow morning. Let it air dry in the fridge for maybe a coupla hours then throwing it on the smoker...