Brining a Turkey

fishlessman

GoooDawgs said:

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... 

keep the salt, KOSHER SALT, at 1 tblsp per 5 pounds of turkey max. also go 3 days minimum for the salt to disperse. i put the rub on with the salt, this year went with oregano, thyme, sage, and paprika.  adding some zest like orange or lemon is good too but did not have it handy this year. no rinse.  more importantly read the turkey label, i would not do this with a solution added bird. saw a 17 percent solution added bird this year, thats nuts

SonVolt

GoooDawgs said:

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... 

Heck no... there should be no salt to rinse off by the time it's been sucked into the turkey. Also, don't rinse poultry in general. That just spreads the salma nasties everywhere.  

If you still have salt visible on the turkey after 24 hours you may have added too much. You want a heavy dusting, but you're not doing a salt bake shell or anything. 

GoooDawgs

fishlessman said:

GoooDawgs said:

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... 

keep the salt, KOSHER SALT, at 1 tblsp per 5 pounds of turkey max. also go 3 days minimum for the salt to disperse. i put the rub on with the salt, this year went with oregano, thyme, sage, and paprika.  adding some zest like orange or lemon is good too but did not have it handy this year. no rinse.  more importantly read the turkey label, i would not do this with a solution added bird. saw a 17 percent solution added bird this year, thats nuts

Oh crap.  I thought I tamed down the Traeger recipe (https://www.traegergrills.com/recipes/poultry/dry-brine-turkey) that recommended 1 tblsp per pound by only doing 1 tblsp per 2 pounds.   

Lets see how this turns out... 

HendersonTRKing

GoooDawgs said:

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... 

Rinse.

500

GoooDawgs said:

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... 

https://www.epicurious.com/archive/howtocook/primers/brining-dry

I'm trusting the above for dry brining.  It talks about type and amount of salt.  I have a scale, so I may just weigh the salt before sprinkling it, or I will just eyeball it to make it look like like a light dusting of snow.  

fishlessman

how did you get that much salt to stick, even at 3 tblsp on a 16 pounder alot ended up on the table