Brining a turkey - I have never brined before!


 
Christopher H

Christopher H

TVWBB Fan
So I always dry rub my smokes. I have never brined before. What is a good but basic (non-spicy) and maybe traditional brine I can do? An apple based one or honey?

So the best is to brine overnight and then pat dry and let air dry in the fridge? Or can I brine, pat dry, let it get to room temperature and smoke it?

I currently don't have the time to brine then air dry. I would be brining Tuesday night and plan on cooking Wednesday afternoon. Maybe I just brine for 12 hours from 7pm to 7am and then let it air dry in the fridge from 7am until the afternoon cook? I will be using a beer can stand to smoke the turkey vertically. Before I heard all about brining I was just going to dry rub with salt, pepper and brown sugar and then coat with butter or oil before smoking.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
12 hour brine then air dry in fridge is probably good. Dunno if its a good idea to let poultry come up to room temp. The 3% solution is also the best I could find. I plan on brining for maybe 24 hours, air drying in fridge putting ice on the breast for an hour before. Then smoking at 350 or as close as I can get until the breast hits 155 or 160 and hopefully it coasts up to 165.
 
I'm a fan of the apple brine. It's really good. I usually put the bird in the brine on Tuesday night and take it out Wednesday night to dry in the fridge. If you're cooking Wed afternoon, any chance you can start brining tonight? If not, I think a 12 hour brine and 12 hour dry is good. Follow Dustin's advice, it's spot on.
 
I would forgo the traditional liquid brine and instead go with the salt brine as described here. http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/turkey7.html

I will be preparing my turkey this way and with your time constraints no air drying is necessary. Americas Test Kitchen (Cooks Illustrated) aired this receipt on TV and they liked it very much. By not using the liquid brine you eliminate the possibility of the meat turning mushy.
 
I use a hybrid brine based on two different Alton Brown recipes:

3 cups Apple juice
1/2 cup kosher salt (the turkeys we get are all 8% "enhanced", hence the lower salt)
1 cup honey
1 tablespoon allspice berries
1 tablespoon diced candied or crystalized ginger
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
Enough cold water to submerge the bird

Since I'm cooking 3 separate birds this year, I mixed up a "concentrate" (basically all of the above, except 1 cup of apple juice and no additional water) of the brine tonight so all the flavors can meld. Tomorrow night, I'm going to run it through a sieve to remove the solids and mix in the additional apple juice, divide between the three birds and top off with cold water. I always brine for 24 hours. In the past, I've brined Wednesday morning to Thursday morning, but moving it up to Tuesday night/Wednesday night, I'll be able to air dry Wednesday night to Thursday morning.
 
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