Brining a Turkey

[ThunderLund78]

We've had a 10 lb turkey in the freezer that we got at from a Holiday Supermarket Promotion sitting in the freezer since Dec. Time to cook it!

Wish I had the equipment to smoke it but I don't. Anyway, Ive always just roasted it in the oven which is fine but makes for some dry meat. I've never tried brining one before and figured this would be a good time to try. Hopefully it yields some moisture in the meat.

Suggestions? Like I say, I've never done it before.

[reinhard1]

since you dont have the equipment and i assume you are doing it in an oven i would inject the bird with chicken broth and butter. season your bird the way you like it and then take a couple of cans of chicken broth and put them in a sauce pan and add a stick of butter. bring it up to a simmer and keep it on low. inject the breast drumsticks and thighs. also put a can of chicken broth in the roaster with some butter. place the turkey breast down for the firs hour and then breast up the rest of the way. keep injecting and basting from the roaster until done. good luck.

[ThunderLund78]

Thanks RH1!

I should've been more clear. I don't have the equipment to smoke the Turkey (which is what I'd rather do this time of year) so yes, I will be using the oven, but as far as brining goes, I'm sure I could find a vessel to soak the bird before cooking. Wondering what type of brine to use? Is it a simple salt brine do you use spices to enhance flavors? curious to see what others do. But regardless, I like the idea of basing it with Chicken Broth and Butter.

[eyeguy 54]

As he said, inject it. mmmmmmmm Add a little lemon juice and cajon powder also. double mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[fishinchicks]

Check out some of the Thanksgiving threads on here. There are brine recipes there. If you cannot find them using the search feature, let us know and I will repost my apple cider brine recipe.

I bought a new 5 gallon drink dispenser cooler that I only use for brining and marinating. It works really well, and you do not have to keep it in the fridge since it is insulated.

[4WheelinMama]

My husband and I always brine our turkey. We use pickling salt, we use about half a box and enough water to cover the bird. We soak ours for 24 hrs. We also add ice to keep the water cold. After brinning we rinse off the turkey and add seasoning and bake.

[Surface Tension]

If you have a grill you have a smoker.

Use indirect heat and either soak the wood chips or wrap them in tinfoil and place over the heat source.

I inject all my turkeys when I smoke them.

My brine is 1 cup noniodized salt to 1 gallon of water, 1 tp sodium nitrate (optional).

Or 1 cup Mortons quick cure salt(it has sodium nitrate)

The cure is going to change the flavor. If your trying to duplicate the flavor from store bought smoked fish or turkey

you'll never get there without the cure.

Add 1 cup brown sugar if you wish.

Temp and time are relative. When its done it done, test that with a thermometer.

I like the chicken broth and butter idea too especially if your using an oven.

Turkey open to the oven gets dry when you overcook it.

If you want a fall off the bone turkey use a roasting pan or oven bag next time.

[OnAFly]

If you want a great bird out of the oven, use Alton Brown's method from Good Eats. I made this and everyone thought it was the best roast turkey they ever had. Also, it was my first time ever trying roast turkey, so it's not too tough to do.

Brine how you want to, but here's the oven roasting method:

Preheat oven to 500F. Then, make a triangle of aluminum foil and shape it to cover just the breast of the turkey.

Put the bird into the oven @500F for 30 minutes (without the foil)

When the 30 minutes is up, put on the foil triangle and lower the heat to 350F and cook until the thickest part of the breast is 160F (use a probe thermometer)

Once it reaches 160, take it out and let it rest for 30 minutes. Then, carve it up and enjoy!

[ThunderLund78]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! Here's how it went down, if you're interested:

Method:

I ended up using a old igloo cooler that barely fit in my fridge for the brining vessel. I figured I'd either put it in the fridge or put ice in there to keep the bird cold enough. Since it was an old cooler that didn't keep ice very long, I didn't want the melting ice to dilute the brine, so in the fridge it went. it worked good but didn't quite cover the whole bird so I flipped it a few times during the process. A clean 5 gallon pail is on the shopping list for the next one

After some research, I tried a popular brine I found on the internet:

2 gallons of water

1-1/2 cups of kosher or canning salt

1/4 Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 TBS minced garlic

1 TBS ground pepper

The bird marinated for about 28 hours (recipe said 48 hours). I had a small bird so I think the 28 hours was more than enough. I put the turkey in the roasting pan with one can of chicken broth and a little of the brine and put the cover on. I tried the Alton Brown method that OnAFly suggested above only without the foil (turns out we were out and I was in a hurry--didn't seem to affect the end result for me as far as dryness). It cut the cooking time by about 40%, I was shocked when I heard the digital therm. go off at 160 deg. We had my in-laws coming over for the meal and I had to keep it warm so I carved it and put it in the crock pot with drippings. Since most of the drippings went into the crock pot, I resorted to the gravy packet that came with the Turkey.

Results:

Great meat, way tastier and moist than any bird I've done before. However the Worcestershire tended seem a little weird in poultry after a couple of helpings, so next time I'll try a different brine. I think that having to put the carved meat in the crock-pot with the drippings caused it to absorb a little too much salt as well but it still was really good and got compliments from the in-laws which is always good

NEVER AGAIN will I use the gravy packet. Horribly salty and artificial tasting. I should've just taken drippings out of the crock-pot right before the meal and made some quick pan gravy. That was only real downside to the meal.

So I learned a lot and am excited to try the next bird with a different recipe. I can only get better from here. Never going back to the standard method again. Hopefully this helps the next turkey novice

Sorry for the novel and if you're still with me, thanks for reading

[Rippinlip]

Sounds awful tasty!

I feel bad that I could not make it over.

I am assumming the invite was dropped by the mailman...

[thirdeye]

You certainly learned a lot during this cook, but that's part of the reason I enjoy it so much....

Working backwards from your conclusions and comments, here are some thoughts. Your brine recipe may have been too strong, especially if you used canning salt. Many brines call for 1 cup of kosher salt to one gallon of water, so your recipe was heavy on salt in that respect. If you used canning salt, it is really fine... so one cup of it is not the same as one cup of kosher salt. Canning salt would have made it really salty. When making a brine, just weigh your salt, and you will have consistency.

I agree that the amount of Wooster was pretty heavy, but the anchovies are a natural glutamate so they act as a wake-up call for the other seasonings. Maybe just cut back on the Wooster instead of omitting it.

24 hours is a minimum brine time for me, but I also rest the bird in the fridge overnight after rinsing it. This lets the liquids within the meat settle down and equalize throughout the meat. It lessens the effect of the saltiness.

Using some brine when cooking may have also contributed to the saltiness you noticed.

I can't stand that gravy base that comes with turkeys either.