This Thanksgiving, why not brine your Turkey? Brining is a method of partially curing a piece of meat in order to keep it moist, juicy, and tasty. The best way to do it is in a large stainless steel pot. If you don't have one, double line a big pot with a garbage can liner.

Basic Brine solution for a 20 pound turkey:

8 quarts water
2 cups kosher salt
1 cup sugar (may use 1 cup honey as substitute)

To this you may add:

A few bunches of your favourite herb. Rosemary or thyme works well. Sage works well too.

Garlic. Add whole cloves of garlic at your discretion.

Onions. Same as the garlic.

Lots of fresh cracked pepper.

What the heck. Dump in whatever you want, and lots of it!

Fully Dissolve the salt and honey in the water. Immerse whole turkey and allow to marinade in the brine for at least one day. Remove and cook in the normal fashion.

Kuan

Kuan, brine is good, it takes time, but it's worth it!

I know this may sound strange, try adding some vegetarian fake Morning Star bacon to the brine, it has the best smoke flavor, and lots of it.......yum yum!

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I brine a 15lb turkey every year.
2 cups of kosher salt, 1 cup of brown sugar 10 chicken bullion cubes and 6 vegetable cubes and 1 gal of water. Boil it up till its mixed real well let it chill down overnight. Add the turkey to the brine about 6-10 hrs before you cook it. Remember to keep the bird cold. If you don't have room in the fridge add ice to the pot.

The best part is you can slice into the breast three days later and it is still juicy.

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Kuan,

You're making my mouth water just thinking about it. Makes for a juicy alternative to frying the turkey whole.

Can't wait to move soon to a house with a kitchen big enough to actually cook like I used to. The kitchen in the house I'm in now is so narrow there are only three 12" tiles between the oven and the counter in the opposite direction! Two people can't stand back-to-back in there, let alone cook!

You need to immerse the whole bird. You can turn it if there's a little bit of the turkey sticking out of the brine. It's not a true cure, if it were you would have to let it sit in the brine for a few days. So you need to cook it to the proper temperature... about 165F at its deepest to be safe. The turducken is cool, I did one a few years ago. It's actually horrible to eat because the duck fat makes things all greasy and doesn't really cook off. Keeps the turkey part nice and moist though

Kuan

Dumb question, but does it turn out salty.

A little salty, like a not very salty ham. You can cut back on the salt a bit if you want. Oh yeah, don't forget to keep it cold to prevent illness. Don't forget the cranberry sauce.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=51016

Kuan

Jamesnj

Did you see what Madden did on Monday night football to that turdukin????

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"Time spent in the company of a cat, a beer, and this forum, is not time wasted!"

'tis the time.

For all you people who need advance notice.

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How long will a turkey keep in the Freezer?

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You can probably keep a bird frozen for five to six months, plenty of time to roast that guy.

As for brining, don't limit it to turkey, it works great with any poultry, especially those "boneless, skinless" chicken breasts that we're all buying these days. Take a cup of kosher salt and mix it with 2 quarts of water in a big ziplock bag, pop the chicken parts in and put it in the fridge for about an hour, more if the parts are still frozen. Give them a very light rinse when done and pat dry with paper towels.


One thing that I didn't see in Kuan's recipe is that when brining, you still have to keep the bird chilled to prevent bacteria like salmonella from developing. An insulated beer cooler loaded with ice comes in handy since you're probably going to want to keep some space in the fridge for the other "fixings." Pour the brine solution in the cooler and add ice. Here's a basic recipe for a 16 to 18 pound bird that takes the ice into consideration:

1.5 cups kosher salt
0.5 cup brown sugar
1 Gallon of water
1 6 oz can of frozen orange juice concentrate
1 Gallon of ice cubes

Dissolve the salt, sugar and oj in just one quart of hot water, then cool the solution with 3 quarts of cool water. If the solution does not fully cover the bird, use canned chicken broth (regular, not low sodium) to make up the rest so that you don't weaken the brine. Add the ice cubes and close the cooler. The ice will keep the bird at a chill for the 6 - 8 hours. The exact time will depend on taste, so start with 6 hours and adjust it next time (you are buying more than one turkey at the low low holiday prices, aren't you?) you roast.

When the star of the show has about a half hour left to brine, move the oven rack to the lowest position, preheat the oven to 500 degrees, usually the highest setting on a residential oven. Pat the bird dry, then rub generously with canola oil. No need to season . . . it's already done. And please don't put stuffing in the cavity!

Before you put the bird in . . . pre-make the heavy duty aluminum foil cover for the breast area, not the whole pan. Usually a triangle shape piece of foil works, but basically you're making a foil cap for that white meat.

Into the oven for a half hour at 500, then remove the bird from the oven, put on the foil cap over the breast and lower the oven to 350. When the oven hits 350, put a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the breast and set the temp for 160 degrees.

You really should use a probe, not the red pop up thing or time, since mr. turkey doesnt care about time or the temperature sensitive glue that holds the pop up plunger. Plus you can use the probe thermometer to monitor your intake air temp, in case you're curious.

At 160 degrees, take the bird out, cover the whole pan with foil and let it sit for at least15 minutes to let the juices settle back into the bird.

Perfect timing. I've got to cook the turkey this year, and this looks like it might be the best way to do it. The closest I've come to these brining recipes was throwing together some vinegar, honey, salt, red savina powder and thyme, then soaking thin strips of chicken breast in it before grilling them.

Please enlighten -- why not put stuffing in the cavity??

Ron
http://germanstar.net

Thanks Kuan for the info... Any suggestions what to make/serve with the turkey. My in-laws (NORGE) are coming for Thanksgiving for the first time here in WA. All I can think of is mash potatoes...

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Jamesnj, Turduckins are an expensive favorite around here. Joey's is a popular local source. He has lots of other very good, very authentic, very expensive items.

http://www.cajun-joeys.com/