How Do Brines Work?

[OzarkRose]

Fell for it!
I would like to suggest that if any Chef is reading any of this and its news to them, they check out joining Chefs Collaborative. This organization has been doing wonders to teach "City Born" (ha!) chefs what the food they are preparing is all about.
I read an interesting thread on "Blue Legged" Chickens grown in Canada as an answer to Poulet de Bresse (at egullet.com). I had never know that chickens could be aged as well. I'm going to try it with my next group of Ameraucana roosters. I have tried every way imaginable to eat these things, and nothing has worked yet!

[shahar]

Just wanted to remind you guys, that all the techniques we whine about. The ones that lower variety and taste and prolonged shelf life etc. weren't just done in order to maliciously make more money.
Those methods raised the productivity there by making sure more people are able to get more food more fresh.
Yes we do need to also work on flavor. Yes we do need to reduce methods that might harm our health or pose environmental hazards.
But organic food for all it's hype isn't the best solution to a growing population.

[Mezzaluna]

I'm going to bring my turkey for the first time. I don't have lots of refrigerator space and don't fancy using a cooler (a la Alton Brown) to brine it overnight.

Can the bird benefit from a 4-5 hour soak? My bird will be about 15 pounds.

[MarkV]

Why don't you fancy using a cooler? You can but a cheap styrofoam one for a couple of bucks. It'll so be worth it. Turkey desperrately needs all the moisture it can get.

Mark

[Pete]

There are other ways if you don't want to go the cooler route (but why not a cooler?). You could do it in a trash bag or very large stock pot or bucket, or really any large container that will allow the bird to sit in there, covered by the brine. As for storage, by T-Day, nights should be cold enough that you can just place it in an unheated garage or shed. Don't worry it won't freeze. As far as time goes, I have seen recipes that range from 8-24 hours for a 20 pound bird. I would say that for a 15 pound bird 8 would be the bare minimum, though I would shoot for 10-12 hours.

[chefmikesworld]

There are a lot of Chef's that will tell you their preferred method....

I use one cup od Sea Salt to every gallon of water, 15 mins per pound of protein...

What is brine and does it work?

The combination of salt and water (saline) breaks down the cell walls of the protein and allows the saline to add moisture into your protein...

Depending on the protien is what I base the strength of my saline...for example I would not use such a strong solution for salmon when preparing to smoke, but I would use this solution when brining a turkey, or some other fowl...

Cheffy's Two Cents

[Mezzaluna]

My cooler problem is that the only one I have that's large enough has a crack in it, but I'll work something out. Pete, you're right about the outside temperature around here! We're supposed to have snow showers on Wednesday. Luckily, I'll be flying out to Houston where it'll be in the low '70s.

[kitcook]

We went from brine to cure then to free range and hormones.. wow.

Why brines work or how isnt much of a mystery, its what it looks like, the water adds moisture, the salt is chemically breaking down the tissue and adding flavour and the sugar is making it sweeter in contrast to salt. As for the floating egg, cool idea, just like the simple syrup trick.

Free range is a joke of a description and i believe its to late to eliminate hormones, I think we are stuck with them.

[Mezzaluna]

I looked carefully at my cooler and it's only cracked on the outside (a small crack at that). I'm going to put the bird and the brine in one of those new extra large ziplock bags, which I think will work well.

[castlebravo242]

About ten years ago I used to smoke a turkey between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I would make a brine with salt, peppercorns and bay leaves. I would put the solution in a 5 gallon bucket with the turkey in the refrigerator for 48 hours. I would, then, smoke the turkey with lemonwood for at least 16 hours to completely cook.

Bob