Turkey brine question

Powak

I’m prepping my brine right now for a 22LB bird. The recipe calls for 3 cups of whiskey, 3 cups of maple syrup and 8 cups of water and of course salt and spices. My question is do you guys who brine find you need to add more water to cover the turkey? Or will that brine soak into the meat if it’s in the bag? I have this nice big lobster pot i was going to use but I fear even with the turkey in it, that amount of liquid won’t completely cover the bird.

lousubcap

My bourbon waste alarm went off  Hopefully you are using below bottom-shelf brown water for this recipe.  
All the brine recipes I see/use are scalable to get enough to cover the protein.  You have 112 oz of liquid.  You could ratio up form there guesstimating the additional brine you may need if it comes to that.  FWIW-

jtcBoynton

Seems a bit low on amount of liquid.  My normal brine for turkey calls for 2 gallons of liquid.

Powak

jtcBoynton said:

Seems a bit low on amount of liquid.  My normal brine for turkey calls for 2 gallons of liquid.

That’s what I’m saying. I bet they wrote 2 quarts by accident

lousubcap

The real ratio to look at is the liquid to salt number.  The brine I use is 16:1 water to salt.  Then scale from there.  

Powak

I went and added an additional  a gallon of water to the mix. Hopefully that didn’t ruin it. Should that treat the bird alright? If not should I just go traditional without this brine?

The_Stache

Is there any salt in your brine? 

You'll most likely be okay... maybe not as much flavor profile but still okay.

@lousubcap has it right... Ratio of liquid to salt is what you'll want to maintain. 
Most recipes will provide a comment like "if the brine doesn't cover the bird fully then ..."

The original recipe sounded light on liquid... my brine is about 1.5-2 gallons of liquid and I brine in a plastic food safe bag so I can cinch up the bag to get the best full surface coverage.

Powak

The_Stache said:

Is there any salt in your brine? 

You'll most likely be okay... maybe not as much flavor profile but still okay.

@lousubcap has it right... Ratio of liquid to salt is what you'll want to maintain. 
Most recipes will provide a comment like "if the brine doesn't cover the bird fully then ..."

The original recipe sounded light on liquid... my brine is about 1.5-2 gallons of liquid and I brine in a plastic food safe bag so I can cinch up the bag to get the best full surface coverage. 

How much salt goes into a 16:1 liquid to salt ratio with 2 gallons of liquid. Im wondering if I should add more salt now that I’ve increased the water content.

The_Stache

Not to get overly technical but it depends on whether you're measuring weight or volume.

The simple answer is there are 16 cups in a gallon so 1 cup salt to a gallon of water.

lousubcap

@The_Stache - thanks for the numbers clarification.  You will get benefit from the brine but if you are light on the salt to liquid then it will have less of an impact.  FWIW-

Powak

lousubcap said:

@The_Stache - thanks for the numbers clarification.  You will get benefit from the brine but if you are light on the salt to liquid then it will have less of an impact.  FWIW-

The_Stache said:

Not to get overly technical but it depends on whether you're measuring weight or volume.

The simple answer is there are 16 cups in a gallon so 1 cup salt to a gallon of water.

Right on. Looks like I’ll toss in another cup of salt to the mix.

Powak

Do you guys leave the hock lock (nylon leg holder) in?

andersa

better a cup of Whiskey in the chef than 3 cups of Whiskey in the bird?

lousubcap

@Powak - I always remove the "hock lock".  And always lock the wings under the body.  (Standard practice for chix as well).  FWIW-

Powak

Came out UNREAL!

Powak

Egg gotta piece of the pie too, cooking the corn casserole and stuffed mushrooms stacked with the PSWOO2.