Turkey Brining

[MuffinMan]

Well I have started to make my Turkey brine, in a hour the bird will be immersed and soaked overnight. If you have not tried this, DO!!!!!!. I use the Weber brine reciepe found on their site and it always produces at great bird. Anybody else does the salty bird?

MM

[sydnie7]

Haven't brined a turkey but started brining roast chicken about a year ago, after finding the recipe in the newspaper. Fabulous results! But what container would fit a turkey, and whose refrigerator would it go in???

[MuffinMan]

Being a home brewer, I have lots of pots that will fit any size bird. On the Weber site it has you use a small ice chest. I use the brine reciepe for my BeerButt chicken too.

MM

[Panache]

I brine my turkeys and cook them on my Weber as well. Typically I use water, salt, apple juice,brown sugar, and ginger to make by brine and let Mr. Turkey have a nice overnight soak. He will cook unstuffed (save for maybe a half cooked onion or sliced apple for flavor ) for about 2 hours. I finish off my turkey with a honey/orange juice/ soy sauce glaze that give the bird a rich mahogany color.

I don't make gravy. Instead I serve a spicy ginger chilli orange flavored cranberry sauce to compliment the meat.

I am a great lover of raost chickens but they are always plenty juicy for my tastes so I have never bothered brining them. However pork chops improve 100% with a nice brining, becoming juicy and tender.

I'll start work on my brine later today, right now I just put in my pumpkin pies into the oven.

Cheers

:food-smiley-002:Jamie :ootd:

[KFCarter]

With turkey, brine is king.

Try giving the bird a few hours in the fridge after it's been in the brine, too. It allows the skin to try and go a bit taut which helps it crisp nicely.

[scotchmaster]

Hell yeah, I put mine in the salty, sugary ( an a wee drop of whisky) mix on Monday evening I will take it out this afternoon and dry it put it in the fridge to air dry for 24 hours; this insures a crispy skin

[NewEnglander]

I haven't brined a turkey yet (I got up to my folks' place to find that the 24lb bird my father bought has been injected with some cocktail of something to "increase flavor and moistness"...gah!), but I always brine my chickens for roasting and even pork tenderloins.
I do have to say that I shudder a bit at the idea of putting a turkey in my brew kettle, MuffinMan...

[David Thornton]

Now that you have embraced the brine, smoke the bird. I did one several years ago and now my wife has to politely decline my services because we get a LOT of requests.

David

[CDNSushi]

Because we always hold a Thanksgiving party for a lot of friends, I cook 2 turkeys every year. This year was special because a few weeks ago a built a brick smokehouse on the back of our property, and I figured that smoked turkey would be great eatin'. For good smoked meats, brining is almost necessary. I brine mine in a mixture of sea salt, wine, balsamic vinegar, and sugar.

Then, for smoking I used a combination of walnut, whiskey oak and hickory chips.

Here's an idea of what my results looked like:

[MuffinMan]

I went to brewing 10 gallons at a time, so all my old pots just sit around. This year I bought a small turkey (12lbs) so my first stock pot (12qt) fit it great. For bigger birds I use the pot that came with my turkey fryer.

MM