Do you brine poultry?

[Winchester]

We are having a birthday dinner for my brother today....he'll be 52 on Sept 18. And well, I had this extra 24-pound turkey in the freezer that I had to get used; it's almost 1 year old now. So everybody is coming to our house for dinner. (We'll use any excuse for a party.)

Got Mr. Turkey out of the freezer this past Monday night and thawed him in the fridge....he wasn't completely thawed last night, so he ended up in the sink with cold water for a little while. (With our dish drainer flipped over the sink to discourage curious kitties.)

I always brine my turkeys (and my whole chickens, too) before roasting. The turkey has been in the basement in its turkey bucket (which is basically a huge plastic bucket that I only use for brining). I follow the recipe for Good Eats Roast Turkey, which is basically vegetable stock with allspice berries, brown sugar, peppercorns, candied ginger slices, and iced water. And lots of ice to keep it cold. The bucket has a lid and we wrap the bucket in a heavy furniture pad to keep it cold over night. (When I do this around Thanksgiving, it's usually cold enough in the basement that we don't have to wrap the bucket, but right now, it's still warm outside. Our basement isn't heated.)

Anyway, around 10 this morning or so, Rick will bring Mr. Turkey to the kitchen and I'll rinse him off well. I'll stick a cut-up onion with sliced apple and herbs inside. Throw him in our roaster and let him do his thing. (I no longer stuff the bird; I put stuffing in the crock pot now.)

Does anybody else here brine their poultry? Or their pork? I brine pork sometimes, too, and it's just delicious.

(Dinner is around 5:00, if anybody would like to visit with us.)

 

[motoko9]

Good morning!

(It sounds as if all is well with you, which is good. I read your earlier thread about the flooding in your area and wondered how you were doing.)

My SO, also a fan of Alton Brown, swears by brining, as do some others I know, but in my experience, it's lot of work for a disappointing payoff. (The couple of times we tried it, I just never noticed much of a difference in moisture or flavor.) However, your post, which is making me hungry right now, leads me to think I should give it another chance this Thanksgiving!

 

[just mike]

Hey Winchester! Sounds like you've got your previous issues under control. I am glad to hear it. I'm a die hard brine fan. Yes, I brine poultry, pork... just about anything. Your turkey sounds delish. I want a bite

 

[februa]

I dont brine and have only "heard" of it...what is is supposed to do for flavour? Its crazy to imagine roast turkey/chicken tasting any better lol!

I dont have a space in my apartment for a bucket/set up like this, but I like the idea and may convince my mom to try

 

[swampwitch]

This is not directed at you, Winchester, but to anybody thinking of brining meat: to anybody who wants to brine meat in a plastic tub, please make certain that it's food-grade plastic! Plastics are NOT all the same!

New, clean plastic buckets from the hardware store are NOT meant to be in contact with food. They contain heavy metals (mercury and lead), endocrine-distruptors (mess up your hormone balances), and a load of carcinogens. Food-safe plastics should specify that they can be used for food storage, but even then some are made for storage of dry foods. (The bad stuff in plastics tend to be leached out much more if you put liquids and/or fats in them.)

It's much cheaper for most manufacturers to make toxic plastic and claim it's not meant for food. Food-safe plastic goes through testing and has certain standards set by the government. If you are uncertain if the plastic bucket is food-safe or not, don't use it!

I've brined a turkey once (used a huge metal canning pot) and it turned out very moist but it was also pretty salty. I liked it salty but not everybody did, I think. Gravy was super-salty, too. I might have done something wrong, though, very possible!

(I'll bring the wine a little before 5:00, so we can have a glass before dinner!

)

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Mmmmm.....I'm on my way!!

 

[Winchester]

Swamp Witch, good information!

I suggest finding a local restaurant warehouse-type of store where you can find buckets in every shape and size. Or a local bakery or restaurant. Sometimes they'll sell you a bucket or some kind of container for your turkey. If all else fails, use a large ice chest....we did that one year. It has to be big enough to completely submerge the turkey.

Here's Alton's recipe for his turkey.....

Good Eats Roast Turkey

1 (16 lb) frozen young turkey

For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berry
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1 gallon ice water

For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
canola oil

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stock pot and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket.

Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water.

Discard brine.

Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil. Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350°F.

Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161°F. A 14-16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2-1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

Note: After brining your turkey, it's important to thoroughly rinse the turkey! Rinse well, both the outside and throughout the inside. Failure to thoroughly rinse the brine off will give you a horribly salty taste. Oh, and I would not advise putting any kind of stuffing into a brined turkey. Just the apple mixture will suffice. If you need to stuff your bird, don't brine. JMHO

I should mention that I have a large Nesco roaster that I use to roast turkeys and large hams. It works well, but it doesn't brown the breast as well as I would like. So I do put the turkey in the 500-degree oven for about 30 minutes or so, to give the breast a nice brown color. Then I put it into the Nesco to finish roasting. That way, my oven is free for side dishes and such.
_________________________________________________________________

Yes, we were fine, thank you. We had no choice, but to go ahead with the dinner. I had gotten the turkey out of the freezer on Monday night and it had been in the fridge all that time. No way was I going to re-freeze it at that point. (If push came to shove, I would have roasted it anyway, deboned it, and then frozen the meat in meal-size freezer bags. We were worried about my brother and SIL getting here, but most of the roads are now open, save a few on their trip. They did some detouring and made it here.

I am now roasting the carcass with lots of onions, celery and carrots to make turkey broth for the freezer. Yum! I'm completely out of broth and stock...no beef, no chicken, no turkey. This is not a good thing.

 

[sflacat]

I have no experience with poultry but I do brine fish for smoking.It gives the fish a nice moist texture that is usually dry from smoking.

 

[lizzie]

I brine my poultry and pork as well.I have seen so many different recipes for brining....and they're all wonderful,I am sure.I try to not use as much salt as some of them call for,and it still turns out great.If you can find yourself a bakery that has the frosting buckets,they are wonderful and usually cost a dollar or 2 and they usually come with a lid to boot!,but when I have some boneless pork chops,or even regular pork chops with the bone,or a chicken breast or 2,I bought a rectangular plastic food storage box that has the snap down sides all around....creates a good seal....fits on a shelf in the fridge quite well,and that's all I use it for.I never thought about fish,but that's a great idea!

 

[ldg]

It sounds delicious, but just reading it all made me tired!

Thank goodness we don't have the room to do any of that. We can barely fit a 12 lb turkey in our oven and we have an 8 cu ft refrigerator!

 

[swampwitch]

I wonder if I didn't rinse it well enough. Mmm, I will try it again with your recipe.

Thanksgiving here is in early October!

 

[gailc]

I brine chicken and turkey's though I usually wait until weather is much colder to do so.
William Sonoma sells a turkey brining seasoning packet which I've used and is good.
I agree on the food grade buckets. I have some from work and keep a couple just for food purposes and the cover does come in handy. I would call around to bakeries-we get honey in ours and we sell extras to the public for a dollar (money donated to local food pantry).
I have a great recipe for beer brined pork chops-I will have to go shopping and get some as I haven't made that recipe recently!

 

[secret squirrel]

Never 'brined ' turkey or chicken. I make wine in a 5 gallon plastic bucket. I imagine that would be a suitable container for 'brining', should I wish to try it. Its also tall with a good snap on lid.

 

[Winchester]

Originally Posted by GailC

I brine chicken and turkey's though I usually wait until weather is much colder to do so.
William Sonoma sells a turkey brining seasoning packet which I've used and is good.
I agree on the food grade buckets. I have some from work and keep a couple just for food purposes and the cover does come in handy. I would call around to bakeries-we get honey in ours and we sell extras to the public for a dollar (money donated to local food pantry).
I have a great recipe for beer brined pork chops-I will have to go shopping and get some as I haven't made that recipe recently!

Usually, I do my only turkey right at Thanksgiving and it is cooler in our basement at that time. This was just kind of a "I need to use this turkey!" situation. And we still had lots of ice in with the turkey in the bucket on Saturday morning, so we had wrapped it very well.

I'm wondering if maybe local pizzarias might have been plastic buckets they might sell? Or some mom-and-pop restaurant?

Beer-brined pork chops?? Please share! I'd love to try this, too.

 

[swampwitch]

Our local coffee shop gives us coffee grounds (for our strawberry plants) in huge plastic food-grade buckets with lids - free for the asking.

I've read about people using trash bags to brine poultry - DON'T use those, either, they are not meant for food at all. Also, don't use a food-grade container if it's had anything other than food in it.

Stainless steel is best IMO.