Brining question

Slick

I always brine my pork chops, usually for a few hours. I just watched an episode of "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" on Food Network and she brined her chops for three days! They cooked up nice and juicy, but does this much brining really make a difference? Might be time for an eggsperiment.

BTW, I'll bet that she is an Egger at heart, the way she loves BACON!

Slick

Celtic Wolf

Three DAYS in a brine is called CURING. What she cooked was HAM. A brine really should be done for 12 hours at least. Anything short of that is really a Marinate.

Personally I'd rather just marinate them if I HAD too.

thirdeye

I flavor brine all my pork chops too, from one hour to three. At three days however, you would be curing them. Which is not a bad thing if you want to slow smoke them. In fact they are a real treat.



Instead of a liquid brine I just buckboard them for 48 hours, soak, rest and smoke. These are about 1/3 the price of smoked chops from the meat case, and I think much better.

thirdeye

Pete,

Flavor brining can actually be quite short.....From a few minutes on shrimp to an hour or so on chicken breasts or an hour or longer on chops, to a day or two for a turkey breast.

I've always thought of a marinade as having an acid base, vinegar for example.