Giving the old brining a try!!

warwoman

I will be cooking a turkey breast on the egg for T-Day, and am going to do a "dry run" (hopefully not dry!), on a 6lb. whole chicken tomorrow.

I've been thru a number of recipes for brine on here, and decided to basically concoct my own. Really, once you get past the very basic ingredients, it boils down to personal preference. My first brine consists of:

2 qt. water

1 cup kosher salt

1 cup brown sugar

2 cloves of crushed, red russian garlic

3 bay leaves

1 sliced up orange

1 sliced up tart apple

a "glug" of maple syrup (when you pour it in, stop after the first "glug")

1 chopped up jalapeno.

Bring to boil till sugar/salt dissolve and apples & oranges get mushy

Pour in SS pot, followed by ice.

After cold, put in bird, and soak in fridge overnight!

I will add to this after the cook tomorrow.

One question for the brining experts on here, should I use plate setter/aluminum drip pan/ v-rack and cook indirect, or direct?

500

I'm not the Eggspert here, but I'm brining 6-8 hours, the will try icing breasts for 20 minutes to slow them down a bit, and going indirect with a plate setter, rack, and drip pan.  Goal is 161* breast and 180* thigh.  Alton Brown brine and gravy recipe;
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/best-gravy-ever-recipe/index.html

Skiddymarker

Good luck with your brining, I went thru the same curve of exotic mixtures lots of fun to make but have now settled on salt and water and maybe some peppercorns. I do boil it to ensure it is dissolved and then chill it, usually the day before. Due to the seasoning and rubs used for the cook all that stuff in the brine made absolutely no difference to my crappy palate, or to SWMBO and she is a super taster. 

As for direct or indirect, your choice. I like a pan with some root veggies under the bird to catch the drippings for gravy, but seeing as you are doing only breast, it will not have much fat dripping, so I'd go raised direct, in the 400º range. 

warwoman

Does anybody save the brine for a cook a few days later, or start over again?

If I cook with a platesetter on a v-rack, what temp do you think the egg needs to stabilize at? I will be shooting for 160 breast.

warwoman

One more question, and I promise I'll stop bugging youse guys.

I've read that after brining and after drying off, that the bird goes back in the fridge again till time to put on the egg? That seems opposite of what you do to other meats, where you let them come to room temperature before putting on the egg. Is that right?

U_tarded

warwoman said:

One more question, and I promise I'll stop bugging youse guys.

I've read that after brining and after drying off, that the bird goes back in the fridge again till time to put on the egg? That seems opposite of what you do to other meats, where you let them come to room temperature before putting on the egg. Is that right?

Most do this to dry the skin, so that it is crispy and yummy instead of rubbery.  I started doing it on chickens it works great, I am yet do do a turkey but theory is the same. 

warwoman said:

Does anybody save the brine for a cook a few days later, or start over again?

If I cook with a platesetter on a v-rack, what temp do you think the egg needs to stabilize at? I will be shooting for 160 breast.

I don't because your salt solution isn't the same (some of your salt is now in you bird) and very rarely do i brine things back to back.  I know you can do it, but I also have hold backs on food safety in my crazy head.

Terrebandit

It would be risky from a bacteria growth standpoint to reuse brine. Raw poultry juices within the brine is the problem. Need to keep everything below 40 degrees during the brining process. Don't get sick.

billyray

warwoman said:

One more question, and I promise I'll stop bugging youse guys.

I've read that after brining and after drying off, that the bird goes back in the fridge again till time to put on the egg? That seems opposite of what you do to other meats, where you let them come to room temperature before putting on the egg. Is that right?

You can rest the turkey in the fridge for up to a day. In addition to getting the skin to dry out, this allows the salt within the meat to disperse more evenly. As soon as you take it out of the brine the meat closer to the surface will have a higher salt concentration than the interior. Salt seeks equilibrium and continues to migrate until the salt concentration in the cells is uniform throughout.

warwoman

Thanks all!

I don't have room in the fridge to put it back in till cooking later today, so out on the front porch it goes....covered....where it's nudgeing 33 degrees and slowly going up to mid-high 30's.