Keep Those Brining Temps Cold.

YYZash · November 2005

While looking at a lot of brine recipes for my turkey I kept seeing the instructions bring to boil, cool to room temperature, add remaining ingredients, turkey, and hold in fridge.[p]I figure to submerge a bird you are going to be at about equal parts brine and bird. So rough guess 38 degree bird + 68 degree brine the mix will be somewhere between 50 & 60 degrees. This is just off the top of my head I didn’t do any heat transfer calculations and may be way off base. For a good-sized bird and brine solution the total mass will be sizeable and I don’t see how putting this in the Fridge will reduce it below 40 degrees in an acceptable time frame.[p]I searched the site for "brine temperature" and only found one mention of keeping it cold in this great turkey tips post by Eggor(I learned a lot reading).[p]http://www.biggreenegg.net/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=92547&catid=1#92547[p]Here is what I did. I was going into a cooler with a 20lb bird. By my recipe I needed 4 quarts apple juice & 6 quarts water. Instead of boiling everything, (helping on pot size), I boiled the apple juice, salt, sugar solution and used mostly ice (topped with water for measurement) for the water, which I put in the cooler. After boiling the apple juice solution, I cooled it to 45 degrees by setting my stockpot in a sink full of ice. I put everything in the cooler and mixed well. My solution hit 32 degrees; I actually thought it would go colder with the salt melting all that ice. I added the turkey and 4 ice packs to take up the extra space to get the bird submerged. Everything is at 34 degrees and I am happy.[p]Have a great Thanksgiving, cook safe. - Daniel

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wdan · November 2005

YYZash,
I avoided the problem by making the simmered portion of my brine tonight. It is currently cooling down to refrigerator temp in a covered pot out on my screened in porch (it multi-tasks as a walk-in freezer this time of year). Tomorrow, I will combine it, along with a gallon or so of cold water and my bird in a large stock pot. All will go back into the fridge for an overnight soak (12 hours for 23 lbs of "minimally processed" turkey). Sounds like you brine yours longer than I do?

BigT · November 2005

YYZash,[p]I did have a big problem with the salt driving down the freezing point of the brine- I did similar to you in terms of adding 12 lbs of ice v 1 1/2g water. My turkey breast came out of the brine at 29F, and my old water smoker never really recovered from that and the cold weather last Thanksgiving.[p]Now I make the brines (turkey and pork loin) early and refrigerate them. Test shot last week went fine.[p][p]Big T

YYZash · November 2005

Wdan,
In my inital reads I saw allot of 1 to 2 days for brining. Dinner is at 2pm so I figured I better get it started tonight because tomorrow night might not give it enough time, I am going to start cooking pretty early on Thursday. But after reading Eggors post it sounds like under brining is better than over brining. Since I will be over 24 hours I added another two quarts of water to dilute my solution just to be on the safe side.

YYZash · November 2005

BigT,
I agree, I thought my brine temp would have been lower. I don’t think a really cold bird will be a problem for the awesomeness that is the egg. Here in Wisconsin, I have already had to defrost my egg in 20-degree temps to get the lid open after it rained the same day. But then I was still able to go lava for a great sear on some NY strips.

Keep Those Brining Temps Cold.

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