Brining questions.


 
M

Musky-Hunter

TVWBB Member
We are planning to brine this year instead of the old pumped bird. One of the few places we can get a fresh unpumped bird is Whole Foods. I was surprised to see they have a brined verison for only $0.20/lb more. Has anyone tried one of these birds? How was it? If we brine on our own I am planning the apple brine recipe. Do we also need to inject? If so what is recommeced for injection solution? Thanks
 
Have not tried a Whole Foods bird, either unbrined or brined, so I can't talk authoritatively about them. I can say that if you brine, you shouldn't need to inject as well. If you choose to, I'd suggest keeping the salt content of the injection low. Since a lot of injections start with butter, maybe use unsalted butter instead?
 
You don't need to inject a turkey, you just brine it using the apple brine recipe and get great results. It's getting hard to find turkeys that are not already enhanced with a solution, but you can brine those birds, too, and people report getting good results, too. All they're doing at the factory is injecting solution in a few spots, your brine soak for a day or two will get into the meat in addition to whatever the factory injected.

Good luck!
 
Has anyone thawed a “not quite fully thawed” turkey in their brine? I’ve been caught a little short with thawing time before and used the “sink thaw” technique. Just a thought.
 
I doit every year because the company gives us a frozen turkey on Monday so I have to do some turbo thawing.

Tim
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Has anyone thawed a “not quite fully thawed” turkey in their brine? I’ve been caught a little short with thawing time before and used the “sink thaw” technique. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

Alton Brown thaws (from fully frozen) in the brine, so it's a legit way to go. I did it two years ago for both Thanksgiving and Christmas; worked great. Last year my wife started buying "organic" turkey from the local grocery; they're never frozen, so no need to thaw, otherwise I'd still be doing it that way.
 
I knew I’d seen the technique somewhere! AB would have been the source, makes sense.
Julia Child and Mr Wizard had a love child and we were blessed with Alton Brown!
 
Chris Allingham said:
It's getting hard to find turkeys that are not already enhanced with a solution, but you can brine those birds, too, and people report getting good results, too. All they're doing at the factory is injecting solution in a few spots, your brine soak for a day or two will get into the meat in addition to whatever the factory injected.
Click to expand...

The "Whole Turkey - Apple Brine" recipe under Cooking Topics advises against an enhanced bird; is that no longer applicable? Is there a percentage of solution that is too much? Thx.
 
BFletcher said:
The "Whole Turkey - Apple Brine" recipe under Cooking Topics advises against an enhanced bird; is that no longer applicable? Is there a percentage of solution that is too much? Thx.
Click to expand...

Most "juiced" turkeys are enhanced with a solution that's mostly water and salt. You can still do a brine to introduce some additional layers of flavor. When I've done that, I just cut down the salt in the brine. My typical brine (for a non-enhanced bird) would include 1 cup of kosher salt; I'd reduce it to 1/4 cup.
 
Get a fresh turkey. The honeysuckle one I got from Walmart mart is only 3% solution where as most frozen ones are in the 9-13% range. The lower the starting solution concentration the more of your flavored bring will be pulled in.
 
BFletcher said:
The "Whole Turkey - Apple Brine" recipe under Cooking Topics advises against an enhanced bird; is that no longer applicable? Is there a percentage of solution that is too much? Thx.
Click to expand...

If I'm going to all the effort to buy apple juice, fresh fruit, spices, etc. I like to use a non-injected turkey. Sort of like painting by starting with a blank canvas. But many people find it hard to obtain non-injected turkey, so if all you can find is an injected bird, go ahead and use it and the apple brine will improve it.
 
Musky-Hunter said:
We are planning to brine this year instead of the old pumped bird. One of the few places we can get a fresh unpumped bird is Whole Foods. I was surprised to see they have a brined verison for only $0.20/lb more. Has anyone tried one of these birds? How was it? If we brine on our own I am planning the apple brine recipe. Do we also need to inject? If so what is recommeced for injection solution? Thanks
Click to expand...

Lots of talk on the forum about this "Apple Brine" recipe. Can someone provide a link to it?
 
Mine will come out of the brine solution in about an hour for a 12-hour dry :). The fam freaks out over pink steak and excess garlic. As soon as the first clove was crushed the comments came, so I backed off on that ingredient a tad.
 
A couple questions if I may:

1. During the air dry do you pat the bird periodically?
2. I sometimes read where people pierce the skin with a skewer or equivalent instrument in areas of skin that appear to conceal fat. Do you do that in this case?

Thx
 
BFletcher said:
1. During the air dry do you pat the bird periodically?
Click to expand...
I don't, but it won't hurt anything if you do.

BFletcher said:
2. I sometimes read where people pierce the skin with a skewer or equivalent instrument in areas of skin that appear to conceal fat. Do you do that in this case?
Click to expand...
Not part of this recipe, but you can do it if you want. It's said to help render fat from under the skin.
 
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