Brining and saltiness?

mollyshark

I brined my first chicken this evening. Water, rock salt, sugar, cinnamon, and bay leaves. You were all right. The brining took away that gamey taste I'd been detecting in my chicken. But the chicken was MUCH saltier than usual. I had put a little of that char-crust stuff on (roto rooter or whatever) and I know that has salt. So question is...does the brine itself add that much salt to the meat? I generally don't salt my meats at all and am pretty used to a salt-free existence (I even eat unsalted popcorn) so it doesn't take much to taste "salty" to me. What do you think?

Nature Boy

MollyShark,
I think the char crust put it over the top. How long did you brine it? Did you rinse well after the brine??[p]I don't add any salt to the rub when I brine. char crust has a lot.[p]Cheers
NB

Tim M

Nature Boy,[p]You're right - and roto roast, I think, has the most salt of the bunch or Char-Crusts. The good news is my doctor tells me salt doesn't raise your blood pressure (they use to think that it did). Trouble is that alcohol does. Darn! I'd rather give up salt![p]Tim

BBQfan1

MollyShark, I think NB had it right with the 'Did your rince it well?' question. That's where the residual salt would be, unless of course, if the answer is 'Yes, I rinced it very well', then the culprit would be the Roto-rooter [p]

BBQfan1

Tim M,[p]Dang, I woulda beat you with the post, except I'd been drinking; makes my blood pressure go up when things like that happen!!

Nature Boy

BBQfan1,
If she still wants to use the Roto-rooter, reduce the salt in the brine, or go with a slightly shorter time. 'Speriment! [p]Away go troubles, down the drain.
NB

Char-Woody

MollyShark, I'm in a hurry and not reading the other responses so If I duplicate..??
Yup...I use Mortons Kosher Salt..simply because I think its the best brining salt around..and if your using other salts, cut em in half. Most brines are built around the Kosher measurements.
Then rinse the bejeeeeeeebers out of the chicken.. When your confident is rinsed thoroughly..do it again. :-)
Then use a low or non salt rub with your olive oil base.
And it will still taste a wee bit salty.
Cheers..C~W[p]

sprinter

MollyShark,[p]Just my two pennies but the first time I brined I didnt cool the brine completely and with the warm brine, the meat really sucked up the brine. Make sure the brine is cooled, read almost refrigerated, before plopping the meat in and it makes a HUGE difference. Next time I brined I refrigerated the brine first and it was awesome.[p]Troy

mollyshark

You're all quite correct on my brining boo-boo. I didn't rinse it. AT ALL. I patted it nicely dry, spritzed with a little olive oil, and put on my salt-based rub. Yow. Will try rinse rinse rinse next round and see if the salt is still noticable.

Char-Woody

MollyShark, while we are discussing brining, if your interested in brining containers, Wal-Mart cooking section had large glass jar's 10+ inches high and about 8 to 9 inches wide throat. Comes with a glass lid and is ideal for brining either whole chicken or a large amount of cut up chicken. Cost is around 12 dollars..I have one here. I realize the cheaper plastic buckets from your bakery or hamburger joints will work also..Some have a long term lingering odor. No big deal.
Cheers...Char-Woody[p]

Spin

MollyShark,[p]The one thing not mentioned is brining time. It is possible to underbrine (actually drying the meat) or overbrine (resulting in a juicy saltiness). Below is the link to a good explaination of brining first offered by MikeO.[p]Spin

[ul][li]Brining Article[/ul]