Acid in apple juice?
- Thread starter Rita Y
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No. I don't think so. If anything, boiling would reduce the water content of the juice and concentrate everything else that's left.
You would be better off NOT boiling the apple juice if you want to reduce the acid level.
Can someone please explain to this ol' curmudgeon what the alleged benefits of brining a chicken would be? I've decided that I tend to like chicken simple: wash it and pat it dry. A little olive oil and maybe the juice of a lemon rubbed on the outside. Toss a couple cloves of garlic and a couple fresh rosemary sprigs inside. Salt and pepper it generously. Roast it at 350 degrees for about an hour or until the juices run clear.
Juicy moist inside, golden crispy skin. Hard to imagine a better way to cook a chicken.
You would be better off NOT boiling the apple juice if you want to reduce the acid level.
Can someone please explain to this ol' curmudgeon what the alleged benefits of brining a chicken would be? I've decided that I tend to like chicken simple: wash it and pat it dry. A little olive oil and maybe the juice of a lemon rubbed on the outside. Toss a couple cloves of garlic and a couple fresh rosemary sprigs inside. Salt and pepper it generously. Roast it at 350 degrees for about an hour or until the juices run clear.
Juicy moist inside, golden crispy skin. Hard to imagine a better way to cook a chicken.
Jim Minion
TVWBB Emerald Member
Rita
The chicken should be ok unless it's brined too long.
Webb
With chicken brinning will introduce flavor and moisture, and I also don't worry about smoked chicken that much, but for turkey where your cook is much longer and it will dry out much easier I find brinning a very useful tool.
If your going to grill chicken breasts brinning is a good method to help keep it moist. I've seen a lot of dry rubbery grilled chicken breast out there.
Brinning is a good way to expand your cooking techniques and very usefull.
Jim
The chicken should be ok unless it's brined too long.
Webb
With chicken brinning will introduce flavor and moisture, and I also don't worry about smoked chicken that much, but for turkey where your cook is much longer and it will dry out much easier I find brinning a very useful tool.
If your going to grill chicken breasts brinning is a good method to help keep it moist. I've seen a lot of dry rubbery grilled chicken breast out there.
Brinning is a good way to expand your cooking techniques and very usefull.
Jim
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Thanks, Jim.
Brining is really the rage in food circles these days, thanks, in part, to Alton Brown's Food TV show on brining turkey.
The reason I'm scratching my head is that, having roasted turkeys outdoors every Thanksgiving and Christmas for 30+ years, I can count the "dry" birds on one hand -- and they were all a result of waiting for that silly plastic popper to go off and overcooking the bird. To me, the biggest advantage of roasting the bird outdoors is that it seals the skin and produces meat with a moisture level and texture that makes all indoor cooked turkeys seem like rubber.
Intuitively, a saline brine approach seems like something that you would use for smoked turkey lunch meat rather than a true roast turkey. Or, to look at it a different way, the difference between a smoked ham and a pork roast.
Maybe the difference is that I cook turkey at high temperatures and it cooks in roughly the same time frame on the outdoor cooker as it would in the oven - 3.5 to 5 hours depending on the usual factors. I also cook fresh turkeys, rather than frozen, which I'm sure helps.
I agree about chicken breasts. I've cooked my share of lousy ones. I've finally settled on a way that produces consistently good results: again, high-heat indirect roasting with NO sauce until it's served (or at the most for the last ten minutes of cooking) and definitely NO direct grilling heat. You have to be really careful to not overcook them.
I guess I'll have to try brining some chicken breasts and see what I think.
Brining is really the rage in food circles these days, thanks, in part, to Alton Brown's Food TV show on brining turkey.
The reason I'm scratching my head is that, having roasted turkeys outdoors every Thanksgiving and Christmas for 30+ years, I can count the "dry" birds on one hand -- and they were all a result of waiting for that silly plastic popper to go off and overcooking the bird. To me, the biggest advantage of roasting the bird outdoors is that it seals the skin and produces meat with a moisture level and texture that makes all indoor cooked turkeys seem like rubber.
Intuitively, a saline brine approach seems like something that you would use for smoked turkey lunch meat rather than a true roast turkey. Or, to look at it a different way, the difference between a smoked ham and a pork roast.
Maybe the difference is that I cook turkey at high temperatures and it cooks in roughly the same time frame on the outdoor cooker as it would in the oven - 3.5 to 5 hours depending on the usual factors. I also cook fresh turkeys, rather than frozen, which I'm sure helps.
I agree about chicken breasts. I've cooked my share of lousy ones. I've finally settled on a way that produces consistently good results: again, high-heat indirect roasting with NO sauce until it's served (or at the most for the last ten minutes of cooking) and definitely NO direct grilling heat. You have to be really careful to not overcook them.
I guess I'll have to try brining some chicken breasts and see what I think.
Thanks for the replies!
My original thought was just to heat the apple juice to boiling and remove it from the heat. But since I'll only be brining the chicken for 4 hours, as Jim says, I doubt it will be a problem.
Regarding brining -- in addition to Chris's excellent treatise here on the site, the new issue of Cook's Illustrated (Nov/Dec 2001) has an excellent article on page 16 about brining. They've boiled down (so to speak) all of the brines they've used over the years into a basic formula and proportions, along with how much to make and how long to brine poultry, pork, and seafood.
Rita
My original thought was just to heat the apple juice to boiling and remove it from the heat. But since I'll only be brining the chicken for 4 hours, as Jim says, I doubt it will be a problem.
Regarding brining -- in addition to Chris's excellent treatise here on the site, the new issue of Cook's Illustrated (Nov/Dec 2001) has an excellent article on page 16 about brining. They've boiled down (so to speak) all of the brines they've used over the years into a basic formula and proportions, along with how much to make and how long to brine poultry, pork, and seafood.
Rita
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