Brining a Turkey

Teefus

We'll be picking up a fresh bird for Thanksgiving and I want to brine it prior to roasting it on my BGE. What do y'all think as far as timing for the brining? Four to six hours or overnight?

Legume

We brine at least 24h

unoriginalusername

Teefus said:

We'll be picking up a fresh bird for Thanksgiving and I want to brine it prior to roasting it on my BGE. What do y'all think as far as timing for the brining? Four to six hours or overnight?

24 hours is perfect 

RichH

I'm planning on a 24hr brine.

EggbertGreenII

Last one I did was 24 hrs. Used apple and sage brine, was very good.

unoriginalusername

This is my go to recipe https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/my-favorite-turkey-brine/

SonVolt

I gave up wet brining long ago for everything except pork. For Turkey and Chicken I dry brine up to 3 days ahead, overnight minimum. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/dining/the-rise-and-fall-of-turkey-brining.html

1voyager

Another vote for 24  hours.

littlerascal56

If you are using a "pre-brined" turkey like a Butterball or Honeysuckle, you don't want to brine it again. WIll make it too salty.  I only brined the cheap generic brand turkeys (usually on sale for $.69/lb).

SonVolt

If the "cheap generic brand" turkeys are not brined they're already a better product than the more expensive Butterballs and Honeysuckles. 

Teefus

My turkey is not “pre brined”. It’s a fresh bird from a snooty organic left wing Birkenstock wearing free range doesn’t have a red pop up thermometer poultry store. You order in advance and when you pick it up it’s still twitching and bleeding a little. OK, not really twitching but they’re healthy local birds that are never frozen. The one we got there last year was freaking amazing. 

Thanks to all for the tips. 24 hours it is.

dmchicago

We're doing this Thomas Keller version:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/allenstjohn/2015/11/25/americas-greatest-chef-shares-his-recipe-for-a-perfect-thanksgiving-turkey/#40ab26915133

Teefus

@dmchicago - That looks like a good plan. I'll give it a try.

Atl_Buckeye

Plus 1 on the 24 hour brine.

A bit OT but...Have you done a turkey before? Don't mean to insult if you have. Just giving my input based on my first attempt last year. I'm sure the experts around here will chime in. I did mine last year and wasn't able to time the finish temps for the breast and thighs (breast meat done and the thigh meat not so much). I ended up trying to foil the breast and leave it on to finish the thighs. This lead to a pretty dried out breast. The flavor was great but I wasn't happy. I cooked with breast meat up the whole cook with the legs/thighs pointed to the front of my egg. I have since learned that the back of the grill (toward the hinge) cooks hotter than the front and I should have had the legs/thighs toward the back. I have not done another one to verify this method so others might chime in

Teefus

@Atl_Buckeye Yup. 25 years on the grille (Weber) and the last two on the LBGE. I orient just as you suggest. The hinge side runs hot. Never not yummy. 

OregonChuck

Brining isn't such a thing anymore? The rise and fall at  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/dining/the-rise-and-fall-of-turkey-brining.html

ThrasherIII

if brining is out then why are so many companies doing it to there Turkeys? Jus asking for a friend

xfire_ATX

I did ~18 hours in this
https://www.worldmarket.com/product/world-marketreg-turkey-brine.do?sortby=ourPicks

SonVolt

ThrasherIII said:

if brining is out then why are so many companies doing it to there Turkeys? Jus asking for a friend

Brining's not out, just "wet brining". Dry brining is 1000x easier, tastes better and doesn't sog up the skin.  But to answer your question, producers wet brine because water weight is a good cheap way to drive up the sell price/profits. 

ThrasherIII

i found a that is so simple that was used for chicken 

INGREDIENTS

3 cans Miller Lite use your own preference
⅓ cup sugar
⅓ cup plus 1½ teaspoons kosher salt, divided
4½ cups ice water
4 pounds chicken pieces, bone-in

double up on the beer 1/2 cup on the salt and sugar dissolve the solids add ice to cool it down and once cool to touch insert bird with giblets and neck removed.then continue to add ice until the bird is covered.set in fridge covered for at least 24 hours.

BobDanger

dmchicago said:

We're doing this Thomas Keller version:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/allenstjohn/2015/11/25/americas-greatest-chef-shares-his-recipe-for-a-perfect-thanksgiving-turkey/#40ab26915133

Much better than the Hellen Keller version.

Sea2Ski

Thank you for this post. I just looked and saw the turkey my wife got is/was not pre-brined.  Starting making that now....

Teefus

I made the Keller brine last night. It smells like ass. I poured it out this morning. No way am I risking it for Thanksgiving. Falling back on my standard Kosher salt/brown sugar brine with a dose of cider vinegar for acidity.

billt01

Brine

1 Gallon of water
1/2 cup of Garlic Powder
1/2 cup of Onion Powder
1/3 cup of pepper
1 cup of salt
1 cup of Brown sugar
A few bay leaves (your preference)
2 cans of bluebird apple juice from concentrate
1 can of bluebird cranberry juice from concentrate


Bring the Brine to a boil string frequently, and let cool on stove top

Break up a bag of ice and put about 5 lbs. in the cooler 

Combine Brine with the Ice

Drop the turkey in and brine for 48 hrs.......

Now for the compound butter.....

2 tbsp. of garlic powder
2 tbsp. of onion powder
Fresh thyme, sage, rosemary (yes I know Simon and Garfunkel) to taste... your preference on amounts
I usually put thin in a coffee grinder for a few seconds and get it really fine.
2 stick of salted butter

Use a potato masher to incorporate the spices and herbs
(careful not to overdo it or you will melt the butter)

Once everything is incorporated well, put the butter in a one gallon freezer bag and roll the bag up so you have a "roll" of butter at the bottom of the bag and freeze for a day.......

At the end of the 48 hour brine, pull the bird and place on the table breast side up

cut slits on the bottom of the breast closest to the legs, and use your fingers to separate the skin from the breast but be careful not to tear the skin..........

Take your compound butter and cut into 1/4 inch "wafers" to place into the slits that you created in between the skin and breast meat....
Make sure you get the wafers all the way to the top of the breast meat

Take the remainder of the butter and rub all over the bird and stuff the big chicken with apples and onions...

Bring the ol EGG up to 275 and cook for a couple of hours then cover with a wet cheese cloth and drop the temp down to 225 for the remainder of the cook

Check the bird every hour to hour and a half to make the cheese cloth stays wet.....I just use water to do so

Pull off once the bird reaches an internal temp of 165

let rest and eat 

Sea2Ski

Dunked mine this morning for a 24 hr soak. 

1.5 gallons water
1.5 cups kosher salt
1.5 cup brown sugar
5-6 cloves of garlic sliced
4 squeezed clementines (since  no lemons or oranges)
Maybe a tablespoon black peppercorns which I pulsed twice through the spice grinder to crack them. 
And 2 cups “tea” made from about 1/3 cup each of dried rosemary and thyme which I let steep for 10 mins then strained. (That stuff was strong straight.)
A few bay leaves. 
Got the water to about boiling, removed from heat.
Added all but clementines and “tea”
Let cool.
Added juice from clementines and the “tea”.

Totally made it up - we will see what happens.  

GoooDawgs

I went with a dry brine for the trial turkeys today.   59 cents turkeys from Kroger.     For family on Thursday we'll do a more natural bird,  but this group Im going for tonight (church kids)   couldn't appreciate a quality bird if they tried!  

HendersonTRKing

My brine:  some o’ dis, some o’ dat. 

Gallon of apple cider
Cup of kosher salt
Cup of brown sugar
Lots of peppercorns
Couple of quartered oranges
Onion, quartered
Bay leafs
Thyme sprigs
Secret ingredient:  ginger, squeezed from the ginger tube
Water — in both solid form to cool then boiled brine and liquid to ensure the 18 lb bird is covered 

Turkey soaked last night, and flipped over this morning. Gets rinsed tonight, patted dry, and will sit in the fridge uncovered for the day tomorrow.  Compound butter all around (need to make it tonight), douse with white wine, and onto the egg, indirect at 325/350 til done. 
 
Easy peasy!  And not political at all!  (But those Ivanka emails — WTF?!?!?)

500

I'm picking up a 12# organic bird today from Whole Foods.  I'm dry brining roughly following this method;
https://www.epicurious.com/archive/howtocook/primers/brining-dry
then using this recipe just for the seasoning rub;
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/salted-roast-turkey-with-herbs-and-shallot-dijon-gravy-350432
I have my turkey stock made and in the freezer, using this recipe but with turkey legs instead of wings;
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/make-ahead-turkey-stock
in order to make this gravy'
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/turkey-gravy?intcid=inline_amp

GoooDawgs

So for the folks in the dry brine camp, do you rinse off the salt before you put the rub on, or do you just keep it.  I've seen most sites say to rinse, but the site above says don't rinse it off...  Definitely don't want too salty of a bird... 

milesvdustin

One year I used that world market brine mix. Turkey was like a salt lick. 

SonVolt

Teefus said:

I made the Keller brine last night. It smells like ass. I poured it out this morning. No way am I risking it for Thanksgiving. Falling back on my standard Kosher salt/brown sugar brine with a dose of cider vinegar for acidity.

Keller's brine is deceivingly pungent and smells a bit tart, but it's delicious with poultry and game birds.