A very basic, medium strength brine, balanced across the basic "tastes" of saltiness, sweetness, and sourness, and of sufficient strength to perform relative quickly is: 1/2 cup table salt; 1 cup white sugar; and 1cup vinegar; thoroughly dissilved in 1 gallon water.
You don't have to stick with this recipe you can add, subtract or alter whatever you like -- but I suggest keeping the same balance of salt, sweet and sour (acid). This means adjusting for fruit juice, different sweeteners, etc. For instance, I frequently use a bunch of citrus -- grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange -- and make something about as strong as lemonade, but of course a lot saltier.
Your brine could use some acid. It's too sweet as well. Not too sweet in the sense that it absolutely won't work, that's a matter of taste. Too sweet in the natural meat taste will be masked rather than enhanced.
Salt which is dissolved in solution is salt. You don't get any benefit from more expensive salts like sea, kosher or volcanic salts. However, you do have to keep the proportions right (by weight). Most of the fancy salts aren't as dense as regular table salt and you have to measure differently. I can't assess your salt amount without knowing the density of the salt you plan on using.
For long brining purproses especially you don't want to use iodized salt.
It's a good idea to invest the 50 cents in a box of unoidized table salt.
Balance is the key with brines, just as it is with rubs and barbecue sauces. For your first few brines, it's a good idea to stick with similar proportions to those I gave you. Once you get a handle on brining, you can start improvising.
Using your ingredient choices:
2 cups water
1-2/3 cups apple cider
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 or 3 tbs uniodized table salt
aromatics as before
You may want to heat some of your liquids to dissolve the salt and steep the aromatics. When the brine is fully mixed, it should taste unpleasantly salty -- as well as very sour, but the "sweet" will be watery and diluted. Brine is not supposed to taste good -- it's a process not a seasoning.
When you introduce the pork, the brine should be chilled and the bring process should take place in the refrigerator. Most of us add some or all of our water in the form of ice in order to kick start the cooling process.
Three or four hours in a medium strength brine like the one suggested is adequate for a pork chop of average thickness. However the brine is weak enough that you could make the brine the night before and begin brining the porkchops in the morning if necessary.
Hope this helps,
BDL
Last edited by boar_d_laze; 06-10-2009 at 02:47 AM.
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